A writing prompt is the antidote to writer’s block. It is a straightforward writing assignment that anyone can do. Here are some ideas for using writing prompts to jump-start your creativity .
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Imagine a Lake …
Imagine a lake. A lake you remember or one that you make up.
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If the Past Was a Highway
Imagine a road trip down the highway of the past. What would it be like? Are there rules of the road? Other travelers? Important sights to see? How would you choose a camp site or motel? Where would you have a picnic? What is the condition of your vehicle (if you have one)? Do you […]
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Predictions
Imagine the impossible. What will definitely not occur this summer?
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When You Don’t Like the Weather
You can’t change the weather, but you don’t have to like it.
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Best Of
The best part of your vacation was probably pretty good. What about the best part of a train wreck?
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Elbow Room
How do you scratch your ear with your elbow?
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Decisions, Decisions
The decisions we make can be big, small, disastrous, rewarding, or forgettable.
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Not Happening
How big is the universe of everything that has not happened? How small, in comparison, is the map of everything that has occurred?
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What’s New
New possessions, attitudes, and circumstances will come into our lives, whether we want them or not.
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Forgotten Footwear
Can you remember shoes that you lost? boots that you ruined? childhood footwear that you outgrew?
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Finish Lines
Have you passed any milestones lately? Gotten something out of the car or off the desk?
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Ready for Winter?
Cold drizzle. Mini-snowstorms. Shortening daylight. Are you ready for what’s next?
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That Super-Tiny Stuff
Where does dust come from? How does it move around? What does it turn into when it’s not dust anymore?
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Questions, Questions
Sometimes a series of absurd questions can tell a story or make a point.
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What is the Sky?
Where does the sky stop and the earth start? Is there anything in between?
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Erosion
Does erosion wear out your clothes? What erodes a friendship?
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Certain Kinds of Success
What makes a daffodil successful? How does a cat succeed?
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What’s Electric?
It’s in wires. In your phone. In lightning. In your brain. How do you know it’s there?
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Getting Out The Door
Your mode of transportation can affect your departure considerations. So can the state of your laundry.
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On Average
What does the average person look like? What do they tend to forget?
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What Moves?
Sometimes we say that we are moved. Sometimes we say that we have moved on.
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So Annoying
Water can make a person miserable in so many different ways.
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The Perfect People
What do you suppose the Perfect People are up to right now?
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Quality Comparisons
Comparisons are based on qualities.
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You Didn’t?
You probably didn’t walk on water today, or invent cold fusion. What else didn’t you do?
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Where’s the Writing?
What is writing anyway? Words and letters in books, of course. What about bar codes or the geologic record?
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Some Assembly Required
What happens when you put together vinegar and baking soda?
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More Than 10
How many leaves on a tree? pages in a dissertation? eggs in a dozen?
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What’s Burning?
Are ashes left behind when you burn calories or bridges?
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Got Wheels?
Is a turbine a type of wheel? How about a fan? A hurricane?
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Look Up!
Look up, and you see the world from whole new angle.
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Understand
When you think you understand something, there’s always some part of it you don’t get.
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In the Middle
The middle of the floor. The middle of the night. The middle of a strange situation.
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Found It!
Did you lose it? Were you even looking for it? What have you found (or found out) lately?
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Best and Favorite Habits
What is a habit, anyway?
What do you do automatically and pretty regularly that makes you happy, or healthy, or more at peace with yourself?
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A Strange and Useful Word
When you want to talk about what’s not real, you use the word “if.”
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Wash It Away!
Imagine a great flood that washes everything you don’t want from your life–and leaves the rest.
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Don’t Want To!
Tasks that get done with much procrastination. Tasks nobody else is going to do for you.
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A Pleasant Surprise
A dreaded event that didn’t turn out dreadful. Or something you never expected in a million years–or at least not that afternoon.
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Milestones
Explosive events and major turning points are often milestones. So are smaller things.
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Warm, Warmer, Hot
How do you keep warm? (Where do you keep it?) When is it good to get hot?
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Sparkles
Diamonds in the snow. Static electricity. Glimmers of recognition. Flashes of rage…
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Straight
You can get straight, get it straight or get straight to the point. You can go straight through a stop sign or straight through an inheritance.
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Many Times
Make a series of predictions about yourself that you know will come true.
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Quarterly Accomplishments
You might have received praise and applause for your outward accomplishments, but sometimes the inner ones are bigger.
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Gonna Change
We don’t always know what new things will be coming down the pike for us, but sometimes we do.
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On Your Mind
Everyone has a mind, but you are the only one who knows what yours is like.
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Connected by Color
Can you disengage your mind from the names of what you see and only notice the colors that are in front of you?
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Giving Thanks for Stuff
Look around you–or deep into the bottom of your closet–and celebrate your attachments.
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A Perfect Meal
Whether it’s Thanksgiving or not, you have preferences surrounding food, eating, and the context where it takes place.
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Thumb’s the Word
What is the relationship between writing and drawing? Same, different, or in-between?
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The Easy Ones
Mountains are hard to ignore. You can step blindly over the molehills.
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The Old and the New
Objects, possessions, attitudes, beliefs, preferences, places, nagging questions, things you understand…
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Left and Right
Look to your right and fill up the right-hand side of the page with observations about what you see.
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Sensing the Silence
Turn off the music and the machines. Do whatever tricks you know to quiet your mind.
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Who We Use To Be
Did you use to crawl around on the carpet in a diaper and drool? Did you use to wear different shoes?
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Would-a, Should-a, Could-a
It’s impossible to change the past with the force of your imagination, but that doesn’t mean we don’t try.
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Apples!
You can find apples on trees, on the ground, in your fridge. They can be in pies, vinegar, stories and popular expressions.
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Slow Changes
From the atoms of our bodies to the earth under our feet and black holes in distant space, nothing stays the same.
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Acts of Kindness
Often kindness comes unbidden. It can also arrive in the form of an uncomplicated yes when you ask for help.
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Surprise yourself!
How do you surprise yourself? You simply do something that you didn’t know you were going to do until you did it.
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Second thoughts
You do this by saying the first thought out loud. Yes, out loud, with your voice and lips. Then write what comes to mind next.
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Combinations
Any old thought. About the past, present, or future. About wisdom or bad advice. About nuclear physics or sculpture. No pressure to be profound.
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Alphabet Salad
Don’t burden yourself with a requirement to “make sense.” Let the words roll out and see what kind of word salad they make.
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A Talking Object
If you write from the point of view of an object, will it brag or complain? Will it sound like a child or a space alien?
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How to Make a Fort
Begin with the word “Well…” That signals that you are coming up with any old idea without committing that it will be a good one.
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You Know Where
Everybody’s got to be somewhere. So does everything. Everything that happens, happens somewhere.
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Ah, Chores
If you kept a chore score, what chore would you have done most in your life?
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Arriving Home
“Arriving home” can be a moment or a process. It can involve stepping through a doorway, of course
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Summer’s Moment
One minute you are going about your business, doing the next task at hand, then suddenly the awareness hits…. It’s summer!
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Questions Upon Questions
When you start with “What if…” a zillion (or two) questions should come to mind.
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Where’s the Fire?
Some fires turn things to smoke and soot. Others issue warnings or bring change.
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Round
You can hold a round ball in your hand, but how do you know that the earth is round?
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A Story of a Shoe (or Two)
Some shoes–traveling shoes, crying shoes, big-girl shoes are metaphorical and real at the same time.
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Starting With a Tree
Consider trees. Their biology and mythology. Their leaves and needles, fruits and shade. All the things that can be made from them.
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What Would Rumpelstiltskin Do?
Do you have a metaphorical pile of straw that you wish Rumpelstiltskin would spin into gold.
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Where is the Air?
Without air, much of the world-as-we-know-it wouldn’t function: candles, car engines, bullhorns, vacuum cleaners.
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Lots and Lots
A new thing becomes abundant and something else fades away. This the process we call change.
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Got Numbers?
Are there numbers you like and dislike? What can you do with a lucky number?
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Mind and Body
Everybody has a mind. Everybody has a body. Is there a line between the two?
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When the Pandemic is Over
There’s a light at the end of the tunnel. What does it shine on for you?
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For the Love of Gloves
When is a glove not a glove? Think of mittens or fingerless gloves. Or whatever you do when you need a glove and can’t find one.
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Pause and Relax
Can you write and be relaxed at the same time? What changes when you try?
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From Squiggles to Faces
Fiddle around, making squiggles upon squiggles, until some faces start to emerge.
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What’s Easy
People have different learning styles, preferences and experience. What’s easy for you?
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At Least Four Letters
What happens to the English language if you skip all the words that are less than four letters long?
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Shadows
Shadows have shapes and colors. If there is light, there will be shadows.
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A Story From Your Life
The stories in your life can be big, little, exciting or dull. They might center on places, people or events.
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Well-made Things
Objects that are so well-made you barely notice you are using them. Art that affects you.
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Landscapes of Life
Our lives don’t run straight. They wander through landscapes of possibility and surprise.
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Day By Day
Thinking about what changes over a 48-hour period can help you examine it more closely and notice the nuances.
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Randomly Reminding
An exercise that helps you disorganize your thoughts, and connect them to something new.
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Drawing, Doodling and Writing
An opportunity to observe what drawing, doodling, and writing have in common.
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‘Tis the Season
Seasonal cycles can be minutes, days, months or even years long. Laundry season. Snow-shoveling season. Global pandemic season.
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Fun With Truth and Lies
Begin with facts. Observations about your surroundings that any other person would agree with.
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The Bigger Picture
You can zoom out in space, or in time. You can even zoom into realms of greater understanding.
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Hot (Not) To Do Something
Instead of explaining what to do, explain what not to do.
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Ah, Plans…
What are your immediate plans? Your newest plans? Your post-pandemic plans? Do you have a plan not to plan?
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Choosing and Choosing
Even if we make the same choice every time, it’s still a choice.
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Significant Vegetables
Anything that isn’t from an animal or a mineral counts as a vegetable–green beans, wooden tables, cotton shirts.
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There’s Always Water Somewhere
If you are alive and on this planet, there is water nearby. In your body. In plants and animals. In underground lakes and rivers. In the sky.
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Sweet Relief!
Sometimes you are all but certain disaster is going to strike–and then it doesn’t. Ah, sweet relief.
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A Turning Point, Alphabetically
You might notice a turning point as you pass through it, or only come to understand it in retrospect.
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Things You Trust
What are some of the things that you trust? (Things, not people or animals. Maybe not even plants.) Think of trust as a form of expectation. Expectations that you know will be met. Is there a fence that you trust? A tool? Furniture? Explain how you reliably expect this object to perform and how that […]