Writing 101: Writing off Prompts to Create Blogs

While I was traveling, I read about a course called Writing 101 from the Daily Post. Since I was new to blogging and the course was advertised as a way to create a writing habit and generate  more content, I signed up. Once it began and the prompts and twists were released, they looked a lot like the prompts I was given in my fiction classes. I love writing, especially creative writing, but it took time for me to link creative and non-fiction writing to make a blog post.

The fact that you don’t need to publicize them all, can mix and match the prompts and twists and you can make the prompts whatever you want keeps me entertained. Since it’s a lot of free writing I can stretch my creative writing muscles. A lot of the posts don’t make it past my Scrivener document but some of the very good ones or posts I feel relate to what I write about get published. Throughout the course I’ve found ways to twist a lot of them into blog posts that work for my page. There are even some free write ones I published because I liked how they came out.

I don’t know if the Writing 101 program really helped me develop a blogging habit. It has done one thing though: given me a lot of content. I’m generating a lot of writing in one week. In contrast to when I started blogging and I only had one or two posts a week, now I never have a shortage. I have multiple drafts waiting to be published and a lot of ideas in the works. Writing 101 also showed me I don’t necessarily like working off set prompts. A lot of my stronger posts come from inspirations I pull from conversations or things I read.

However, there is something really nice about having a common community. All the writers who are doing it occasionally post their responses and will inspire me or move me to write in a new style. While I think the advertising for Writing 101 was slightly off in what it actually achieves, I am grateful for doing it and love all the new and interesting content I am developing. I also am thankful to see I haven’t totally lost my ability to write fiction.