They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

If you’re looking for inspiration this week — either a story idea or a writing exercise to get the creative juices flowing — write a thousand words about either of the couples below (or 500 words about each couple).

Still stuck? Consider these possibilities:

• What if they were transported to another time (the past, the present, or the future)?
• What if one couple were trying to stop the other from a goal?
• What if one of them were dying?
• What if they were about to lose all they have?
• What if they were about to make their biggest dream come true?

Get the picture?

In my writing group, I’m known for writing odd little stories with heart. My friend, Mark, is known for writing gritty stories straddling several genres. My friend, Deacon, is known for writing hip little stories with heart.

This isn’t to say that Mark has never written touching stories, or that I’ve never written something gritty. Deacon takes so many chances with his writing, and most of them work and make him even better.

The thing I like about our little writing group is we all write very different things.

During a meeting, one of us suggested an interesting writing challenge: each of us would write a story like the other two members of the group.

I know Mark’s writing very well — we’ve been writing buds for over 20 years. I started my “Mark story” and ended up with the “Mark dilemma”: this short story should be a novel.

Mark is very confident in his writing; Mark can drop 10,000 words like other writers drop 1,000. When mimicking Mark’s writing, what I thought was a good little idea for a short story ended up a better idea for a novel.

I started, but never finished, my Mark story. I think what I did write was worthy of a Mark story, but copying his style was much harder for me. What comes naturally for him took a lot of effort on my part.

Deacon’s writing is like a cafe racer: hip, lean, and able to turn heads as it zips by. While my writing isn’t typically hip enough to turn heads, I gravitate toward lean writing, too.

Mimicking Deacon’s writing seemed more natural. When I was done with this story, I realized that Deacon and I do some similar things when we write.

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I learned a lot during this writing challenge.

By mimicking Mark, I take more time when needed; I’m no longer afraid to create passages meant to be savored, rather than consumed.

By mimicking Deacon, I got a much better grasp for writing metaphors. I also realized that I can strip my own writing down even more, making every word matter.

Of all the writing prompts and challenges we’ve done in our writing group, the “Mimic Me” challenge was my favorite. It was a challenge that pushed me to try different things and understand what’s going on in the minds of my two close friends even more.

Today’s Writing Prompt

If you’re in a writing group, try writing a story using the styles of other members. If you’re not in a writing group, form one. At the very least, pick a favorite writer and try writing like them.

It’s an eye opening experience that shows you what you do very well, and a reminder that you should always be open to trying new things.

Some of those new things, after all, just might become part of your repertoire.

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I hope you enjoyed this week of writing prompts. I enjoyed writing this week’s posts and plan to do another week of writing prompts sometime soon.

My next series will be a query letter a day that worked for me. Look for that the week of January 18 – 22.

Earlier this week, I had been writing for 45 minutes before I realized that the landscapers at the apartment where I live were working right below the window where I sat. When I stopped to get some water, I heard the construction crew across the street with the jackhammer.

I knew they were there, but I was so into what I was writing that they didn’t bother me.

I recently worked for a small company. The break room was rarely used, so I brought lunch to work and got an hour of writing in each day during lunch break.

One Friday afternoon as I was writing, a co-worker brought in a large stack of pizzas. It was the first Friday of the month, a day when the company I worked for brought in pizza for all employees.

I thought about going back to my desk or finding someplace else to write, but I stayed put.

I was focused on writing and decided to put my concentration to the test.

Aside from acknowledging co-workers saying hello, I stayed in the story, blocking out the commotion around me.

I wasn’t always so focused; the slightest background noise used to throw me off. Now, though, when I really get into what I’m writing, the commotion around me falls away. Background noises even become soothing (with the exception of high-pitched yapping dogs).

I still prefer writing very early in the morning when things are silent, but being able to write with background distractions is a great skill to have as a writer. When you can write with distractions, you give yourself more places and times you’re able to write.

Today’s Writing Prompt

Go someplace very distracting…and write! Don’t put on headphones and listen to music — see if you can block out everything and focus on your writing.

For somebody juggling a job and life with their writing, there are going to be distractions. Doesn’t it make sense to learn to deal with them, instead of fighting them?

Tomorrow’s Writing Prompt

Something I never did until last year, and it was so much fun!

When writing, I like making things up.

While you’d be hard pressed to find any lengthy autobiographic passages in my fiction, I do love taking a small, real thing and running with it until it’s nothing like what it was based on.

Here’s an example:

I had a friend who never knocked on my front door when he came over — he always knocked on windows. Even if he knew I was in the living room of an old house where I once lived, he’d knock on the windows beside the front door to get my attention.

One day he came to my window saying, “Dude! I was in Southlake awhile ago, and out in this field were two Great Danes. I need your pickup truck so I can go get them!”

This small, real exchange ended up as a story not at all like what really happened. (I told my friend I was tired and wasn’t leaving the house.)

This is the story. (I’m currently having issues with my main Web site — here’s a PDF of the story, and here’s a EPUB file of the story.)

Today’s Writing Prompt

Take something tiny and blow it up into something else.

No autobiography; just running with a snippet of the real world until it no longer resembles what it’s based on.

Tomorrow’s Writing Prompt

How can jackhammers, barking dogs, and pizza day at work help you write a short story?

I’ll tell you tomorrow…

One evening at the writing group I belong to, my friend, Deacon, shared a story with me and the other member of the group.

It was made very clear to us that he meant the story to be deliberately bad, full of cliches, purple prose, and stock plotting.

The story was called, “Butterfly, My Queen,” (an Austenesque spoof of a story), and it was one of the funniest things I’ve read.

As I read the story, it hit me: “While deliberately bad, this is better than what some people have shared with me that was meant to be taken seriously.”

In the hands of a good writer trying to write something horrible, so many of the bad habits of new writers and writers who don’t strive to get better become even more evident.

I have seen so many writers try to write about how expressive eyes are. I’ve seen angry gazes burn holes in people, walls, and other things. I’ve seen eyes flutter like butterflies. I’ve seen eyes become pools of water that we want to fall into forever, never to come back up for air.

Eyes are expressive; it’s natural to want to focus on them in stories, but it’s best leaving them alone.

This is how Deacon addressed the overuse of trying to be an expressive writer when it comes to eyes.

“Oh, Charles! Did you hear?” Her eyes shimmered with moisture, emotional moisture, squeezed up from whatever pain she was enduring and forced out like orphan tears. His eyes leaned over and lapped at the tears gingerly, but of course, only in his mind.

A couple other gems from “Butterfly, My Queen”:

His mouth smiled and his eyes shone as his brain reeled and his earlobes danced. His heart skipped a beat and his liver wrote a love letter, scratched onto his insides with a tough, scabby part at the end of the liver. The slowly hemorrhaging Charles had never been happier.

The poor  dear, he thought. The poor, small, dear, baby badger-like Eliza was inconsolable, like a small animal whose paws hurt, but were needed for some task to keep the small animal alive. Perhaps digging.

The thing about writing a deliberately bad story — in order to pull it off, you have to be able to write well.

You have to be able to recognize what’s bad to mimic it or turn it into a parody.

It’s not as easy as it sounds.

Today’s Writing Prompt

Write a deliberately bad story.

Make it a parody if you want, or try selling it as genuine.

This is a great writing exercise to discover your writing pet peeves.

Tomorrow’s Writing Prompt

One of my favorite things to do as a writer: taking something small and running with it.

2010 has arrived, and many have begun working on their resolutions for the new year.

If one of your resolutions this year is to write more, but you have a hard time kick starting the creative flow, I hope this week’s writing prompts help you. Each day this week, I’ll post a new writing challenge.

I hope by the end of next week that you have your first story of the new year done.

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When two friends and I formed our writing group in 2004, one of our regular writing challenges went like this:

• One of us came up with a person.
• One of us came up with a place.
• One of us came up with a thing.

Our first challenge looked like this:

• Person = A man who talks to birds.
• Place = The moon.
• Thing = A broken radio.

We put no other rules on the challenge.

If one of us wanted to put a character on the moon, we could. If one of us wanted to put a character at Craters of the Moon National Monument and Reserve, that was fine. I chose to write about a person obsessed with the moon.

I’ve always found the Person, Place, Thing challenge to be as basic as it gets. From such a basic challenge, I’ve written more than a few stories I’m very proud of.

The best thing about the Person, Place, Thing challenge: there’s never an excuse not to write — all you need are three simple things!

Today’s Writing Prompt

If you’re in a writing group, give this challenge a try. If you aren’t in a writing group, consider forming one. In the meantime, ask three co-workers, three family members, or three friends to come up with the three parts of the challenge.

The fun part of the challenge is having others give you something to work with.

We often do our best writing when our reputation is on the line and our backs are against the wall.

The Person, Place, Thing writing challenge puts you right where you need to be as a writer.

Tomorrow’s Prompt:

Tomorrow I’ll share a writing prompt that is harder than it sounds — something that will show you that you know more about writing than you may have thought you did, all while having a lot of fun.

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Photo (used with permission) by pilot and stargazer extraordinaire, the mighty Tom Wideman.