In March of this year I wrote a posting for FWA titled:  A Friday Folly: Get Prompted!  Since then, my group and I have had many months of writing to fun, and sometimes difficult prompts. These are prompts that are all directed toward some aspect of the craft. To wind up the year I thought I’d share with you a half-dozen that worked well. Why not try some of these yourself, or within your writing group? 1. Working with numbers … Read More »

Throw the hot dogs on the grill, kick up those feet with a cold beverage…and grab your writing notebook. It’s time for summer writing prompts! Each set of prompts is organized by sense so you can tap into those deep connections in your writing and make things more real for the reader. Pick your favorites and try not to drip watermelon juice on your paper! Sound-Related Prompts a blender cracking then whirring ice for frozen drinks a deafening cloud of … Read More »

Sensory details add realism to your writing and make the reader feel more connected to the work. Let’s get those creative juices going and do some practice working with sensory details as writing prompts. Look at the suggestions below and see if anything stands out to you. Can you combine more than one of these in a story? Scent heavy maple sweetness combined with hints of vanilla chemical stench of plastic thrown on a fire flowery fabric softener embedded in … Read More »

Writing prompts can generate unusual, original material for our stories. Remember the one our English teachers often used in September, “What I Did on My Summer Vacation,” or the holiday-themed essays for February’s Valentine’s Day, October’s Halloween, May’s Mother’s Day, and December’s array of religious holidays? This month, November, presents us with the popular theme of Thanksgiving. Background from the History Channel’s website says:  “Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday in the United States, and Thanksgiving 2020 occurs on Thursday, … Read More »

It’s gotten hot, the grass is fried…and so is your brain. Well good news! We have a batch of writing prompts as big as a five-scoop sundae. So do a few stretches, get that pencil ready, and take a gander at 25 summer writing prompts. Writing Prompts Based on Images Check out the following picture bank and see if any of these spark something for you.   Writing Prompts Based on Senses Sensory details make things vivid for the reader. … Read More »

Looking to add some fun to your writing life? You may enjoy this playful exercise of combining words that don’t really go together, then making sense of them to start a story or poem. It’s a type of puzzle based on a fun task I experienced in a poetry workshop years ago in Tampa, Florida, in a program called “The Writer’s Voice.” It helped us warm up our creative juices and generate new ideas—sort of a wordsmith arts and crafts … Read More »