Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Prompts, Proctors, Pornography

Image result for dark fantasy writing prompts

                   Think not to confuse me with poems or love beginning
                               Without a sign or sound...

                                            ~Mary Oliver, "Being Country Bred"

             A Google search for “poetry prompts” directs us to 33 million links, just over the broader “writing prompts” which yields 29 million. And Amazon offers 951 hits for book-length collections of poetry prompts; 6,000 for writing prompts in general.  In short, there is a whole industry based on the assumption that we must have someone’s hand clasped over our writing hand to guide it, much like that hand guided us while we learned the now-disappearing art of cursive writing. 

            Sappho, William Blake, Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, Emily Dickinson, and Virginia Woolf did not need to look outside of themselves for someone to offer them prompts for writing. Nor did Rilke, Shakespeare, or Ice-T. Prompts are the invention of teachers who need to control variables so as to be able to grade students comparatively on the bell curve.  

Image result for bell curve grade
            A grade book and quarterly report card cannot wait for the messy process of inspiration and students straying into topics that are not easily accessible.  A lesson plan must be clear, consecutive, easily assessable if the teacher is to be rehired for tenure. And must be completed so that the students can turn to preparing for placement tests. A teacher can proctor how various students adhere to a prompt such as this:

Write a fourteen-line poem about your  mother in the form of a weather report set on a winter’s day.  For inspiration, listen to a weather report on television or through YouTube. Include the color red and the following words: “major, rabbit, kill, apple."


With a threat of grade hovering over them, students will dutifully mark out fourteen lines, watch reports, and tick off the color red and the required words as they contrive them into place.  Or students will balk.  I’m with the students who balk.  As student Germain Palacios said of writing prompts, “that regimental approach to writing often stifled my true voice and creativity.”
           
Yes.  I know the allure of prompts. I have written hundreds of poems in response to them—doing so saw me through recovery from bunion surgery, it secured a place for me in community publications, I saw my name in the lights of anthologies and literary journals, I kept a promise to someone who invited me to submit.  Like the smartphone, social networks, YouTube, and Netflix, prompts relieved me of the responsibility for focusing myself—prompts did that hard work for me. And I met all the requirements, no matter how intricate or distancing.
Prompts are as addicting as substances: numbing the discomforts of feeling and growth; tempting us with immediate gratification; fostering people-pleasing; making others responsible for us; distracting us from our higher, intuitive and risk-taking selves; eventually making our creative lives unmanageable without them.
 But the poems I have written to external promptings have never been my best poems.  Without knowing the genesis of all the individual poems, my friend Carole and I, when reading through each other’s poetry manuscripts, consistently choose for deletion the prompt poems.  Something doesn’t ring “authentic.”

In his collection of essays Poetry and Ambition, Donald Hall calls the poems marching off the assembly lines of academia “MacPoems.”  Generated in, from, and for the academic classroom and Poe Biz—publication, teaching positions, reading circuit—these poems are externally prompted for external approval and acceptance.  They are, too often, more about politics than poetry.

My students—hard-wired to write in response to prompts, to teacher-please, to supply their grade-junking needs—ask for me to tell them “what I want.”  Always apprehensive about making them my clones, of doing for them what they must do for themselves, I listened, instead, to what they said about themselves.  I got into the habit of noticing for them all the possible directions their own poetry might take:  “That’s a poem idea,” “Write about that.”  I became an idea mill, for the sake of being an idea mill. I became an idea mill for my own work—displacing the more important authentic need to listen to myself, express, explore, follow-through.  I saw “prompts” in everything.  It silenced me.

Pornography is isolating/wresting one aspect of someone or something to use for our momentary pleasure.  Writing to a prompt, I wrest my writing capacity from all other aspects of myself—my angst, questioning, fecund chaos, wonder, patience, possibility—to have the momentary pleasure of saying “I wrote a poem,” or, worse, “my poem will be published.”
 As opposed to inspiration—“in,” as from within; “spira,” as from one’s own breath, own internal promptings—external prompts invite us to exploit ourselves—as in ‘attempt to capture,’ ‘military expedition,’ ‘overworking,’ ‘using’—in the service of amassing, hoarding, piling up more poems or grades.  Relying on outer prompts instead of inner promptings are living a reactive as opposed to proactive life, of buying gifts by bridal registry instead of loving attention, shopping for the sake of shopping, writing to say I’m writing, Astro Turf instead of leaves of grass, shadow instead of substance.




           
           

42 comments:

  1. Hi Dr. Rich,

    The thing that stuck out to me the most in this post is when you stated "Relying on outer prompts instead of inner promptings are living a reactive as opposed to proactive life, of buying gifts by bridal registry instead of loving attention..." This line stuck out to me for two reasons: it's intriguing and Valentine's day.

    This statement is intriguing because it opens the door to exploring the idea that it is very possible that modern society sculpts and influences every decision we make. I question myself, why do I do what I do? How did I get to where I am? Of course, I pushed myself and made myself get to where I am, but why? Why did I chose this life? Influences. Prompts. That is why. Where would I be had I never been influenced?

    Here is my problem with Valentine's Day...

    Since I am in a serious and secure relationship of almost 3 years with no end in sight, it seems SILLY to me to indulge in Valentine's day expectations. Why do heart shaped chocolate boxes filled with assorted treats or flowers and teddy bears represent love? Chris grabbing my hand when we walk through a crowd makes me feel more love and a flower ever could. Don't get me wrong, flowers are beautiful and can make for a meaningful gesture, but Chris loving me to his fullest extent and taking care of me and our relationship everyday is just better. Why is there a day specified for this care? Shouldn't we all care for one another EVERYDAY instead of when we are PROMPTED to?

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  2. Hi Dr. Rich,

    I found this post to be insightful in that it illuminated and named some of the issues I have towards writing prompts, too. While some seek to draw out something "real" and authentic, their circumscribed nature makes them inherently unable to be genuine. Yes, some writing prompts may provide direction but they simply cannot "land the helicopter", if you will.

    Personally, I don't think I've ever felt overly attached to something I've written in response to a prompt. The very word reminds me of early morning classes, a direction written starkly on the white board--write about....for 10 minutes, and my hand drudging through the motions. Prompts are too often chores in disguise.

    What I've always appreciated about your classes is that you do not try to force my hand. My poetry is always mine, what I write about always my choice. For some students, that much freedom after having none for so long is too much. But, for me, it feels like what I've been waiting for. Sometimes it's scary to write about something no one is asking me to but isn't life scary? Not knowing where you're going or what you're "supposed" to do? Not forcing prompts down are throats, to me, allows us all to live our poems, live our writing, instead of just drudging through the motions.

    Kelli~

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  3. Dr. Rich,

    I have always compared writing prompts to training wheels; in other words, writing prompts are designed to help students generate ideas to write about. I do not believe all writing prompts are bad because some students really need to be prompted when it comes to writing, especially if they are not particularly strong writers. When working in the classroom, I have seen some students struggle to write, sometimes telling me: “I don't know what else to write about,” or “I’m all out of ideas.” Writing has always come easily to me, so I have the ability to write on and on about anything and everything that comes out of my mind; I do not need external sources to prompt me. Unfortunately, not all writers have this skill; not all writers can just write freely or creatively. In this case, having prompts helps; having these “training wheels” hopefully allows those kinds of writers to generate more ideas or else they begin to give up on writing.

    However, I do believe that when overused, prompts can at some point steal writers of their inspiration. Once writers have mastered the art of writing, these prompts or “training wheels” no longer have much value; if anything, prompts tend to force us to write in a way that pleases the teacher. Prompts force us to write in the “right” way, just to meet certain expectations. They essentially take away our ability to write authentically and to take risks, especially when our grades are at stake. When prompted with such prompts, our writing becomes dull; we sound as if we are programmed to write just for the sake of the assignment.

    Ultimately, prompts have their time and place. Sometimes, prompts are necessary, but more times than not, they are much too overused. Writing to meet the needs of the prompt is valued more than creative and free writing, which is problematic, especially in schools. Students should be able to write for prompts when the time is right, but then they should also be able to write freely, to write creatively. In many instances, however, writers are not given the chance to explore various kinds of writing beyond prompted writing.

    Nada Amer

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    Replies
    1. Dr. Rich,

      It has taken me a few years to get comfortable with the idea of writing whatever I like without being given any specific direction or being prompted in any way. I blame the educational system for this. At first it was unsettling to think I was being given such power that I could write anything I wanted. I hadn't realized over the years that writing prompts were robbing me of my creative abilities but it is absolutely true- I have found that I struggle now to write without being given any direction. This upsets me because I remember a time where I could write without as Nada has said above using "training wheels".

      I do find certain writing prompts help kick start my ideas when I absolutely cannot think of anything to write about, but thats usually where it ends. Not too many memorable writings have been produced through writing prompts- it's usually my own inner workings that create the most organic writings that I am proud of.

      I was very happy to see that you let us have full control over what we write and I noticed It has become much easier for me to quickly write without having to be prompted in a certain direction. Journaling everyday has definitely helped me get away from using artificial inspiration in order to write. At first I thought a book about writing prompts would be beneficial, however I have left that book to the side allowing my writing to flow naturally.

      As you mentioned today everything is prompted, bridal registries, apps which tell others what they would like for Christmas (Elfster), certain holidays like Valentines Day as Amanda mentioned, which prompt grand gestures of love. Its all very mechanical, impersonal, and showy- a lot like writing only for the sole purpose of a good grade.

      Life has become instant, we want everything right away- we are not willing to risk getting doubles of gifts, or having to use our own ideas to come up with something beautiful. We are a fast society, with all the tools at our fingertips, we should step back, allow our own writings to form not relying so much on outside sources and quick google searches to guide our writing.

      Jessica Jardonoff

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  4. Dr. Rich,

    I totally see the problem with writing prompts, I think that they are over used in school. I think that a lot of students rely on them because thats what they are used too. But having students rely on writing prompts it doesn't let them think on there own. Writing prompts don't let the students explore there own thoughts, some students might not even know where there minds can go. So I think that writing prompts do not benefit students in the long run.

    Even though writing prompts do help students generate ideas, this is only because they have what they need to write about. They have the clues that can generate those ideas easily. But at some point these students need to start thinking of idea on there own without the help of the prompt. This is because prompts teach students that they will basically have everything given to them when it comes to writing and coming up with ideas and they are lost when you don't give them direction when you let them think on there own about writing topics. So yes sometimes its good to use writing prompts when you need a little push, but do not rely on them.

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  5. Dr. Rich,

    I really enjoyed reading your insight about the writing prompts issue. As I was growing up, writing prompts was always something I always struggled with. I am someone who needs to have solid guidelines and I need to know what the grader expects.

    Writing prompts also put a lot of pressure on students to make sure they incorporate certain things into their writing. This can be difficult because what if a student is unsure how to properly incorporate these things and it can affect their grade, even if they worked really hard to do the right thing.

    Ever since I was in elementary school, I always panicked when having to take a test. I get super nervous and cannot think straight. I always overthink my answers and doubt myself. So for me, writing prompts were never fun or exciting for me. I feel there should be less writing prompts in schools and take some pressure off of the students.

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  6. Dr. Rich,
    I am continuously humbled by the way your excerpts flow. It's as if you are not only speaking directly to me but, through me as well. I immediately connected to this text when you stated that "Prompts are as addicting as substances: numbing the discomforts of feeling and growth; tempting us with immediate gratification; fostering people-pleasing; making others responsible for us; distracting us from our higher, intuitive and risk-taking selves; eventually making our creative lives unmanageable without them". I am one of those students who refuse to be placed in a suffocating box and strive to be as creative as the left side of my brain will allow me to be. I too write poetry and write of my own free will disregarding any sort of "rules" that may exist. It is a way of expression and is unfortunately something that school systems have been disregarding for a long time. These academic systems should want to allow their students complex minds to run wild with individuality. Being forced to succumb to so many rules only limits the use of such brilliant minds. Relying on writing prompts may truly end up putting an abundance of pressure on a student body thus affecting their grades. Embrace all that is unique, only then would school officials begin to witness a shift form the cellphones to the pencils.

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  7. Dr. Rich,
    I completely agree with the problem students can encounter with writing prompts. I'm constantly writing whatever I think my teacher will like or wants me to say. I've tried being creative once before and my ideas were shut down and I was told to redo the paper. Most teachers want plot summary, not something creative and original. By doing this, they don't allow their students to grow and explore their mind. They can never truly find out their potential. For our first paper when you said to be original without giving a plot summary and to write about whatever we wanted I was nervous. I didn't know how to focus in on just one what I thought to be minor point and make a 4-5 page paper about it. I was surprised when I started writing it that it was a lot easier than I pictured. I appreciate the fact that you allow your students that much freedom in their writing. I liked how you pointed out that prompts are similar to "training wheels." Some people are too afraid to go out on their own so they need to be guided in what to do.

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  8. I agree that writing prompts can be negative. I feel they stifle a students ability to be think freely and develop problem solving skills. In my experience, writing with a prompt is more difficult that just being told simply to write. I enjoy the freedom in producing work that I have 100% expressive control over. It gives me a sense of ownership and pushes me to produce work that is worthwhile because of my pride. When a step by step outline is given, as a student, I tend to robotically produce a paper for a grade which doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re learning. I find so much difficulty with that and academic prompts, so one can only imagine the difficulty I face when presented with poetry prompts. Poetry is what I use as an emotional and creative outlet. Most of my poems come from an experience or place of pain & emotion. Often times prompts only request surface analysis of shit I don’t care about in a moment where I feel like being expressive. I can understand how it may assist with perfecting your craft because prompts can be practice.

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  9. Writing prompts are so embedded into English writing that it is almost a wonder why people choose to write this day. Just like any parts of life, people, including myself, enjoy expressing themselves to the best of their abilities and see just how far their creative rocket can soar to. But instead we are trained to write things based on what other people want us to write. This idea of being prisoned to a certain type of writing, prompting, or even formatting drives people away. And they run to something that feels freer than the writing we do in school. Without the rebels, like the creative writers, there would be no affection towards writing and it would be something taken away just like Art.

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  10. Hello Dr. Rich

    What spoke to me the most about this post was the topic about the prompts and giving students free reign when writing. I feel that now, students are so used to having outlines and very strict guidelines to follow, they don't know how to use free reign when given the opportunity to free write. I know I'm like that myself. As a student I was conditioned to write a certain way and follow guidelines and experienced somewhat of a culture shock when I came to this class and there was no specific guideline to follow. You let us students use our creative capabilities to work magic on paper.

    Since I am a creative writer and would like to teach a class in creative writing in the future, I enjoy prompts. They cure me from my writers block whenever I have it and it always keeps the brain moving for more ideas. I believe that younger students should participate in more prompts where they can think freely instead of following very anal guidelines.

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  11. Dear Dr. Rich,
    When I thought about writing prompts I would always a love and hate relationship with them. On one hand, a prompt will help guide me when it comes to writing a paper; I won’t have to wonder what I should do or what will satisfy the professor. It can make writing easier yet at the same time it can make it harder. If I don’t have the freedom to write what I want or choose the topic myself then it can be harder to write. I will feel caged by the prompt which will make trying to write more pages harder since it’s not something I genuinely care about. Thinking back to all the paper I have written in the past, I believe that those which offered more freedom were the easiest to write. I had a 15 page paper for one class, which sounded very overwhelming, yet we were able to choose any topic that we felt passionate about and I loved it. I wrote so much to the point where before I realized t, I had almost finished the whole paper. Being able to choose what you want to write about is a great freedom, and while it may be hard to think of an idea with so much freedom, in the end it feels greater to have come up with an idea on your own.
    Stephen Corrales

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  12. Dear Dr. Rich,
    When the concept of writing prompts entered the picture, I always considered it a weird abstract form of telling a story that usually involves a very scandalous motif to it especially when you yourself compare it to pornography. But then I realize it isn't much about a strange feeling or emotion, but more about the passion about the subject matter that goes into it and better exploit our own thoughts and feelings on a topic that is very different from an inspirational piece. Thank you

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  13. Knowing what college is really about now, they had us writing almost three prompts every year for the state test. They would encourage us to write a certain amount of pages on a picture or a topic and it was dissatisfying every time. When were kids having to answer to those writing prompts, it is true you are at the point, writing for the teacher. To impress them even though you could care less about answering it to begin with. One thing that I enjoy in your class if you don't give out writing prompts, nor did any of my teachers since I have been college, but you gave suggestions. We currently have a listen of around eight different ways to analyze Shakespeare. It gives us freedom to really think and find a way to write for ourselves, and at least enjoy something when writing these papers for a few hours.

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  14. Hey Dr. Rich

    I agree completely with this post. Writing prompts, though they can provide a direction for students, really is just a way to please professors, and does stifle creativity. One of the things that I love about this senior seminar class was that I could write whatever I wanted to. Having the chance to break out from a typical essay and write something that I was inspired by, rather then a prompt or a typical assignment, was really liberating. It also took me out of my comfort zone, but it was rewarding to see just how amazing the rewards were for taking a risk that big. I also felt the same way in our poetry class last semester. Getting the chance to write about how I was feeling, or getting inspired by something I saw or experienced in the past (as opposed to getting a prompt of what to write) gave me the freedom of expression that most high school and college classes never gave me. It gave me a chance to look inwards, and really grow as a writer. Knowing that failure was a part of the process, rather then a sign of being a poor writer, really helped me look past the letter grades and improve myself in ways I never imagined.

    - John P.

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  15. Dr. Rich,

    I used to love writing prompts. But I used to hate that I loved them. I hated that I was the only one who took to them with arms wide open. I felt that I could write about anything generic of specific and make it something worth reading. As for other students, they would do the assignment to avoid a 0 in the grade book. It frustrated me to see that other people did not like writing as much as I did.

    As I grew, I found that some people did enjoy writing, but not about the required topics. As I have said in other responses to your blog, I don't find myself better than anyone in any way, but I don't believe I'm a typical person by any means. I didn't mind being given limitations because my mind was so boundless in thoughts that it posed as a challenge to me to stay on task with the specifications of the writing prompts. Other students liked it for the sake of not having to think at all. Now, I look back and like that the education system strays from writing prompts. Although I personally did not mind them, I see the difference in my writing when I have free range of my ideas and topics. I can fill the pages easier, but I find that the quality and raw sense of who I am shines through without the specifics of a writing prompt.

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  16. I actually really like prompts I was first introduced to them in school. I know students hated them but I thought they were a creative way to get us to write descriptively. Besides the written prompts we also had picture prompts we had to write about. As an adult I have a drawing prompt journal that tells me what to draw. I liked that so much I went out and bought a writing prompt journal. Yeah you could be even more creative and original by just coming up with what to draw or write but I was drawn to the structure of being told different ideas. Some fun different drawing prompts they give me are gargoyle, fountain of youth, goblet, etc. I don't know what situation in life would have me think oh I should draw a gargoyle. I wouldn't be as drastic about how bad prompts are like in the blog sometimes people need a little help to get them going on writing. I like the creativity of assignments in school where the teacher lets you do what interests you. However recently in one of my classes the teacher just said write me a paper on this book don't give me any summaries. We we're all like what do you want, what about the book do you want us to talk about. I feel like being too vague can hurt as well.

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  17. The first time I was in a classroom and had the freedom to write whatever I wanted to, was in Dr. Rich’s class. This is when I realized that this is the hardest part of writing; coming up with a topic. In my first paper for Dr. Rich’s class, I had all of the freedom, but I didn’t know hoe to use it because I never had this kind of freedom before. So, for my draft, my first topic was too broad and boring. When I narrowed it down while still making it more detailed, I had a brilliant topic to write about, and I wrote a paper that I am extremely proud of.
    The educational system is to blame for this because they haven't been letting us use the writing talents that we all have. There are about 20 students in my Shakespeare Survey class and we all wrote this paper by ourselves with al of this freedom, and we all had individual and brilliant topics to write about. Most of the time, prompts are also too broad. So I end up writing about ten different topics in one paper and it isn’t focused. I still got lots of A’s but I haven’t been writing what I am actually capable of writing.
    Priya Jhaveri

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  18. Dr. Rich,
    I have always mixed feelings when it came to prompts. On one hand, I loved that I could write about whatever I wanted, but on the other hand, I also felt limited because I had to include certain words or phrases. It also had to be a certain length, but what terrified me was using my time management skills. There was always a time limit on our writing and I found that to be difficult because, I’m the type of person where I need time to think of what I am going to write and how I can construct my ideas on paper. Through your class Dr. Rich, I learned that I can really write about anything I wanted. Whatever play or poem we read in class, we could write about anything from the theme, language, characters, words, binary oppositions, etc. and that would fill the paper. Dr. Rich challenges us, as students, to really think about not only the story, but what we want to discuss in our papers. It does help to focus the paper on one topic as opposed to having too general of a topic and just writing to fill up pages. For some, it is easier to write from prompts and for some, it is too constricting. I that it is great when a student comes up with an original idea that they want to use for their paper and everything just falls into place for that student.

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  19. After being in your class for the past 4 months, and being able to write "whatever" we wanted for a paper was scary at first but by the second paper i loved the idea. I was given freedom to write about something that interested me and related it to shakespeare for the first time in my school career. I always thought i enjoyed having prompts to base my writing about, but after experience the freedom of not having a prompt has definitely challenged me, but it has also let me take risks in my writing and go out and relate something that im passionate about and relate it to shakespeare. What i love about being in Dr. Rich's class was that freedom and risk taking we were aloud to do when writing our papers but i really enjoyed learning about the idea of using a "paper clip" to write our papers. Having that paper clip lets the writer focus on one particular piece of the poem, play, or book and relating that one focus to a big idea without confusing the reader and having a paper that is "all over the place". As a future teacher I dont think i will have the patience or attention span to read the same paper over and over again and letting the students have the abilities to create their own prompts will make them more willing and enthusiastic to write, and i as a teacher will enjoy reading and grading the papers.
    -Melanie Azevedo

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  20. Writing prompts were my best friends in middle and high school. Coming to the United States at twelve without knowing much of the language was a struggle in itself. Prompts were introduced to me as a way to follow how things worked in the United States education system. I did not have writing prompts back in my country. The only time I had a prompt was when i was learning to write. I was not used to it at first but it became easier as time went on because everything was the same. There were no distinctions in any of the writing. I took an English course in my junior year of high school and the end of the ear paper was called the ‘The Last Lecture.’ The paper was inspired by Randy Pausch who did the last lecture about his dreams before he died. We had to write about what we wanted to do if we knew we were going to die in a few months. That was my first time having creative freedom. There were no prompts, but the instructor did have few requirements because it was high school. But it was the first time in my academic life in the United States that I did not have to follow a particular prompt to receive a good grade.
    Priscilla B.






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  21. Writing prompts are BORINGGGG. Emphasis on the boring. Now instead of students being able to be individual, they are all writing the exact same thing. It is not only boring for the students to read, but can you imagine 25 of the same exact papers?! No thanks. Let students have their freedom. Give a bird some wings and watch them soar. Prompts are there to hold students back, not let them fly. When I am writing a paper, I like to let my mind wander and write what it wants. When I’m stuck with a prompt, I have to map bullshit out, find bullshit quote, annotate the bullshit, and it’s a boring paper. And although some students prefer prompts, they should learn to write without them. Writing without prompts can turn you into a very independent person and writer. Prompts are always something to have if a student is really having an issue with finding a topic, but independence is key when teaching students how to write. Someone isn’t going to be there giving us prompts when we are out of school, we have to figure it out on our own. Having someone who can steer you in the right direction is helpful when you’re in college, but after that you’re shit out of luck.

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  22. The classic open ended question haunts my dreams to this day. Often constricting, demanding the same answer from everyone, these prompts are only used to make it easier for the teachers, helping them grade quicker and more efficiently. Instead of letting the students dig into their passions, it is quite the opposite. By setting a standard for students to meet does not benefit their growth at the end of the day. I don’t want to be told what to write about anymore, I would rather dig a deep ditch in the middle of the desert, melting away my very existence. Being defined by these generic propositions does not point a young mind in a positive direction, which is why some people have no desire to go to college. The idea of the poetry prompt makes me re-evaluate the numerous experiences that I have had over the last decade of my personal education, initially believing it was doing me justice but instead it made me flat and un-motivated. Like you said in your post, we become numb to the mundane and often finish a paper or poem, unimpressed. I have enjoyed the opportunity to write the papers for class about what interests, connecting what I have learned in class to the plays we have covered. Who knew that I would connect the Duke of Suffolk from Henry VI Part 2 to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde this semester, I definitely didn't. These unique opportunities have not only shaped the way I view my writing now, but these assignments have allowed me to explore my own talents and interests. The dangerous thing to do is to adapt to the norms society claims as a requirement for a happy life rather than think for yourself. The deeper we can get in our writing, the deeper we can be as humans.

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  23. I grew up with many prompts in school. Look at this picture and write an essay on it. Read this and write an essay on “A,B, and C.” For a long time, that’s the only way I knew how to write. If you don’t tell me what to write, how will I know? But of course, that’s silly. My mind is imaginative, Creative. I have plenty of ideas in my head, I shouldn't have to follow someone else’s. Sometimes, I do it when I have writer’s block. It helps. But I enjoy writing more when it comes from my own brain. Sometimes, I read prompts and something sparks a new idea. My own idea. It reminds me of a topic that would be great to write about from my own perspective. I think when you are younger, it’s easier to use prompts but as you grow, lessen them. Create a draft from your own thoughts. People may believe it’s more difficult but if they give it a try, they might learn how eye opening it can be.

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  25. Writing prompts can be both a blessing and a curse. Throughout every year of grade school I was given writing prompts for my assignments. I also hated writing at that time. Writing in grade school felt like there were handcuffs on your creativity. We were given prompts and guidelines that told us pretty much exactly what to write about, but that ruins the freedom of writing. One of the reasons why I like poetry so much is because you have total freedom. It wasn't until I started college that I actually began to enjoy writing. I took a creative writing course that had no prompts, we just had to come up with our own ideas. This gave me a whole new outlook on writing because I actually started to enjoy it. I even started writing for fun, not just academically. Once I learned the beauty of unrestrained writing, it became addicting to let out all of my ideas on paper. Now I'm not saying that prompts are terrible, I think they can actually be very helpful to younger students. But there should be an option for it, either use a prompt or use your own ideas. Not hold a grade over your head in order to force you to write something you don't enjoy. Prompts can take away creativity from writers, but it can also be a creative challenge. Use a prompt and come up with something so unique that nobody else would ever think of. Overall, prompts are not the worst, but if used incorrectly, they can be.

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  26. Prompts can go either way for me. As a young kid, I always loved writing and sometimes needed inspiration. Sometimes, I would look at general prompts to hopefully inspire me to either 1) write that specific prompt piece or 2) launch into my own idea similar to the prompt, but not exactly. However, these were always *general* prompts and I would look at in my own time. At school when they would give specific prompts like the one mentioned in the blogpost:

    “Write a fourteen-line poem about your mother in the form of a weather report set on a winter’s day. For inspiration, listen to a weather report on television or through YouTube. Include the color red and the following words: “major, rabbit, kill, apple."

    I would be one of those students who would balk because it was simply too much pressure. I was not inspired to write the piece on my own and when I did begrudgingly write the poem or story (if you can even call it that), I was not happy with it. With assignments like those, they are more about grades than generating actual creativity in young minds. It is important for young students to know that this is not what writing is.

    Assignments given to you for a grade, essentially marking your “creative abilities” based on how well you are able to write about a topic that was forced upon you is not what writing is about. The grade hanging above my head is another factor that makes me pause and hesitate. It makes me want to just “get it done and over with.” Writing should not feel this way. Writing should be authentic and from the heart where you take the time to put your thoughts onto paper, completely bare and truthful.

    I am rather glad that you, as a teacher/professor, do not give out specific prompts like these and make us get our own inspiration. Throughout this semester, it makes me love poetry writing and just simply writing in general. I have gotten back into writing, something that I haven’t done in quite a while. Throughout my high school and college career, I have gotten so used to professors giving me a grade for all the work that I do. And although they always seem to be “A’s” I can never truly believe them because I honestly just followed the guidelines and wrote what they wanted me to write. Is it true and authentic with my voice? I really have no idea. That is the question to ask.

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  27. Prompts have always made me feel like I was put in a box. I felt trapped in between the words of the prompt itself and struggled to incorporate my authentic self into my writing. Yes, it was easier to get ideas flowing and to write something down, but it was just for the sake of the assignment, and I was forced to think only in the way the prompt wanted me to. However, in terms of academic or scholarly writing, I find it easier to narrow down on an instruction simply because I feel like my view is wrong and I may do poorly on a paper if it is in my own voice. I find that many students feel this way, and I am not sure where this really comes from, probably from the lack of free discussion in the class opposed to answering strict questions, like we are used to. Creative prompts however, really don’t sit well with me and I find myself focusing on the requirements than getting out what it is I really want to say or how I really feel. Comparing my poetry class to other classes I have taken or am currently taking, I find it so refreshing to be free, and still learn and grow in my writing. If teachers, or rather the curriculum didn’t put such a heavy foot on grades and the idea that certain things HAVE to be taught, I feel that students would enjoy attending class more, not just because they have to.

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  28. “This sentence is to fill the 1000 word minimum requirement. This thesis required a thesaurus and you don’t even read the middles of my paragraphs. I feel that the periods have become check-marks.”

    All that to me felt like a very transparent response to however many prompts I’ve been given in my life, and the fact that it came so easily after reading this blog post troubled me. Not that prompts are necessarily bad, but relying on them and not spreading wings when not shackled down is the danger of prompts. This post, to me, is a lesson in writing for the sake of it outside of stifled thought. We are already boxed in. Show me someone who has not been labeled and treated arbitrarily by their economic status, race, ethnicity, sex and gender, or spiritual beliefs. Prompts allow for creativity, but within a box, so its not as true to the self as it may have been. Obviously there’s a need for streamlining, categorizing, grounding, refining, and building effective language to use, but when I want an honest answer I don’t lead the question, so why would I expect honest expression from anyone when being boxed in? Hemingway's famous advice “Write drunk, edit sober.” can be taken literally, but I’ve taken it to be in line with “just write, you can edit later.” which feels appropriately anti-prompt while still being applicable to them.

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  29. Near the beginning of the semester, Dr. Rich gave us, in the Writing Poetry course, the assignment to spend some time with nature, and use it as inspiration to write poems. I believe this is a great suggestion, because it is open to each person to determine where to go 'in nature', depending on what nature means to them. Each person can write about whatever aspect of nature that is touching and striking to her or him. Dr. Rich did not say to write about a flower, nor to write about a stream, nor to write about a bird. Therefore, as students told to spend time in nature, each of our hearts guided us. We were not guided by specific prompts.
    I'd like to make an analogy to recipes. On TV shows, people are given four or five odd ingredients, and asked to compete with the other contestant-chefs by making the best dish, which must include those four or five ingredients (for example: pig tongue, liverwurst, cinnamon, turmeric, and vanilla ice cream) . In contrast to this, I feel the best recipes come from the heart, come from scratch.
    Part of expression is deciding what and how to express. Part of the wonder of poetry is the writer being moved naturally to write in a way, and about a topic, of her or his choice- not being told what and how to write. The thought process includes seeing life, and thinking to one's self, 'I have something to say about this, in my own way, on my own terms, in the manner which I am moved'. This birth of an idea, this beginning of heartfelt expression, is essential, not only in poetry, but in all human communication.
    Sometimes prompts can be beneficial, if they are very, very general. For example, in the memoir writing group I attend, we were asked to write a letter to our own self. We were actually asked to write a letter to our younger self, but I wrote a letter to my current self, asking myself to heed advice, advice to myself from myself, that I have not yet heeded! When a prompt is very general, and when much leeway is offered, it can sometimes be helpful.
    The bottom line is we need to trust ourselves, and others. All of us have something to say, that is better when we are not told to say it.
    -Michael Loberfeld

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  30. Prompts have dictated my writing process since I can remember. It is probably what had me hate writing when I was younger. Those early years when they gave you picture prompts were probably the worst for me. I never really understood how to make a story fit around a certain image and by the time I did figure it out my time was already up. Not to say that all prompts are a bad thing, I just find that too much of it or a reliance on them, does not help the creative process. Now I am guilty of buying one of those books that have a writing prompt for each day, but I don’t rely on it to dictate what I will write about. In fact it is just there for long plane rides to keep myself from dozing off. Prompts have followed me and my writing career since I learned to write coherent sentences and it is not until now, in my senior year of college, that I have teachers actually pushing me to create freely. When my Fiction professor told the class to write a story using only dialogue, my first question was “how long?” and “about what?” His answer, however long it needs to be to get the point across and anything you choose it to be. It was then I realized that years of writing prompts have stifle my creativity and I am only just now getting it back

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  31. I have always had a love/hate relationship with prompts when I was younger. I loved them because I knew exactly what the teacher wanted and therefore I didn't have to think about what I wanted. I knew what I wrote would be "correct" and I wouldn't have to worry. However, as I got older, I realized that isn't what I wanted to write about. The prompts were a good way to keep us all in the box, and honestly, what teacher wants to read 20 essays about the same thing? You would think they would give us an assignment and let us come up with the parameters so they could have interesting essays to read. When given the freedom to write what I actually enjoyed, I noticed the essays were easier to write and contained much more content and heart. I'm very thankful we were not given prompts to follow, and instead got to follow ourselves.

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  32. I remember when I was in 4th grade when writing prompts started to be a test of knowledge. There were so many restrictions and guidelines to just barely get the A that I was striving for. Test taking also made me nervous and definitely looks down your sense and urge for creativity. How is creative writing prompt with restrictions and guidelines creative? How was I supposed to add slang to a character's words to give actual ‘character’ wrong? For years, this would be the standard. These tasks made me dislike doing work instead of being myself and get the sense that something was complete. Now when I do school work I have the sense that nothing is complete and that it was a waste of time if I didn't get the exact length or prompt that they were asking for. I also dislike how it determines your quality of life in schools and lets people assume how you will be in the later years. I heard there was a test that you take in middle school and it determines if you will be a delinquent or not and it tests how many beds they will need these prison like facilities. This world is crazy! I was mind blown and appalled on how they don't set up students for success but instead get ready for failure. It's time we put a change to these restrictions and guidelines. And i'm not saying to completely let go of the order but just a change to allow our children to let creativity flow a bit better.

    -racquel f

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  33. Writing prompts have always been part of my curriculum in school growing up and even in my later years in university. There has always been structure and guidelines to follow. As you have mentioned in class many times, no teachers want us to use our right side of our brains, it is always left side thinking. When you mention in your post "Write a fourteen-line poem about your mother in the form of a weather report set on a winter’s day. For inspiration, listen to a weather report on television or through YouTube. Include the color red and the following words: “major, rabbit, kill, apple."" I understood completely because this is something I have seen so many times. I used to think writing by guidelines and prompts already supplied for me was the only way to be successful. I remember when I was younger buying a book at Barnes and Noble that gave writing tips and guidelines. Essentially it was a book compiled of left side brain thoughts about how to make your writing successful. But, it was probably missing the most important concept, alike your post, that creativity is the key. Writing from the imagination and personal creativity is a lot stronger than following any rules of writing. The creativity is the only way to stand out. Looking back on how I write and what shapes my writing, I will now be more aware of if I'm being creative or if I'm just following along with what is asked of me.

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  34. This was such an enlightening post. I particularly enjoyed the quote by Mary Oliver. If anyone every writes me a bad love song or poem, I'm going to throw that one their way... ANYHOW. Thank you, thank you for sharing this. I hate prompts and then I love them. They really can be like a drug. It is innumerable the amount of times I've been stuck in writer's block and turned to internet forums for prompt relief. As you say, sometime's they do get the job done, but this action begs the question; "why, what are you avoiding?" I often find that, in those moments of block, there is a swirling emotional world inside that I am not ready to dive into. I do not realize this is the case until later. It also has a lot to deal with our problem solving processes. I was reading an essay about our problem solving processes, in particular, their relation to the writing process. They spoke about treating composition as a function with in and out, and then because school systems teach students to think this way, they become massively stressed when they keep jamming IN IN IN and nothing comes OUT OUT OUT. Writing is as you said in class early, a non-binary process. If writing is the expression of the human spirit... and the human spirit is not a machine... why must we treat it like one? Again, I recognize how a prompt can be truly helpful. In it's best form, it may spark an idea that quickly departs from the prompt structure and becomes its own creature.
    Also, thank you for that way of describing pornography before-- I had never heard it put that way and it really has rocked my world for it's symbolic implications.

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  35. Writing prompts are the generalized topic for someone to write from it’s not meant to be your whole paper although some people feel like it is. As a student I believe that we do need structure but, I wouldn’t consider that to be prompts. Structure would be something like the amount of paragraphs or the font you get to use. When it comes to prompts I have a love hate relationship with them because when I was younger it just made it that much easier to push out a paper because the topic was already out the way and I could immediately go into writing it. However I, now in my adult life hate how prompts really limit my ability and narrow my view. I’ve written so many papers including many multimodal ones about various topics including feminism, the LGBTQIA+ community, representation, and even gay vernacular. I would love prompts to be done with and for us to be able to continue writing about things we actually enjoy. Writing prompts are for standardized testing but, they need to be done with and allow students to finally be able to write about things they’re passionate about. We’re tired of writing the same prompt about the house in the snow with a snowman in the front porch. We want new ideas and writing assignments that help build our experience instead of limiting it. I wish more of my younger years I had fewer writing prompts then I actually had cause my writing might have been even further.

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  36. The thought of writing prompts nauseates me and my anxiety takes over my mind. Test taking was never my favorite thing. Although I always averaged mostly A’s and a few B’s (math being my worst) in my education career, I always managed to fail in some way when it came to standardized testing and writing prompts. Being told what we HAVE to write can cause the mind to think in an uncreative way. You tell me to write 14 lines, that's what I’m going to do. Being forced to write in a specific way, especially in a timed setting, is extremely uncomfortable, to say the least. Although the prompts are intended to leave room for creativity, I feel as a writer it puts you into this box that you can’t seem to get out of. I enjoy the creative space this poetry class has given to me. Being able to write a poem freely and leave room for constructive criticism is liberating. I have always been taught that poetry HAS to be a certain way.. “You need to rhyme! You need to follow the 5 7 5 rule for haikus! This poem is too long!”, and much more from my old high school teachers. This can relate to the idea of needing to follow specific guidelines for writing. When being given the opportunity to write in a creative, “non-rule” type of way, it opens the mind up to many different realms of creativity that you may never have imagined before.

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  37. Writing prompts were my favorite activity in grade school. They gave me a sense of freedom because I could write whatever I wanted based off a picture or sentence. But on the other side they acted as a sort of guideline. Eventually stopped become about creativity and became more about how fast you can bang out a 5-paragraph short story that has xyz. My stories were always over the top, but my teachers would advise me from becoming too creative. I quickly realized that traditional schooling didn’t offer me the ability to write what I need to write but rather what they wanted me to write. Eventually it became me writing the same story with minor differences. I have an issue with not formulating an outline when it comes to writing. I get a topic and begin writing and that stemmed from prompt writing because I considered it to be free writing. There was no need to plan out what I wanted to say, I could just say it! The “I remember” prompt we did in class offered some great memories I didn’t remember. It allowed me to think outside of the box to remember the good and ugly in the situation. I think the way we use prompts in a school setting is very restrictive instead of being the creative outlet it was meant to be.

    Donika H

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  38. Life began without a stencil.
    Life became mobile without wheels.
    Life created sound without speakers.
    Life was warm without clothes.
    Life reached heights without elevators.
    Life formed life without test tubes.
    Life had stories without books.
    Life spoke in tongues without technology.
    Life was colorful without fireworks.
    Life was blessed without religion.
    Life had structure without buildings.
    Life had scenic views without a screen.
    Life had patience without politics.
    Life had hope without discoveries.
    Life had natural beauty without props.
    Life had progress without control.
    Life was peaceful without battles.
    Life was real without theories.
    Life had life without mankind.

    Life now, has proctors, prompts and pornography. What is real and original? It seems like things are created from stencil like structures which are passed to the next generation to be remixed. Granted some things have worked for people, but there are items, things and what-nots that should not be derivatives.

    Writing is and should be a personal work of art. No one thinks the same. I, you and we may share similar feelings, thoughts and experiences but words of personal power are described and laid in a particular way. For example, we enjoy art and classical music because it inspires us to create a similar sensational feeling but it's not the same. No more prompts because it creates a strain and blockage.

    Follow your soul, it knows the way.
    Follow your soul, it knows the words.

    Meagan AWP 5000

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  39. That crush, that comfortability, that reassurance … that is what I can summarize a prompt of being. Going back into my days in High School, there has always been some sort of prompt that guided us through our poems, a guide of some sort.
    Write about having a close friend become an enemy. Why did it happen? How did it change you: (https://teens.lovetoknow.com/teen-activities-things-do/40-poetry-prompts-high-school)?
    Like how can you possibly make something creative out of that?
    I am not going to lie .. but being within your class Dr. Rich, has definitely been struggling. Not in the workload or content of information we have be diggesting, but you are making me use the part of my brain that poetry requires. You do for me now what a prompt couldn’t do for me in years of schooling… THINK FOR MYSELF. How is my next stanza going to reflect my feeling within my words, not how to find something inspirational that rhymes with orange

    Patricia D. AWP 5000

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  40. Dr. Rich
    This blog is powerful to me. every line in every statement made have flashbacks to middle and high school years. At some point in the middle of your blog you described me. I was that student that would look at teachers and ask them what do you want me to writing about. How you like this prompt to be answered. That student to make sure I hit every point in that criteria. just to grade that grade and please the teachers in how I answer my prompts. Flashbacks to how teachers didn’t let the students think and use their imagination. Or answer prompts that didn’t relate to us. Those boring prompts where we give out fake answers and thoughts. That is why now I’m always stuck when it comes to free writing our writ what you’re thinking about. Express yourself through writing. All because I never had the chance to think and express my thoughts trough writing because it was always what the teacher wanted us to write about and use certain vocabulary limiting our create thoughts. That experience has been a cursing for me in the area of writing because I always get stuck. And it makes me feel stupid and bad about my writing never confident to share when I do express myself. Now I have a different relationship with writing. I still struggle here and there. But professor rich especially in poems I’m learning how to appreciate words. Understanding and expressing through poetry.
    Jessica M.
    AWP 4000

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  41. This blog post reminds me of the first time I experienced a class with you Dr. Rich. It was our Poetry ENG 3500 and you just assigmend us our first essay of the semester. You asked us to select a poem and “just write”. It left a large number of us in the class confused. Write about what? Do you want us to analyse all points of the poem? Do you want us to connect the poem to the author's life? It was scary for me, because even in my earlier english classes @ Kean, essay assignments were given with some sort of “idea” that we should be writing about. And a good amount of the assignments required a specific structure as well. But the essay assignments that you assigned in this course, you left to our discretion. To be fair, you did “nudge” us in a direction because so many of us bombarded you with questions, but i remember specifically thinking “Fu** i'm about to fail this assignment”. I'm not good at working on the spot, “free writing” if you will. That’s another reason why at the start of our Advanced Writing Poetry course, I wasn't comfortable and confident with my work. But I quickly got over it. Turns out, the assignments that I thought I was for sure going to fail ended up getting good marks, and free writing was something, in my opinion, something that I’m pretty good at. The only thing I need is to focus on a topic, or get an idea in my head about something.

    Christian Paiz
    AWP Spring 2020

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