Darren

Welcome to the new complete weekly creative prompt. We begin with a single creative prompt word and expand it to inspire fiction writing, journaling and a host of other creative activities. These creative prompts, are to give me, and anyone else who wants to join in, some focus to our creative work.

When I planned out the creative prompts for this month, I had vague thoughts about summer. I had hoped the UK might be enjoying glorious sunshine and that I would be reading in the garden. As is so often the case here, we are not enjoying record temperatures. However, Canada and the US Northwest have, and it has caused many problems. Therefore, this week’s creative prompt is:

Heat — the quality of being hot; high temperature:

this is just one definition, the word can be used in a variety of ways, but high temperature was at the front of my mind when I was thinking about this prompt

Let the prompt ‘heat’ inspire you in any area of creativity that you are interested:

• writing fiction
• journaling
• art journaling
• songwriting
• photography
• painting
• composing
• blog posts
• art therapy
• anything that could use a little nudge to begin

Let’s expand the word a little further…

Fiction Writing Prompt

The Fiction Writing Prompt aims to stretch the literary muscles. No rules. No word counts. Simply write and explore.

I couldn’t think about anything else. All that mattered at this moment was the heat.

Writing Prompt Expanded

Thankfully, most of us have never faced extreme weather conditions, and if we have, they are rarely as bad as the disaster movies. But anything out of the ordinary, however short-lived, gives us a glimpse of what things are like. A UK heatwave has little in common with the temperatures in Death Valley, but how the temperature makes us feel is key.

This prompt is all about describing an extreme. We need to build on our experiences and exaggerate.

• What metaphors and similes can you use to describe the heat?
• How does the heat compare to what the ‘narrator’ has previously experienced?
• What sense are most affected and why?

The writing perspective is the first person, and as always, this makes it easier to explore the feelings of the character. The setting and everything else is open to your imagination. Is your writing about a hot day, or is it describing something long term and more sinister? Enjoy, but stay cool.

Journal prompt

Journaling allows us to hold conversations on paper. From private diaries to creative art journals, we pour out our deepest thoughts. Heat, as a term, and prompt is quite abstract. I find looking through a thesaurus can be a great way to find creative angles on words and terms. I also find it a rabbit hole that I easily fall down, so beware. For art journals, illustrating heat will be an interesting challenge.

Questions to answer, thoughts to explore or images to create in your journal:

• How have you coped with extreme heat in the past/present?
• What is the worst part of too much heat?
• What colours describe heat?
  

Theory of General Creativity

I now have ‘heat’ written on the board above my computer. I am hoping it will inspire me on my creative journey this week. Although I long for a nice, warm summer, I know that too much heat isn’t always good for my creativity. But, with the sea only a few minutes away, I have no excuse if I need to cool off. And what better place to explore creative ideas. No excuses Darren.

Let ‘heat’ inspire your music, photography, and painting this week.

Finally…

As always, these creative prompts are optional and entirely open to your interpretation. Use them as a starting point for a short story, something a little more grandiose.

As mentioned before, this isn’t a ‘challenge’ but the prompts can be used that way if you want. If you do create anything using them, I would love to see or hear about it. Leave a link in the comments below or tag me on any social platform.

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Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
namaste
d
xox

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