Writing Prompt: Stardom
Visual inspiration + mental exercise to start your writing week
Whatever defines your star, the shimmer of magic is the same. Stardom is code for miraculous power, beauty and height, pristine and elegant untouchability… and a most exclusive loneliness.
Metaphortography Prompts are free visual and verbal writing prompts for inspiration and reflection. This is the Monday section of Aimee Liu’s MFA Lore. Our Wednesday section is Writer In The World, a curated collection of essays on the writing life by acclaimed MFA faculty and alumni. Writers in Conversation and other MFA Core essays on the craft and business of creative writing will drop each Saturday. Receive some or all of these newsletters by subscribing now:
Tis the season for hope and joy and stars of wonder beaming glad tidings near and far. Whatever defines your star, the shimmer of magic is the same. Stardom is code for miraculous power, beauty and height, pristine and elegant untouchability… and a most exclusive loneliness. We worship and lust for stardom. We bind it to our dreams. Yet often we also shed crocodile tears over stars that tragically burn themselves out, falling, flaming, into obscurity.
Stardom: The earliest known use of the noun stardom is in the 1860s
: the status or position of a star
Here is your writing prompt:
As you contemplate the image above, consider the stars that blaze brightest in your personal galaxy. Perhaps they’re the people you most admire and envy. Or maybe they’re the loved ones who hold your heart. If you’re religious or spiritual, your star supreme may be a deity. If the natural world commands your state of wonder, the stars might well be… stars.
Consider your relationship with the most compelling of your stars, and answer these prompts:
Describe your star in telling detail.
What do you physically feel when you focus on this celestial being?
What is the emotion that rises above all others?
What is the distance between the two of you?
What does your star offer you?
What do you offer in return?
What do you hold back from each other?
What are your hopes and fears for your star?
What do you yearn in vain to understand about your star?
What is the price your star must pay to shine so brightly?
What brings your star supreme joy?
Now write a heart-to-heart conversation between you and your star that reflects the answers you’ve gathered above.
Loreates’ Corner
I’m delighted to introduce you to a few of the wonderful stacks by writers in our community. Please read, subscribe, and share! And if you’re an MFA Lore subscriber with a great writing stack that I haven’t mentioned, please drop the link in a comment, so I can add you to our Corner.
Amy Martin : Crashworthy
Katy Dalgleish : Dear Democracy
Christine Sneed : Bookish
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