Yet Untitled 114 - My Prompts
Action towards a robust, generative writing practice
My dear Yet Untitler,
I was on a video call with my brother earlier this week, wishing him a happy birthday. He had a friend visiting who saw me on the screen. It was late in the evening, I had my hair open and my beard had grown longer than usual, which prompted the brother’s-friend to ask -
“Is Vasant on a budget?”
It was a comment on my appearance, prompted by how he perceived me. His comment prompted me to stare at my face in the mirror for longer than usual the following morning, wondering whether I should trim my beard/get a haircut/lose weight.
This was a mini chain of prompts that dominoed in my head while I was already thinking about Prompts in general. ‘Prompt’ is a word that carries weight in the world of newsletter-writing. ‘Eat Pray Love’ writer Elizabeth Gilbert, whose newsletter was recommended by my dear fellow substacker Cali Bird, works with writing prompts in interesting ways, as do many writers I come across in the Substack universe. The other context that has made the word ‘prompt’ fashionable is AI.
This overlap is interesting, as both AI and newsletter-writing have a generative aspect, as in - they can potentially create something new that did not exist before. Prompts are the things that galvanise the creative potential of the writer’s intelligence - whether human or AI - towards creation. In that way, a prompt is powerful - already carrying the seed of what’s eventually created.
What are my prompts?
In Yet Untitled’s initial instalments, photographs were my prompts. This evolved over time: sometimes an idea became a prompt. Sometimes, I based instalments on ‘prompt clusters’ where ideas bridged to a photo that bridged to cultural artefacts like films, music and books. Like in this one here:
Once in a while, circumstances have been my prompt - mostly, the lack of time has been a prompt to quickly assess what lies before me and efficiently turn it into an instalment. YUs such as the one that follows are a prime example when I turned to other forms like poetry to publish a satisfying edition within the very little time I had to create it.
Sometimes, my prompts have been clusters of feelings - lingering, foggy feelings left behind by dreams like pathways of sea-foam after the vessels that made them are long gone. Sometimes, like today, my prompts are utterances that trigger a feeling. Here’s another of that ilk:
Why do prompts trigger a particular feeling? Prompts, I find, are question-generating. Perhaps the question is the real prompt and everything else is just a trigger.
Themes are prompts?
I always find it exciting to discover a pattern or recurrence in my life. A theme can prompt a thesis, something that maps the erstwhile unchartered territories of life. At the very least, theses (as in plural of thesis) become ample raw material for a humble newsletter.
My archive of images became the most obvious place to look for the things that recurringly catch my attention. Apart from the hundreds of photos of my hands and feet, other things emerged and prompted instalments such as this:
I’m looking for new prompts now
Images, feelings, patterns, circumstance, utterances: in various permutations and combinations, these remain fertile ground at least for something to grow and germinate into a piece of writing that offers some satisfaction. However, as I keep going (growing?), I feel that new seeds are starting to germinate within me and are asking for the right kind of water and the right kind of sunlight.
New prompts would be this water and this manner of sunbeams. What could they be?
As I ask myself this, I ask you as well dear Yet Untitler. Look out for me in this one. Tell me a bit about prompts you’ve found useful, in life and in writing.
A last thought on prompts
After that comment from my brother’s friend prompted me to stare at my face in the mirror for longer than usual - wondering whether I should trim my beard/get a haircut/lose weight - I suddenly started thinking about the effect that the prompt was having on me. That person’s voice was in my head, making me consider myself in mildly toxic ways.
At one point, I started thinking about trimming my beard and possibly going for a run independent of the brother’s friend who had commented on my appearence. When the prompt was coming from me and not from elsewhere, I found that it had lost its toxicity. A change had occurred.
Many of the prompts that eventually became YU instalments could have gone either way. This post - On Prayers Not Being Answered - arose from a cluster of frustration before the filter of YU turned those feelings into other more manageable, even positive, stuff like - y’know - hope.
This little weekly dance we have, dear YU-er, it’s been primarily about transformation. Let’s keep going. Let’s ramp this shit up. Gimme some of them prompt-thoughts when you can.
Thanks for listening
Lots of love
Vasant
And
I don't usually use prompts. But I'm wondering whether it might be fun.