Writing prompt for the day: burnt socks

“You don't write about the horrors of war. No. You write about a kid's burnt socks lying in the road.”
― Richard Price

Read: Today's reading is the super-short prose poem "The Colonel" by Carolyn Forche. It has been included in both poetry and short story anthologies. Whatever you want to call it, it's a masterpiece of compression: of telling a big story in a limited space. Notice how the small, concrete details-- the window gratings, the good wine, the Colonel's response to the parrot saying hello-- tell a larger story.


Write: Set the timer for fifteen minutes. Start with a concrete detail and write your scene from there. This can be the next scene you're planning to work on in your current project.

Or, get one or two details below and build a scene from them. (Random number generator here.)


1. a necklace lying in the dirt

2. a reflection in broken glass

3. a stain

4. a cracked egg

5. a spilled salt shaker

6. an open book

7. a ship in a bottle

8. a door standing ajar

9. a burnt match

10. a dripping faucet

11. a dead moth

12. a bouquet of roses

13. footprints in snow

14. a cloud of smoke

15. an iron frying pan

16. the remnants of a campfire

17. half a cake

18. knitting needles on a table

19. a half-melted ice cube

20. a "World's Best Dad" mug

21. a very neatly made bed