The Prompt Club was one of the many things I started through In Print Professional Writers Organization. Based on my earlier experiences with DAWGs (DeKalb Area Writer’s Group), The Prompt Club met once a month and wrote a one thousand word story to a shared prompt.

We would select from a list of suggestions provided by the leader, write our own interpretation of the selection, then hand out copies and read aloud at each meeting. We would have discussion and suggest edits. The one thousand word goal was to help focus the story and work on editing skills. It’s also a good length for reading aloud and perfect for submitting to journals and contests.

The Prompt Club ran for five very successful years.
We had a lot of talented writers participate.
Many of our short stories were submitted and published individually. Several were edited down to 200 words and used for Word Of Art. Others were inspiration for longer pieces of work.

Our Club also spawned two book publication by original members. Christine Cacciatore’s collection of Weird, Wicked Tales: Creepy Short Stories for All Hallow’s Eve and my own Foe Be Us, a collection based on phobias.

We no longer meet in person, but I have launched a new Prompt Club through the Facebook page. Every Tuesday I will be posting a writing prompt. I will also be sharing links to resources, inspiration, and submission opportunities.

I invite you to like and follow The Prompt Club page. Click here.

Prompts are a terrific way to practice your writing. Consider them weekly exercises to strengthen your skills for the heavy lifting–like novels. They can inspire a line of thought you didn’t know you had. They are helpful in developing back story and details for your work in progress. They can challenge you to write outside your comfort zone and help to hone your editing skills. PLUS, you acquire a handy pile of stories that can be shared, submitted, and/or published!

The Prompt Club – Calisthenics for your writing.

The Prompts are open to your interpretation. Use them as you will. Apply them to your work in progress, tweak them to meet your current needs, skip one and write two stories for another. The point is to get you writing, get you thinking about writing, then get you writing more.

Here are the first two posts:

Think about your writing goals for the New Year. Write a story from December 2019’s POV. Is the future month proud? Disappointed? Amazed?

Write about YOURSELF for 10 minutes. How you look, where you are, what you’re doing. Write in third person.

And a sneak peek at tomorrow’s Prompt.

Waxing, Waning. Pick a random object and write about it in 200 words. Edit to 150. Read aloud. Edit to 100.

I hope you will join me in writing to the Prompts.
I also hope you’ll share what you’re writing!
Maybe our Prompt Club goal for 2020 will be to publish the best of our collection from this year.

I think December 2019 will be very proud of us.