Category Archives: writing prompt

Blog, creative writing, writing prompt

What is a Story? (Part 2) – Writing Prompt

A friend whose sensibility I admire and opinion I trust recommended the recent(ish) box office smash hit Obsession. In describing the film, being careful not to give up any spoilers, he used the phrase, ‘It’s about toxic masculinity’. And that got me thinking, because a story is always ‘about’ something.

Inde Navarette, star of 2026 hit film Obsession, laughing on stage during a Q and A. She has long dark hair and perfect teeth.

What’s it all About?

In my post on 1st June, I posited that, technically speaking, the one nonnegotiable ingredient of a story is that its characters undergo change. In a later post, I suggested this technical attribute implies what stories are for, in that they help us understand, amongst other things, that while learning and growing is very hard for humans it is, nevertheless, possible.

Continue reading →
Standard
Blog, writing prompt

What does AI Know? – Writing Prompt

I should specify. The real question is, ‘What Does a Large Language Model Know?’ An AI that solely crunches numbers on a superhuman scale to discover new antibiotics for combating superbugs is a different subject. What I’m interested in is whether an LLM is conscious.

Clunky old model of a desktop Macintosh computer looming out of the dark, there to ironically ask the question being posed by Gail Owen writer, can such a machine ever be conscious?


Consciousness

LLMs are so brilliant at human-style communication that they beg the question, do they understand the languages they converse in, or are they just throwing together words that frequently appear side by side? People much, much cleverer than myself claim there’s no difference between this kind of pattern recognition and consciousness, that consciousness is pattern recognition.

Continue reading →
Standard
Blog, writing prompt

What is Writing For? – Writing Prompt

This month’s fiction-writing exercise is a bit of a departure from my usual prompts. Following my last post discussing, amongst other things, how writers need to write, and so outsourcing the process to AI denies that need, I wanted to suggest an exercise that would fulfill it!

Pages of handwritten fiction to represent the writer Gail Owen's suggestion that writing is not a chore or task but a specific process that allows the writer to explore, dream and think.

What Annoys You?

This month’s exercise is to free-write about something that annoys you but you don’t know why.

Free-Writing is the Best

Don’t plan; don’t consider your reader – on this occasion, just write, about all the things your chosen subject does to bug you to distraction. Your topic might be a noise, a song, a person or your neighbour’s mangy dog. It could be something everyone finds annoying or you may be alone in perceiving how truly irksome the object of your annoyance is. Just write. You might discover why this apparently innocuous thing bothers you so much. You could change your mind about it, or become even more irate. Just write. You will probably produce some great descriptions and you will almost definitely have fun.

Enjoy! I will post another writing prompt on the 1st of next month.

Standard
Blog, writing prompt

What is a Story? – Writing Exercise

I love the question, ‘What is a story?’ It’s both technical and philosophical, and seems especially pertinent to the current epoch because it raises the subsequent inquiry: can AI truly write one?

A notebook, tablet and coffee on a wooden table, Gail Owen's favourite writing tools.

Fiction or Storytelling?

Can a large language model make something up? Most certainly, (often when it’s been asked to accrue facts!) but I will argue over the next few posts that a work of fiction does not necessarily a story make.

Continue reading →
Standard
Blog, writing prompt

Writing Prompt – Floating Opposites

Because my students have such a wide variety of tastes, I’ve started developing either/or prompts for them. Some like gore and action. Others like world-building. Then, others of my students delight in closely observed personal interactions.

Open notebook on classic, rustic, wooden table waiting for your story ideas inspired by a writing prompt from Gail Owen writer.

Writing that Pulls in Two Directions – By Design!

Following on from my last blog post, on the subject of ‘Floating Opposites’, (see Can Creative Writing Be Taught? Part 2,) whichever of the exercises below that you choose is a chance to put that theory into practice.

Continue reading →
Standard
Blog, writing prompt

Writing Prompt – Dialogue

One of the most common worries my students have is dialogue, and it’s true that writing authentic dialogue is hard. It almost requires a different skill-set from crafting a story, because great dialogue begins with listening, in many ways a passive activity.

Three friends in conversation, their dialogue making them laugh together.

When we’re in conversation, we’re in the moment, responding emotionally and intellectually. We’re not psychopaths, not mentally recording people’s gestures and sayings as we chat. By contrast, when watching TV or streaming a series, we only listen. We don’t talk back. Kids, with their sponge-like brains, especially absorb how people talk on-screen.

Continue reading →
Standard