I created fifteen original (slightly inappropriate) 100-word short stories based on Christmas greeting cards and I’m sharing one per day between today and January 6. For this creative exercise, I chose to embrace three constraints:
1.Stories had to be based on the greeting card. Both should be able to stand on their own while also enhancing each other. I found
embrace constraints
My Five Favorite Posts of January, 2013.
Thank you so much for visiting The Life Mosaic during its inaugural month. I appreciate your encouragement and interaction and I hope it’s been something you’ve enjoyed as much as I’ve enjoyed working on it. In case you’re late to the part or missed a post, I thought I’d take a brief moment to lift … Read more
Try the smaller classroom.
When I was teaching improv acting classes on a regular basis, I was part of an ensemble of instructors who each coached a youth performance team. We’d divvy up rehearsal space and everyone counted themselves lucky that we were able to use the two giant classrooms and the stage. This way, no one got stuck … Read more
What Is Your Petri Dish?
A petri dish is a small container used by scientists, usually biologists, to discover and explore cultured cells, plants, and so on. It’s usually, but not always, 100mm in diameter and 15mm in height. In 1887, it played a key role in discovering penicillin. While petri dishes come in different sizes and other variables scientists do great work with them. They’re only so big; they’re only so small. It’s a 100mm x 15mm constraint where the world is changed. A petri dish is
“First Thing Monday” Begins Tomorrow.
Tomorrow sees the start of “First Thing Monday.” Right now, the intention is for the feature to be three things:
- A weekly feature at The Life Mosaic.
- A writing prompt to get your creative juices flowing.
- An exercise designed to require fifteen minutes of work.
This may fluctuate in the future but for now, anticipate the above recipe.
I enjoy writing prompts. I like receiving them in a class or group or seeking them out on my own and I enjoy offering them to other people in teaching, training, and other spaces like this blog. I think any writing prompt allows one to stretch his or her creative legs to walk to places he or she perhaps wouldn’t otherwise travel. Really, that’s “any” writing prompt. Even the bad ones, the cliche ones, even those can take someone to somewhere new if one is open to it. That said, here’s hoping the writing prompts I offer here aren’t “bad” and seldom dip into the “cliche” pool without intention.
One of the key reasons I enjoy writing prompts is