A whole bunch of writing prompts
Plus, one last chance to spend Sunday writing with me!
Hello and happy Friday! Before we get to this week’s writing prompts, I want to let you know that the deadline has been extended on the One Day Writing Retreat—you have till midnight tonight to sign up and spend this Sunday talking craft and working on your writing. More info here, including the sign-up link.
And now, today’s prompts. Paid subscribers get a writing prompt on the first and third Fridays of the month, but all my Substack content is free to all until 2024. I hope it feeds your writing in some way.
For today’s prompt, we’re going to visit two museums.
First stop: the National Museum of African-American History & Culture, where I recently beelined to a special exhibition on Afrofuturism. Here’s the definition from the exhibit:
Afrofuturism is an evolving concept expressed through a Black cultural lens that reimagines, reinterprets, and reclaims the past and present for a more empowering future for African Americans.
Coined in 1993 by Mark Dery, the ideas of Afrofuturism were developed by scholars to explore how Black writers and artists utilize themes of technology, science fiction, fantasy, and heroism to envision stories and futures of Black liberation to convey an authentic, hopefully, and culturally expansive image of the Black experience.
I’m very, very fascinated by Afrofuturism because it makes imagination a powerful tool, one that can envision alternate histories and futures that give voice and power to those who have been silenced or disenfranchised. I grew up thinking imagination wasn’t a very valuable skill, but Afrofuturism shows how wrong that is.
The exhibit was filled with art across genres, all of which used imagination to tell a different kind of story than the one we’ve lived or believed for too long. I spent a long time looking at Octavia Butler’s typewriter, rather awestruck. If you haven’t read Parable of the Sower, put it on your list—it’s a classic.
So here’s your first prompt: imagine an alternate history—change something in the past, and explore how that change might have reverberated, giving us a different reality from the one we have today.
For you nonfiction writers, well, alternate histories are everywhere. Tell me about an event that you and someone else have totally different recollections of. If you have existed in a family, you have a story about this!
And on the topic of Black excellence, on the top floor of the museum is the dress Oprah did her last broadcast in, plus a compilation video that made me quietly weep. Once of the most striking things about it were the topics that Oprah brought to the mainstream and had difficult conversations about, the kind of uncomfortable but patient conversations we seem to have forgotten how to have.
And not only did she make us think, she brought us a fuckton of joy.
So here’s your Oprah prompt. For fiction, start with the line, “You get a […], you get a […], everybody gets a […]!” For nonfiction, tell me about a time you won a thing.
Okay, are you ready for another museum? This one is the National Museum of Women in the Arts, which is dedicated to championing women through the arts.
First up: The Advantages of Being A Woman Artist, which includes such highlights as “Working without the pressure of success” and “Having an escape from the art world in your 4 free-lance jobs,” and my personal favorite, “Not being stuck in a tenured teaching position.” I had seen this piece once when I was in high school and not since then. I spent a good minute re-reading it whilst taking deep breaths.
Let’s have a prompt, shall we? For fiction, fill in the blank—The Advantages of Being a ___________—and write from there. For memoir, tell me about a time you were overlooked or overlooked somebody else.
Speaking of breathtaking, this photograph of a woman decorated with bullet casings (Lalla Essaydi, Bullets Revisited #3, 2012, yes it looks better in person!).
And two more that made me Feel Feelings.
Ready for your last writing prompt?
For fiction, imagine one or two people at an art museum. Describe an artwork they’re looking at and explore how it reflects on whatever is going on between the two of them (i.e. imagine some kind of interpersonal tension).
For memoir, tell me about a piece of art that moves you and why. Does it remind you of a certain person? Time in your life?
That seems like enough museums for one day. I hope something inspired you. Keep writing—J.