My Writing Prompt

Image result for Juan Valdez Coffee. Size: 183 x 170. Source: dailycoffeenews.com — **Describe the scene outside your window.**

I bailed out on my writer’s group prompt last Friday. It was a long workday on a Friday and that was before the two-hour skull session, which concluded with a 30-minute prompt. I will be revisiting the writer’s group a good deal in future blogs. For now, I wanted to send a gratitude to A Writer’s Path blog post entitled “The Benefits of Joining a Writer’s Group“, from a month or so ago. I read it and took courage from it. Who knows? I may not have attended that group for the first time ever, if I had not read her blog. Thanks! And the best part is that the group is letting me come back.

My writing prompt is brewed

As I said, I did have to leave before the last half hour writing prompt. I felt a bit bad at leaving early as I was the “new guy”. However, on the way out, I said, “I know I will do my writing tomorrow morning.” Why? How could I be so sure? Write without a prompt? Have you taken leave of your senses, new guy?

I have never been a big practitioner of writing prompts. I took part in one a couple years ago in a class on blogging. Maybe it wasn’t a good fit for the intent of the class. But it didn’t change my overall ambivalence toward writing prompts as a whole. I haven’t used one since.

I think the main reason for that, and why I knew I would write the morning after writer’s group is that I drink my writing prompts. That is, my prompt is whatever type of coffee is in the cup that is always, always and always within reach when I write. I have previously addressed this in my own post, Coffee and Writing. Not all traditional writing prompts are the same. Neither are the liquid ones.

This week’s drinkable prompt has sparked a lot of creativity and imagination in yours truly. It is the fairly humble Kroger Private Selection Sumatran Mandheling. It is so humble I think they used Sumatran incorrectly.

You say Sumatran, I say Sumatra…

I have only seen it as Sumatra Mandheling and I’ve been consuming coffee before they even knew there was coffee outside Juan Valdez’s back yard. But it is every bit as earthy and full bodied as Sumatra(n)s costing way more. As a varietal, Sumatra’s strength is it’s early body and smooth full mouthfeel. A fine coffee for drinking while contemplating what your novel’s protagonist is going to do after escaping narco-terrorists during a breathtaking chase through the corridors of a random east Asian palace.

The above novel will need a base, a backbone a solid foundation. So do all the blends we know and love. Sumatra’s body and earthiness make it a great base for any and many espresso blends out there. It is also my educated guess that Sumatra is included in the house blend your local bearded roast master has going right now.

So, if you need a prompt for your writing and can’t get to, or don’t yet have a writer’s group to get to, try the Kroger Private Selection Sumatra or Sumatran. Either one will prompt those words. Happy brewing and writing!