writercises | TECH: A Writing Prompt a Day?

Original posting 7 Nov 2011

Over here, Jonathan Maberry talks about staying out of writing pigeonholes. Lots of good stuff, and I'll let you listen to the podcast for the details. But I thought I'd pull one of the last bits out of the transcript...
http://www.writingexcuses.com/2011/11/06/writing-excuses-6-23-pigeon-holes/

[Jonathan] That's exactly how I work. I do a writing prompt every day. Even though I'm on deadline, I do a different thing every day. I make lists of things that I'm going to do. Like I might say, "All right, tomorrow I've got to write the first page of an insect Western." So that's what I'm going to write tomorrow. Or it might be a love story for 13-year-old kids. Well, that's what I've got to write tomorrow, the first page of it. Every day, I try something different, something outside of my comfort zone. I do it every single day. So that every day I'm stretching the limits of what I think I can write. It's a 15 minute exercise that somebody can do every day. Within a couple of weeks, you're pretty sure that you're able to write anything. Share those writings with other people. Put it on a blog, put it on Facebook, send it to your friends. It's only the first page of something. It doesn't have to be a flash fiction. Just write the first thing.

There you go! Start your day with a writing prompt, and keep a list of ideas as you run around so that you always have more coming. An insect Western. A love story for 13-year-olds. A steampunk version of Alice in Wonderland. Push those boundaries!