Purse Prompts Asian Blue
- Gina Greenlee, Author
- Apr 5
- 4 min read
Use this purse-inspired step-by-step template as a writing prompt.
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What’s the Point, of Purse Prompts, You Ask?
Fun way to fill a blank page. Blank pages keep folks from starting projects.
You are getting your “reps” in, working and strengthening a muscle of getting started and getting on with it. With more reps, each time you work the muscle the lift gets easier. For writers, the art of noticing is like singers and musicians practicing scales to remain grounded in the basics of craft.
It’s fun. We’re more inclined to engage joy, not drudgery. One of my mentors/teachers, Lynda Barry says, “the best way to write is to let the image pull you. You should be water-skiing behind it, not dragging it like a barge. Writing should take you for a ride.”
You engage and strengthen your sensory awareness muscles with the “Feels, Sounds, Smells, Tastes, Looks” lists. Often, one of our senses we rely on more heavily than others. And that shows in our writing. For me, it’s visual. I neglect to describe the full human sensory experience. This list prompts me to be more present with all of my senses in my daily life moments and by extension my writing. It’s great muscle building for objective observation.
You are playing. Imagination is a playground. So many adults, particularly in the United States, neglect play. Purse Prompts will help you remember to engage play regularly.
Fodder, fodder and more fodder. From this one page I see ready-made, no-need-to-edit poems. Great opening lines for anything – novel, blog post, narrative non-fiction. I’ll prove it. See what I created below from this simple play prompt: my purse.
Below is how my prompt play turned out based on the purse that is the headline image:
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I am crazy about all things Asian.
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Opening line (from 5-minute free write):
The idea is mine, but its expression belongs to the idea itself.
I am…
A silken peacock
Asian summer
electrified pink weed
shimmery purple beneath.
Oblongata.
I notice…
…a lopsided face, skin folds, symmetry, a blue-tinged “Life” and husky green.
Feels (Emotions), Sounds, Smells, Tastes, Looks Like…
Feels like icy rage
Sounds like honeycombed cranes
Smells like metallic beach
Tastes like tangy coins
Looks like liquid pearl
This reminds me of…
Stunning Asian-style dresses I purchased at TJ Maxx years ago.
Cheong sams I wore in Singapore and ao yais I bought in Vietnam and vests and blouses I bought in New York City’s Chinatown when my father was still alive and I went back to see him when I was living in Connecticut.
I wish…
I had a place to wear that dress again. Life in Florida is so casual now. That I had more opportunities to wear this purse. I love everything about it: the colors and how they transition from one to another, first blue then purplish pink; how they bring back memories of lotus flowers in Vietnam.
Fictional story prompt (from 5-minute free write)
“This was my Asian period.”
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Title
Metallic Beach
Muscular Description
Tangy coins, liquid pearl and icy rage
Intriguing Opening Lines
A place to wear that dress again
Chinatown Vietnam Singapore
Blue-tinged, this was my Asian period.
Poetry that Writes Itself
It is mine to fold blue rage onto itself,
silken weeds alive with icy green.
Lopsided honeycombs in skin folds.
How they bring back memories of
lotus flowers in Vietnam
when my father was still alive.
Create a Word Hoard
Add the results of your prompts to a large singular body of text. Play with them as found poems, opening lines, descriptive passages, inspiration for a novel or short story.
Below, I simply collected the results from my writing into a single paragraph. No thought or plan:
I am crazy about all things Asian. The idea is mine, but its expression belongs to the idea itself.
A silken peacock Asian summer electrified pink weed shimmery purple beneath. Oblongata. a lopsided face, skin folds, symmetry, a blue-tinged “Life” and husky green. icy rage honeycombed cranes metallic beach tangy coins liquid pearl Stunning Asian-style dresses I purchased at TJ Maxx years ago. Cheong sams I wore in Singapore and ao yais I bought in Vietnam and vests and blouses I bought in New York City’s Chinatown when my father was still alive, and I went back to see him when I was living in Connecticut. I had a place to wear that dress again. Life in Florida is so casual now. That I had more opportunities to wear this purse. I love everything about it: the colors and how they transition from one to another, first blue then purplish pink; how they bring back memories of lotus flowers in Vietnam. “This was my Asian period.”
So, I will keep this hoard and add to it over time and then dip into it for inspiration, a place to find a word or phrase to dress a blank page. So, it becomes a repository, a tool chest to return to whenever I wish.
Cut it Up
Enter prompted writing such as the word hoard into the Cut-Up Machine. I think of it as collaging with words. The Cut-Up Machine flips words out of order providing a fresh storytelling perspective. The words make grammatical sense but express surreal meaning, which is fun to play with as I have below:
Memories ago of living in Connecticut. Oblongata purple opportunities; a crazy idea of stunning expression. I first noticed faces colored lopsided in my pink casual period. I bought metallic when love raged, weeds folding him silken and alive beneath a City’s blue life. That husky summer I vested everything I transitioned. Mine is to bring blue rage alive, a father skin-to-skin. Back tinged and back still. Liquid once again, my life in flowers; a honeycombed place where everything belongs.
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