Writing Prompt: Describe Five Positive Uses for Four-Wheel Drive Vehicles

Muddy Sports, Week #4

Boy, was I excited learning about mud bogging! I learned that mud bogging is one form of sport involving the driving of vehicles through mud trenches. I have no idea if this is considered to be an extreme sport like mud runs, but it certainly is interesting. Despite the differences in names, again, mud bogging typically involves the use of four-wheel drive vehicles. Your job is to research and come up with five positive uses for four-wheel drive vehicles.

Creative Idea Gal’s Thoughts

Brace yourself for more confusion and inconsistency in labels. Mud bogging is also known as mud racing, mud running, mudding, and mud drags. It is confusing because its name gives the appearance that it involves people competing against people, but make no mistake – this is vehicle versus vehicle! Mud bogging may include some sort of custom vehicle, but most often, it involves vehicles that have four wheel-drive capacity. That means that small cars such as volkswagons, fiats, or smart cars would never be able to compete in mud bogging because they just don’t have the horsepower to do it.

Mud bogging needs vehicles that have four-wheel drive because the driver has to be able to control the vehicle and steer it appropriately as it runs through holes and extreme muddiness. It’s quite interesting, actually. Mud bogging is a sport that is intended for four-wheel drive vehicles, but there are also other many great uses for four wheel-drive vehicles. Hint: think about the medical field and you may get good inspiration for how to shape your response to today’s writing prompt.

Creative Brainstorming Tips

It is tempting to call a duck a duck just because it looks and quacks like one. That is one of my husband’s favorite expressions because he often believes things are exactly as they are. In the world of research, there is great value in searching for things that are exactly as they appear. However, exact research is the polar opposite of creative brainstorming.

In creative brainstorming, we must let our mind wander a little in looking up concepts that may appear to be related but are not. When I was researching the topic of mud for this month’s prompt, I found mud bogging and immediately knew I wanted to write about it. How could I develop that topic into a working prompt? Easy. By not assuming that the duck was a duck. In other words, just because I wanted to write about mud bogging did not mean that the writing prompt had to deal strictly with mud bogging. I relaxed the concept and thought about it, eventually stretching it out to something that dealt with four-wheel drive vehicles.

Moral of the story? Don’t always come to the conclusion that a duck is a duck. Sometimes, a duck may just be a stunning peacock in disguise.

Helpful Resources

Apparently, many people are stuck on the concept that all ducks are ducks. That explains why mud bogging has little coverage in media!

“…why no mags or anyone else for that matter does any mud features in Alaska? We have got some of the best/worst (which ever you prefer) mud conditions in the country.”  – Forum reader from 4-Wheel Offroad

Another great example of the duck is duck philosophy is here. Does the writer understand what mud bogging is all about? Are the writer’s concerns valid?

“Mud bogging, also known as mud racing, mud running, mud drags, or simply muddin’ is a growing and popular off-road motorsport. The goal is to drive a four-wheel drive vehicle through a stretch of mud for competition or just for fun. Doing it with abandon can have major negative impacts on forests and often illegal.” – Steve Nix, for About.com

Writing Prompt 059

Prompt: Describe five positive uses for four-wheel drive vehicles

• Step 1: Mud bogging is one activity that involves four-wheel drive vehicles. Think about other positive uses for four-wheel drive vehicles.
• Step 2: Think about the needs of society and some of the problems that crop up from time to time. See if you can think of some sort of social change that people could do using four-wheel drive vehicles. Can you think of positive uses?
• Step 3: News stories of national interest should make it very easy for you to research and come up with five positive uses for four-wheel drive vehicles.

Please be sure to leave comments about this writing prompt. We want to hear from you!

About the Author

Amanda M. Socci, J.D., is a freelance writer with 14 years of experience writing professionally. Socci currently cuts her blogging chops on her personal portfolio blog, the Creative Idea Gal blog, and on an online news site, Mount Vernon Patch. Inspired by Nina Amir’s Write Nonfiction in November writing challenge, she created a unique 10-month training program for Writenonfictionnow.com and Writenonfictioninnovember.com blog visitors.

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