Creativity Prompt: Incarcerate

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Let’s try something new, shall we?

When I started blogging… way back before… well… I’m not going to date myself, so let’s just say way back when, I followed this lady who posted poetry prompts on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I patched together an education in poetic forms my freshman year of college through dozens and dozens of her prompts.

But eventually she stopped blogging. Sad day.

I moved on to take part in other prompts: fiction, photos, photo manipulation, and essays.

Sometimes it’s nice for someone else to prompt creativity to come out of you, y’know?

Consider yourself prompted.

Here’s what we’ll do. I’ll list five words and you have to either incorporate them into a written work or into a visual work. Maybe this’ll flop or maybe everyone here will love it, but we’ll give her a go.

Here are the types of entries:

  1. Fiction (250 words or less incorporating 5 words)
  2. Essay (250 words or less incorporating 5 words)
  3. Poetry (20 lines or less incorporating 5 words)
  4. Photography (1 picture inspired by 5 words)
  5. Other Visual Art (1 minor piece inspired by 5 words)

If you go the literary route, post your words straight into the comments. If you go visual, post a link to flickr or something comparable. Use some sense by limiting the violence and explicit sex, gang, some kids read this blog.

Here are the words:

  1. interminable
  2. tact
  3. rise
  4. incarcerate
  5. chasten

Aaaaand….

Go.

monogram new

picture courtesy snap,snap‘s creative commons license on flickr.

READ NEXT:  the peak of my literary career

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  1. sedula

    I’m on it, I may need about 48 hours. Have no idea what I will write at this moment. Cool!

    1. lanceschaubert

      Sounds great! I look forward to seeing what you write…

  2. sedula

    I wrote the poems, but haven’t sent them to you. They turned out rather personal. Probably better to send them later and by another method. Then maybe post on here after approval. Personal in that perhaps too vulnerable. Nothing at all off color.

    1. lanceschaubert

      Sounds good to me! So far, you’re the only one, so I’d love to see them.

Quick note from Lance about this post: when you choose to comment (or share this post with your friends) you help other readers just like you.

How?

Well, see, your comments & sharing whisper a few things to those who come after you:

The first is that this site is a safe place to speak up & stay curious. That it's civil. That discussion is encouraged. That there's no such thing as a stupid question (being a student of Socrates, I really and truly believe this). That talking to one another and growing together is more important than anything we could possibly publish. That the point is growing in virtue and growing together and growing wise. That discovery is invention, deference is originality, that we all can rise together. The only folks I'm going to take comments down from are obvious jerks who argue in bad faith, don't stay curious, or actively make personal attacks. And, frankly, I'd rather we talk here than on some social media farm — I will never show ads and the only thing I'm selling anywhere on the site or my mailing list is just the stuff I make.

You're also helping folks realize that anything you & they build together is far more important than anything you come to me to read. I take the things I write about seriously, but I don't take myself seriously: I play the fool, I hate cults of personality, and I also don't really like being the center of attention (believe it or not). I would much rather folks connect because of an introduction I've made or because they commented with one another back and forth and then build something beautiful together. My favorite contributions have been lifelong business and love partnerships from two people who have forgotten I introduced them. Some of my closest friends NOW I literally met on another blog's comment section fifteen years ago. I would love for that to happen here — let two of you meet and let me fade into the background.

Last, you help me revise. I'm wrong. Often. I'm not embarrassed to admit it or worried about being cancelled or publicly shamed. I make a fool out of myself (that's sort of the point). So as I get feedback, I can say, "I was wrong about that" and set a model for curious, consistent learning, and growing in wisdom. I'm blind to what I don't know and as grows the island of my knowledge so grows the shoreline of my ignorance. It's the recovery of innocence on the far end of experience: a child is in a permanent state of wonder. So are the wise: they aren't afraid of saying, "I don't know. That's new: please teach me." That's my goal, comments help. And I read all reviews: my skin's tough, but that's not license to be needlessly cruel. We teach one another our habits and there's a way to civilly demolish an idea without demolishing another person: just because I personally can take the world's meanest 1-star review doesn't mean we should teach one another how to be crueler on the internet.

For three magical reasons — your brave curiosity, your community, & my ignorance:

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