Ten thousand fools proclaim themselves into obscurity, while one wise man forgets himself into immortality.
—Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 - 1968)

I can imagine a good handful of exercises based on Mr. King’s quote:

• If you prefer to journal about issues that are important to you, try journaling about what this quote means and/or how it applies to you, your role models, today’s politicians and celebrities, various famous people from the past, and/or the person from your life you consider to be the most wise.
• If you prefer to write non-fiction essays, write an essay about what Mr. King meant and/or how it applies to you, your role models, today’s politicians and celebrities, various famous people from the past, and/or the person from your life you consider to be the most wise.
• If you prefer to write fiction, write a story that includes a fool who proclaims himself into obscurity, and a wise man who forgets himself into immortality.
• Write a character sketch of a fool who proclaims himself into obscurity, and/or a wise man who forgets himself into immortality.
• Write about the nature of foolishness and wisdom or obscurity and immortality.
• Explore how you might forget yourself into immortality.
• Explore whether you believe this quote to be true, or, if it was once true, whether it still is now.

Today, take an ordinary object and make it extraordinary. Look around you and pick something of everyday use—your favorite coffee mug, a bunch of carrots, your cats’ water bowl, your oldest pair of sneakers. If you can’t see something you see everyday in this light, then use something ordinary but removed from your day-to-day existence. You could try one of the following:

• A rutabaga
• A dead bird
• An optical mouse
• An ivory candle
• A map
• A wallet
• A pocket mirror

Perhaps the object is enchanted in some way. Maybe it kicks off a very unusual story, or is key to an extraordinary plot. A good example would be the magic beans in Jack and the Beanstalk, or the greens the farmer’s wife craves in Rapunzel (not to mention Rapunzel’s hair). My favorite example right now, however, is this incredibly unusual piece of artwork I found yesterday:

Naked Mole Rat Dreams by *ursulav on deviantART

A turnip is just a turnip, right? And a mole rat is just a mole rat? Well not in the hands of someone creative. So today, take something ordinary and give it a new life.

Today I recommend that you visit the Not My Desk New Food Dire Warning And/Or Healthful Revelation Generator. Generate a dire warning or two and start writing:

• A press release warning the public about this new hazard. Be as deadpan or over-the-top as you please. In the case of a revelation, a press release extolling its benefits.
• A story about someone afflicted with or paranoid about contracting the new problem. In the case of a revelation, a story about someone who prays his life will be changed by it.
• A story about the new plague or benefit’s effects on society.
• A free-write based on the concepts linked by the warning or revelation.
• A poem based on the unusual linkage of images and thoughts.

For today’s exercise, try the following pre-generated health revelation:

Butter sculptures shown to prevent creeping jowls.

Random generators of nearly any kind can be used for writing—they don’t have to specifically be plot generators, character generators, or the like.

“write with curiosity”
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Vibrant colors stimulate the brain in amazing and unexpected ways. Color is an important factor in how we feel about photography and other visual pieces of art. We adorn ourselves and our environments with color, from the clothes we wear to the paint on our walls to the flowers in our gardens. Today, head on over to the Catchy Colors Photoblog. Pick the first image that catches your eye and use it to stimulate a piece of writing. It doesn’t have to be a concrete “prompt” in the sense of using the image’s contents to inspire your work. Instead, use the colors of the image and the feelings the image inspires in you to get your creative juices flowing.

For instance, by content alone I would not normally choose this headache-induced photograph; however, the saturated shades of blue definitely inspire me!

I admit it–sometimes I enjoy those little internet meme quizzes. For example, recently I took one meant to determine which character from “Heroes” you’re most like. I prefer these quizzes when they’re long enough and the questions are interesting enough that you can’t necessarily see what your result will be just from glancing at the quiz, and this one was decent. After I finished I got a result telling me that I’d had a tie between two characters: Hiro and Sylar, the most innocent character and the most viciously psychotic. Now if that isn’t a result to make you blink a few times in confusion, I don’t know what is. It got me to thinking, though–while archetypal characters are interesting, it’s also interesting to explore characters that embody things that you think wouldn’t go together.

Today, make a list of some things you’d normally think of as opposites or as mutually exclusive; these can be–but don’t have to be–personality traits. For example:

• kind, selfish
• precise, scattered
• loud, quiet

Alternatively, you can include pairs of characters from television or books that you think of as particularly different; preferably pick characters from the same show or book. For example:

• Hiro and Sylar from “Heroes”
• Teal’c and Hathor from “Stargate SG-1″
• Drs. House and Wilson from “House”

In this latter case, list out a few personality traits that make these characters so different from each other.

Finally, explore a character that embodies one of these pairs of opposites in some way. Obviously he wouldn’t have all of the traits of, say, Hiro and Sylar, but he’d have a few here and there. You can write about this character directly or write a story about him.

You’re out for a spin on a friend’s live-in sailboat. It’s a pretty little thing, with maroon-edged sail, a tiny galley, and room enough for several people to sit and enjoy the view in the harbor. You’ve been out all morning in breezy weather; despite liberal application of sunscreen you’re getting a tad crispy, and you know you’ll hurt a bit tomorrow, but it’s worth it.

The wind changes directions and dark clouds scud overhead. Your friend rushes about lashing things down and you do your best to help. The first high waves hit and a loose line catches your foot, knocking you off of your feet. You hit your head and black out for a split second; the next thing you know you’re choking on water as you struggle to stay afloat.

You can’t see what has become of your friend’s boat–all you can see are waves. You think you hear voices for a moment and you struggle to call out, but your head submerges beneath the water and you black out again.

When you come to you find yourself lying on the deck of a large boat, retching up water. You manage to roll yourself over and you see a man peering down at you, a concerned expression on his face. He asks you a question–that much is obvious by the inflection of his voice–but you don’t recognize the language being spoken.

What happens next? Who are these people? What will become of you? What happened to your friend? Write it up journal-style with yourself as the main character, or write it up as a story.

“Word Nerd”
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The Writers Corner is a new community with the following goals:

A haven for writers, it is our intention to provide writing prompts, contests and other such means of enticing the imagination into overdrive. Supportive hands will guide you through your journey into the world of publication, or so we hope.

It includes a ton of wonderful of prompts for you to enjoy and explore. Today, try this one:

In 400 words or less answer this. If time stopped but you did not, what would you do first and why?

Also consider this: just as folks like to say that pleasure without pain has no meaning, so freedom has little meaning without limits. Free-writing is often best done with a definitive, planned end-point, whether that’s planned in word-count (”400 words or less”), space (one side of a sheet of paper), or time (20 minutes). Otherwise you can end up pushing past the point where you’re still coming up with real material, and you go back to spinning your wheels.

Take a look at the gorgeous photograph “Eyes of Youth” by ayse yalcin (click through for the full version):

Its young subject has such dark, haunting eyes. She isn’t smiling in the usual manner of posed photographs; her expression is complex and fascinating. The black-and-white coloration only serves to highlight the strength of her eyes in this image, and her nose and hair aren’t what you’d expect from a “typical” model–yet she’s quite beautiful in her own unique way.

Today, tell her story.

Forget gracefully–age vividly! What do I mean by aging vividly? Age with style. Age with panache. Age with direction, focus and drive. Today, write numbers down the side of a sheet of paper starting at the top with your current age and working your way down to end at “1.” At the top, write “The N best things about turning N,” where N is your current age or a recent milestone. Fill out the list with things that amuse you, enlighten you, make you feel grateful, or anything else that seems appropriate.

For a fun example (and a viewing of the blog post that inspired this exercise), check out The 45 Best Things about Turning 45.

At Word Imperfect, you’ll find a daily word posted. You’re invited there to create a new definition for each word as it’s posted, and then folks can vote on their favorites. Today, visit and check out the most recent word. Contribute your own definition and look at other posters’ definitions for inspiration afterwards. To warm up, come up with definitions for these recently posted words:

• pilose
• kymograph
• mattoid

A variation on this would be to create nonsense words out of random letters and define them. Here are a few to get you started:

• evelyse
• marifosic
• callax