Writing prompt 15

Happy Wednesday! Today's post includes this week's writing prompt and my weekly ROW80 update. (Only one more week left in this round of ROW80 - holy cow!)

Photo by Rick Campbell

This week's prompt comes from an idea I had for a flash fiction horror piece and, it turns out, is a great way to practice sensory description.

Prompt
A person is pushed into a blackberry bush and stirs up a hornet's nest.

Describe this scene from the pusher's perspective, the pushee's perspective, and/or from a bystander's perspective. Some things you might think about:

• What time of year is it? Instead of saying "spring" or "May" or whatever, use details that reveal the season.
• What smells are in the air?
• How old are the people involved? Again, try indicating their ages through description rather than just saying how old they are.
• What sounds are carried through the air?
• Is there anything for the characters to taste?
• What sensations run through the characters' bodies? How does it feel to push or be pushed? Does the prick of blackberry thorns feel different from getting stung by hornets?

ROW80 Update

For the sake of saving space and time, I'm going to refer to my goals by their numbers rather than re-listing them every week, but you can see the goals the numbers refer to in this post.

1. (a) I had a great time reading at Rain or Shine Coffee last Thursday and hearing other people's work. One person even played the accordion while reading surrealist monologues. Amazing! My intention is to make a habit of going to the weekly readings there this season. And I'm signed up to read there with my friend Lorie Bailey, a prose poet, in January. Woot! (b) My VoiceCatcher article about Trista Cornelius should be coming out, I believe, the last Thursday of September. (c) Writer and stand-up comic Steven Parton is this month's interviewee for the blog. He's all set with his questions and I can't wait to see his answers! (d) This week's writing prompt posted above. Success.

2. Hmph. I was all proud of myself last week because of all the writing I'd been doing, but since then things have gotten a little hectic and I haven't been so good about it. So my goal for this week is to do better than I did last week. That should be pretty easy. =*)

3. No market research this week. But I do intend to submit three poems to 1-2 markets this week, so maybe that makes up for it?

4. I published the highlights of my conversation with Rhonda Hughes from Hawthorne Books last Friday. The purpose of that conversation was to learn more about traditional publishing and, more specifically, how small presses work with authors. If you haven't read it yet, here's the link.

5. N/A - goal abandoned.

This is a blog hop! Click here to read other ROW80 participants' check-ins.