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Writing Prompts

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 .

Some Assembly Required

Topics: Imagination, Observation

What happens when you put together vinegar and baking soda?

More Than 10

Topics: Imagination, Observation

How many leaves on a tree? pages in a dissertation? eggs in a dozen?

What’s Burning?

Topics: Creativity, Imagination, Memory

Are ashes left behind when you burn calories or bridges?

Got Wheels?

Topics: Creativity, Imagination, Memory

Is a turbine a type of wheel? How about a fan? A hurricane?

Look Up!

Topics: Creativity, Memory, Observation

Look up, and you see the world from whole new angle.


Understand

Topics: Creativity, Imagination, Knowledge

When you think you understand something, there’s always some part of it you don’t get.

In the Middle

Topics: Observation

The middle of the floor. The middle of the night. The middle of a strange situation.

Found It!

Topics: Creativity, Memory, Observation

Did you lose it? Were you even looking for it? What have you found (or found out) lately?

Best and Favorite Habits

Topics: Habit, Observation

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?

A Strange and Useful Word

Topics: Creativity

When you want to talk about what’s not real, you use the word “if.”

Wash It Away!

Topics: Imagination, Memory

Imagine a great flood that washes everything you don’t want from your life–and leaves the rest.

Don’t Want To!

Topics: Memory, Observation

Tasks that get done with much procrastination. Tasks nobody else is going to do for you.

A Pleasant Surprise

Topics: Memory

A dreaded event that didn’t turn out dreadful. Or something you never expected in a million years–or at least not that afternoon.

Milestones

Topics: Alphabet, Memory

Explosive events and major turning points are often milestones. So are smaller things.

Warm, Warmer, Hot

Topics: Creativity, Observation

How do you keep warm? (Where do you keep it?)   When is it good to get hot? 

Sparkles

Topics: Creativity, Observation

Diamonds in the snow. Static electricity. Glimmers of recognition. Flashes of rage…

Straight

Topics: Creativity, Observation

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.

Many Times

Topics: Self

Make a series of predictions about yourself that you know will come true.

Quarterly Accomplishments

Topics: Memory, Self

You might have received praise and applause for your outward accomplishments, but sometimes the inner ones are bigger.

Gonna Change

Topics: Change, Observation, Self

We don’t always know what new things will be coming down the pike for us, but sometimes we do.

On Your Mind

Topics: Metacognition, Mind, Observation

Everyone has a mind, but you are the only one who knows what yours is like.

Connected by Color

Topics: color, Observation

Can you disengage your mind from the names of what you see and only notice the colors that are in front of you?

Giving Thanks for Stuff

Topics: Gratitude, Observation

Look around you–or deep into the bottom of your closet–and celebrate your attachments.

A Perfect Meal

Topics: Food, Imagination

Whether it’s Thanksgiving or not, you have preferences surrounding food, eating, and the context where it takes place.

Thumb’s the Word

Topics: Creativity, Drawing, Imagination

What is the relationship between writing and drawing? Same, different, or in-between?

The Easy Ones

Topics: Observation

Mountains are hard to ignore. You can step blindly over the molehills.

The Old and the New

Topics: Change, Observation

Objects, possessions, attitudes, beliefs, preferences, places, nagging questions, things you understand…

Left and Right

Topics: Awareness, Observation

Look to your right and fill up the right-hand side of the page with observations about what you see.

Sensing the Silence

Topics: Awareness, Silence

Turn off the music and the machines. Do whatever tricks you know to quiet your mind.

Who We Use To Be

Topics: Memory

Did you use to crawl around on the carpet in a diaper and drool? Did you use to wear different shoes?

Would-a, Should-a, Could-a

Topics: Imgination, Regret

It’s impossible to change the past with the force of your imagination, but that doesn’t mean we don’t try.

Apples!

Topics: Creativity, Observation

You can find apples on trees, on the ground, in your fridge. They can be in pies, vinegar, stories and popular expressions.

Slow Changes

Topics: Change, Observation

From the atoms of our bodies to the earth under our feet and black holes in distant space, nothing stays the same.

Acts of Kindness

Topics: Memory

Often kindness comes unbidden. It can also arrive in the form of an uncomplicated yes when you ask for help.

Surprise yourself!

Topics: Creativity

How do you surprise yourself? You simply do something that you didn’t know you were going to do until you did it.

Second thoughts

Topics: Creativity, Imagination, 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.

Combinations

Topics: Creativity, Imagination, Vocabulary

Any old thought. About the past, present, or future. About wisdom or bad advice. About nuclear physics or sculpture. No pressure to be profound.

Alphabet Salad

Topics: Alhabet, Creativity, Language

Don’t burden yourself with a requirement to “make sense.” Let the words roll out and see what kind of word salad they make.

A Talking Object

Topics: Creativity

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?

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.

You Know Where

Topics: Memory, Observation

Everybody’s got to be somewhere. So does everything. Everything that happens, happens somewhere.

Ah, Chores

Topics: Observation

If you kept a chore score, what chore would you have done most in your life?

Arriving Home

Topics: Observation

“Arriving home” can be a moment or a process. It can involve stepping through a doorway, of course

Summer’s Moment

Topics: Observation, Summer

One minute you are going about your business, doing the next task at hand, then suddenly the awareness hits…. It’s summer!

Questions Upon Questions

Topics: Imagination, Questions

When you start with “What if…” a zillion (or two) questions should come to mind.

Where’s the Fire?

Topics: Imagination, Memory

Some fires turn things to smoke and soot. Others issue warnings or bring change.

Round

Topics: Observation

You can hold a round ball in your hand, but how do you know that the earth is round?

A Story of a Shoe (or Two)

Topics: Imagination, Memory

Some shoes–traveling shoes, crying shoes, big-girl shoes are metaphorical and real at the same time.

Starting With a Tree

Topics: Imagination, Memory, Stories

Consider trees. Their biology and mythology. Their leaves and needles, fruits and shade. All the things that can be made from them.

What Would Rumpelstiltskin Do?

Topics: Imagination

Do you have a metaphorical pile of straw that you wish Rumpelstiltskin would spin into gold.

Where is the Air?

Topics: Observation

Without air, much of the world-as-we-know-it wouldn’t function: candles, car engines, bullhorns, vacuum cleaners.

Lots and Lots

Topics: Observation

A new thing becomes abundant and something else fades away. This the process we call change.

Got Numbers?

Topics: Observation

Are there numbers you like and dislike? What can you do with a lucky number?

Mind and Body

Topics: Observation

Everybody has a mind. Everybody has a body. Is there a line between the two?

When the Pandemic is Over

Topics: Coronavirus, Imagination

There’s a light at the end of the tunnel. What does it shine on for you?

For the Love of Gloves

Topics: Memory, Observation

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.

Pause and Relax

Topics: Relaxation

Can you write and be relaxed at the same time? What changes when you try?

From Squiggles to Faces

Topics: Creativity, Imagination

Fiddle around, making squiggles upon squiggles, until some faces start to emerge.

What’s Easy

Topics: Learning, Observation, Self

People have different learning styles, preferences and experience. What’s easy for you?

At Least Four Letters

Topics: Imagination, Language

What happens to the English language if you skip all the words that are less than four letters long?

Shadows

Topics: Observation

Shadows have shapes and colors. If there is light, there will be shadows.

A Story From Your Life

Topics: Imagination, Memory

The stories in your life can be big, little, exciting or dull. They might center on places, people or events.

Well-made Things

Topics: Observation

Objects that are so well-made you barely notice you are using them. Art that affects you.

Landscapes of Life

Topics: Imagination, Map, Self

Our lives don’t run straight. They wander through landscapes of possibility and surprise.

Day By Day

Topics: Memory, Observation

Thinking about what changes over a 48-hour period can help you examine it more closely and notice the nuances.

Randomly Reminding

Topics: Alphabit, Creativity, Memory

An exercise that helps you disorganize your thoughts, and connect them to something new.

Drawing, Doodling and Writing

Topics: Creative process, Draw and doodle

An opportunity to observe what drawing, doodling, and writing have in common.

‘Tis the Season

Topics: Change, Observation

Seasonal cycles can be minutes, days, months or even years long. Laundry season. Snow-shoveling season. Global pandemic season.

Fun With Truth and Lies

Topics: Lies, Observation, Truth

Begin with facts. Observations about your surroundings that any other person would agree with.

The Bigger Picture

Topics: Imagination, Observation

You can zoom out in space, or in time. You can even zoom into realms of greater understanding.

Hot (Not) To Do Something

Topics: Advice, Observation, Self

Instead of explaining what to do, explain what not to do.

Ah, Plans…

Topics: Coronavirus, Observation, Self

What are your immediate plans? Your newest plans? Your post-pandemic plans? Do you have a plan not to plan?

Choosing and Choosing

Topics: Choice, Memory, Observation

Even if we make the same choice every time, it’s still a choice.

Significant Vegetables

Topics: Observation

Anything that isn’t from an animal or a mineral counts as a vegetable–green beans, wooden tables, cotton shirts.

There’s Always Water Somewhere

Topics: Memory, Observation

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.

Sweet Relief!

Topics: Memory

Sometimes you are all but certain disaster is going to strike–and then it doesn’t. Ah, sweet relief.

A Turning Point, Alphabetically

Topics: Memory, Observation, Self

You might notice a turning point as you pass through it, or only come to understand it in retrospect.

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 […]

Mysterious Eating

Topics: Memory, Observation

It’s possible to provide many details about a person, a place or a time and still make it impossible to identify them.

Where There’s a Chair

Topics: Memory, Observation

A chair you have known. One you have forgotten. A chair that isn’t a chair at all. 

Bubbles of Your Bubble

Topics: Awareness, Observation, Self

Each of us lives at the center of our very own universe. We explore it with our awareness. Can you be aware of your awareness?

Small, Medium, Large

Topics: Awareness, Observation

The present. What your senses take in. Physical and emotional states. The contents of your mind and imagination.

In One Place

Topics: Imagination, Observation

Drain your mind until it’s empty then write about whatever plant, animal, or thing pops back in first.

At Three

Topics: Dailiness, Observation, Self

Who comes and goes–in person and electronically? Do your energy and attitude morph throughout the day?

How Do You Beat the Heat?

Topics: Observation, Self

What heats you up? The weather? Anxiety? A responsibility you wish you didn’t have? What do you do about it?

Oh the Difficulties!

Topics: Observation, Relationships, Self

If you have a relationship with an immovable object, you are the one who does all the work.

New Season Ahead!

Topics: Plans, Summer

Hopes and plans, clothes and shoes, tools and accessories, people and activities. What’s coming up this summer?

A Letter from the Grand Hotel

Topics: Imagination, Observation

Imagine that you are staying in a splendid vacation spot. Someplace with the best amenities and services.

Listen!

Topics: Listening, Observation, Self

While you draw, listen. To anything you choose: music, the news, another person, an audiobook, or ambient sounds.

What It’s Not

Topics: Creativity, Observation

To write about what something is not, you must find a way to think of two things at once.

Temporary and Permanent

Topics: Change, Observation, Self

What’s temporary in your life? What’s more-or-less permanent?

Inanimate Pals

Topics: Observation, Self

What are the qualities of that special kind of friendship that would make you call someone your pal?

People and Places

Topics: Memory, Observation

We swim and rivers of people. Everybody has to be somewhere. Think about the names of the people and places you have known.

What’s Open?

Topics: Creativity, Observation

There are open letters, open minds, open houses and open seating. You can open a present, an app, a spigot or a conversation.

What’s New?

Topics: Coronavirus, Observation

It’s easy to forget that every day and every moment are new, whether there’s an incurable virus raging about or not.

Oh! The Things That Grow!

Look around for growing things, in nature, in your house, in your mind.

Start With Squiggles

Topics: Creativity

Even when your page seems completely random or utterly lackluster, your mind will keep working on it. Even when you are asleep.

What You Miss

Topics: Coronavirus, Memory

You own your happy memories.  Now is a good time to make use of them.

Not A Virus

Topics: Calm, Coronavirus, Observation

Use your pen to show your mind that your personal universe is much larger than this bad situation. Remember that an atom is comprised mostly of empty space.

Don’t Run Out!

Topics: Desire, Self

Behind all of the toilet paper jokes and the images of empty shelves in stores is the reality that everyone has things that they don’t want to run out of.

Opposite and Opposite

Topics: Induction, Opposite

Resist the idea that you are supposed to “make sense.” Focus on the possibilities of opposite-words and listen to the sentences that pop into your mind.

So Many Opinions

Topics: Observation, Self

Your opinions belong to you. Write whatever you want about them. Start small–with your immediate surroundings or the events of the day so far.

Can’t. Because…

Topics: Observation, Self

Nobody can do everything. There are zillions of things you can’t do, whether you want to do them or not.

Heart of the Matter

Topics: Freewriting

You are going to be writing on the lines of the spiral, so as the spiral grows, keep the lines at a distance from one another that will be good for writing on.


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News and Events

Nancy blogs weekly for the Latah Recovery Community Center, sharing writing ideas that support self-awareness and self-esteem.


Looking for an art project that is secretly full of math? Or a math project that results in interesting art? Equilateral Triangle is an Inquiry Pack full of project ideas that will keep you thinking for a long time.


Writing classes and workshops

In-person Write-For-You workshops at the Latah Recovery Center have been suspended for a bit, but you can still do the writing prompts on your own. For more information, about the Write for You program, or if you are in recovery and interested in writing coaching, contact Nancy.


 

Let’s Talk About It

This is a program that supports reading and discussion in libraries throughout the state of Idaho.

Working with the Program Committee, I updated the theme The Humanity of Science and Technology.


 

2021-22 Let’s Talk About It Discussions

November 10 – Tuesdays with Morrie – Clearwater Memorial Library – Orofino

 

November 18 – A Home Below Hells Canyon – Boise Basin District Library – Idaho City

 

February 8 – The Girl Who Fell From the Sky – Grangeville Centennial Library – Grangeville

 

February 15 – Sweet Promised Land – Garden Valley District Library – Garden Valley

 

March 23 – Less – Coeur d’Alene Public Library – Coeur d’Alene


Nancy Casey's Books

All the Way to Second Street

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COPYRIGHT 2016 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NANCY CASEY | MOSCOW, ID.