Writing Prompts

for Minnetonka High School Students 2003 Career Exploration Day

Because you are alive, you are a living part of history. Here are some things that you have lived through. You're the only one who can give us a story based on these memories. Let these suggestions jog your memory. Create a story wheel, with your theme or idea in the middle of the wheel. Create spoke offshoots of people or characters to add to your story. Once you've completed this, shape your story. Follow the central idea, the hub of your idea and form it into a free-write story. It is crucial you shut the editor off here and just you're your words down on paper. Once you've done that, rewrite it in a style of your choosing, a memoir, essay, fiction short story. Remember, the only way you can be a writer is to write.

Wheel

Writing

Central idea goes in the hub. Form and build your story around that one basic theme.

At the end of each “spoke” put other ideas down that relate to your central idea or theme

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Idea Prompts:

Life's dailies

• Your first sighting of a lunar eclipse
• Check cards
• Cell phones with picture-taking abilities. (Think back to when a portable phone was the size of a laptop computer and 40 monthly minutes was all your parents could afford. You lived it, you can tell about it.)
• What trend wearing a baseball cap backwards signified
• What trend wearing baseball caps upside down signified
• Sonic Hedgehog, Nintendo, Playstation, Sega, X Box. It's your generation can tell my generation which came first and why that would be important. Can you parallel the debuts of some of the games with some of life's travesties or trends?
• What year did it become not okay to ride the school bus? Why?
• The invention of CD-R, CD-RW.
• Death of VHS
• Birth of DVD and MP-3's.
• Remember when downloading was for free?
• Search for colleges. Where did you go? With whom? What side road trips did you take to get there?
• Computers 1 gig
• Instant messaging
• Phrases and words you use to describe people, stupid t.v. shows or dumb ideas
• Your definition of the ultimate car.
• Your definition of an embarrassing car to have to drive.
• Evolution. Were you taught it is as theory or fact? Can you trust what you've been taught?
• Crest Night effects teeth whitening
• Identity theft
• Dad's lay-off – you've lived your first recession.
• “In” colors – brown and orange together?
• Cargo pants. Carpenter pants. Camouflage.
• Jellies – (plastic shoes)
• Blue nail polish

Events

• Excelsior's Homecoming parades with royalty in funky cars. What are the cars called? What are their colors? Who owns them? Why were they made?
• Homecoming Football Game's streaker. Who were you standing next to while he ran? Who lobbed the football at him? What did the streaker say afterwards? Did you know it was going to happen?
• When Harry Potter books first made their debut where were you? Were you too old for the trend?
• You have been around for the Persian Gulf War and the Iraqi Conflict. What has school taught you about the former. What has life told you about the latter? Do you know a relative, friend who was called up from Reserve to serve his or her country? What the story and the feelings it evoked.
• Colored money
• Gold dollar coin.
• Beanie Babies – did Grandma buy you one that had the same birth date as your birthday? Which animal?
• McDonalds and Teenie Beanie Babies…..and the craze
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – who are they named after?
• Power Rangers
• Wolverine
• First date
• First kiss
• First F
• First A
• Teacher who guided your future
• Teacher whose hurtful words you have a hard time forgetting
• Favorite Uncle and why
• Favorite Aunt and why
• Your first wedding
• Your first funeral
• And One, Adidas, Air Jordan's
• Most famous person you've ever met. What was memorable about them?

Tragedy

We live in a world where the vast unknown of space exploration is accepted culture:

• The Space Shuttle. You've been around for two fatal crashes. Colombia and Challenger
• 9/11 – what class were you in at school? What were the names of the friends you were with?
• Three and a ½ years ago you could take a Swiss army knife on an airplane. Now there's ground turbulence of shoe checks and explosive scans of our luggage before we can even board a plane. You're a part of the “remember when we met so and so at the gate?” generation because you can't get past security checkpoints now without a boarding pass and an identification card.
• Ground Zero. Been there? When? Was it what you expected?

We live in lake culture, where water and ice are part of our lives. We know where thin ice is and where the drop-offs aren't around Big Island. Who do you know that Lake Minnetonka or any lake in Minnesota who has been affected by lake culture?

• Ice Fishing
• Ice Sailing

• Snowmobiling – and when you went through the ice, where were you.
• Snowboards

Music Culture

Love it or hate it. What is it about your parents' generation of music that you don't like? Can you find a link between your parents' music culture and yours?

Write, write, write. Go to Writer's Digest and find out where your story might find a home. Check the Internet for student writing contests. Read the guidelines and follow the directions for submissions. There is no need to wait until after high school to start.

And finally, never, ever, give up on your writing explorations. Remember, like Magellan, you too have seen the shadow on the moon.