Writing Prompt

Writing Prompt: Ghost Story

I love a good ghost story, not the kind that are told around campfires where the ghost is terrorizing a family, or is passing as a young woman in a dress for a night, but the stories that play around with what a ghost is. For example, the ghosts in Harry Potter served a lot…
Issue Seventy-Four Writing Prompt

Writing Prompt: For the Love of a Good Title

A good title can go a long way. It can intrigue the reader and it can even change one aspect of a story, so that the reader interprets it in a different way. Some of my favorite classic titles include A Widow for A Year, Love in the Time of Cholera, Pig Earth, A Wrinkle…
Issue Seventy-Three Writing Prompt

Writing Prompt: Words from Another

For this prompt I want you to grab a book off your shelf, it should be a book that is written by someone who has a writing style that is very different than your natural style. It can be a book you have read or one you have not. It could be a book of…
Issue Seventy-Two Writing Prompt

Writing Prompt: The Curse

A curse is a common trope, from Fairy Tales to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, curses have been used to throw a twist into the plot. Sometimes the reader knows the curse from the start, which is how most fairy tales work. Or sometimes they know the curse from the start but they don’t know the…
Issue Seventy-Six Writing Prompt

Really, Truly, Awful Writing.

Greetings, fellow writers. The idea for this prompt comes from an idea that I had as a college writing instructor, with the main idea being challenging the brain to think a bit differently about your approach to writing in general and in this creative exercise specifically. I used it the first time as a homework…
Issue Seventy-One Writing Prompt

Writing Prompt: Cell Phone Independent

Chris Carter, the creator of the X-files has talked about how the series would not have worked before the invention of cell phones. Many books and stories now rely on the ease of communication that cell phones bring. Ann Patchett, the author of Bel Canto, has mentioned on several occasions that her latest novel was…
Issue Seventy Writing Prompt

Writing Prompt: Without The Wheel

This week’s writing prompt is to write a short story set in an alternative reality. We are still on earth in this story but on an earth where the wheel has never been invented. The world still works, technological advances still occurred, but there are no wheels. Write a short story involving this world. It…
Issue Sixty Nine Writing Prompt

Writing Prompt: A Poem in Parts

I first did this poetry prompt when I was 14 years old. My teacher at the time asked us to write down the numbers 1 to 10 over two pages on the left hand margin and irregular intervals. I am going to ask you to do that now if you are doing this prompt on…
Issue Sixty Eight Writing Prompt

Writing Prompt: Coffee Poem

The prompt this week is a little different. Your challenge is to write a poem about coffee. Although there is one tiny catch. You can never use the words coffee, beans, black, milky, cafe,  or caffeine in this poem. You must convey the idea of coffee, of drinking it, without ever mentioning these words. Obviously,…
Issue Sixty Six Writing Prompt

Writing Prompt: Secret Library

Many great modern novels are about the love of books and libraries. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Book Store and The Shadow of the Wind are just two examples.  Both books are about imagined secret libraries. Your prompt today is to write about an imagined library that is for some reason or another a secret. Now this…
Issue Sixty Five Writing Prompt

Writing Prompt: Stuck

Imagine that a character is trapped somewhere. It could be a small room, a well, a crashed car, a stuck elevator, or any number of small claustrophobic  spaces. They have been stuck there for at least thirty minutes when you start writing your story. This is important because they already have to be nervous at…
Issue Sixty Four Writing Prompt

Writing Prompt: Modern Tech in Ancient Times

              Today, technological devices are a part of our daily existence, especially for us writers. Telephones and fax machines were considered the ultimate in modern technology. Now they have taken a backseat to even more upgraded communication devices such as Skype, DVRs, and voice-activated writing software. Is there anything…
Issue Sixty Seven Writing Prompt

Writing Prompt: Rhyming Poem

Poems don’t have to rhyme anymore. They haven’t in a very long time. Still, every once in a while I encounter someone who believes that poems have to rhyme, that it is one of the requirements to writing a poem. Most of the time I write in free verse, without any rhymes except the occasional…
Issue Sixty Three Writing Prompt

Writing Prompt: Life Without Computers

What if there were no computers? Obviously you wouldn’t be reading this right now, but many other important things that factor into your daily life would be different. Your prompt today is to imagine, in a poem or a story, what life would be without computers. Remember, if there were no computers there would also…
Issue Sixty Two Writing Prompt

Writing Prompt: First Sentence, Last Sentence

This week the prompt is a little different. There are two options for it. The first is to do it with a friend, the second is to do it on your own. Pick your option and then proceed. Option One: Ask a friend to write down two sentences. The sentences should be seemingly unrelated. These…
Issue Sixty One Writing Prompt

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