Writing Prompt Book:
Driving with the Top Down

Telling the Stories of Your Life to Awaken Your Creative Spirit

Posted June-02-2007

By Chris Dunmire

One of the biggest secrets to "writing engaging stuff" is the inclusion of sensory information: how something looks, feels, smells, tastes, and sounds. Describing human sensory input in vivid descriptive language engages the readers' own senses, draws them in, and resonates with familiarity.

For example:

"I bit into the red apple."

could be:

"After choosing the most fragrant, ripest Red Delicious apple from the paper sack, I opened my mouth wide and sliced down hard into the fruits' skin, crunching into its juicy flesh with my hungry teeth."

Oh, much better! (Can teeth really be hungry? Don't ask!)

Likewise, writing prompts that engage the five senses are also a useful tool for writers to practice writing in sensory-engaging descriptives with their own reciprocative responses.

One such book full of sensory-waking writing prompts is Janice Kelley's "Driving with the Top Down." Used as a textbook for an online coaching class, this book features over "200 questions designed to inspire creative and artistic expression, and is a playful way to engage in dialog, capture stories, and soul-search in a creative and non-threatening way."

There's also a version of this book to awaken the creative spirit in children. Janice's Web site notes, "60 kid-friendly activities in the For Kids edition are arranged in a journal/workbook format to prompt creative writing, storytelling and conversation. Ideal for writing, discussion, drawing or coaching." •

© 2007 Chris Dunmire www.chrisdunmire.com. All rights reserved.