avatarMarla Bishop

Summary

IdeaStream Week 18 presents a collection of writing prompts, challenges, and recommended reads centered around the theme of resilience, encouraging writers to explore their creativity and share their work within a supportive community.

Abstract

The IdeaStream Week 18 edition, titled "Resilience is Our Friend," is a creative writing resource that provides a variety of prompts and challenges to inspire writers. It emphasizes the importance of resilience in navigating through challenging times, such as isolation and lockdowns, and showcases the author's personal experiences with maintaining productivity and mental well-being. The publication includes poetry and haiku challenges, a limerick prompt, and unique story ideas, inviting writers to engage with diverse subjects and writing styles. It also features contributions from the community, highlighting winning entries, and offers a selection of recommended reads for further inspiration. The initiative is spearheaded by Xavier Van Holde, the Creative Writing Director & Founder of The Bad Influence, who encourages writers of all skill levels to join the community and share their voices.

Opinions

  • The author of the IdeaStream article expresses a personal triumph over adversity, emphasizing resilience as a key factor in coping with isolation and other challenges.
  • The article conveys a positive outlook on creativity as a means of enduring difficult times, suggesting activities like online reading groups and attending virtual meetings.
  • It acknowledges the therapeutic benefits of writing and nature, as seen in the author's enjoyment of writing under a parasol in the garden.
  • The piece celebrates community engagement and collaboration, showcasing previous winners and encouraging new contributors to participate.
  • There is an underlying belief that creativity can flourish even in constrained circumstances, as evidenced by the variety of writing prompts provided.
  • The author promotes inclusivity and diversity in writing, welcoming all voices and perspectives to the IdeaStream community.
  • The recommended reads section reflects a curated selection of stories that resonate with the theme of resilience and offer a range of narratives for readers and writers alike.

IdeaStream Week 18

Resilience is Our Friend

Keep feeding yours

Photo by Simon Matzinger on Unsplash

Hello beautiful people

The weather at the weekend was AH-mazing, sunshine like the caribbean islands the whole time. We had our first bbq, and I sat in the garden for ages both days, soaking up the sun and writing under a huge parasol.

Resilience is the theme for this IdeaStream, because it’s resilence that has brought me through isolation, self-isolation, illness, and lockdown. I mean, usually, any one of those things would had me pulling out my hair and hitting the gin bottle.

Instead, I set up thrice-weekly online reading groups for a dozen six-to-nine-year-olds, attended as many zoom 12-step meetings as I could, and kept on writing.

I thought of myself as a tulip leaning toward the sun.

However long this lasts, let's just keep leaning towards the sun.

Writer’s Prompts

Poetry Salvage

Use these ten words to write a poem

  • Strength
  • Resilient
  • Flexibility
  • Fragility
  • Plasticity
  • Elasticity
  • Hardness
  • Adaptability
  • Bouncebackability
  • Alive

Well done Marilyn Flower for her frenemy poem on last week’s Poetry Salvage

Haiku Challenge

Write 5 related haikus about a time your resilience was put to the test.

Limerick prompt

Our limerick starter this week is:

There was a young girl from Haggerston

Who was talking away on her iphone…

Our latest limerick winner — Kim McKinney — wins bonus points for the extra two poems.

A strong contender and runner up was last week’s winner, Caroline de Braganza

An Unlikely Scene For Fiction Writers

Choose one or all of these characters to write a story about.

  • Three silkie chickens called flopsy, mopsy and topsy get a new home.
  • Persophone in parallel universe doesn’t get a break from hell.
  • The sun starts revolving around the moon
  • A male nurse called Matthew switches careers to become a model.
  • Sandra Bullock leaves acting to work in an ice cream factory.
  • Remember the end of An Officer and a Gentleman? Rewrite that ending.
  • A town called Covid.
  • The tides of the Meditteranean sea stop.
  • A village in which only men menstruate
  • A cruise ship full of passengers disappear into the Bermuda triangle. Tell their story.

Subject Matter Smash-Up

Stuck for a story? Pick one subject to write on exclusively, or two subjects/keywords to smash together in an article, essay, or fiction story.

  • Brad, a Scottish runaway on his way to London accepts a lift from a stranger.
  • Clarissa starts a supper club for lovers of chili peppers.
  • A bar called The Yucatan opens its doors secretly for regulars during the lockdown.
  • Three differently-abled elves, formerly known as trolls, emigrate to New Zealand.
  • Barbarella changes her name to Bob and starts a new life.
  • Jean starts a new business making African fabric face masks.
  • An inventor finds a way to bottle sunshine.
  • Richard Branson agrees to plough his personal money into his failing airline.
  • A business called Oddveg expands with the advent of green carrots and pink potatoes.

And from IdeaStream №1 “A Conversation with a Star: There you are, minding your own business while looking up at the stars. All of a sudden, a star lands in front of you. To your shock, you didn’t die in some explosion AND you find out that the star looks like a person. You decide to strike up a conversation. What does that conversation sound like? What happens next?”

Finish the Story

Take this short story introduction and run with it!

“Listen, your struggle is valid. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.” The psychiatrist leaned forward in her chair and spoke earnestly to…

Recommend Reads

None of the above doing it for you? Try one of these stories below…

by Edward Anderson

by Kristen Hill

by Sana Rose

by Lisa Bolin

by Marilyn Flower

by Tim Ebl

by Sarah K. Butterfield

by Jessica Barnaby

by Priyanka Srivastava

by Ash Jurberg

Ideastream explained

IdeaStream Creator

Xavier Van Holde is the Creative Writing Director & Founder of The Bad Influence. He’s always looking for fresh voices at TBI, and our mission is to inspire creativity, let writers be their true selves, and thumb our nose at all the lame people out there that have no imagination (example: people that believe in censorship, corporate overlords, politicians, and religious people who don’t acknowledge others with different beliefs).

If you’re looking for a home for your writing with people that like to read & support other writers then we’d be honored to have you no matter your skill level. Take a look at the link below.

And our song to end… what else but…

IdeaStream Guest Writer Profile

Marla Bishop is an editor for The Bad Influence, as well as for GetFitGang and The Narrative, and publisher of Lilith. A writer and relationship coach, she lives in London UK with her husband and youngest two children. You can follow her here.

Idea Stream
Writing Prompts
Inspiration
Creativity
Marlab
Recommended from ReadMedium