One Creative Writing Prompt a Day by Lita Kurth

ONE CREATIVE WRITING PROMPT A DAY by Lita Kurth is self-described as “A Journal to Build Your Craft and Unlock Your Inner Storyteller.” Although there are plenty of choices for this type of book, this one seems quite strong and I would like to see a print version. Kurth has taught at De Anza College and believes “it's amazing what you can write in 15 minutes, given low stakes and a free spirit.” She tempts readers with a variety of tasks; one quick random example is “Write about two Parisians fighting over an umbrella. Include the color turquoise and a gust of wind.” Another time she instructs budding writers to “Describe an apartment using as many words that begin with F as possible. Notice the effect of these sounds on your prose.” As I browsed Kurth’s prompts, I felt myself wishing I had time to imagine life from the perspective of an abandoned pick-up truck or a robot in the year 2100. Kurth’s text could be strengthened (or supplemented) with more guidance on developing specific writing skills. Also, some may argue that her clever prompts may require the writer to do too much research, but I thought that she was very imaginative and would be successful in sparking some writing activity. It might be fun to have students try several in Chat-GPT and then work at improving those draft essays, too. Frankly, writing practice from varied perspectives seems critical in helping all of us to build empathy and to better appreciate the “other” in our lives. The New York Times just published a thoughtful guest essay by Rachel Kadish on teaching writing exercises.