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writing prompts
Once in a while I'm able to write down observations for a longer stretch, but sooner or later I always fall out of the habit. Oh and, it's not just observations I write down -- that any writer should keep track of -- but also overheard dialogue. I've written about that here at some earlier point. If I weren't so lazy I'd go search.
Another excellent place to look for story ideas and writing prompts is to keep track of advice columnists. The stories people write in about range from the mundane to the catastrophic, but such letters can be a goldmine of evocative images and strange ideas. In the last six months or so I've been reading Cary Tennis's advice column at Salon.com. Tennis is a psychologist or a psychiatrist, a doctor at any rate, with many years of experience as a therapist, and so he answers letters from readers. And he's good at it.
Now, this is Salon we're talking about so you don't get the dear-abby-esque "where do I sit my mother-in-law at luncheon" type questions. Most of the letters Tennis answers are pretty serious in nature -- heroin addiction was a recent topic -- but others are lighter and even funny. Here are some recent columns and the tag line for each:
My sister's addicted to heroinEvery single one of these gave me multiple ideas for characters and/or conflicts. Most of which -- maybe all of which -- I won't write. But still it gets my mind working in that story-telling way, and that is always good.
Is there anything I can do to help her? Pay her rent? Get her into rehab? Tell her new husband?
By Cary Tennis [2005-01-20]Long-lost friendship
After 30 years it pains me how these once-dear friends are so cold and aloof!
By Cary Tennis [2005-01-19]We're in love, but there's a cultural barrier
I'm not Muslim and I'm the wrong ethnicity, so my girlfriend is afraid to tell her family about us.
By Cary Tennis [2005-01-18]Who's my daddy?
I want a boyfriend who acts like the father I never had.
By Cary Tennis [2005-01-14]The cat in my flat won't go back (my ex left her pussy in my lap!)
Her kitty is one more problem she has thrust on me -- and I don't know how to get rid of it.
By Cary Tennis [2005-01-13]I had a one-night stand, and now my wife says no more drinking!
It's not the drinking that made me do it -- I like to have a few beers is all.
By Cary Tennis
Salon.com is, unfortunately, a subscription service, and you may not want to invest in it. But there are lots of advice columnists about there, and many of them are great material for a mind atuned to the oddities of the human mind and the way we relate to one another.
Just a suggestion, of course.
January 20, 2005 04:00 PM
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Comments
You may be interested in this advice column (advice on advice columns?!?)...it's called "Dear Auntie" at rabble.ca
They are extremely left wing, possibly to be viewed as communists, from the U.S. perspective, but always an interesting read.
An advice column on activism - typical questions: "I really want to get active in my activist community, but since I'm new to this town, I don't get invited to any meetings. How do you meet activists?" Or "How do I deal with a know-it-all meeting chair who won't acknowledge that anyone under 20 has a good idea?"
Funny too.
Posted by: Pam at January 21, 2005 04:36 AM
well of course, you can't be too left wing for me. left-wing, c'est moi. So thanks, I'll go check auntie out.
Posted by: sara at January 21, 2005 05:55 AM
Can't remember how I started checking William Gibson's blog, but it's minimalist, at best. Today's post made me think of this post on your blog about writing prompts. Sometimes it's a visual, as you've noted. *This* is quite a visual! http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/blog/blog.asp
Posted by: Pam at January 21, 2005 10:42 PM