Here are some prompts to keep up your writing habit.

Writing Skill Builder (A Quick Exercise)

Make a list of words you think you use too often and keep the list where you can see it when you write

Poetry Prompt

Write a poem about a task you enjoy and about a task you only do out of obligation.

Short Story / Fast Fiction Prompt

Write a story that include a character painting a room.

Essay / Non-Fiction Prompt

Write about a habit that was once a major part of your life but that you now do rarely or not at all.

Here are some prompts to complete before you sleep

Writing Skill Builder (A Quick Exercise)

Describe where you sleep

Poetry Prompt

Write a poem that ends with the word connect

Short Story / Fast Fiction Prompt

Write a story that starts in a driveway and ends on top of a tower

Essay / Non-Fiction Prompt

Write about what the word complete means to you

Those days of benevolence, if they ever existed, have long passed. Google Labs was killed off in 2011. Google’s flagship search engine is cluttered and clogged with ads and results from enormous corporate sites more dedicated to search engine optimization than to content.

One by one the things that were truly great about Google have disappeared. This month, to that sad list of once great tools Google has killed, you can add Google Reader. They explained the reasons in a terse blog entry.

“There are two simple reasons for this: usage of Google Reader has declined, and as a company we’re pouring all of our energy into fewer products. We think that kind of focus will make for a better user experience.”

This statement reflects everything that has gone wrong with Google. To begin with, while usage of Google Reader certainly has declined, it is still an enormously popular tool. Additionally, the reasons for Google Reader’s declining audience come primarily because Google has consistently reduced its capabilities and neglected cries from Reader’s very devoted followers for new features.

The second line of their reasoning is particularly laughable. The customer experience with Google products has done nothing but declined over the years as Google has grown more and more desperate to monetize its various products. The Google landscape is littered with ads, and those ads have grown increasingly flashy, ugly and intrusive.

It is monetization, not customer experience, that killed Google Reader. The ads on Google reader always performed poorly. The reason for this was simple. The people who used Google Reader were smart. Setting up your Google Reader account wasn’t rocket science but it did require a little work and thought. This meant that its users, were more intelligent than average, or at the very least were more Internet savvy. Smart people are much less likely to click on an ad than dumb people. On its search engine especially, Google relies on a certain number of people believing that the ads are actual search results. With Google Reader, and newsreaders in general, the audience consists of the sort of people who know when they are being sold to.

I am all for Google making a profit. I use their ad service, and I am happy to see their deposits come into my account every month. I have no intention of stopping that. The problem is that Google has ceased to be a source of experimentation and inspiration. They are now just another giant corporation looking to make a buck. That makes them no worse than most companies, it just means that they are no longer better than most companies. They have raced to the middle, and that makes me a little sad.

For me the death of Google Reader is a real reason to worry, not because of any direct impacts, but because of what it says about how Google treats its users. I can do without Google Reader. I moved my RSS feeds to Outlook and they are perfectly usable there. By design, most of my site’s subscribers get their feeds through email rather than a reader, so I won’t lose much traffic. The problem is that over the years I’ve started using a number of Google products that simply don’t make money. Tools such as Feedburner, Google Forms, Google Wiki and even Google Drive are poor money makers. More importantly, most of them have a lot fewer users than Google Reader. How many of these cool little tools are going to be eliminated in the name of improving user experience?

I feel as if I am going to have to divest myself of Google products, not because I want to but because I can’t trust them to be there for me (except for Adsense of course) and the sooner I find alternatives, the safer I will be.

Here are some prompts to give you a hand as you find the writing spirit you have left behind.

Writing Skill Builder (A Quick Exercise)

Describe your hands.

Poetry Prompt

Write a poem about leaving something behind that you hope to get back later.

Short Story / Fast Fiction Prompt

Write a story about having too few of something.

Essay / Non-Fiction Prompt

Write about your favorite animal.

Here are some prompts to help you locate your lost writing potential.

Writing Skill Builder (A Quick Exercise)

Write about the childhood of one of your characters, or a potential character for a future story.

Poetry Prompt

Write a poem that includes six different locations.

Short Story / Fast Fiction Prompt

Write a story that includes getting a male character who gets lost and a female character who attempts to find him.

Essay / Non-Fiction Prompt

Write about a place that you hope to never eat at again.

Writing Skill Builder (A Quick Exercise)

Make a list of ten potential character names.

Poetry Prompt

Write a poem that includes a taste a smell and a request.

Short Story / Fast Fiction Prompt

Write a story that includes a horse.

Essay / Non-Fiction Prompt

Write about your views on solar energy.

Writing Skill Builder (A Quick Exercise)

Make a list of places you find interesting. Write about one of them.

Poetry Prompt

Write a poem about the first time you met someone you’ve had a long relationship with.

Short Story / Fast Fiction Prompt

Write a story about a character who has to solve an urgent problem quickly.

Essay / Non-Fiction Prompt

Write about something you were once passionate about but no longer feel the same urgency toward.

Writing Skill Builder (A Quick Exercise)

Create and describe an antagonist character with at least three redeeming qualities.

Poetry Prompt

Write a poem in which every line has seven vowels.

Short Story / Fast Fiction Prompt

Write a story that involves crossing an item off a list.

Essay / Non-Fiction Prompt

Write about a law you believe should be abolished or rewritten.

Writing Skill Builder (A Quick Exercise)

Describe a toy you were fond of as a child.

Poetry Prompt

Write a poem in which something gets faked or simulated.

Short Story / Fast Fiction Prompt

What a story that begins with someone getting paid.

Essay / Non-Fiction Prompt

Write about the pros and cons of video games.

How to Participate

The prompts are for your own practice and development. You don’t have to show anyone. If you would like to leave your response in the comments on this site, that would be fine. If you would like to post them in the comments on my Facebook Page, that is also good. If the response gets sufficiently large, I will consider creating a Facebook Group so that there is a contained area to interact, but for now the first two options are available.

Writing Skill Builder (A Quick Exercise)

Spend ten minutes brainstorming ideas for stories, essays or poems involving mistakes.

Poetry Prompt

Write a poem defending or explaining a hard choice you have made.

Short Story / Fast Fiction Prompt

Write a story that begins in a cold place and ends in a warm place.

Essay / Non-Fiction Prompt

Write about a style of music you enjoy and why that music appeals to you.

How to Participate

The prompts are for your own practice and development. You don’t have to show anyone. If you would like to leave your response in the comments on this site, that would be fine. If you would like to post them in the comments on my Facebook Page, that is also good. If the response gets sufficiently large, I will consider creating a Facebook Group so that there is a contained area to interact, but for now the first two options are available.