Prompt Your Story

By Meagan Jones

The “Writer’s Workshop” blog posts are meant to be a collage of writer’s tips, tricks, and strategies, including the first steps to publishing, writing prompts, strategies for writer’s block, and a general jumble of ideas to help you in your quest to create and publish.

 

You know how in my disclaimer above I mention writing prompts? Well, whatever happened to those, huh? Here’s the short answer: I didn’t really do them. I’ve given some suggestions on how to write, but no honest-to-god prompts.

So today’s Writer’s Workshop is going to be short, sweet, and simple:

 

PROMPTS.

 

1. Describe the life of your favorite writing utensil. Be as descriptive as it is possible for you to be (don’t skimp out on me, you hear?)
2. Pick a song. Write a sequence of images that come to mind when it’s played.
3. Write down a word that you think is unusual. Use that word as the title for a piece.
4. Think about the last thing that you ate. What was it? Describe it.
5. A character receives something that they do not expect. What is it?
6. A character is trying to explain something very simple to another character, but the other person isn’t getting it. How does your character react?
7. Describe an event from a child’s point of view. The child perceives this event as traumatic.
8. A character hears a mysterious noise. How does the character react, and what is it?
9. You/a character hurt yourself/themself. How did it happen?
10. Pick an object from your childhood that you’re really attached to. Describe it.
11. Human society has shut down. How did it happen?
12. What is world peace like?
13. Describe your ideal world.
14. Use a non-human perspective. How does an animal/plant/insect/etc. react to its surroundings?
15. Touch, smell, taste, sight, hearing. Use them all to describe an object/event/emotion.

 

Some great prompt sites to look at:

Poets and writers – they have some nice, fleshed out prompts to follow.

Thinkwritten.com – 365 writing prompts, short and sweet

Writer’s Digest – for that nice, in-between.

 

 

Thanks to all of you who have kept up with my “Writer’s Workshop” posts this semester. Next week, instead of a true Workshop post, I will be posting a farewell as an editor for this semester. Thank you all!