What is Jumpstart Writing?

Jumpstart Writing is a workshop designed to get your fingers moving and pen writing past that Old Doubting Critic and Planner lodged in your fore-brain, simply getting in the way. We just jump straight into writing, finding our way into new material, new stories, new poems. It is similar to freewriting, in that we write without stopping, following impulse and the random generator of an unleashed mind, no crossing out, no editing.  We use creative prompts, culled from a wide variety of sources, to get us going and keep writing onward. 

Prompts can be the first line of a poem, a random object, or the evocative smells of spices. We take exercises from Improv, writing books; we create scenarios with random connections or words.  Here are three suggestions that I have used this past month. Try one of them and see what you come up with. Just like free-writing, set a timer for 10 minutes,  20 minutes --- and GO!  Write fiction, write poetry, follow memories - or combine them for a multi-genre piece.

• The dog tipped over a wastebasket - what spills out? Set the scene: what kind of dog, whose is it? How did it get into the trash? what kind of trash?  Describe the spilled contents; what is revealed by what someone throws out?
• What is your (or your character's) favorite holiday song - and why? Describe the sounds, the emotions, the memories.
• Find a weird random object in the Junk Drawer and describe how it feels to the touch. Include it in a story  - or write about the memory it evokes? Could it become a metaphor in a poem? 

Remember, the results are a first, rough-draft response, similar to quick sketching in a drawing class. Not every response is going to be inspiring - but many of them are surprising, revealing material you didn't even know you were going to write about. And many of these responses can then be developed over time and a few more drafts into something more polished and crafted. But only if you want to!

Here's to finding some time to sit down and write --feel free to  use these prompts to get your fingers moving, your words flowing.

Write on,
Lakin