This project will remain open until December 10th. The Next project will open on December 15th.

Option 1: Picture It

Source: iStockPhoto | Click to embiggen

Use the image above to inspire a piece of writing. Your piece can be fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, or any other form that suits you. (Please remember to copy the image to your own server and credit the photographer.)

Option 2: Poetry

“Love and magic have a great deal in common. They enrich the soul, delight the heart. And they both take practice.” – Anonymous

Use the quotation above to inspire a poem about love and magic.

Option 3: Pick Three

“When two people meet and fall in love, there’s a sudden rush of magic. Magic is just naturally present then. We tend to feed on that gratuitous magic without striving to make any more. One day we wake up and find that the magic is gone. We hustle to get it back, but by then it’s usually too late, we’ve used it up. What we have to do is work like hell at making additional magic right from the start. It’s hard work, but if we can remember to do it, we greatly improve our chances of making love stay.” — Tom Robbins

Use at least three of the following words from the quotation above to create a short piece of writing in whatever form (poetry, prose, fiction) you wish:
meet, magic, naturally, gratuitious, gone, hustle, work, hell, love, chances

Option 4: Tell Me a Story

“I’d like to bring magic back to the place it used to be 100 years ago.” — David Blane

Use the quotation above as inspiration and tell me a story.

Option 5: Seven Things

“Alcohol is like love. The first kiss is magic, the second is intimate, the third is routine. After that you take the girl’s clothes off.” — Raymond Chandler

In improvisation, one of our exercises is a game called “Seven Things,” in which we go around in a circle giving each other the challenge, “Give me seven things that [whatever].” We are not going to go around in a circle here, but if you’re drawn to lists, this prompt is for you.

Give me seven examples of every-day magic.

Option 6: Short and Tweet

“After being in Harry Potter, I believe a bit more in magic than I did before.” — Rupert Grint

Do you have a Twitter account? If so, use the quotation above as inspiration, and tweet about why you do or don’t believe in magic to: @cw_barista.

Bonus Option: Time It: For an extra challenge, set a timer for eleven minutes when you sit down to respond to one of these prompts, and stop writing when the timer goes off!

To participate, pick a prompt (any or all) and use it for an entry in your own blog. Then leave a comment here with the option number, link, and your name as you want it to be displayed on the participant’s page.

This project will remain open until August 31st. The next project will open on Sunday, September 5th.

Option 1: Picture It

Tire Swing | Photo Source: Morguefile.com (Click to embiggen)

Use the image above as inspiration to write something about childhood. Your piece can be fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, or any other form that suits you. (Please remember to copy the image to your own server and credit the photographer.)

Option 2: Poetry

“At breakfast, Anthony found a Corvette Sting Ray car kit in his breakfast cereal box and Nick found a Junior Undercover Agent code ring in his breakfast cereal box but in my breakfast cereal box, all I found was breakfast cereal.”
– Judith Viorst, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Use the quotation above to inspire a poem about anticipation or disappointment.

Option 3: Pick Three

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow–
Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,
And he sometimes goes so little that there’s none of him at all.

He hasn’t got a notion of how children ought to play,
And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close behind me, he’s a coward you can see;
I’d think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

– Robert Louis Stevenson, “My Shadow”

Use at least three of the the bold words in the above quotation to write a short piece in whatever form (poetry, prose, fiction) you wish.

Option 4: Tell Me a Story

“I wouldn’t be a bit afraid, and it would be lovely to spend the night in a wild cherry-tree all white with bloom in the moonshine, don’t you think? You could imagine you were dwelling in marble halls, couldn’t you?”

– Lucy Maude Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Use the quotation above as inspiration for a short piece of fiction or creative non-fiction about the power of imagination.

Option 5: Seven Things

Jo on the next lid, scratched and worn,
And within a motley store
Of headless, dolls, of schoolbooks torn,
Birds and beasts that speak no more,
Spoils brought home from the fairy ground
Only trod by youthful feet,
Dreams of a future never found,
Memories of a past still sweet,
Half-writ poems, stories wild,
April letters, warm and cold,
Diaries of a wilful child,
Hints of a woman early old,
A woman in a lonely home,
Hearing, like a sad refrain
Be worthy, love, and love will come,
In the falling summer rain.

– Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

In improvisation, one of our exercises is a game called “Seven Things,” in which we go around in a circle giving each other the challenge, “Give me seven things that [whatever].” We are not going to go around in a circle here, but if you’re drawn to lists, this prompt is for you.

Give me seven items from your hope chest or toy box. If you didn’t have such a thing, make a list of seven keepsakes from your childhood.

Option 6: Short and Tweet

I’d give all wealth that years have piled,
The slow result of Life’s decay,
To be once more a little child
For one bright summer day.

– Lewis Carroll, “Solitude”

Do you have a Twitter account? If so, use the quotation above as inspiration, and tweet your own childhood memory (in 140 characters or less) to @cw_barista.

Bonus Option: Time It: For an extra challenge, set a timer for eight minutes when you sit down to respond to one of these prompts, and stop writing when the timer goes off!

The July Participants were:

1. MissMeliss chose Option 5: Seven Things: Seven Personal Heroes
2. Janet chose Option 5: Seven Things: Heroes
3. Sumi chose Option 5: Seven Things: Seven Personal Heroes
4. Mike G chose Option 3: Pick Three: Cafe Writing: Pick 3

To participate: Leave a comment with your name as you wish to have it posted, a valid email address (not visible to anyone else), and the direct link to your post. You’re welcome to respond to one prompt or all of them, but as I link them separately on the participants post for each project, please find a way to designate which prompt(s) you chose, so that I can tell. Also, it’s nice if you include a link back to CafeWriting.com somewhere in your post.

This project will remain open until July 31st. The next project will open on Sunday, August 8th.

Option 1: Picture It

Photo Credit: Michael Greene | Click to enlarge

Use the image above as inspiration to write something about ordinary heroes. Your piece can be fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, or any other form that suits you. (Please remember to copy the image to your own server and credit the photographer.)

Option 2: Poetry

“The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else.”
– Umberto Eco, Travels in Hyperreality

Use the quotation above to inspire a poem about becoming a hero by mistake.

Option 3: Pick Three

“There are new words now that excuse everybody. Give me the good old days of heroes and villains. the people you can bravo or hiss. There was a truth to them that all the slick credulity of today cannot touch.”
– Bette Davis, The Lonely Life

Use at least three of the the bold words in the above quotation to write a short piece in whatever form (poetry, prose, fiction) you wish.

Option 4: Tell Me a Story

“Heroing is one of the shortest-lived professions there is.”
– Will Rogers, newspaper article, Feb. 15, 1925

Use the quotation above as inspiration for a short piece of fiction or creative non-fiction about short-lived heroes.

Option 5: Seven Things

“I’m kind of hooked to the game of art and literature; my heroes are artists and writers.”
– Jim Morrison

In improvisation, one of our exercises is a game called “Seven Things,” in which we go around in a circle giving each other the challenge, “Give me seven things that [whatever].” We are not going to go around in a circle here, but if you’re drawn to lists, this prompt is for you.

Give me seven of your personal heroes. These can be public figures, or personal acquaintances. Have fun with it. As always, explanations are welcome, but not obligatory.

Option 6: Short and Tweet

“Old myths, old gods, old heroes have never died. They are only sleeping at the bottom of our mind, waiting for our call. We have need for them. They represent the wisdom of our race.”
– Stanley Kunitz

Do you have a Twitter account? If so, use the quotation above as inspiration, and tweet your own heroic wisdom to @cw_barista.

Bonus Option: Time It: For an extra challenge, set a timer for seven minutes when you sit down to respond to one of these prompts, and stop writing when the timer goes off!

It’s been almost a year since I last offered writing prompts here. Since then, I’ve had a lot of changes in my life, and for several months the only writing I was doing was the kind I get paid to do. There are other reasons why this site has laid dormant, but it’s a new summer, and the soft sounds of gurgling coffeemakers and clinking silverware are calling me back. I hope you’ll embrace these prompts once more, as you always have.

Remember that suggestions for themes and images (with credits) for the picture prompts, are always welcome.

Thanks in advance…

— The Barista