Writing prompts and our favorite types has been a topic of discussion at the National Writing Project’s Studio this week. I like simple one word prompts, but it occurs to me that you can use almost anything to prompt toward anything. For example, I have created a prompt below from Lucas Fernandes da Costa’s post, “Why deadlines are pointless and what to do instead”.

 

Prompts are invitations to act.  In this case actions can include writing, considering, a conversation somewhere, reading, an argument, a look at assumptions, and a duty of care to respond.  In other words, if you create a prompt, you have to also consider the consequences of that invitation to act.

Here is my opening action:  I am trying to create a new online “course” that I call “FUTURITY”.  I want to connect folks to their near and far futures. I think that having this skill is essential in our NOW. When we create “coursework”, standard operating practice is to create learning outcomes and then shoehorn them into platforms with deadlines.  For example, I am using EPICLearning’s Mighty platform to begin to flesh out this course.  This assertion that “deadlines are pointless” challenges the basic creative assumption that because we can’t control outcomes, we shouldn’t have deadlines.

I don’t think I have seen a prompt in this format before which makes me want to consider other prompt formats:  about.me’s, alt texts, ai-generated text or art or music, twitter chats, instagram stories…My point?  Prompts have limitless possibility.  Wordle and all its clones are nothing but prompts, right?  D.S. 106’s daily creates are very specific prompts. I use a prompt every day to prime the Muse’s pump called “Homework4Life”.

Prompts are ubiquitous. In acknowledging this, we need to learn how to decide which ones work for us and which ones don’t.  And we need to be careful about the demands we unknowingly put on others to act.  Maybe we need prompts to do nothing, to be idle, to quietly quit, to withdraw goodwill.

We live in a sea of prompts. We live in a sea of appeals for our attention.  Every ad, every link, every request for our attention is a prompt; and the more I notice this ubiquity the more I hate to add to that roiling demand to attend.

So consider this prompt if it strikes a chord, it it resonates.  Use it as you will or just let it slip away if that makes more sense.  For me, I have a reason to want to know the answer to the question above.  I need all the help I can get, but I will carry on even if it matter naught to anyone else.   Perhaps the question is morphing even now:  is learning an infinite game where the outcomes can’t be predicted and the deadlines don’t matter?