Artist's Corner: Creative Writing 1

A writing exercise

Jun 19, 2024

Hello, hello Fellow Musers! I hope y’all are having a great week and a good summer!

For this post, I am doing something a little different. I am trying something that I have honestly not done since about 2007/2008, which is to do a creative writing prompt. The last time I can remember doing this was in one of my college English Lit classes when I was getting my associate’s degree. I did have to take an English class for my current degree, but I don’t believe that we had to do any creative writing prompts for that class (it was Intro to Film-very fun class, and happened during the only semester where I made all A’s…and ironically was not taking any anthropology or Spanish courses that semester!).

This specific creative writing prompt was inspired by

Andrei Atanasov

. I have linked his article/essay post, which you can find after you read the prompts (Hey, no scrolling ahead! Yeah, forget thinking about it-I see you about to try it!).

The premise is to pick a subject (can be an idea/feeling/one-word-thought, etc), and tell a story that is no more than 5 to 6 words about said subject. As inspiring as I found doing this to be, there are a few of these subjects where I could’ve definitely done about 12 words, haha!

I did mine a bit differently than Andrei. I included explanations for these prompts because according to my very overthinking brain, I realized that some of these could also be attributed to writing a post here on Substack. While I have certainly had these thoughts-and of course these subjects can apply to any idea, not just school or writing a newsletter-esque (credit to

Russell Nohelty

for that word) post-I wanted to make sure that y’all knew that for this prompt that I am talking specifically about school-as that is obviously taking up a lot of my mind space. As in, it’s living semi-rent free and making payments in the form of anxiety🙄 that my cats seem to be able to sense, which has led to many cuddles, snuggles, licks/kisses, and purrs…so I guess there’s been some benefit, but still, if I could charge my anxiety with rent, I’d probably be able to pay more of my car loan off, pay all of my rent, and get myself through grad school 3x over (even though I’m planning for only 2x).

Aaaah, if only-I guess that’s what dreams are for, eh?

Future creative writing posts may not have this kind of specification-unless my overthinking side wins out again…uuugh!

Anyways, enough of my babbling! This post is intentionally suppose to be no more than a 5 minute read total (which as y’all know is extremely difficult for me to do!), so I hope you enjoy this micro-flash post! I didn’t beat Hemingway like Andrei did, but I gave it my best shot!

Obligatory ~~beg~~ ask-readers-to donate to my

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and/or to subscribe to this newsletter!

Creative Writing

Prompt: When my paper’s about to be due but I don’t have the correct page length:

Anxiety: I must get this paper written.

Procrastination: This is not done yet. Meh.

Prompt: When it’s time to record my Spanish presentations…and I am not able to get myself to do it earlier than saaaayyyyy almost the last day before I have to turn it in:

Recording 5: Grrrr, this takes too much time!

Recording 500: I feel that this is done!

Prompt: My feelings and thoughts about how ready I am to not be an undergrad anymore:

School: I seriously need to graduate.

For more ideas about creative writing (and also how to get past writer’s block), Nalia, Salem, and I highly recommend you check out

Nadia Gerassimenko

’s post!

when hope writes

Writer's block? Try these 5 creative writing prompts

Dear hopeful reader, I must confess: I had writer’s block that lasted for months or years at some points in my life. It freaked me out at first. I thought my creative mojo was gone forever. Then as it suddenly appeared, the writer’s block vanished. It happens to any creative, more than once. It took me a while to accept it. But …

2 years ago · 1 like · 4 comments · Nadia Gerassimenko

Oh, aaaand here’s Andrei’s post!

Practice Space

Can I Beat Hemingway?

I’ve been in a little funk lately. Moving to a new city for my work, which funnily enough is exactly what I’ve been meaning to write to you about, has drained me of all creative energy. My mind’s been only on this move, and though I have been writing, it wasn’t with the same intensity (or interest) that I’m used to…

a year ago · 63 likes · 49 comments · Andrei Atanasov

Thank y’all so much for reading this fun, little micro-flash post! If you’d like to, give the exercise a try in the comments, and let me know if you’d like them to be featured in a future (and semi-longer) creative writing post! Subscribing Musers can also email me via this post with their prompt if you don’t want to comment, and/or y’all can DM with prompts (if you do, keep it 1999-2007 Safe-For-Work PG, please!). By the time this post comes out, I will have about a week-and-a-half of Spanish summer school left, which means that soon I’ll be able to catch up on the reading that I’ve been missing on here! Salem and Nalia kindly request that you send good vibes my their way, pleeaaase!

Musings of an Anthropology Student

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