Hey everyone!
Welcome back to my series, Writing Prompts &, where I share a writing prompt from one of the many writing classes I’ve taken and the first drafts they’ve inspired, written within the span of 10 minutes. All stories shared here are unedited and unrevised. So, you are getting the pure roughest of zero drafts.
I haven’t been doing so many writing classes in recent months, as all my creative energy has been going toward one, specific project. But I was going through old journals and found a composition notebook filled with writing prompt inspired stories I’d written throughout 2020.
It’s always interesting to read old pieces because it reminds me of where my brain and emotions were during that time, and I’m brought right back to that moment.
The summer of 2020, I was taking a few different writing classes with Gotham and LA Writers Group and was also participating in The Moth Educators workshop. Alongside all these classes and workshops, I was writing my first novel and working with a writing coach. Shout out to Nicole Criona of LA Writers Group for helping me through the writing of the first half of my first novel.
It was a busy summer, but a very magical one. It felt like all the pieces of my life were coming together after years of wondering if I’d ever be able to live my dream of becoming a writer. Teaching took so much. But there was a glimmer of what my next act would be, and I reached for it with greedy hands.
But what was the writing prompt that inspired this particular piece?
So glad you asked.
Writing Prompt: Two people who don’t know each other have to accomplish something together.
This is what I wrote.
He took the instructions out of the box and made a face. He was concentrating really hard as he leafed through the pamphlet.
“Easy peasy,” he said.
His confidence concerned me, mainly because I hate anyone who uses the phrase “easy peasy” and there was something about him, a cockiness, that made me think of every boyfriend I’d ever had who said they could do something when they actually couldn’t.
“Ya sure?” I asked.
“I could do it in my sleep.”
Uh-oh. Another bad sign.
I began unearthing bags of dowels and fake wooden parts from the obnoxiously large Ikea box. I tried to do it myself the night before, but after three hours and a bottle of wine, I decided to take it to Craigslist to look for a handiman, and hoped whoever showed up at my door wasn’t a serial killer.
“Can you hand me that allen key?” he said, pointing to the small piece of metal next to my foot.
He showed up without a tool belt, and all I had was the pink hammer my mother got me as a housewarming gift when I moved into my first apartment. He was about to use it to hammer in a nail.
“I don’t think it goes like that,” I said.
The black cardboard back of the bookshelf faced out instead of in.
“Nah, it’s fine.” He hammered a million little nails to secure the flaps, and when he pushed the shelf to standing, his sweaty, red face screwed up at the mistake he’d previously denied.
“Oh shit,” he said.
Final Thoughts
Well, that’s it for now, friends.
I hope you enjoyed this piece. Please feel free to use the prompt for your own writing if you feel so inclined. And check out Gotham and LA Writers Group if you are looking for classes to generate new material.
My goal with this series is two fold.
- Help people be less ashamed of their own zero drafts.
- Share pieces of my own writing that would have otherwise lived in the pages of my notebooks.
It’s so easy to write something and say, “Oh, that’s garbage,” set it aside, and never work on it again. Or allow those negative thoughts to deteriorate our belief in our abilities.
And I agree that while not every idea is a good one, that doesn’t mean your writing sucks. The bad ideas deserve the light of day too. It’s about playing the way you did when you were a kid, and just letting your imagination run wild.
Is the story I wrote here going to win awards or be published beyond this blog?
Nope. But it was sure fun to write.
Wishing you a week of inspiration, words, and creativity!
Robyn Neilsen 