Monday, May 05, 2008

Prompty Dance is your chance

Have you ever used a writer's prompt book? I haven't. Sometimes people ask me for them at the reference desk, and I am always curious about them, but very skeptical. I read one once about blog-writing and it really didn't make me think any better of the idea of a prompt book. So today, while at work, I decided to go over to the shelf and pick one out. At random. Just one that looked like it was, you know, on my level.

Here's what I picked.




I know what you are thinking. GRADES 4-6? I am young-ish, yes. But grades 4-6? Is that really on my level?

Come to think of it, if you have ever read this blog before, maybe you're not thinking that at all.

I just liked the title. Write away! So punny! If I do these prompts, will I be punny like that? I also liked the book cover. Look at that kid! He is so obviously expressing his angst over the fact that his parent made him wear that Tommy Bahama getup like he was an Older Dude instead of the young gangsta that he probably really is. I can almost make out the words on the page he is writing. "Moms just don't git it G..."

Ok, so let's try this and see if it yields any results. Because, you know how I like to just spew it forth with no thought at all? I need to branch out from that.

Exercise 1. Freewriting.

Excuse me, but I think I just said that I need to branch out from spewing it out. One thing I do not have a problem with, is freewriting. NEXT.

Exercise 2. Discovery.
This exercise basically says that you should take something that you freewrote and focus on it and keep on freewriting. Is it just me or does that sound like almost the same thing as Exercise 1? NEXT.

Exercise 3. This one says to write a little note to your teacher about something you are having trouble with in school or with learning. Got it.

Dear Writing Prompter, So far I am having difficulty with these exercises as they are telling me to do what I normally do anyway. Could you start expanding a little bit please? I am easily bored and distracted so you might want to hurry up. I'll give you two more chances.

Exercise 4. Choose a picture and write something about it.
I totally already did that! About the kid in the Jimmy Buffet shirt! SO AHEAD OF ALL THE 4-6 GRADERS OUT THERE. In your face!

Exercise 5. My Life So Far.
What? A whole autobiography? As an exercise? What do you think I am? A person who hasn't lived lots of years? Like a ten year old? A fourth through sixth grader or something? Oh. Oops. Yeah.

This writing prompt stuff is just not my thing. Maybe I should try something that is actually for my own age group, but a lot of what I am seeing on the shelf seems to be of the New Age Woman Let Us Journal About Our Moon Cycles or Let's Write a Heartsong to Our Ex-Boyfriend and Then Burn It In Sage Grass type of deal, and I am so not about that.

Oh well. Prompting books. It doesn't make me want to write. It just makes me want to sing the Humpty Dance with the word "prompty" plugged in.

Stop what you're doin' cuz I'm about to ruin, the image and style that you're used to...

I'm out,
Librarian Girl

10 comments:

Rachel said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rachel said...

Oops. Here's what I meant to say:

As a librarian, have you come across any good books about blogging?

The only one I've found is Maggie Mason's "No One Cares What You Had for Lunch" which is just a book of prompts. I wish I could find a book about blogging that was readable and enjoyable.

dharmamama said...

Guess that's why there's so many groupy things like Friday Fried Food or Monday Monologue. Well, those aren't real, but you know what I mean.

Couldn't you steal ideas from other bloggers? Or: maybe we, your loyal and trusted readers, could *give* you some prompts! Oh, wait - you already did the question thing...

Guess we're stuck with the freewriting! It's why I like to come here, anyway - I never know where it'll end up!

Librarian Girl said...

Rachel- Nope, I haven't come across anything that I would consider helpful, but I think that's ok. I think the best thing about blogs is that we all just look at each other and get inspired, you know?

Jen said...

Whoa! I've been reading your blog via RSS feed, so I missed the revamp. It's nice that you went green for Earth Month ;)

When I end up at a loss for topics, I just cruise headlines at Slate or MSN or summat. Or I b***h blog about something random. (Which, come to think, is 80% of my posts, so don't mind me.)

WDL said...

omg. i just realized "kiss the rings" is GONE!

Did someone steal your jewelry during the makeover??

omg. It was totally Josh. I thought he looked shifty.

xo,
WDL

Librarian Girl said...

wdl- don't blame Josh. It's been gone for a little while. Just mixing it up, you know, like I do.

Megan said...

Sometimes my head is full of stuff to blog about. I write blogs in my head as I'm grocery shopping, walking the dog, etc. Then there are those times (uh, like now) where I think about writing and all I hear are crickets. Maybe I should write a post about crickets?

Anonymous said...

I love the new look of the blog!!

And now I have Humpty Dance in my head. Maybe I will write about how I once got busy in a Burger King bathroom? Except I never did. :(

Leslie said...

I've never used a prompt book, but I've heard good things about the one Rachel mentioned.

I am a genius and don't need prompts. On opposite day.