Essay Lab: Day Four Prompts and Some Advice

Today, some advice and more prompts:

Meg Waite Clayton, bestselling author of The Four Ms. Bradwells, The Wednesday Sisters, The Language of Light, and the forthcoming The Wednesday Daughters 

From Meg's blog, how to get the words onto paper:   

I remind myself that I can throw anything out if it doesn’t work. The trick is just to write without worrying about exactly what you’re writing. Any sentence will do to start — and if it sucks, you can throw it out later! 

And some prompts from what she calls her "bag of tricks":

                Dig out an old personal photo and write about how it makes you feel.

                Subscribe to an online word-a-day service like Google word, and each day when you sit down to write, start with a sentence that uses your word of the day.

                Visit an art museum or find an online photograph gallery. Sit yourself in front of something you like and start writing about the work, how it makes you feel, or anything else that comes to your mind.

                Describe the environment around you to a blind person.

                You are sitting on an airplane with a stranger you will never see again, who will never reveal a word of your conversation. What one thing do you tell them? Is it true?

Tomorrow in the Essay Lab: The final installment of prompts from Ken Harvey, writing teacher and author of the memoir, A Passionate Engagement, and the award-winning collection of short stories, If You Were with Me Everything Would Be All Right, and Shelly King, author of Morning Fog.