Category: Writing Prompts

Happy Friday, everyone! I hope you’re all doing well with the summer heat or whatever you have to tolerate where you live. Today’s writing prompt, in honor of The Beauty of the Fall by Rich Marcello, will involve a pilgrimage. Not a geographical pilgrimage, mind you, but one of the mind and imagination.

Travel seems to have a strong effect on human beings. I don’t know the science behind it, any neurological effects or evolutionary benefits, but I’ve noticed that people become different when they travel, no matter how slight that change is. My mother and I become happier, more relaxed. My father gets even more stressed and cranky during the actual travel and, depending on the destination, he can either get slightly happier or even worse once we arrive. No matter how our attitudes change when we travel, they do, and that seems to be why people travel so often when they take a vacation (and when they can actually afford it).

Some people even find spiritual benefits to traveling. That’s where the pilgrimage comes in. While a pilgrimage is often considered religious, it doesn’t have to be. According to dictionary.com, a pilgrimage can be “any long journey, especially one undertaken as a quest or for a votive purpose, as to pay homage”.

In The Beauty of the Fall, Dan Underlight embarks on such a pilgrimage to Fortune 500 countries across the U.S. He’s looking for inspiration and to find himself, and he at least achieves the first half of that goal. I think everyone, especially the creative types, could do with a pilgrimage like that.

What if you can’t afford a pilgrimage? What if traveling that far for that long is just out of the realm of possibility due to money, work, family, and other commitments? Well, that’s what today’s writing prompt is about, going on a pilgrimage without having to leave the house or office.

This prompt involves a lot more writing than usual but I’m sure no one will object to that.

I want you to imagine that you have all the resources and time you need to take on your perfect pilgrimage. Meditate on the matter for about ten minutes and jot down notes. Where do you go? When do you go? What landmarks do you visit?

After these ten minutes of note writing, I want you to step away from the notes for a while, perhaps an hour. Let it all sink in. Then return to your notes and reread them.

Once you’re finished reviewing your ideal pilgrimage, write a story about taking it. I would suggest doing so in the form of journal entries or a log book but do whatever feels natural for you. I want you to imagine that you are currently taking that pilgrimage, not just planning it. Is everything as you expected it to be? Do you experience any bumps in the road? Meet anyone interesting?

Don’t think too hard on the matter or research the locations. Just free write, record whatever pops into your head.

This exercise isn’t so much about accuracy or plot but emotions and character development. You can check the accuracy later and a plot will probably emerge from your subconscious. What’s important is to focus on how you feel during the pilgrimage and what you think would change about you along the way.

I know that this prompt sounds rather complicated and more jumbled than what I usually present to you. I think that it will help you to not only think more about character but to also stretch your imagination by trying to picture places you may not have even been to before.

When you’re done, feel free to talk about your experience in the comments or even post an excerpt from whatever arises from the exercise.

Don’t forget to check out The Beauty of the Fall and read my review of it here.

Enjoy your journey and have a lovely weekend.

Happy Friday, readers and writers! Today we have a two-for-one: a writing prompt which doubles as a publishing opportunity. In particular, I’m going to prompt your to write “postcard fiction” and then provide you with a website where you may be able to publish it.

For my portfolio I experimented with a couple flash fiction stories. (The success of those experiments is questionable and the feedback on the portfolio seemed rather mixed.) To be honest, I’m still trying to wrap my mind around “successful” flash fiction and learning what actually makes such fiction good or bad.

Nevertheless, trying to write complete, successful fiction in such a short format is a good way to understand how to utilize all the elements of a good story without wasting a single word. That’s why I continue to grapple with flash fiction and modifying the flash I wrote for my portfolio.

In my attempt to understand this genre, I came across a website called Postcard Shorts. This website, as the name suggests, publishes flash fiction which can fit on a postcard, thus “postcard fiction.” These pieces are complete stories written in 1500 characters (not words but characters) or less.

As always, today’s writing prompt is deceptively simple:

Write a full story with a plot, narrative arc, character development, etc. which could be published on Postcard Shorts. In other words, try and write an entire story using no more than 1500 characters.

Remember, shorter does not mean easier. In fact, I’ve learned that it is much, much harder to write complete and effective stories in shorter formats. It’s probably why my flash fiction has turned out to be no good so far, but you know what they say: practice makes perfect.

Your postcard fiction can be about anything that you feel you can successfully write in under 1500 characters. Once you’re done and feel confident that you have written a good story, I suggest submitting it to Postcard Shorts. The site doesn’t pay but it’s a great way to get your fiction out there if you’re accepted and good practice at receiving rejection if you aren’t.

Well, have fun writing, my friends, and have a great weekend.

Happy Friday, everyone! This week started out pretty stressful for me but now I can kick back and relax for a little while (until boredom seeps in and I go through the “I want to do something but I’m too tired” struggle). With the summer solstice just around the corner–and my birthday!–I’ve decided to base today’s writing prompt on Ray Bradbury’s “All Summer in a Day”.

This classic piece by the ingenious Ray Bradbury is one of my favorite science fiction short stories. It’s good, old-school science fiction which we’d now see as an amusing–albeit a bit depressing–fantasy, considering what we’ve learned about our galaxy. I won’t tell you much since I don’t want to give anything away but I’ll focus on the element of the story which is important to this prompt.

“All Summer in a Day” takes place in a colony on Venus (like I said, more fantasy than science fiction nowadays considering what we know about Venus). In this story, Venus is bombarded by constant rainstorms and the sun only shows for one hour once every seven years. You can read the story in its entirety here.

Today’s prompt is based on this concept. As usual, the prompt is pretty straightforward:

Imagine that, as in “All Summer in Day”, you only got to see the sun for one hour once every seven years. What would you do? How would your disposition change? Would you be scared of the sun, even understand what it is? What would you do if someone deprived you of that hour of sun?

The reason for the sun’s cycle can be due to the planet you’re on, a curse put on you or your society or the world, some new form of incarceration, etc. Be as creative as you want. The important thing is to focus on how it would affect you as a human.

Jot down whatever comes into your head as you contemplate this scenario. Spend about five minutes on this. When you’re done, turn your notes into a short story or poem. (Try to not come too close to Bradbury’s story!) You can make it science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, whatever you feel fits your notes.

I know that this idea may seem like a stretch of the imagination but that’s the point. This exercise will make you think about yourself and your relationship with your surroundings in new ways. You may also walk away with a new appreciation for the simpler things in life (although I personally still hate the sun when it’s 100+ degrees outside).

Have a fun and productive writing weekend!

In middle school, one of my Literature teachers assigned us the aptly-titled No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman. It’s been many years since I last read this book and yet it has stuck with me. One reason is the overall quality of the book. It has a wide range of dynamic characters, the plot is engaging, and the narrative voices (it switches perspectives most chapters) are absolutely hilarious. The other reason has more to do with a thread in the book which always appears in the title: dogs dying in “classic” literature. As a dog lover, I can emphatically agree with “no more dead dogs.”

I understand why the “dead dogs” trope is used so frequently. It tugs on the readers’ hearts, provides an opportunity for character development, comments on the cruelty of mankind, etc. Nevertheless, I’m more than a bit tired of it. Old Yeller, Sounder, and Where the Red Fern Grows are just some of the many examples out there. More recently, A Dog’s Purpose follows the journey of a dog’s soul through multiple lifetimes, so of course a dog dies! Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed Where the Red Fern Grows and I cried during Old Yeller, but that doesn’t mean I want to anticipate it every time a book or movie features a dog.

Today’s writing prompt is about breaking that mold. Simply put, I want you to write a short story, poem, personal essay, whatever about a dog or which prominently features the dog. In this piece the dog cannot die. Obviously all dogs die eventually. For this prompt, you cannot depict or allude to the dog’s death in your work.

It may not seem that difficult but this trope exists for a reason. It’s the easiest way to utilize a dog as a character, and it takes some real thought to give them a different plot line.

If you come up with something that you think has promise, please feel free to share it in the comments. I would love to read some good fiction, poetry, or even non-fiction in which the dog does not die.

Have a happy writing weekend!

Well, it’s the weekend again. I’ve been in a mood since yesterday, so today’s writing prompt is going to deal with the darkness in our minds. From Edgar Allen Poe to Stephen King, darkness clearly sells. Even fiction that is not necessarily a commercial success can be considered better-written because it is so dark; for me, “The Half-Skinned Steer” by Annie Proulx comes to mind. In this writing prompt, I want to challenge you to dip into your dark side and make something productive out of it.

The prompt itself is rather simple. Think of your most twisted nightmare OR the darkest thought you’ve ever had. Now use this nightmare or dark thought to write a scene, flash story, short story, poem, whatever you want.

I know this sounds vague and overly simple but it’s a lot harder than you’d think. I can’t speak for anyone else but I don’t like to explore the darker corners of my mind too often because I’m scared of what I’ll find there. Unfortunately for me, that’s what would make it good fiction–if I’m startled just thinking about it, imagine how it could effect readers!

Well, good luck diving into the darkness and returning with your sanity intact.

We all have a tendency to write characters that are like us. Whether we use our personalities, our political and religious views, our appearances, or our social relationships, some part of us weaves into each of our characters. That’s why I’m presenting you with a particularly hard challenge today: writing opposite characters.

What do I mean by “opposite characters”? I’m talking about characters that are completely the opposite of ourselves. Gender, sexual identity, political views, religious views, personality, attitude, appearance, the character is entirely what we would consider to be our opposites.

The prompt is to write a story or scene using an opposite character as your main character. It can be a flash story, short story, scene from a novel, whatever you like so long as the main character is completely opposite from you. Let your imagination run wild and have fun with it.

I tried a less drastic version of this exercise as an undergrad; we only wrote stories about characters who were opposite from us in personality. Looking back, that exercise did not go well for me. The character had an opposite personality from me but her actions and attitude felt very disingenuous and unnatural. It was all forced. That’s where the difficult lies: making the characters convincing as people when we start out not having anything in common.

It’s a real challenge to write a character so different from ourselves. However, the challenge can help us grow as writers. It makes us think in ways that we don’t normally think and imagine perspectives and obstacles that we’ve never considered before. As a human being it can also increase our empathy and allow us to see everyday arguments from all angles.

Did this exercise teach you anything interesting about yourself? About how you write? Did it change your perspective or how you approach your writing? Leave a comment and tell us about your experiences.

One of my favorite things to do as a writer is to create new stories from old tales. I particularly love to retell fairy tales. My submission for the Writer’s Digest’s Annual Writing Competition is based on the German fairy tale “The Frog King, or Iron Heinrich”. The poem I posted on this blog earlier this week draws inspiration from Peter Pan. I have many more that have not been completed/have yet to see the light of day, and I will be discussing the relationship between old tales (especially fairy tales) and writing a lot on this blog. Needless to say, I have a passion for retelling fairy tales.

Today’s writing prompt is based on this concept, is rather simple, and is very fun. Choose your favorite fairy tale, old or modern, and write a scene, short story, or poem based on it. You can tell it from an unexplored perspective, update it for today’s world, use it as a metaphor or to explore a particular theme, whatever you want. You’d be surprised just how inspired you’ll be by retelling fairy tales and how much the stories can change in your hands.

If you need some inspiration, I highly recommend Gail Carson Levine’s Writing Magic: Creating Stories that Fly. That book on writing turned me onto rewriting fairy tales in the first place. Also, in case you don’t know who she is, Gail Carson Levine is the author of Ella Enchanted and, my personal favorite, The Two Princesses of Bamarre. You can learn a lot about writing and world building from her, so anyone who’s interested in writing fantasy should check her out.

Have a fun and productive writing weekend, everyone. I’ll try to post more next week but with my portfolio and essay looming, feeling sick, and other life commitments, that may be easier said than done.