Why did Milli invent the Fertile Material?
Milli Thornton invented the Fertile Material in 1999 after she failed to find writing books featuring the type of writing prompts she craved. She longed for exercises that would be fun to use—rather than academic, introspective, or list-oriented. Milli wanted writing exercises to cause her to to launch into writing stories, complete with characters, dialogue and action. It has since been demonstrated, in many workshops and writing circle sessions, that anyone can use the Fertile Material to launch into story writing. It works instantly; no previous experience required. Commitment-wise, too, the Fertile Material works well at any level—including thumbnails and story fragments. As one reader put it: “One great thing about the Fertile Material is that I can take a break from a longer piece (such as my novel #2) and have some real fun! But the best part about the exercises is that each story can be saved and worked on again later—either as a novel or as a story that might be worth submitti
