In my last post I talked about using sentence starters as prompts. The good news is they are something I continue to find useful in my writing!
Right at the beginning of my first notebook, I wrote an A5 page of prose using the prompt "How did you get that scratch on your hand?" that you may have seen in my last post.
It wasn't perfect, but I went on to use it as a basis to write a 1000 word flash fiction that I could feel proud of.
As I have said before: no writing that you do in your notebook is bad. And I will be sharing my first draft to demonstrate this!
"How did you get your scratch on your hand?" I ask Harry again. He looks up at me with his big brown eyes, lip quivering.
"Harry, you have to tell me. This is important," he starts to cry, "You have to tell mummy, Harry. I need to know."
He slowly nods through the tears. I close my eyes.
Don't show him how you feel.
I pull him close to me for a hug and I can feel his little heart pounding.
"Oh, Harry," I sigh, feeling my own tears stinging my eyes. There's nothing I can do. I know that. But I don't know how much he understands.
"I love you, mummy loves you," I tell him as I reach my hand to the counter behind his back. "Never forget that, okay?" I ask him.
He nods again and I push him away slightly to look at his face.
"Mummy loves you," I repeat as I grasp the cold metal in my hand. I steel myself. This has to be done.
One. I pull him close again. Two. I kiss the top of his head like I used to when he was a baby. Three. I close my eyes and pull the trigger.
This is an example of something I wrote in five minutes from a sentence starter prompt. Obviously in this iteration it is a bare-bones idea, and this is where the previous work in my notebook came in.
I used some observational writing I had done about a tea cup to ground the piece in reality and give the audience a sense of familiarity and something to relate to. I was also able to set the scene more, describing the kitchen, the family photos and the rest of the house. The things you write in your notebook are priceless, and the more you write in it, the easier it becomes to compose a complete story.
Don't forget to flick through your own writing for inspiration!
Happy writing!
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