Dear reader,

A few weeks ago I stuffed and stamped too many envelopes to send out for Prompts, my analog newsletter. I had miscounted and forgot that 20 of my readers are international. I could have wasted the stamps and peeled them off but they are the Harriet Powers quilt stamps and they are so beautiful. So I thought it would be fun to do a giveaway and I gave away all of the extra issues.

To enter the giveaway you had to comment your favorite writing prompt. For today’s issue of Monday Monday I’ve collected them all to hopefully inspire you in your own writing practice, as well as show you how helpful being in writing community can be.

As I prepare to return to Landscapes next week I’m thinking of all the ways that writing permeates my day to day life. And when I get stuck it is so important to me to be able to return to writing prompts written by others, self generated, and created in a group setting.

I find that writing brings me closer to knowing what is going on in my inner world, gives me the freedom to access desire for my outer world, and brings great clarity to my goals and dreams. Writing allows me to feel sadness and mobilize that into action.

The thing about writing is you don’t have to be a writer, you can just be a person who writes. Keep the pressure low and try some of these on. Feel free to add new ones in the comments. Some of these had commentary on why they were chosen which you can read in the archives, below are the distilled prompts.

MONDAY MONDAY COMMUNITY PROMPTS

I love pulling a tarot/oracle card and writing from there :)

Anger is the firestorm that signals the start of your new life (from The Artist's Way)

Blue

To not choose suffering…

Take 5 minutes, fill a page with your thoughts. It could be a grocery list, the same words over and over again, stream of consciousness. (My favorite writing prompt, from my high school psychology teacher)

Thinking and roots and free writing

Today, my grief feels like…

A writing instructor presented us with a bunch of images as well as a topic (peace, belonging, fulfillment, etc.) We were supposed to choose an image to correspond with the word we were focusing on and write a few lines beginning with "Belonging is..." or "Belonging is like..." and complete that reflection, likening the topic to that image. Then we were invited to choose something that is typically the opposite of our first word (struggle, estrangement, directionlessness, etc.) and do the same...we could choose a different image, or even the same one, if we really wanted to go deep on the idea of paradox.

Describe broccoli to someone who has never seen it (From the Writing Down the Bones deck)

Write about who gets lost or left behind

How am I being with myself right now?

This is who I want to be in the apocalypse…

What's the most boring thing about youself?

What within me wants to be known?

Write about a jacket that smells like a campfire and what that campfire was - who built it, who tended it, where it was and how it went out.

Imagine an object from the future that you would interact with everyday. What does it do? What kind of future are you imagining as the context for this object? What does this object reveal about the available resources, human skillsets, and the interconnectedness (or not) of your imagined future world? Now imagine future-you has a question about how to use this object, or about its return policy, or how to repair it. (Or really anything!) Write the standard FAQ for this object from the future.

Write a resume for your favorite everyday object. What’s its work history? Its education? Its qualifications?

Today, I…

What is alive here right now?

The 5 things prompt I have learned from Summer Brennan’s essay camp

If you could tell your younger self one thing, what would it be?

Write about something you have lost.

What's alive for you in this moment?

What would you ask of your future self?

How am I spending my time? Or, how do I want to do today?

Let me discover my dreams

Who in your ecosystem is calling your attention? What are they communicated to you?

What do you need to let go of right now?

I rarely received …

What do you want more of? What do you want less of?

Write a letter to your younger self. Write a letter to your future self.

What do you feel in your body right now?

I am…

Tell me everything you know about school lunches. (this is an Anne Lamont prompt from Bird By Bird)

What would the voice of (air, water, earth, fire, rock, dirt, sky, flower, color) say?

Choose a voiceless choice and give it a voice!

There was a tree…

Reviewing all the things in a day where I had an outsize/unhelpful reaction to something

Dear god/ma/higher self/little girl self/etc., what would you have me know right now in this moment

Pick a tarot card and go from there:)

I like to write about something that seems too small to write about. An object on my desk or something in view, and just concentrate on describing that thing, its use or significance, and then just slowly pull the focus back further and further and follow threads to other things as they appear.

Describe a small, ordinary activity that you've already done today (brushing your teeth, buckling your seatbelt, etc.). Imagine that this event appears in your spiritual memoir. Reflect: What does this activity reveal about you? What mystery does it contain? No subject lacks the potential to reveal the spiritual. (From Writing the Sacred Journey, by Elizabeth J. Andrew)

To write about an early memory of a scent

→ Landscapes returns May 5th with co-working for writers and anyone who wants to write every Tuesday and Thursday 11-1EST plus guest workshops with Amelia Hruby, Podge Thomas, Casey Zabala, Selomé Samuel, and more! Join the waitlist here, registration opens THIS FRIDAY May 1

→ The next writing class I am teaching is The Pattern of Words : From Idea to Shape in Three Weeks Wednesday May 13, 20, and 27 at 10am EST. come with an idea and get support shaping it into a project, a book proposal, or a creative business idea. You can join the waitlist here

→ The May theme for PROMPTS is Thresholds. Subscribe today and receive it in your mailbox the first week of the month.

→ The last episode on the Common Shapes feed is my interview with Podge Thomas. Give it a listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and get notified to listen to a little mini series this week. Feels fun to be back on the mic.

Brilliant at your work but terrible at promoting it? The Hype shares simple ways to get seen through podcasts, speaking, press and partnerships.

Do you love YouTube but hate the algorithm? Get Podge Thomas's FREE Notion tutorial: DIY YouTube Library and be done with ads & recommendations.

Stop forcing discipline. Start creating from devotion. Join FREE workshop Make it Delicious on May 7 — and build a creative practice you love.

If you’ve ever dined at Breakfast by Salt’s Cure or wondered what it’s like to run a restaurant group with your life partner in NYC & LA, it’s free! 

Anxious about Monday before your week even starts? Join Sunday Scaries Circle, free May 3. Move, write, and support your nervous system.

Want to book a classified ad for May ? Read all about it here.

If you have an art raffle or mutual aid effort you’d like included for free in Monday Monday you can email it to info@codycookparrott.com

→ info@codycookparrott.com
→ www.codycookparrott.com
→ Follow Along on Are.na
→ Follow along on YouTube