PtoP Ep 22 Blooms edit1
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Carrie: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Prompt to Page podcast, a partnership between the Jessamine County Public Library and the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning. I'm your host, librarian and poet, Carrie Green. Each episode we interview a published writer who shares their favorite writing prompt. Our guest today is Ashley Blooms.

Ashley is the author of Where I Can't Follow, which was named a most anticipated novel by Good Housekeeping, Gizmoto and Tor.com, among others. Her debut novel, Every Bone of Prayer was long listed for the Crook's Corner Book Prize. She's a graduate of the Clarion Writer's Workshop and received her M F A as a John and Renee Grisham fellow from the University of Mississippi.

Her fiction has appeared in The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction and Strange Horizons among others. Learn more at ashleyblooms.com. Welcome, [00:01:00] Ashley, and thanks for joining us. 

Ashley: Thank you so much for having me.

Carrie: So when I was preparing for our chat, I saw that you made a creative writing planner that includes a year's worth of prompts among other tools.

Do you wanna talk a little bit more about that? 

Ashley: Sure. Yeah. It was kind of a spur of the moment project that I started over the winter when I was a little laid up with some health stuff and I have a, a busy mind. So I ended up thinking kind of a, sort of started for myself. . It's sort of a way to reconnect and do some kind of creative healing.

Where my work wasn't really as focused on the product as the process, which is something that I think a lot of writers have to reconnect with over time. And I ended up, you know, seeing some value in it for a broader audience, you know, that other people might get more use out of it than just myself.

But yeah, I created, you know, a planner for a year because I love planners. And there's weekly writing prompts. Places for you to keep track of all of that [00:02:00] little reading tracker for all the books, manga, whatever else that you're reading throughout the year. . And yeah, it was, it was sort of a, just a project of love that I made 

for myself and wanted to share it with others. 

Carrie: You, you mentioned it as a tool for healing. I noticed that in the description you talked about an emphasis on self-compassion over shame, which was something that resonated with me. I was just wondering if you could explain that a little more.

Ashley: Absolutely. So the planner is I mean, it's written in my voice, so it just has a lot of encouragement and kindness and encourages a lot of self-compassion and self-love and celebrating yourself rather than shaming or comparing or falling into any of those kind of traps that we can fall into as writers, because I've taught for a number of years. I'm in a number of workshop groups, so I, I spend a lot of time in the company of writers, and one of the things that I have noticed almost universally is that we're very hard on ourselves. Um, you know, we can. We can be really [00:03:00] tough. And so I've never met a writer that I thought, you know, they could use more criticism in their life.

So I really just wanted be the planner for, again, for myself and for other people to try to encourage myself to also speak more lovingly and compassionately to myself. And hopefully to encourage other people to do the same because I think that creativity grows much better if you are being gentle with it then if you are kind of using shame or criticism, which are tools that I think a lot of us kind of fall into.

But yeah, I think our creativity does a lot better when we nurture it gently. And so I was hoping to, to add that into the planner as well. 

Carrie: Since you created this for yourself, I'm guessing that prompts are a big part of your writing process.

Ashley: They, they haven't been for a while. That was actually part of why I returned to them.

Carrie: Oh, interesting. 

Ashley: Yeah, I had been kind of in a creative drought, we'll call it last year, and I was very resistant [00:04:00] to that fact, which only made the drought harder, you know, as resistance often does. . It can keep us stuck. So instead of just doing, whatever I needed to do to, you know, nurture myself and refill my well and give myself the rest that I clearly needed,

I kind of resisted that for quite a while and I finally gave into that impulse at the end of last year, which is when I was just thinking about different tools that I could use to reconnect me with what brought me to writing in the first place. You know, the love of story and the excitement and the fun and the really the playfulness and flexibility that I started out with as a writer.

But you know, after publishing and going through the pandemic, you know, my writing had become a little more like a chore. And so I wanted to bring some of that, that fun and play back into that space. And one of the things I turned to were writing prompts because that was something I used a lot more when I was a young [00:05:00] writer.

And so I just wanted to, you know, challenge myself, bring in ideas that I wouldn't normally do, you know? Mm-hmm. Prompt myself in directions that I wouldn't normally take, and just be really open to seeing what would happen. And then also listening to any voices that came up, just to become familiar with the criticism that was kind of around my head.

And the criticism would often cut off. You know, creative ideas, it would often, you know, kind of rope me back in from spaces that seemed too unfamiliar. And so that was kind of something that I learned to work with to continue to allow myself to grow and expand and try new directions. So the prompts ended up being really helpful for that process of trying to tap back into what, what made me wanna write to begin with.

Carrie: Mm-hmm. I mean, it's a year's worth of prompts. So did you create all of those yourself or did you. 

Ashley: Yeah, I did. 

Carrie: Yeah. Wow. 

Ashley: Thankfully, I mean, I've been, like I said, I started, oh goodness. It was like, ugh, many years ago, like 2008, [00:06:00] 2009, when I was in my first creative writing classroom as a student. 

I've been a student for many years. I got, you know, I graduated my MFA in 2017 and I've been teaching since then, so I've never really left the classroom. So I've, it had a lot of prompts on my way. So a lot of them are sort of new incarnations of things that I have been brought over the years, as well as just, you know, I sat down and made a huge list of

the parts of writing, you know, individually that students or myself or other writers that I'm close with have talked about being sticking points. Things that are intimidating or difficult that can make us feel, you know, under equipped. And I wanted to try to really target prompts at these different areas to remind us that we have one that we're a lot more skilled than we often give ourselves credit for.

You know, I've never. Had a writer in my classroom, we have a brand new writer that doesn't have a lot that they are bringing to the page. You know, a lot of skills, a lot of talent, [00:07:00] but we often can't see that in ourselves as easily as we can see it in other people. So I wanted to create prompts that would help us tap into those things that were already within us, help build confidence for that.

So yeah, I just kind of approached it, I guess, as a teacher and you know, tried to use the prompts as ways to kind of show. All the things that we already have inside of us. 

Carrie: Mm-hmm. So what prompts did you wanna talk about today?

Ashley: Yeah, so I have one in particular, that's one of my favorites.

So it's, it's kind of a long prompt. I like a multiple step prompt. So this one has kind of multiple parts to it. So you start out by making a list of 10 different things, and this can go any number of directions, but for us, I'm gonna specifically use cars. So a 10, a list of 10 different cars that you remember riding in, being in as a child.

And if you get stuck making that list, then you can expand the idea of cars to include things like school buses or other kind of modes of transportation that you may have frequented. The most [00:08:00] important thing is not for this to be really perfect, and especially for it not to be rigid that you should be able to tap into things that really spark some vivid memories for you.

And then once you have that list, you're gonna pick the one that's really stood out the most to you, or evoked the most. And you're gonna put on a timer for about five minutes and write down any and all sensory details that you can remember and really push yourself to think about all five of those senses.

Smell, sound, sight, taste, touch. Think about texture and fabric, air fresheners that were there, what was in the glove box. What you lost inside the car, what you found inside the car. And I'm very generous with myself at this part. And I often include details that just begin to kind of pop into my brain at random.

So it becomes very kind of free associative. . And also things that weren't actually in that car. Right. So you can begin to kind of blend into fiction at that point. A lot of my favorite writing prompts kind of open the door without trying to guide my steps. . So trust your instincts once you get going and don't [00:09:00] edit yourself or leave anything out.

There's really no way that you can get it wrong. So once you have that big mess of sensory details, you're gonna turn that into a one page scene written in present tense. Cause we're going for that kind of immediate immersive feeling. And this could be a brand new scene that you just got inspired by, or you could work it into a current project if you're feeling a little stuck in it.

And again, I like to use the prompt as kind of a jumping off point because cars are so visceral and personal in our lives which makes them a really good gateway into other lives. Our characters' lives our characters' world. So a car in our world could be a spaceship in your sci-fi universe or a submarine in your deep sea story because cars are really just

things that get us where we need to go. . So when we start really specific, you can then kind of broaden out and begin to incorporate those strong sensory details into new worlds. So that Lisa Frank sticker that's on the dashboard of your [00:10:00] car when you were little, might make you wonder what kind of sticker your character would put on their car, which is a question about

who they are and what they love. And also a question of what world they're living in and what media exists in that world, which ties into even bigger things. So again, if you can begin at a place that feels a little more intimate and personal, you can then expand that into building all kinds of new worlds and new facets of that world.

Carrie: Yeah. That's great. And I, I think starting off with a list immediately takes the pressure off because you're not trying to write. 

Ashley: Exactly. Yeah. So I, I love, again, anything that reminds us that we have a ton to draw from. We have a ton inside of us that we can work with and we can just pick any one of those ideas, but there's gonna be plenty of other that are others that are waiting there for us to explore at another time, or if this idea doesn't work out.

So I love working with multiple options. That's something that I've emphasized a lot [00:11:00] recently because I also noticed that sometimes as writers we can get really attached to our first idea. . When our first idea might actually be like two ideas away from a great idea. And so if we can kind of stay in that place of, of flexibility for just a little bit longer and kind of push ourselves in different directions from the first one that we found we can discover some really cool options that we might not have if we had just kind of stuck with the first thing and, and got to work.

Carrie: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I know that your work. You use fantasy and in your work? 

Ashley: Mm-hmm.

Carrie: Is that kind of how the process works for you? That it sort of blends in with the 

Ashley: Yeah, absolutely.

Carrie: With the more realistic, 

Ashley: Yeah. I definitely try to, to blend those often because I think they're just really helpful bridges.

You know, having those elements. And I write sort of more in the vein of fabulism, which blends like, you know, our realistic setting with fantastic elements. So the two are almost always [00:12:00] interacting with my work and often talking to each other or playing off of each other. So it's something that I really like doing is you know, taking something in my life and then extrapolating wildly from that.

Carrie: Mm-hmm. And that is something I think that is tricky sometimes to do because you get sort of stuck in, well, this is how it happened. 

Ashley: Yeah. 

Carrie: So when you're translating your life to fiction or fictionalizing a poem or whatever, yeah. That can be a challenge. 

Ashley: Absolutely. Yeah. 

Carrie: Do you have any writing tips that you'd like to give our listeners?

Ashley: Yeah. I always say like the, the oldest advice, which is just to read a lot, is always very steady advice. I find myself turning to, to books when I am in writing slumps or when I'm just not feeling very creative, even when I am wr putting down words consistently. . Especially nonfiction. I've been reading quite a more nonfiction lately.

And just different genres. Just again, [00:13:00] things that you wouldn't normally do cuz it's always. Sort of the unexpected can really spark new directions for me as a writer. And then always I recommend to find your people. So, writing is, you know, something that we do alone, but it doesn't have to be lonely.

You know, we can reach out and build connections with other writers. And here in Lexington we're very lucky to have a lot of different ways to do that. We have the Carnegie Center, which is wonderful and offers so many classes and opportunities to connect with writers. And we have the Lexington Writers Room, which is a co-working space for writers.

Which is just fantastic. We have Joseph Beth and plenty of independent bookstores, which bring in tons of events, so also doing those things that are not exactly writing, but are adjacent to that, you know, like going to an event at your local bookstore so that you can be inspired. Again, there's nothing that makes me wanna write more than hearing someone talk passionately about their work and, and being excited about the new thing that they have created.

. Also investing in that, you know, checking out [00:14:00] what writerly events are in your area and then, you know, going out for a night to just get a change of scenery and kind of maybe spark some new ideas. 

Carrie: Mm-hmm. Great. Well thank you so much for sharing your ideas and thoughts about writing. We really appreciate you joining us.

Ashley: Yeah, thank you so much.

Carrie: Thank you for listening to Prompt to Page. To learn more about the Jessamine County Public Library, visit jesspublib.org. Find the Carnegie Center for Literacy and learning at carnegiecenterlex.org. Our music is by Archipelago, an all instrumental musical collaboration between three Lexington based university professors.

Find out more about Archipelago songs from quarantine volumes one and two at the links on our podcast website.