Writing prompt #65: THE FLÂNEUR & FLÂNEUSE

Hi Everyone,

I just finished reading Valeria Luiselli’s SIDEWALKS, an early book of her essays on being an interested walker, cyclist, and literary tourist from Mexico City to Venice. (I’m a big fan of her later work, too.)

After these two relatively cooped-up Covid years, it really gave me Wanderlust!

Although our travel plans may be thwarted for now, there’s no reason we can’t take our characters on a wished-for trip, or even a walk down an unfamiliar road. Changing environments—even for a charged hour or two—can set loose all manner of unexpected surprises, anxieties, adventures.

YOUR PROMPT: Take your character for a long walk, past or present, anywhere in the world. What do they take note of that nobody else might? How does their mood affect what they notice? Do they get lost? What stops them in their tracks? Does the experience change their ideas of where they thought they belonged? Try 2-3 pages to start.

Have fun with this!

Abrazos,

Cristina