The Rock helped me out with this one. Tired and spent last night, I couldn’t put a PROMPT together for nothing. So my husband got on Ffffound and procured several images to inspire my thinking. I am including most of the pictures here. This week, I’d like if you were to pick one and write [...]

Today? Teach us something. How do you flirt? Make a smoothie? Achieve balance in your life?
 
Step-by-step instructions please.
 
Thank you.
 
Please post your submission in the comments OR post in your blog and leave a link to your blog in the comments.
 
First time to PROMPTuesday? Read a bit about it here.
Want to see what’s been written in [...]

Let’s return to bare bones this week, what do you say?
 
I was given this exercise in a college writing class, and I clearly remember observing an older man who was eating alone. During my 15-minute study, I absorbed his every move and translated it to my writing. The way he carried the tray to his [...]

This is a companion piece to last year’s PROMPTuesday. Read the link first, then come back and give me what you got!
(That’s what SHE said…)
 
I shouldn’t eat more Christmas dessert
My intestines are really starting to hurt
Though eat it I shall
I’m that kind of gal
Butt sure ain’t pretty under my skirt
 
Please post your submission in the [...]

What’s the grossest thing you ever did for somebody because you loved him/her/it?*
 
*Inspired by this weekend’s toenail-cutting adventure.
Toenail cuttee will remain anonymous to protect my innocent dad.

 
Please post your submission in the comments OR post in your blog and leave a link to your blog in the comments.
 
First time to PROMPTuesday? Read a bit [...]

I’m having a hard time feeling the holidays this season. It’s bothering me, all this groping for meaning and coming up empty. So…would you share something that’s moved you recently? Or a spiritually uplifting moment you’ve experienced? Where were you? What happened?
 
I would love to know. I think it could spark something in me.
 
I don’t [...]

You know that game “I Never?” I’m the absolute worst at it. Mainly because I’ve never done anything outlandish or too illegal or controversial. I avoid the game at all costs without fail, because at the ripe old age of 41, I still end up looking like a lame Puritan. It’s embarrassing.
 
I mean, I [...]

“In the thickest center of the woods, a circle of stones waited.”
 
Please post your submission in the comments OR post in your blog and leave a link to your blog in the comments.
 
First time to PROMPTuesday? Read a bit about it here.
Want to see what’s been written in the past? Catch up on the PROMPTuesdays [...]

 
I’ve long been frustrated by my astrological sign. As a November 22 birthday, I dangle on the cusp of Scorpio and Sagittarius, and oft wish to be one or the other so I’m not loafing about in no man’s land. I feel identity-less, especially when people say, “He’s such a Taurus,” or “Well, what do [...]

Sometimes the simplest things nudge us irrevocably in one direction or another.
 
That’s my thinking this week as I introduce today’s PROMPT.
 
Start off with an uncomplicated, “I never knew…” and see what path you travel down as you write.
 
Please post your submission in the comments OR post in your blog and leave a link to your [...]

Here we go! This week, use the below in your first paragraph somewhere:
 
“You’re not going to win you know.” She couldn’t look at him when she said it.
 
“Maybe not. But I take heart in knowing that neither one of us will be the same when it’s all over.” He pushed the papers across the table.
 
She [...]

So today my pediatrician says, “Influenza,” and I say, “Are you thinking H1N1?” and he says, “I AM thinking H1N1 because it is the only strain out there right now,” and I say, “But H1N1 isn’t supposed to be real…it’s supposed to be a construct of my imagination that slowly drives me insane until April,” [...]

Today, write about a time you almost gave up on something, but didn’t.

 
Please post your submission in the comments OR post in your blog and leave a link to your blog in the comments.
 
First time to PROMPTuesday? Read a bit about it here.
Want to see what’s been written in the past? Catch up on the [...]

It’s story time!
 
Today’s PROMPT is:
 
A new maid comes to your home to clean, and as you’re about to leave to run an errand, you find her to say you’ll be right back, but instead of dusting, you see her in your bathroom rifling through your medicine cabinet. Tell the rest of the story.
 
Meanwhile…First time to [...]

Today’s PROMPT comes courtesy of Mama Mary, and it’s a doozy. In a good, thinkey kind of way.
 
I’m going to let her explain your mission for today (actually, you’ve got several days to do this…):
 
“Let’s say I am casting for a new reality tv show/web series called “Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda.” Either write or webcam your [...]

I’m itching for a good old fashioned style prompt and so I’m going to indulge myself today.
 
In 200 words or less, describe a day in the life of an obsessive twitterer.
 
I know it’s been done, but the Twits in Twitterland are so asking for it.
 
Please post your submission in the comments OR post in [...]

After a recent evening out, The Rock and I arrived home at 12:06AM and wondered aloud what to pay the babysitter. She’d arrived at about 7PM and since we were between hours, the payment protocol was all off. Should we pay her from 7PM to 12AM? Or, 7PM to 12:30AM? Or 7PM to 12:15AM? And [...]

You’re in a mental institution. What finally drove you crazy?

 
Please post your submission in the comments OR post in your blog and leave a link to your blog in the comments.
 
And also — First time to PROMPTuesday? Welcome! Read a bit about this weekly writing exercise here.
 
(Want to see what’s been written in the [...]

Once in my early 20s, a cheating buttwad of a boyfriend lent me his grey Toyota Tercel hatchback. I drove it from Los Angeles to my family’s home in San Diego and planned to meet him there because he was a marine and often stayed at my mom and dad’s place between his Camp Pendleton [...]

Three words today:
 
Ancient, visionary, coma
 
Extra bonus points: Incorporate words into a dream sequence.
 
Please post your submission in the comments OR post in your blog and leave a link to your blog in the comments.
 
And also — First time to PROMPTuesday? Welcome! Read a bit about this weekly writing exercise here.
 
(Want to see what’s [...]

Lately, I’ve found my pockmarked brain really enjoying children’s programming. (Except for Yo Gabba Gabba. Do not watch Yo Gabba Gabba. My friend, Island Girl, is right when she says that show is like a kid rave.) That, and Kidz Bop, are why all our children are making out in second grade bathrooms.
 
At any [...]

Hi, it’s me. No, don’t worry. I’m fine. It’s just there’s so many holes to patch (oh, metaphor), and paints to brush, and cartons to pack, and whines to have, and frozen dinners to artificially warm that make me feel like less of a mom.
 
What? When will I ever not have an issue or something [...]

I got the below line from somewhere and can’t recall from where. Can you imagine a greater treason if you’re a writer? Still, it’s a great prompt starter and I can’t resist, even if I’m unable to give the original author credit.
 
So please, write a story using the line “Flying through the streets like a [...]

I’m scared to fly. Best of all and super exciting is that I get to do it next month for my brother’s wedding. In New York. (Can’t you people get married where there’s easier ground transportation? And in a city of closer proximity not necessitating air travel?)
 
For God’s sake.
 
At any rate, the whole Air [...]

We got a meme this week, folks. And I’m going with it because the topic intrigues me and I love to lie for sport. So by way of Green Girl, this meme/PROMPT is as follows:
 
“Sometimes you can learn more about a person by what they don’t tell you, or from the things they make up…”
So [...]

The Rock and I are in the process of making some major decisions on our future. Really BIG decisions. Ones that can change lives. Alter the trajectory of our existence even.
 
We might move to the suburbs.
 
I know.
 
But this is good, right? Costco proximity? Cul de sacs? Girl scouts? Crazy obsessive PTA moms?
 
I know.
 
Oh God. I’m [...]

 
We’ve got all kinds of friends, haven’t we? The serious ones, the anal ones, the silly ones, the lost ones, the distant ones, the ironclad ones.
 
Today, let’s write about the fun ones. Do you have a friend who makes you laugh and is a guaranteed good time? Write about this friend. Tell us a funny [...]

I imagine that every person in the world at one point or another, says, “I should write a book.” Whether it be a how-to parenting guide, a memoir about your life in the circus, or a good old-fashioned murder mystery, we’ve all thought it, right?
 
“I should write a book.”
 
Or maybe you are writing one? [...]

I think I’m re-using PROMPTuesday titles. And I suppose I could check, but I’d much rather put my energy into posting this kick-ass prompt sure to blow your shirt up (a mentalist device otherwise known as “trying to convince oneself”).
 
Here it is, my pretty, pretty foxes (stands next to the curtain ready to [...]

 
I’ll just put it out there this week:
 
What was your favorite toy as a child? Write a vignette about playing with it. (What did you feel? Who were you with? Where did you live?)
 
Let’s hopelessly date ourselves with this one. What do ya say?
 
Meanwhile, for any new readers, PROMPTuesday is a once-a-week deal where I [...]

Have I done this one before? I’m way too tied up with my soy taquitos to check. Also, The Rock has raging infections in both eyes and I’m trying to nurse him back to health by sitting way over here at the kitchen table while berating him to wash his hands and not fling bacteria [...]

This week, I wanted to return to the first line prompt, because I’m feeling all fictiony and sublime and I have no idea what that means, so ignore me.
 
Still here?
 
Oh good! I love you people.
 
Here’s PROMPTuesday #51: Please finish the story begun with these sentences:
 
She lifted the smudged glass to her lips, stopped mid-raise [...]

 
Hi-ho!
Good to be here. Of course, my eyes water and the head swims from over-editing of businessy documents and such like, but I think I will survive with the creative salvation that is PROMPTuesday.
 
So, this week, let’s look in our purses and billfolds, poppets. Pull something out. Tell a story about that something. Where [...]

UPDATED:
If you left a link in the comments, consider leaving it here too, and participate in an online wedding proposal event!
 
This is a special one. Someone I dearly like a lot is going to get engaged soon — she just doesn’t know it yet. To celebrate, this PROMPTuesday is all about love.
 
Please write a [...]

Hi, and things have been hard. I’m waiting for my universe to right itself again. Or rather, I’m working to right it again, but meanwhile, I’m popping in with a PROMPTuesday.
 
Because gah, I’m sick of thinking about myself.
 
This week’s writer’s helper comes from Toasted Cheese, a website for writers founded and edited by my bloggy [...]

(Amazingly beautiful photo from Chad Pollpeter)
 
I’ve got something to tell you…and will write it here tomorrow or soon after, but the gist is humility. So in honor of humbling myself today to (please God) be better, I’m adopting the theme for this week’s PROMPTuesday.
 
Here it is:
Write a story about when you last were humbled, felt [...]

 
So I’ve revived my manuscript-in-progress, quite surprised to find I’m further along than I thought. Plus, I’ve corralled the journals, scraps, and napkins that link my plot like a cotton candy locomotive, and I’m incorporating the airy tufts, making them real. Best of all, I started to muse again. Gosh darn, I love this [...]

So I’m putting PROMPTuesday up early this week. For two reasons. One: It’s pretty much done for me with the whole post tag team thing we’ve got going, and Two: I expect to be up all night busily searching boxes for old high school photos of me wearing pajamas to class (un-ironically and intentionally).
 
So [...]

Music — such lyrical salve. My cell nuclei thrums to beautiful, raw words set to pounding — or rolling — melody, and my white light positively beams at live shows, where I sit somewhere close to the amplifier, each piece of skin, bone, plasma, pulsing, exploding. I bear witness to a singer’s true face, soul [...]

This week (all exhausting day-and-a-half of it) has been rife with ups and downs, bumps and glitches, despair and redemption, so I’m making this PROMPTuesday akin to comfort food. That means I’m returning to a traditional prompty set-up, where I issue a situation and a word and you go to writer town.
Yes sir, I [...]

So tonight I basically asked a man why he was in a wheelchair.* If “basically” were “I did.” And since I’m still toothpicking toenail shards from my teeth, I’m phoning in an easy PROMPTuesday this morning.
 
This week, tell us about your first job. As I recently twittered, I worked at the Jelly Bowl Bakery in [...]

This week, let’s do something fun! And fakeducational! Or loopy! Depending.
 
My friend Kizz inspired this PROMPTuesday, even busy as she is working her way through all the PROMPTuesdays of yore.
 
So Kizz’s idea was to do something funny. And THAT came to her as she watched Inside the Actor’s Studio with Ricky Gervais. Now put [...]

So obviously, I’ve veered from my typical PROMPTs these past two weeks. But that’s all part of being creative, right? Departing from the norm? Mixing it up? Puttin’ on the ritz? (I don’t analyze this stuff, folks, I just blog past my bedtime and hope it all makes sense in the morning.)
 
Either way, this week’s [...]

This is a little more unorthodox than my usual PROMPTuesdays, only because I recently saw a list of 101 Things For A Mom Blogger to Write About, and the starter “The Best Book I Ever Read Was…” jumped out at me. Now I know it’s not a fresh topic, nor bawdy nor random, but [...]

Well, well, well, here we are again. It’s PROMPTuesday time already. I’ve got to tell you…this week’s is one of my favorites. For two reasons: the picture below has always intrigued me, and I love the song that accompanies it.
 
I know I’ve done the whole study a photo thing before, plus I’ve included the listen [...]

(One more day for the Stocking Stuff Giveaway!) It’s over, baby.
**********************************************************************************
 
I apologize for delaying publication of this week’s PROMPTuesday. Thank you for the notes threatening me with non-specific injury to my person if I didn’t get on the stick. It’s just that I needed to know someone loved me. I know, I know, I’ve dragged [...]

Look, I’m sorry to do this to you, but it has to be done.
Why, I can’t say. I don’t tend to examine my inspiration. It’s so often demented and idiotic.
 
What I regret perpetuating upon your writerly person is this:
For today’s PROMPTuesday, please compose a holiday limerick.
 
As you may or may not know, and probably [...]

I often pretended Maura Dominiak’s nooks and crannies house were mine. Big, rustic, rife with wood, and usually empty of parental supervision. Full of antique stoves and stained glass and porcelain knobs. After fall’s football games, we’d drive up to the detached garage with the warped edges that never shut properly, park behind the Peugeot, [...]

I’m going for easy peasy lemon squeezy today. Emphasis on “squeezy,” because I KNOW we’ve all got something squeezy to share for this one.
 
So think back to when you were 15. Let the year play itself back to you. Pick one memory — even if it’s just a mere moment that stands out — and [...]

I took today’s PROMPTuesday from One Word to keep it simple this week (especially after the labyrinth-like PROMPT from last Tuesday.
 
So this week, write on this:
 

 
Just look at the word. And write.
That’s all. (Oh were but it that simple, right?) (Or — “but were it that simple?”) (Is that even a phrase?) (Moral: [...]

Let’s see if I can write this without getting my tongue tied:
 
This PROMPTuesday, write a story about someone faking a skill to gain the attention of someone else, which only forces him/her into a situation where s/he must use this skill in order to save him/herself from a bigger threat.

Include:
a cast-iron lamp
and
two nuns giggling in [...]

 
(Painting by Rebecca)
 
This PROMPTuesday, make up a story inspired by the picture above. Include the link to your story/post in the comments or feel free to leave your submission here, also in the comments section.
 
I’ll be back to submit my take on it tomorrow, but…
meanwhile…to bone up on PROMPTuesdays, read a bit about it here. [...]

History’s being made, can you feel it? The bubbles in the atmosphere? The sense that when they pop, the air around them will change? Or else the they’ll float into space, bouncing like sound waves, carrying the news of today into tomorrow?
 
So where were you when history was laid down? Was the TV playing [...]

I think this started as a meme. I’ve read several outstanding versions of it over the last year, and I thought I’d like to offer it as a PROMPTuesday, so…
 
I am.
 
This week, tell us who you are, what’s inside, where you’re from. Share your memory fragments, those visions in your head, those figments that make [...]

For today’s PROMPTuesday, I ask that you write about a trip or an excursion that left you changed in some way. Did you conquer a fear on your trip? Learn something about yourself? Learn something about another person? Break up? Get together? Consider hospital time for the largest walking blister this side of Manhattan?
 

I look [...]

In light of my upcoming trip this Wednesday, today’s PROMPT is short and sweet (and selfish).
 
Can you tell me a story of a fear you’ve overcome? Fiction is of course, welcome. As are poems. Or one-liners. In fact, anything goes.
 
Anything.
 
Go!
 
(And thank you.)
 

Would you guys bear with me for a few more weeks? I’m sucking, I know. It’s just that I’ve been so busy. (And you know, panicked.)
 
Annnnyyywayyy.
 
Here’s the thing. My mom used to collect wine corks from dinners or parties with friends, which she’d ask everyone at the dinner or party to sign as a memento. [...]

Excellent writer and super cool blogger, Tap Dancing on the Edge of Reason, provided me with her son’s writing prompt, which I think will work just fine for this PROMPTuesday. Just fine indeed.
 

It is:
 

“You are in a corn field, with your dog, when all of a sudden, a plastic…”
 

Imagine the possibilities! A plastic what? Why [...]

I saw a pretty funny movie on Showtime this weekend. TV Set. Have you seen it? It’s not the best thing since a burn-free face, but it IS a delightful, fluffy romp. It’s about a writer whose TV pilot script is “revamped” and “restructured” by television producers who don’t know what they’re doing. In short, [...]

Today, write a poem including the following lines in any order:
 
“I tie a ribbon in a foolish way”
 
“The delicious fragility of this travesty”
 
“Where we still laugh and wish”
(Prompt courtesy of CreativeWritingPrompts)
 
Go for it! And really, you’re all so good, I don’t want to hear any about this intimidation crud. Also, we’d sure love to read [...]

He’d fallen asleep at the wheel. Must’ve been just a second or two, because his truck never strayed from its straight course. Then again, since he crossed into Wyoming’s Great Plains, he’d been going straight. He shrugged his shoulders, squinted at the road, and stuck his left ear out the window as far as it’d [...]

Today marks back-to-school time, and when I was a kid, I loved this time of year. It’s why I adore autumn. All summer, I anticipated the week before school, when I’d hurry out to buy my school supplies, stick pennies in my loafers, and carefully cover my textbooks.
 
But I was a geek.
 
How about you? [...]

Word: Egg.
Genre: Romantic Comedy.
What? Write a movie synopsis. Or a pitch? Maybe a snippet of dialogue. Perhaps a story.
And include an egg(s).
Go.
 
The Rules:

You must write your entry in 10 minutes. This encourages top-of-mind, primal thinking before the ego and judgmental brain kick in. Just set a timer, make your kid count to 600 [...]

The fantawonderful couple, Paul and the Cocktail Maven, recently proposed a PROMPTuesday idea, which caught my fancy, so I’m making it official here.
 
As they wrote:
 
William Carlos Williams’s poem “This is just to say…” is basically about people who know they are supposed to say I’m sorry and apologize — but skirt the apology itself. Here’s [...]

Today’s PROMPTuesday is lifted from Naomi Epel’s The Observation Deck, and is sponsored by the dog days of summer, the lethargy unleashed after consuming three urns of buttered popcorn, and menstruation-induced anemia.
 
So, from the Observation Deck:
Show, don’t tell! — a cardinal rule of writing — is another way of saying “be specific.” Don’t tell us [...]

Dear Everyone,
 
You are all fabulous. You offer advice, bolster my confidence, provide support, say you’ll fly with me to New York to stall my inevitable nervous breakdown, AND play with me every Tuesday. I think you’re great. Also, those pants/Crocs/Underoos/chaps really bring out your eyes.
 
Thank you.
 
Love,
Mrs. San Diego Mommason
 
So I’d thought I’d start this [...]

New to PROMPTuesday? Welcome! Find out more here.
 
Meanwhile, today’s writing prompt is going to be simple (in name only).
 
Write about deception. Whatever that means to you. Can be fact or fiction.
 
As always, here are PROMPTuesday’s rules:
 

You must write your entry in 10 minutes. This encourages top-of-mind, primal thinking before the ego and judgmental brain kick [...]

The spider entrenched on my patio door provided an apt metaphor. Its metallic legs dug into my screen, seemingly attempting a break-in. I watched its bulk from the corner of my eye as I dialed number after number into my boyfriend’s pager. I’d been collecting these phone numbers for months. Either I’d seen them appear [...]

I’m a big fan of using music for writerly inspiration, and so I thought I’d try that here, with you.
 
To evoke your own inspiration, listen to the song here, then write the pictures that appear in your mind. You don’t need to craft an entire paragraph, although of course you can. Rather, let the images [...]

First time to PROMPTuesday? Read a bit about it here.
Want to see what’s been written in the past? Catch up on the PROMPTuesdays archive here.
 
In the meantime, for today’s exercise, I’d love you to add to the sentences provided below. Complete the paragraph and continue the story.
 
**********************************************************************************
 
“Wait!” I screamed after her. “Your hat!”
 
She [...]

So my friend The Cocktail Maven, book clubber extraordinaire and creator of the ever popular “Cocktails in Historic Places” group, e-mailed me with the news that PROMPTuesdays inspired her to complete a 2,000-word short story.
 
And I was pleased.
 
So pleasured was I that I thought she should create this week’s PROMPTuesday prompt.
 
Which she did.
 
And it [...]

This week, please humor me by writing an infomercial for this product:
 

 
OK, go! (But first: Are you going to make this an infomercial for a super-duper jumbo turbo vibratron? Really? Me too!)
 
Well, before you proceed, here are the “rules” (YAWNNNN):
 

You must write your entry in 10 minutes. This encourages top-of-mind, primal thinking before the ego [...]

Welcome to PROMPTuesday! Glad you’re here. So, lucky number 10, huh? Right? Holy cridoodle. There’s been 10 PROMPTuesdays already! You’re all growing up right before my eyes. Soon, you’ll be pouring whiskey into Clinique trial hairspray bottles and sneaking into the janitor’s bathroom during your high school homecoming game to get buzzed. But you’ll forget [...]

Today’s PROMPTuesday keeps it simple.
 
Read this poem (one of my favorites):
 
Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock
by Wallace Stevens
 
The houses are haunted
By white night-gowns.
None are green,
Or purple with green rings,
Or green with yellow rings,
Or yellow with blue rings.
None of them are strange,
With socks of lace
And beaded ceintures.
People are not going
To dream of baboons and periwinkles.
Only, here and [...]

This PROMPTuesday is about what lies beneath. So this week, I’d like you to look at this picture:
 

 
…and very quickly write down the first three words that come to mind. Now, start writing, using those words anywhere in your story. (Be sure to name the three words in your post or comments for our FYI.)
 
Oh! [...]

 
(Thank you everyone who called and e-mailed me, I’m humbled. I really am. I’ll update on my mental state soon. The news isn’t all bad.)
 
On to this week’s PROMPTuesday. So as I was thinking of what to do this time, my wise and creative friend, Kristine, reminded me of the “first sentence” writing prompts, and [...]

Happy Memorial Day!
Hope it was a good one.
I, for one, percolated over PROMPTuesday.
This time, I wanted to do something unique, something block-busting, something random and ridiculous…and I feel confident that what I came up with will confuse and befuddle you. But that’s OK! Because confusion leads to creativity! You’ve read that somewhere, right?
 
This is [...]

First of all, let me say, thanks. Your participation in PROMPTuesdays has been inspirational, fun, heartbreaking, thought-provoking and motivational. Just as good writing should be.
And I appreciate it.
 
I also hope to appeal to the lurkers and encourage you to submit something for PROMPTuesdays. There’s so judgment here and we’d all love to read some new [...]

No intro today.
 
Just this: Write about your first love. Work the phrase, “Beauty in the shadows,” into the piece. This one can go to 250 words.
 
Other “rules” (air quotes implied and used ironically):
 
You must write your entry in 10 minutes. This encourages top-of-mind, primal thinking before the ego and judgmental brain kicks in. Just set [...]

PROMPTuesday came around quick, didn’t it?
 
And here I was, just a few short hours ago, sitting at book club, innocently forgetting that shortly, a new writing prompt must be posted, so I, without a care in the world, poured myself another glass of wine…
 
But: I’m BACK, suckas!
And as such, a new writing prompt [...]

Allrighty oh! It’s PROMPTuesday again!
Time to rev your writing engines. Lube your brain. Check your filter at the door.
(What?
I don’t know.
I just blog here).
 
OK. For your background and historical reference, here is a primer on PROMPTuesdays.
And here is the first PROMPTuesday exercise from last week.
 
And now, without further ado, or musings [...]

Here we go! It’s out first PROMPTuesday! And remember: ANYONE can participate. This is for fun. Even if you don’t care a hill of beans for creative writing prompts or, for that matter, creative writing in general, you are welcome in this place of non-judgment and happy color rainbows! Yeah! Miss Mary/Barry Sunshines all over [...]

 
Let Your Imagination Bear Fruit.
 
So I want to be a writer. How about you? Or, maybe you just want to play with words, take pleasure in the creation of something thought-provoking, humorous, insightful?
 
Either way, I’ve decided to do something on San Diego Momma to inspire me, flex my writing muscles and make writing fun again.
 
To [...]