Young voices
Five prompts for a first session
The prompts we reach for when nobody in the room believes they are a writer yet.
A first session has one job: get everyone to write something before the bell. Not something good. Something.
1. The lie
Write five things about yourself. Four true, one false. Read them out. That is a poem about identity and nobody had to be told so.
2. The room you remember
Describe a room you have not been in for years. Only what you can see. No feelings allowed — the feelings arrive on their own.
3. Instructions
Write instructions for something impossible. How to fold water. How to apologise to someone who has moved away.
4. The last line first
Give the room a closing line and ask them to write the poem that ends there.
5. Say it louder
Take any of the above and read it standing up. That is the whole leap from page to stage.
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