Hal Zina Bennett - Write Starts: Prompts, Quotes, and Exercises to Jumpstart Your Creativity

MORE PRAISE FOR WRITE STARTS

Hal has poured a lifetime of learning and experience into a must-have book for many current and future writers. Ideas, tricks, humor, and hard-won wisdom from an old pro.

Dave Smith, author of To Be of Use: The Seven Seeds of
Meaningful Work and cofounder of Smith & Hawken

Write Starts is a gold mine of writing prompts and inspiration. If youre yearning to write and looking for a way to begin, Hal Zina Bennett is a wise, passionate, and confident guide. And if youre a seasoned writer feeling stuck, this is a book to jump-start you back into action. My copy is underlined and bristles with Post-its; Im looking forward to sharing Bennetts insights and exercises with my students.

Barbara Abercrombie, author of
Courage & Craft: Writing Your Life Into Story

From art to craft, Hal Zina Bennetts inspiring and practical book is a lively companion for any writers workday. And the compelling story starts wont leave you alone until you give them some time with your own pen and page.

Judy Reeves, author of A Writers Book of Days

If youve ever asked yourself, Whats a brilliant way to catapult my writing to the next level? this book is it!

Marilee Adams, PhD, author of
Change Your Questions, Change Your Life

PRAISE FOR HAL ZINA BENNETTS
BOOKS ON WRITING

One of a handful of real writing books

Julia Cameron, author of The Artists Way

A new window on the much-neglected invisible dimension of our humanity. Great reading.

Wayne W. Dyer, author of The Power of Intention

Offers writers an informative, personal conversation on the intricacies of getting the heart down on the page

Christina Baldwin, author of Storycatcher

Describes what each of us can do to remove the blocks to our own creativity and thus more fully express our essential being

Shakti Gawain, author of Creative Visualization

Combines insight, experience, and ancient wisdom. Not only worth reading but referencing and studying.

Hugh Prather, author of I Will Never Leave You

Reminds us that through the miracle of language we can embrace and share the wisdom of our hearts.

Jerry Jampolsky, MD, author of Love Is Letting Go of Fear

A wonderfully lucid and intelligent book, full of fascinating insights

Gabrielle Roth, author of Maps to Ecstasy

Brings the magical world of existence into our everyday lives

Lynn Andrews, author of
Writing Spirit and Medicine Woman

Offers new perspectives on the process of rebirthing spiritual insight

Terence McKenna, author of The Archaic Revival

w r i t e

STARTS

Other Books by the Author

Write from the Heart:
Unleashing the Power of Your Creativity

Writing Spiritual Books:
A Bestselling Writers Guide to Successful Publication

How to Write with a Collaborator,
with Michael Larsen

Follow Your Bliss: Discovering Your Inner Calling
and Right Livelihood, with Susan J. Sparrow

The Lens of Perception:
A Users Guide to Higher Consciousness

Spirit Animals and the Wheel of Life

Backland Graces: Four Novellas

Spirit Circle:
A Novel of Adventure and Shamanic Revelation

Zuni Fetishes:
Using Native American Objects for
Meditation, Reflection, and Insight

The Holotropic Mind, with Stanislav Grof, MD

Inner Guides, Visions and Dreams

Mind Jogger: A Problem Solving Companion

STARTS

Prompts,
Quotes, and
Exercises to
Jumpstart Your
Creativity

Hal Zina Bennett

New World Library
Novato, California

	New World Library
14 Pamaron Way
Novato, California 94949

Copyright 2010 by Hal Zina Bennett

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, or other without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Text design by Tracy Cunningham

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bennett, Hal Zina.

Write starts : prompts, quotes, and exercises to jumpstart your creativity /
Hal Zina Bennett.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-57731-689-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. AuthorshipProblems, exercises, etc. I. Title.

PN147.B465 2010

First printing, February 2010

ISBN 978-1-57731-689-3

Printed in the United States on 30% postconsumer-waste recycled paper

New World Library is a proud member of the Green Press Initiative.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To the muse who lives in each of us,
still and quiet, awaiting our call

Notes to you, the reader

Reaching beyond credibility and common sense

Finding the intrigue where opposites join

Writing prompt: Buried treasure, right in your own backyard

A little experiment on embracing personal gifts

Writing prompt: A haunted house that hides an unghostly truth

Write from the point of view of your favorite animal

Writing prompt: When the line between reality and fantasy fades away

Writing prompt: Stumbling on anothers shadow side

Reliving the past from the deep perspectives of innocence and youth

Turning points and moments of change

Writing prompt: What would you do if you knew a friend committed a crime?

Forging paths through self-criticism

Writing samples for using the five senses to enliven your writing

Divination cards for everything from book outlines to character development

Capturing the dramatic edge between characters

Daring to go, at least with words, where no one has gone before

Creative transformations of lifes most challenging moments

The importance of redeeming qualities even for bad guys

Seven ways to steal from real life

Self-doubt and negative self-judgment as creative assets

Giving vitality to the personal narrative

Getting better acquainted with your creative source

You cant go home againor can you?

The basic elements of good storytelling

Hooking up with the power that drives your writing

Drawing creative inspiration from real-world characters

Writing prompt: Mysterious young hitchhiker on a desolate back road

Adventure back in time to a lost love

What is the question your best writing asks?

Twelve steps for making your characters leap off the page

Four steps to becoming a better observer

Finding the ideal place where inspiration shines