Where to go with this week’s creative writing prompt/exercise? We’ve got as far as the letter ‘Q’ and I’ve spent some time wondering how to turn that into inspiration for new writing.

Queens? Queers? Qualms? Nah, too obvious. And we had quips (of a kind) last week with our parodies.

So. Questions? Quacks? Quotes? Quiffs? Quinoa? Quality? Quadratic equations?

What a quandary! And there we have it. A quandary is (according to my well-thumbed Oxford Dictionary)  ‘a state of perplexity or uncertainty over what to do in a difficult situation… a practical dilemma’.

You could write about your character being in a quandary, or look back on occasions in your life when you’ve  been faced with difficult decisions. Now, write about them for a memoir or creative non-fiction piece.

And, just for the craic, see how many other ‘Q’ words you can include in your writing this week.

You’ve still time (just!) to enter the Bridport Prize, which has categories for short stories, flash fiction, poetry and novels,  but this year is introducing a new memoir competition which opens on June 15th.  This one you have plenty of time to craft an entry for – the closing date is September 30th and they want 5,000 to 8,000 words from you. More details here.

There aren’t that many opportunities to submit memoir to competitions, so this is a significant opportunity if writing your life story is your thing. Good luck!

There will be another creative writing prompt/exercise posted here next Wednesday at 5pm Dublin time. More about what this is about here.