first image

Hi.

Welcome to This Awful/Awesome Life! My name is Frances Joyce. I am the publisher and editor of this magazine. We'll be exploring different topics each month to inform, entertain and inspire you. Meet new authors, sharpen your brain and pick up a few tips on life, love, entertaining and business. Enjoy and please share!

Our Writing Prompt by Fran Joyce

A good storyteller can make anything into a story. If you’ve ever taken a creative writing class you’ve probably had to respond to a writing prompt. What I like about prompts is they take you out of your comfort zone and expose you to other ways of thinking.

When I was in elementary school, my teachers routinely had us write a paragraph about a specific topic. I didn’t realize at the time, but these topics were essentially writing prompts, and they helped me develop my writing skills.

For this month’s issue, our writing prompt is “She wore the green sweater.” I wrote five different short stories starting with that prompt. Because it’s Women’s History Month, I decided to make the stories about five different women in different stages of their lives.

The woman in the green sweater could have easily been a minor character… someone the main character sees but does not know or they could be part of a memory. The possibilities are endless.

What would you do with this writing prompt?

If you subscribe to This Awful Awesome Life – and you definitely should – we invite you to email us at FRAN.THISAWFULAWESOMELIFE.COM @GMAIL.COM and tell us which version you prefer (1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, or 5.0). We’ll announce the winner in our April issue.

All our readers are invited to comment when we post each story on Facebook, but you must be a subscriber to vote for your favorite.

I hope you enjoy the stories, and we want to do more writing prompts in the future.

Enjoy!

Celebrate & Share presents: Celebrate Women's History Her-Story: A Time to Remember and Honor Luncheon

"The Green Sweater" 1.0 by Fran Joyce