IMPROMPTU #117: Erasure Exercise

““The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it, useful only accidentally, only secondarily, in the way that any compulsion tries to justify itself. I suppose that it begins or does not begin in the cradle. Although I have felt compelled to write things down since I was five years old, I doubt that my daughter ever will, for she is a singularly blessed and accepting child, delighted with life exactly as life presents itself to her, unafraid to go to sleep and unafraid to wake up. Keepers of private notebooks are a different breed altogether, lonely and resistant rearrangers of things, anxious malcontents, children afflicted apparently at birth with some presentiment of loss.” ”
— Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Write an erasure poem or flash fiction piece, using the above text. How it works:

1. Copy and paste the above text into your word processor. Erase any words, letters, punctuation. Use the remaining words or letters to form your poem or story. The words should take on new shapes, new context, new meaning.

2. Do not change the order or words or letters.

3. Give it a title (doesn't have to be words from the text). 

4. Send it to me! (Optional, of course, but I'd love to see what you come up with.)

We're Back!

Hi! We're back! With two exciting announcements.

The first is that on Wednesday I found out I won the 2017 Young Buck Poetry Prize through the literary journal Contemporary Verse 2 for my poem "Crystals"! This poem will be published in CV2's summer issue. 

The second is that IMPROMPTU Instagram is officially launched! I hope you'll follow along, @impromptuprompts. As of today, all of the posts are up to date, and curated in conjunction with this blog. Tomorrow is IMPROMPTU #40 and we will be starting fresh. 

I started this blog because I personally love writing from prompts. Writing from prompts helps me to be more improvisational in my writing practice, to follow the spirit of the moment, to generate material. In the very first IMPROMPTU blog post, I talked about how in music, an "impromptu" is a free form, improv-style composition. I think this term can be applied to writing too, to describe the energy of the free write, the first draft, what happens when you say YES to your ideas. I hope that @impromptuprompts will become a place where folks can share their impromptus (pieces inspired by IMPROMPTU prompts), and I do hope to share some snippets of my own impromptus, my own writing. 

I also love coming up with prompts and exercises that I think will inspire other writers. Over these past couple of months, I've loved receiving feedback from fellow writers and friends saying that they've been enjoying my posts, that they've created something from one of my prompts, that my prompts have helped them to reconnect with their writing practice. This is all I ever could have asked for from this blog. I hope that this community will continue to grow, that folks will continue to be inspired, and continue to share with me. 

Join me over here, @impromptuprompts. 

Much love and light to you, writers! Let's do this.