Writing Prompts
Writing Prompt 1: Music
Prompt: What's happening here? What kind of music are they creating? What kind of action might take place in this setting? Why did the woman turn around? When she looks behind her, what does she see? Why is the man wearing a hat? Set the timer for 10 minutes. Go!
Check out the following lists for strong verbs:
Singing, Percussion and Sound Made on the Body
Writing Prompt 2: Hermit & Miner’s Lettuce
Prompt: This miner's lettuce keeps a hermit alive. What is his back story? What happened to make him withdraw from society? One day, he hears someone chomping on his miner's lettuce. Who? Why have they come? What do they want? What does the hermit want?
Weave in an interesting fact about California gold miners who foraged from this patch of wild lettuce. Zoom your camera in and out - from the individual to the social/political.
Get ideas for verbs in the following lists:
Set a timer for 10 minutes. Go!
Writing Prompt 3: The Red Door
Prompt: Sensory details serve as a springboard or a metaphor. What is behind the red door? Who mined the rock? Tell us about the mason who created the wall. On this first day of xx, who is peeking out the window? They see something drop into the fountain. What?
Find verbs in the following lists:
Set a timer for 10 minutes. Go!
Writing Prompt 4: Safety Pins & Ribbon
Prompt: "Dressed in safety pins and ribbons, she…"
Check out the following lists for evocative verbs:
Verbs That Suggest Peril or Suspense
Set the timer for 15 minutes. Go!
Writing Prompt 5: The Abandoned Boat
By the time he noticed the boat tucked away in the woods, its name had smeared. Was it Bayhee? Baymer? Bajmer? He made out the numbers CF 2604 GL. On its last journey, what happened?
Check out the following lists for active verbs:
What Boats & Ships Do
What the Sea Does
What People Do to Boats & Ships
How Wood Reacts to Water
How Water Moves Things
Set the timer for 10 minutes. Go!
Writing Prompt 6: Girl by a Structure
Prompt: A girl on a skateboard spins around this structure as fast as she can. What happens next? Who sees it? What is their reaction? What is the girl’s response?
Who designed this structure? For what purpose? How is it used by passersby?
Before the xx met for the last time, they gathered at the spiral rock, a place...
Find verbs in the following lists:
Mild Movements Using Most of the Body
Hurrying or Speeding Up on Foot
Killing Time & Hanging Out in a Group
Set your timer for 15 minutes. Go!
Writing Prompt 7: Luray Caverns
Prompt: Place a metaphor in a setting that matches. EG Luray Caverns is in Virginia, so it makes for a good reference if your scene takes place in Virginia, but not in the Sahara.
You don’t have to understand more than basic geology to use a formation in nature as a metaphor. EG A chemical reaction of water and carbon dioxide with limestone liquified these mineral deposits. The mineralized rock solution dripped through the cave, reached air, and trickled down, solidifying into hanging stalactites.
Play with one of the following metaphors:
- The stalactites look like icicles.
- They exist because of a reversal in a chemical reaction.
- They form into a column, a community, a crowd of dripping rock.
- Would they change if the cave cracked open, warmed, endured an explosion?
Find verbs in the following lists:
Changes in Rock & Ice Over Millennia
Drifting Apart or Sliding Away
Rockslides, Mudslides & Avalanches
Set your timer for 15 minutes. Go!
Photo credit: David Kulp
Writing Prompt 8: Wires Across the Sun
Prompt: Develop a character who loves to gaze at the sun. Describe their upturned face. What do the parallel lines of the wires remind them of? Strings on a musical instrument? Played by whom? Lines on classroom paper when they were a child? What was the first story they wrote in school? What did the teacher assign?
Find verbs in the following lists:
Set your timer for 10 minutes. Go!
Photo credit: David Kulp
Writing Prompt 9: Paint, Hurdle & Frame
What was the artist’s mood when he painted this? What happened that day to inspire this piece? How does he hold the brush? Where does he want to exhibit it? What hurdles does he face before the work graces a gallery wall? Slip into your writing the shape of a hurdle. (It resembles a picture frame.)
Find verbs in the following lists:
Things One Does to a Canvas Other Than Paint It
Set your timer for 10 minutes. Go!
Painting by Russ Ellis
Writing Prompt 10: Past & Present
Prompt: Let the past bleed into the present. Imagine the ancestral past of the sculptor by piercing the figure with your insight. Could there be an indentured servant, an enslaved ancestor, a shy prince, a boy with aspirations to study in secret?
What do you see in the mesh, the white swirl, the cleaved oval?
Find verbs in the following lists:
Personal & Familial Connection With One’s Culture
Gaining Respect From People Outside One’s own Group
Self-Respect in Marginalized Groups
The Cost of Belonging to a Marginalized Group
Set your timer for 10 minutes. Go!
Sculpture by Russ Ellis
Writing Prompt 11: Rainbow
Prompt: Why are these two people walking at the mud flats? What does each want from the other? Describe the tension between them using a metaphor stirred by the photo. Who is the third person? Which of the three misses the rainbow? Why? Set the timer for 10 minutes. Go!
Check out the following lists for strong verbs:
Writing Prompt 12: David
Prompt: Who grew up near this statue of David by Michelangelo? How did the statue influence the posture and sexuality of boys in the neighborhood?
What kind of mischief did a teenager do to the statue? Did he get caught? Did he go to jail? Why? Why not?
OR: What kind of romance took place here? Set your timer for 15 minutes. Go!
Check out the following lists for strong verbs:
Small Movements & Body Positions
Writing Prompt 13: Afternoon in Sarajevo
Prompt: What is this place? What are these men doing? What is their relationship? Whose belongings sit on the bench? Where has that person gone? Why? What is the relationship between the absent person and the man wearing jeans? Set the timer for 10 minutes. Go!
Check out the following lists for strong verbs:
Writing Prompt 14: The Church
Prompt: The priest of this church has a secret. What is it? Who wants to know his secret? Why? What is their relationship? Why does he fear disclosure? Set the timer for 10 minutes. Go!
Check out the following lists for strong verbs:
Writing Prompt 15: Burned Building
Prompt: Who set fire to this building? Why? Who was hurt in the fire? Who did the fire bring together? What happened next? Set the timer for 10 minutes. Go!
Check out the following lists for strong verbs:
Writing Prompt 16: Refugee Settlement
Prompt: This is a refugee settlement. What did the refugees flee? What did they want? Twelve years later, what's happening here? Who left? Who stayed? Why? Set your timer for 15 minutes. Go!
Check out the following lists for strong verbs:
Living in the Shadow of the Past
Writing Prompt 17: Birds
Prompt: It is 2024. Just before a woman is killed, she walks by these bird sculptures. What unusual thing does the murderer do just before he kills her? What role does a cyborg play in solving the crime? Set your timer for 10 minutes. Go!
Check out the following lists for strong verbs:
Writing Prompt 18: Catastrophe
Prompt: What happened here? Why is the woman taking a picture? If you were writing text for a memorial plaque, what would you write? Choose verbs that imply goodness or guilt when plotting a story around this picture. Set your timer for 10 minutes. Go!
Check out the following lists for strong verbs:
Injuring Someone Using Violence
Writing Prompt 19: Soldiers
Prompt: Why are these soldiers standing by the road? What does their posture tell you about their mood? What kind of threat requires their presence? Who is waiting to cause trouble? Why? What happens?
Start the segment with: "It all began with a rock."
Check out the following lists for strong verbs:
Protection Offered by Someone With Power
Set your timer for 10 minutes. Go!
Writing Prompt 20: Ski Tracks
Prompt: Whose ski tracks are these? What kind of skiers skin and ski this far from a gondola? Why have they come to these mountains? Today, they spot a snow leopard. What did the leopard do when it saw the skiers? What did the skiers do?
Start the segment with: "Later, when..."
Check out the following lists for strong verbs:
Set your timer for 10 minutes. Go!
Photo credit: Jef Desbecker
Writing Prompt 21: Avalanche
Prompt: This is the aftermath of a large avalanche. What did the avalanche uproot? Who was injured? Did someone die? What did the search and rescue team find? What sound does an avalanche make?
Check out the following lists for strong verbs:
Set your timer for 10 minutes. Go!
Photo credit: Jef Desbecker
Writing Prompt 22: Shimmering Table
Prompt: Name three characters who will sit at this table. Each of their names starts with a different letter. What group occupies the remainder of the chairs? Flesh out a scene of natural disaster, crime, altercation, theft, relationship drama, or cheating. Keep the dialogue pithy.
Pick verbs that convey smells, sounds, sights, or textures. Use verbs that allude to the action about to happen. E.g. a spoon can brush against the side of a bowl, a fork could stab a piece of meat, an air vent might hiss, a plate shimmer, an odor reach up.
Check out the following lists for strong verbs:
Verbs that Suggest Peril & Suspense
Creating the Appearance of Texture
Set your timer for 10 minutes. Go!
Photo credit: Jef Desbecker
Writing Prompt 23: Details in Chaos
Prompt: Writers find material everywhere. Try this exercise to hone your observation in each of your senses -- smell, taste, hearing, sight, touch.
Observe this chaotic photo, then select eight details to explore. Try starting at the far left and write about the man on a donkey or horse, the kiosk, the van, the place of worship, the birds, the pedestrian, the occupants in the apartment, the vendor in the market. Describe each aspect of the photo using specific details. Don’t settle for the generalities provided here to get you started.
This photo was taken in Kashmir. Google Kashmir to find out what kind of tree, animal, bird, fruit, place of worship you'd see here.
Repeat this exercise once a week for eight weeks using different photos and locations.
Check out the following lists for active verbs:
Spiritual & Religious Practices
Set your timer for 10 minutes. Go!
Photo credit: Jef Desbecker
Writing Prompt 24: Miniature World
Prompt: Writers describe sensory details to create metaphors. An animal might call up fierceness, a painting can stand in for a lost love, an item on a street could suggest the rawness of urban life.
Try these exercises:
- Describe this miniature world using ominous verbs.
- Describe it using verbs that suggest whimsy.
- Describe it from a child's point of view.
- Explain the meaning of the objects from the point of view of a patient just released from a mental hospital.
Check out the following lists for active verbs:
Objects & Location
Children's Play
Peril, Suspense & Fear
How Joy Stirs in Someone
Pick one approach, then set your timer for 15 minutes. Go!
Writing Prompt 25: Piano in 2040
Who composes at the piano? What style of music do they write? Invent lyrics that foretell what will happen here. Put them in the mouth of the composer or on her score. Link the piano or the composition to something that happens in this room in the year 2040. What role will a drone play? What item stands in the spot the piano occupies?
Check out the following lists for evocative verbs:
Sound & Music
Physical Action & Labor
What Piano Players Do
Sounds Made by Wind Instruments & Keyboards
Composing & Arranging Music
Set timer for 15 minutes. Go!
Writing Prompt 26: Slot Machine
Prompt: On the first day of snowfall, what prompted these men to play slot machines? What do they hope to win with their windfall? Pick one detail from each of their lives that sets up this moment.
Find verbs in the following lists:
What Factory Workers Do Other Than Operate Machinery
Set your timer for 10 minutes. Go!
Writing Prompt 27: CIA Map
Prompt: This photo was taken from a public wall of The War Crimes Office in Tuzla, Bosnia. It shows a CIA map from the mid-1990s. Use the troop movements to craft a bicultural war story.
Who stays? Who flees? Why?
Find powerful verbs in these lists:
The Moment Violence Breaks Out
Set your timer for 15 minutes. Go!
Writing Prompt 28: Time Travelling
Prompt: A time traveler from the future comes back to change the course of history: Choose one of the following scenarios:
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USA election 2016
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The assassination of Abraham Lincoln
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The unsuccessful assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler
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The immigration of Einstein to the USA
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A major discovery or invention happens in a different country (detonation of an atomic bomb, discovery of oil, invention of the silicon chip, the internet...)
What is the time traveler’s motivation to change one historical moment? When they arrive, what smells, sounds and weather strike them? Set the scene. If they succeed, who will benefit and who will suffer?
Check out the following lists for strong verbs:
Sounds Made by Things & Instruments
What People Do in Nasty or Wet Weather
Set a timer for 10 minutes. Go!