New Section!!! Yay!!! I need to have a babysitter; I’m going to get in trouble, one day 😂
Anyway. I don’t do writer prompts. Loathe them, really; why does everyone have to write about their sixth birday? My sixth birthday sucked. Ask me about 4th of July 1989 instead. My usual version of poetry isn’t anything I’d give anyone else. But I got some magnet words today (I love these things) and, well, I had an idea.
It isn’t a new idea. I used to do this with my friend’s refrigerator. I never had the words myself, but always loved playing with them elsewhere. I’d create a poem or phrase and run with it in my daily writing practice. Extremely helpful for dealing with writer’s block. You dont feel pressured. You are just messing around. I’m calling this:
The Daily Riff.
Here’s how it works. I’ll put up a picture of my daily magnet choices. Run with it. The poems and phrases are mine, obviously, but, if they strike you a certain way, take them and go nuts. Create short stories or poems of your own. Enjoy riffing off my words or twist them into your own. Write the story you see in your head or just have a good laugh. This isn’t an exercise with defined rules, it’s just a little bit of word play. At the end of the month, maybe we’ll take a vote on the poem you all like best and I’ll make the winner a t-shirt (or hoodie) people can buy. Most importantly, let’s have some fun! Here’s day one!
Darkwood 
Sounds like fun! Whenever my kids give me enough time, I want to try this! I always wanted to do prompts, but never could get anything going. Even though they’re meant to be open, I never felt they were.
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The prompts never work for me. They are to, I don’t know, fake? I mean, they are supposed to get you thinking, but they just seem to be digging too hard. Not everyone has awesome camp stories or wants to focus on their Grandma Carol. So a long time ago I found that, if I listened to the lyrics to songs or flipped to random pages in a poetry book (especially Jim Morrison’s) I could riff off a single line for hours, playing with the images it brought to mind. Same with the magnets. You can put the words together in fun ways and come out with amazing lines of poetry. I’m curious if people will get into this as a game the way I do.
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Yes! Prompts are too constricting! I wish they were more open or suggested something that could really make you think for hours. I love using songs to create scenes. There’s something really magical about the way listening to a song can spark a whole sequence in my head. I actually have a story where almost every chapter was sparked by a song. I’ve never used poetry and never considered using it, but they are like songs, so maybe I’ll give it a try. I really love your magnet idea and can’t wait to participate!
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I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with! That Princess Peach bit was awesome 😁
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Haha, I’m going to have nightmares now. But it was an awesomely fun thing to do!
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I give myself so many nightmares 😂
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