For Example
Before you start writing, set up your page. Draw a line where the title will go and mark off some space for illustration. Then collect a half-dozen or so good words. A word is a good one when it jumps out at you for some reason. Maybe you think the spelling is odd. Maybe it reminds […]
Your Ground
One can break, give, or stand ground. Something can be ground in, ground out, or run into the ground. There are groundswells, ground rules, and shifting grounds.
Hats Everywhere
On your head, in your pocket, under the couch. On someone else’s head, or in their pocket. Hats are everywhere.
The Furniture
Tables and couches are certainly furniture. Are curtains, counters, and closets furniture? What about a bathtub?
Where There Are People
You can go on a field trip in your imagination. Do this by traveling in memory. Or do this by making things up.
When the Rain Comes
What happens in the natural world when rain begins to fall after a period of drought? How does the built world change when rainwater pours over it once again?
Pick It Up and Put It Down
Some things, such as the flu or an ear-worm tune, can be picked up, but you can’t put them back down.
Escalating Troubles
Imagine a character who has one bad or disappointing thing after another happen to them.
In One Month
Technically, it will be summer for another month, but the slow glide into the fall season has already begun.
Exciting Introductions
Adopt the voice of an emcee, the one who stands up on stage and gets the audience excited about what is to come.
Letters Looming Large
The only requirement is that when you arrive at one of the ornate letters, you must use that letter in what you are writing.
An Alphabet of Opposites
…An observation about the process of filling the columns. A thought that passed through your mind as you were writing down words. Whatever pops into your head and fits into the tiny space allowed…
Invent Something
Your invention needn’t be constrained by gravity, the speed of light, or the rules of logic.
So Many Coats
A person can wear an imaginary coat that has imaginary powers, such as a coat of confidence, reverence, or pride.
Ahead and Behind
When your mind is pleasantly wandering, are your more likely to daydream about your bucket list or dwell on your many accomplishments?
Older and Younger by 10
People and things. Animals, vegetables and minerals. Which are 10 years older than you? Which are 10 years younger?
It Grows Until It Doesn’t
Whatever isn’t growing might have been growing once. Or it might start growing soon. What never stops growing?
What Sunshine Does
Whether it is rising, setting, or going behind a cloud, the sun is always shining. Without sunlight, there wouldn’t be much life-as-we-know-it here on earth.
What It Isn’t
When you describe what something is not, your awareness widens to an infinity of possibilities.
No Pain
While it’s true that in overcoming pain, a person often grows, it’s not true that the way to grow is to inflict pain on yourself.
Advertise A Chore
Make it seem like taking care of this obligation is an opportunity no one would want to miss.
Contradictory Characters
You might end up with a character who has a name like Devious Kitten, Wicked Daffodil, or Vicious Duckling.
Sometimes the Sky is Red
Begin with the sentence, “Sometimes the sky is red.” Then enjoy where the ramble of your writing takes you.
The Summer Ahead
Over the next few weeks everything from the sky to the shrubbery will shed its memory of winter. What will the summer bring?
One Syllable
You can write anything, even a series of unrelated sentences. The important thing is to use only one-syllable words.
One Thing, Now Another
What no longer exists in its old form? A shirt, a pet, the carpet, a memory, a friendship, a vehicle?
Doodles of Kindness
Pick a section and doodle in it until a random thought about kindness floats into your mind.
Didn’t Want To
What contributed to your reluctance? Inertia, fear, common sense, warnings, fatigue, information, experience…?
Mighty Winter
A person can act with physical might or be bolstered by mighty clothes, tools and accessories.
A Big Fat Pen
Sometimes your writing practice can feel like a burden. How can you make time to write a page when already there is not enough time for what you must do?
About That Groundhog…
Is the groundhog story one of timidity or perseverance? Is the groundhog a rebel, an outcast, or a pioneer? When have you been like the groundhog?
Take A Seat
So much sitting, so little time! Tell any story at all, as long as it has something to do with sitting.
No Such Thing
Close your eyes, relax your mind, and loosen it from its grip on the way things ought to be.
Before and After and Before
The important thing is to keep the alteration going, zig-zagging in time as you work your way down the page.
It’s About Tuesday
Begin writing by describing what you do on Tuesdays. You can include things that happen on other days as well, as long as they also happen on Tuesdays.
Probably (Not) and More
Think about all that is uncertain. What you hope for. How surprises can change everything. What you don’t know yet.
Rituals and Rhythms
Because rituals are reliably repetitive, we benefit from their rhythms. Families have them. So do sports teams, friendships and clubs.
Not You
What are you wearing? Who do you look like? What don’t you remember? Use what you know about yourself to invent somebody new.
Tools For Understanding
We use our senses to understand the world. We also ask questions and think things up.
Every Which Way
Resist the urge to write a coherent narrative. Let each detail lead to another. Don’t plan. Don’t look back until you have reached the bottom of the page.
If It Happens…
You can thank other people, inanimate objects and invisible forces. You can thank yourself.
Why Should You?
A pile of “shoulds” on your back can weight you down so hard that you can’t get anything done.
Put a Pillow Under It
Cartoon heaven is built upon clouds that look like pillows. Wedding rings and royal crowns are often delivered on pillows. But not pizzas.
Sleep Habits
How do you manage situations when you can’t sleep even though you need to, or when you are sleepy but must stay awake?
Where’s the Fire?
Unless everything is dark and stone-cold frozen, there has to be a fire somewhere.
Present and Past
After each thought you have recorded about the present, add some related details from the past.
Ask About Your Surroundings
The only requirement about the questions is that you not know the answer to them already.
Live and Learn
Compare yourself to a newborn. Everything you know and everything that you can do is evidence of what you have learned in your life.
Make Something!
You can make anything–arts and crafts, piles of laundry, order in your room.
Mysterious Help
Describe situations where you received help. Don’t tell what you needed or why the help was important.
Time for Action!
Even when your first thought is that a thing is sitting there doing nothing,, everything is doing something.
Opposite Seasons
Use clothing, accessories, tools, and details that show how your life and routines are different in opposite seasons.
Acts of Hospitality
Think about the tasks and chores of a day as “acts of hospitality” to yourself. That is a perspective where you are a guest and a host at the same time.
Field Trip to the Library
Go to the library. Turn on your powers of observation. Step out of the weather and into a different world.
Read the World
People read words. People also read the world.
Back and Forth
Write a dialog that is at odds with itself, swinging from cheerful to gloomy, going back and forth with each sentence.
Categories of Clothes
Clothes you love and clothes you hate. Clothes that you would never wear to church. All those clothes you keep but never wear…
What You Don’t Know
We all know a lot of things. Then there is so much more that we don’t know.
Start With the Sun
Can you describe a shadow without describing the sun?
Your Inner Chameleon
Sometimes we make ourselves comfortable by blending in. Sometimes it’s important to stand out.
More Than Five Senses!
Proprioception is the sense that tells us where our bodies are in space. Interoception sends us information about what’s going on inside our bodies.
Summer’s Suitcase
If you could pack a suitcase with everything you needed for a whole summer, what would you put in it?
And So…
Write a story where the words “…and so…” appear somewhere in the middle and signal some kind of cause-and-effect relationship.
Do and Done
Keep a record of what you have done and what you have yet to do. In alphabetical order.
Just Doodle
Fill a page with doodling. Use one pen of one color, or choose several colors and use them all. Just doodle.
The Sky Is Falling
Write a page that riffs on the notion of things that fall from the sky.
So Many Questions!
There are more questions that begin “What if…?” than there are atoms in the universe.
Start with the Doorway
Doorways always change. They open and close. Things and people pass through in either direction. So does the wind.
Color by Color
Maybe you’ll start to see an accidental picture. Maybe you won’t. The most important thing is to enjoy the coloring.
A Perfect Day
What are some of the many different perfect things could make their way into a perfect day?
Spirals of Care
Create a page about things that matter to you which doesn’t have any words on it.
Rhyme Time!
Most of us started experimenting with rhyming when we were learning to talk. In other words, it’s so easy that even babies can do it.
What Kind of Morning?
What is morning like for you? Does it arrive by the clock? Where does it fit in your sleeping and eating patterns?
Miraculous Miracles
Write an elaborate miracle, or write a series of short ones. If it’s miraculous, it’s a miracle.
Not Sorry
Sometimes we accidentally do something that later on turns out to be an excellent idea.
Finishing the Year
As you mark the change of the calendar year, spend some time remembering the year that is finishing.
Get the Picture?
Pick something that’s in front of you that’s not going to move in the next half hour. Draw it. Can’t draw? No problem, draw it anyway.
Change of Season
A season is something that changes. The weather has seasons. So do careers, relationships, and lifetimes.
I Forgot
Some things are forgotten forever. Other things we forget only momentarily, but with great consequences.
Standing Up in Silence
Before you begin to write, practice getting out of your chair without making the slightest grunting sound.
Eat Something!
Notice your tongue. What are its many tasks and duties in the activity of getting the food chewed up and swallowed?
Circles in the Sky
Pretend you are wearing a light saber on the top of your head and using it to draw circles in the sky.
Collect Ten Words
A word is “good” if you like it. You can collect the words from anywhere.
Continuity
Write about one of the ribbons of continuity that runs through your always-changing life.
Soon, Also, and Then
Imagine the future. Write about your role in it, one line at a time.
From a Friend
Imagine someone who understands you completely. Someone who only wants the best for you.
Just the Junk
Do you have a spot where odd bits of stuff accumulate? A junk drawer? Or corner? Or basket? Or tabletop?
Your Expectations
Write about one or more unfortunate things that have happened to you. But leave out all the details of what happened. Write what you had expected to happen.
Freewriting
Freewriting is when you write whatever comes out of your pen without planning or paying attention to what you are “saying.”
Sing Praise to Your Surroundings!
Sing the individual praises of a few things in your surroundings. Big things such as thunder or small things such as paper clips and insect wings.
Whatever You Want
Do you want to be taller, smaller, more relaxed, or less allergic to pine pollen? Do you want breakfast, a skateboard, new shoes or grandchildren?
Take Another Look
Choose a place to write about. It has to be a place nearby, one you can stand up and visit during your writing time.
Invisible You
You can’t point to your childhood or your ability to wash a cup. Where do you keep your fears? What else about you is invisible?
Setbacks and Calamities
Even though we understand that life is unpredictable, we still make plans. When the unexpected happens, we have no choice but to keep going.
Alphabet Book
Putting your thoughts in alphabetical order is a good way to calm a whirling mind.
After Six Months
You might see patterns in your thoughts or in your style. You will like some things better than others.
The Organization of Your Home
Your home is the place where you can be renewed so that you can go back out into the world and do whatever you do.
A is for Admire
Write about admiration. You can explain what you think it is, or you can write about what you admire.
Pep Talk Voice
This is the voice of someone who knows our strengths, understands our shortcomings and believes in us.
The Opposite Game
Start with a word and stretch your imagination to declare its opposite.
Before that…
Tell about something that happened before you were doing whatever it is you are doing now.
Your Precious Hands
How can you write without getting the tired old aches they call “writers cramp?”
Using Writing Prompts
A writing prompt is a push that helps to get your writing going.
Evaluation
The key part of evaluation is value. So when you evaluate your writing, you ask, “What is valuable to me?”