Check out this platform’s writing prompt initiative if you’re looking to build consistency
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If you’ve ever faced a blank document and no concrete deadline, chances are that document is still blank and that idea is still floating around in your head. Working through the trap of procrastination or writer’s block to keep practising your craft can be tough. The good folks at Bound India know this, and offer help in the form of weekly prompts called Writer Wednesday. These mid-week prompts comprise worded or visual prompts released on their Instagram handle, and offer writers a chance to get started with and work their way into a piece — whether poetry, fiction or non fiction — from one angle or the other.
Michelle D’costa, Samiksha Ransom and Saher Salim
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Michelle D’costa, head of learning and community, highlights that with writing, creatives often lack consistency, community and feedback. “We aim to deal with the issues that writers face and provide them that push towards creativity,” she notes. Once the prompt is released, participants can share their responses to it on the platform’s WhatsApp group which aims to build a community of writers to facilitate peer reviews, community sharing, constructive feedback and habit building. D’costa tells us that the group is a good way to find a buddy to write and read with for motivation. Creatives can also network, find opportunities for work or collaboration, share reading recommendations, or approach Bound for help in writing. Some interesting yet simple prompts include writing about life underwater, the colour green and even suggestions like walking to the kitchen to pick up a plate and making it the protagonist in your story.
Log on to @boundindia, linktr.ee/Bound
How writers use prompts?
. Don’t overthink: D’costa explains that often with an idea in mind, writers might require a nudge as motivation or an entry point to craft the idea out. Prompts provide the nudge. Explaining how prompts have helped her, she adds, “Don’t overthink a prompt so it’s easier to get started, it takes some of the pressure off and you can finish a piece instead of judging every line as you write.”
. Find prompts everywhere: With prompts serving as an entry point to writing, Saher Salim, author and media producer, shares that prompts don’t necessarily need to be words or a photograph given by a platform. Instead, experiences, memories, songs, and even reading another writer’s approach to a topic can trigger new thoughts and help a person write. “Prompts from different spaces and places can come in a variety of forms,” Salim tells us.
. Charting new territories: Samiksha Ransom, writer and student, shares that while common advice instructs writers to ‘write what they know’, it’s good practice to get out of one’s comfort zone and use prompts to explore unfamiliar lands. She adds, “I only go for unusual prompts or the ones that aren’t topics that I would usually write about. It’s like taking a risk and moving beyond what I know, and that’s when some of my most interesting writing flows through.”
Sharpen the pen
.For monthly prompts
Submit a 50 to 500- word response to a visual, written in an hour.
Log on to visualverse.org
. For daily prompts
You have 60 seconds to write and submit to a single-word prompt, and hours to read other writers’ responses.
Log on to oneword.com
. For habit-building
Comedian Bindu Rao’s WhatsApp group releases five prompts a day in the form of questions, and asks writers to submit responses of two to three lines daily.
Log on to @notbindurao
. For genre-based prompts
This guide provides 72 prompts across genres that can help you start your story.
Log on to smartblogger.com/creative-writing-prompts
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