In the last blog post, I discussed about what is writing prompt and how to use it. I hope that discussion gave you some confidence to fight with the big monster we call writer’s block. In this post, I will tell you how to build a list of writing prompts to help you in time of need. Yes, I know I told you yesterday that anything can work as writing prompt as long as it helps you get out of “staring at blank page” syndrome. And I am also aware that you cannot include every kind of writing prompt in your list. Nevertheless, a list with writing prompt will help you a great deal when confronting the monster. That is why you need to build a list of writing prompts.
There are many more things that can help you build your own list, but the things that I have talked about here will help you regardless of the genre you write in.
Tags: Ambitions, Aspirations, Belief, Close To Nature, Community Culture, Confidence, Dreams, Economic Issues, Exercise, Fears, Flower, Inhibitions, Insect, Medical Policy, Monster, People, Religious Beliefs, Shape, Surroundings, Time Of Need
The power of a story lies in its appeal to the human emotions. If the story is good then it makes us empathize with the characters. We feel the pain and pleasure of the hero. Can you connect with a PowerPoint presentation at the same level? Can you empathize with the data cells of an Excel sheet?
This is not hard to do. It is impossible to do, until and unless you are the paranoid Marvin, a crazy robot from Douglas Adams’ famous book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, who often wondered about the meaning of life
Story matters because this is what we understand. Our mind can only process and make sense of things or topics that have some relation with the knowledge we already posses, and a story is a channel that helps in forming this relation. Our mind is not a computer or any data processing device designed to process unrelated information or to churn up numbers.
This is the reason why marketing communications aim to build a story –not an Excel sheet— around the product it attempts to sell. Story is what gives lifeblood to ad campaigns, charity drives, fund raising, and sports event. No one watches any sports event for the numbers, and in the real sense no one cares about the numbers. People go crazy about sports because they witness a story getting unfolded in front of them, of which their favorite sports player is a hero.
In the yester years, there was no PowerPoint presentations or Excel s sheets (I know it is kind of hard to believe now, but it is true), but people still manages to communicate values, rituals, goals, ambitions, and sense of duty to the coming generation, almost without any lost of data during the transfer. This is what provided the base for every written book that we have. Story matters because it is just because of the story that we are what we are.
Tags: Ambitions, Charity Drives, Coming Generation, Data Cells, Data Processing, Douglas Adams, Excel Sheet, Favorite Sports, Guide To The Galaxy, Hitchhiker, Human Emotions, Lifeblood, Marketing Communications, Meaning Of Life, Pain And Pleasure, Powerpoint Presentation, Powerpoint Presentations, Sense Of Duty, Sports Event, Yester Years
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