Writing Prompts and Bull Durham

Writing prompts interest me lately. In a recent writers workshop, I took down by hand, with pen on notebook paper the instructors list of 25 writing prompts. It seemed a small labor and a significant writers’ tool. This morning I entered “writing prompts” in the www.Google.com search window. In under ¾ of a second the first ten of 9,690,000 web entries related to writing prompts popped onto my computer screen.

Writing prompts didn’t just come into my consciousness. I’ve used them for years in teaching both elementary and secondary writing enrichment courses and in adult writers workshops I have fascilitated or attended. My recent interest was sparked by Karen Blomain, last winter when she related an idea another writing friend was using. He was having a significant birthday, 40 maybe. He made a list of 40 significant people in his life. His intention was to choose from the list each day as a stimulant for his writing.
I was stuck. I hadn’t written anything that wasn’t whiney for two months. As we walked along Basilio Badillo in Puerto Vallarta toward the beach, Karen offered the idea. I had been allowing the end of a large project and some emotional garbage in my life, including my upcoming 60th birthday to block my creativity. I thought a list of significant people was a great idea and announced to Karen that I was going to make a list of 60 individuals in honor of the big birthday.

I did start the list, but I have yet to write about one. It seems what I really needed was to be reminded that it’s a simple game to cite one of my favorite movies Bull Durham , “You throw the ball, you hit the ball, you, catch the ball.” Writing is a simple game. You put the tip of the pen on the paper and keep it moving. Just starting a list of possible subjects, knowing I would choose one and write about it each day was enough to get my pen moving, my imagination jumping.

Writing prompts, I know, are not written just to get our pens started. They serve to open areas of our psyche and connect them to our creativity in ways we might not otherwise have found. But, what about those nine million websites relating to writing prompts? Will it ever be necessary for another prompt to be written? Seems like the bases are covered.