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141 Writing Prompts The prompts below are ones I have used with both active-duty soldiers and veterans in my creative writing and English classes. Following each piece I’ve included the title of a memoir from this collection to show how far from the original prompt memory can take us. 1. Write a scene in which three of the following appear: desert boots, M16, RPG (rocket-propelled grenade), Humvee, tank, helicopter , IED (improvised explosive device), cell phone, NVGs (night-vision goggles), computer, DVD, Great Voice, cigarette or cigar, photograph , wedding ring, wallet, money, foot locker. One object becomes central to your story, while the others remain incidental. (“On the Shoulders of Dead Men,” SPC Andrew Stock) 2. Remember, creative writing is the opposite of thought. It is image making. Think of a moment of exhilaration you’ve experienced in the military, a moment when all of your senses were heightened and engaged. The type of experience you find tough to explain to an outsider, such as waking up in a sleeping bag in an open desert, a pale orange sun seeming to rise out of the earth 500 yards in front of you; stepping around the corner of a mud house to find the alley too quiet, too still; or lifting off the flight line in a Black Hawk at midnight. Use all five senses in describing the scene. Use at least three metaphors and/or similes. (“Field of Fire,” SGT Jeffrey Lambert) 3. Imagine you are holding a camera. A camera captures exact images , but it cannot think, show feeling, summarize, etc. Write a dramatic memory. As you develop your narrative, practice moving the lens of your camera in close to capture minute details, which slows time down. Or set the lens for distance to speed time up. (“Routine Mission,” SGT Kevin Zimmerman) 4. What is it that your relatives and friends won’t understand about war when you return home? Write a monologue (use first person, “I,” throughout) in which you re-create four brief scenes that attempt to show, through images that engage the senses, what perhaps cannot be fully explained: the meaning of war. Because war does not mean, but simply is, you will be creating pictures on the page, as if you are 142 WRITING PROMPTS showing photographs to a friend. Move abruptly from one scene to the next as you would from one photograph to the next. In other words, show, don’t tell. (“Journal Entries,” A1C Nicolas Gonzalez) 5. Write about a military event or other occurrence in your life about which you no longer feel guilty. Once you complete your narrative , take a second look at the first few paragraphs. How many paragraphs did it take you to reach the climax of your story? Would your story be stronger if you began in the middle of the action, in medias res, and you added the necessary background details contained in the opening paragraphs along the way? Revision is an indispensable part of the writing process. Your goal here is to grab the reader’s attention in the first few sentences of your story. (“The Big Bang,” Anonymous Male) 6. You are getting dressed, slipping an arm into your BDU or DCU shirt and thinking about what it means to be a soldier. Maybe you are standing in front of a mirror. Write your thoughts as you put on your BDU or DCU top, pants, army socks, desert boots—all symbols of commitment to your country. You might be thinking about what it means to serve, or if deployed, about what you may face today while wearing your uniform, or remembering a dangerous or difficult mission . You may feel pride, but what else? Are any of your thoughts contradictory ? What does your uniform symbolize to your parents, your wife, husband, son, or daughter? Does it hold negative connotations for anyone close to you? Why? Don’t try to cover all of the above. Go with your most powerful images. (“Deployment,” SFC Billy Wallace) 7. Write a letter to the enemy. (no example) 8. Write about a time you got in trouble either with your command or on a mission. Your narrative should be a complete story, but not necessarily a long story. Include dialogue, description with lots of sensory detail, rising action, climax, falling action. Remember to show rather than tell. (“Meltdown,” SGT Jarrell Robinson) 9. Plot involves conflict (man against man, nature, self, the environment , etc.). The antagonist might be a...

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