Ten Minute Tuesday (#4)

Sometimes natural beauty is the most beautiful of all. I thought of posting a snow picture today (given all the snow we've had recently!) but this lovely piece of malachite called out instead. Not sure what it might prompt creatively, but the design and the color are both stunning.

Malachite mined from Congo, displayed at Transvaal Museum - South Africa. Photo credit: Amazing Geologist (https://www.facebook.com/AmazingGeologist/?fref=ts)

Ten Minute Tuesday (#3)

Paul Cezanne, Still Life with Milk Jug and Fruit, c. 1900. 

Photo accessed at http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/oct/19/cezanne-a-life-alex-danchev-review. Their photo credit from the National Gallery of Art.

Ten Minute Tuesday (#2)

Today's image is from www.public-domain-image.com, found on the Creative Commons site.

In this season of grief, I find myself drawn to pictures like this, but there is more to this picture of an eagle on a glacier than just grief or loneliness. There is beauty too.

If the prompt inspires you to write, please share! I am sharing any writings from these prompt Tuesdays in the comment section. 

Ten Minute Tuesday (#1)

As I wrote yesterday, each Tuesday I'm going to post a creative writing prompt of some sort here. My plan is to use it as a springboard for ten minutes of writing each week. I hope you will feel free to use it too!

This first prompt is a picture I recently found on the Guardian's best photographs of the day site. It was taken as new year's day dawned in Jiangxi Province in China. I found it breathtaking. You can link to the entire day's worth of pictures here. Photo credit: Hu Guolin/Xinhua Press/Corbis.

Ten Minute Tuesday

With the new year beginning, I thought I would start something new on my blog. I'm calling it "Ten Minute Tuesday."

Each Tuesday, I'm going to try to post a creative writing prompt here. It may be a photograph, a word, a piece of artwork, a poem snippet, or a quote. Whatever the prompt is, I plan to try to use it as a springboard for a ten minute writing. Depending on the results, I may post some of my writing here. The main idea, however, is to have to fun and get some writing exercise.

If you want to join in and do the same, please do! (If you do, I'd love it if you'd share about it in the comments...either a bit of what you wrote, or how the process inspired you.)

The ten minute writing can be writing of any sort: a handful of well crafted (or even poorly crafted) sentences; a bit of a poem; the beginning of a story; a list of words that you associated with the prompt; a brainstorming map for a future bit of writing. If you can't give it ten minutes, then give it two. The idea is to get ourselves writing!

As I've contemplated ways to keep myself moving forward as a writer this year, this seemed like an idea whose time had come. If nothing else, it should generate a good collection of prompts for later use.

While I may miss an occasional Tuesday, I will do my best to post each week.

Quite frankly, I am feeling that I need writing and creativity in my life more than ever this year...but given my tiredness levels right now, I also need to find some new ways to keep myself inspired. If my attempts to do that can provide some inspiration for others, that feels like a win. 

Stay tuned for tomorrow's first "Ten Minute Tuesday" prompt.