YOU ARE INVITED! Welcome to the virtual Medium mixer for writers, artists, and creatives of all kinds! Pull up a chair and get your thinking cap on; it’s time to use our imaginations and have some freaking FUN!!!

5 Writing Prompts to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing

Happy Saturday my peeps!!

How are you feeling today? What are you up to on this fine weekend? Let me know in the comments below.

It’s a rainy day here in Mexico City. My roomie and I are still recovering from our cases of flu, but we’re almost back to 100%, huzzah!! I just ate a delicious panini from a local coffee shop and am feeling full of life and la joie de vivre!!

Tonight, I’ve gathered you here, because I am thinking about the wonderful joy of writers’ workshops, art meetup groups, and co-working spaces for artists — and I thought — why not create one here on Medium?

My inspiration…

Back in 2013 (eons ago!) each Friday after work in Lower Manhattan, I would book it uptown to the Gotham Writers’ Workshop. The group, a ticketed collective, was a way for writers around the city to gather together to create and network.

One of my favorite things about the workshop is that we’d gather in a quaint little refurbished office space near Union Square, be greeted with smiling familiar faces and glasses of cheap (but delicious) wine, and we’d spend hours just chatting about books, writing, sharing our work, talking about life and having FUN!

Remember fun?

When did the creative process stop being pure fun?

When did all the joy and pleasure get sucked out of creating things?

The other day, I stumbled across a quote that encapsulated for me just how much fun creativity used to be and how so many of us have lost connection to our sense of joy and play when making our artistic creations:

“Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten. Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with dry, uninspiring books on algebra, history, etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the ‘creative bug’ is just a wee voice telling you, ‘I’d like my crayons back, please.”

― Hugh MacLeod

The quote reminded me so much of that writers’ workshop I used to attend in New York, how very much it felt like being given back our collective crayons and being invited to just CREATE without conditions!! I want to create that space for ALL OF US. We deserve it. This has been a hellacious year. Let’s let our hair down and have some fun!

How the workshop worked:

In those little rooms, we’d drink wine, chat, eat snacks, and then, whoever was appointed as the instructor for that week would write a prompt on the board.

Sometimes it was a word, a sentence, and sometimes a question.

We’d read them aloud as a group and then go off into our imaginations and write our thoughts in response to the prompt that we resonated with the most.

For thirty minutes or so, we’d write in silence, and then we’d be asked to come back together and share — reading aloud our free writing if we felt so inclined.

I LOVED these exercises.

Not only did these prompts lead me to write some of the short fiction stories I’m most proud of, but they also introduced me to so many other writers, creatives, perspectives, and stories from writers & artists around the world!

I like to think that here, on Medium, we are back in that meeting room, all gathering together for a party, to share prompts and write with one another.

How we can create that space here:

I believe that writing can and should be a collectivist and communal space, one like that workshop, where we come together to share stories and support one another with loving kindness.

In that spirit, I’m going to put five prompts below, and I would ask that in the comments you write whatever comes to you in reply. You can feel free to respond to just one of the questions, or multiple, or share whatever is on your heart and mind today if the prompts I’ve provided don’t resonate.

One thing I liked about the workshop, too, is that there was an “F the prompt” policy, wherein if you ever felt that the prompt didn’t inspire you, you were perfectly fine to free write about whatever topic or idea was bringing you inspiration.

You can write as much or as little in response as you like, whatever you want!!

So without further adieu, welcome to our own little writing workshop mixer meetup here on Medium!! Let’s dig into tongihts prompts, shall we? *sips imaginary wine*

Your writing prompts to choose from this evening:

What do you think the world will be like in 50 years, in 20, in 10? Do you feel ready for the changes that are coming? Walk me through a day in your life in the future. Where are you, what are you eating, what is your job, are you happy? What shocks you? What excites you? What entices you?
If you could change anything about the world, what would it be? If you had magical powers to have one thing about this planet and our experience on it be totally shifted and changed forever, what would you change? How would the world look after the change was made? What unforeseen consequences, both good and bad, might result from the changes you’ve made?
If you could go back in time and have a long, booze-filled dinner with any person from history now dead, who would you choose and why? What would you talk about? What would you eat? Where would you eat?
What is your dream life, and are you currently living it? In your dream life, what is your job? What are your relationships like with your family, your friends, your spouse or children, and even to yourself? What does your world look like in that reality? What do your daily routines consist of?
If you were to inherit $10,000,000 tonight, no strings attached, what would you spend it on? Walk me through how you would spend it and why. What would you hope to achieve or experience or see with that money? What unexpected burdens might come with the money? What would it free you from?
Write about whatever is on your mind today, whatever topic or idea is most resonant, exciting, or appealing to you at this moment in time. =)

Alright, I look forward to reading your responses in the replies below! You can either post them as new posts on your page and tag us here, or just write them down in the comments below, either or is great!!!