I’ve written these free Breakthroughwrting tips weekly for two and three-quarters years. Some of you
respond to my requests for your writing. Some of you suggest a theme. Thank you for that.
I’d like to hear from more of you. What practices do you need? What do you need to learn? Where are the areas in your writing in which you want to grow? Would you like more prompts and writing challenges? Do you want to know how to find (and give yourself) support for your writing? Are exercises designed to guide you into your writing self helpful? In what areas do you find yourself blocked, flowing, racing ahead?
Please write me at bstarr67@gmail.com and let me know how you would like to shape the future of this feature. These are hard days for many writers. We need to support each other in our wonderful work. p.s. If any of you would like to receive twice-weekly prompts from me, write me at the same address.
Here is Larry Hendrick’s response to a recent prompt:
Freda worries about the next few minutes. She wore black in anticipation of this inevitability, and she had given Fritz a stern face until he relented before they left the house. He stands behind her with a smirk on his face.
The smell of flowers fills the garden. The party is about to start. The ancestral home smells of money, and the chill of the late spring air brings goose bumps to Freda’s arms.
Greta has brought her camera.
“I need to get a photo of Father’s face,” she had said.
Greta stands there, ever the youngest child. Her blonde hair impeccably done, with a white rose behind her right ear. Freda wishes her sister could understand the gravity of the situation. Sister Helga, the middle child, eggs Greta on. She has brought her own camera to document the proceedings, and Freda wants to smack both sisters across the face.
Freda looks past them both to the third sister, Ruth. Ruth, younger than Helga and older than Greta, smiles at her man.
He calls himself Giriga. He’s from India. His German is impeccable – even if it is overly marked with the progressive tense of “I am going,” and “We are enjoying.” His German may be impeccable, Freda thinks, but that’s about all that is impeccably German about him.
Father hasn’t noticed him yet. The rest of the family waits – some with stern looks devoted to pondering interlopers, and some with smiles of what’s about to happen. Freda worries about that moment. What will she do?
She sees Giriga looking toward a future, his eyes full of hope. Ruth is a baby with a first sight of love.
Freda hears birds and pinging crystal as the guests toast their good fortune.
Greta snaps a photo.
“He sees him,” she says.
Freda takes a deep breath for what is about to come.
Prompt: Photo by Matthias Boettrich:
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