Writing Prompts

Some writers, or so the magazines for writers tell us, use writing prompts in order to loosen up the nuts, grease the wheels, and jumpstart the creative engine that is responsible for selecting a few words from a lifetime accumulation of blah blah blah and put it on white paper. The writing prompt might be "Write a story about a priest, a rabbi, and a minister that walked into a strip club." So once it is written, what happens to the story ? It could be filed away until there is a demand for religious erotica. It could be folded into a thong-shaped cross. (Actually, isn't a thong already in the shape of a cross?) Most likely, it is tossed into a wastebasket, but how inspirational is that to begin each morning trashing one's hard work?

On the other hand, there is a spiritual truth involved. The response to the writing prompt is an idea that has been cast into the ooze of the universe thereby creating a ripple in the ooze. The movement of molecules in the ooze's ripple creates heat, in other words, energy which loosens nuts, greases wheels, and jumpstarts the creative engine. Ideas are manifested as keystrokes and keystrokes cast out ideas creating more ripples of ooze. The universe is forever and irrevocably changed by a few words about a priest, a rabbi, and a minister in a strip club.

Maybe it's not such a bad idea after all. So, there was this priest....