Category: Prompts

Writing Prompt September 3, 2010

Use the following sentences, in this order, as the start of your 2, 3, & 4th paragraphs or stanzas:

— You’d think that if you were driving one of those practically invisible “smart cars,” that you would at least use your blinkers regularly to indicate you are turning.

— All three dogs flopped onto the floor and panted after their long walk around the neighborhood.

— “Better get some club soda at the store this afternoon.”

© CWC

Writing Prompt September 2, 2010

Here are a few things that happened on this day in history.

What will happen on September 2 in the year…….2015 or 2020 or 2100?

1666 The Great Fire of London broke out. It destroyed nearly 400 acres, including some 13,000 houses and the old St. Paul’s Cathedral.
1789 The U.S. Treasury Department was established.
1864 Union Gen. William T. Sherman’s forces occupied Atlanta during the Civil War.
1901 Vice President Theodore Roosevelt offered the advice, “Speak softly and carry a big stick,” in a speech at the Minnesota State Fair.

© CWC

Writing Prompt September 1, 2010

Take this picture and write the thought-bubbles above each person’s head. Picture is attached as a .jpg of 94 kb.

The picture is from Wikimedia Commons and I have checked it for free use. Here is the statement on the page where I found the image:

The right to use this work is granted to anyone for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

Have fun!

© CWC

Writing Prompt August 31, 2010

Here are your first lines:

On the last day of August she had finally decided that she just did not like the light pink flowers on the crepe myrtles in her neighborhood. She liked the deep reds and when she was on the side of town where she had seen them in another neighborhood, she took a detour and drove their streets.

© CWC

Writing Prompt August 30, 2010

Happy Monday writing friends!
The majority of the prompts that you receive come right from my head. Anything that doesn’t come from me will be sourced.

Write about a library that runs out of books, [or] a school that runs out of children, [or] a circus that runs out of animals. What on earth happened?

from The Pocket Muse 2, p.112 ( I added the “or”s)

Enjoy,
H

Writing Prompt August 28, 2010

Morning!

Use all of the following 8 words in a poem or story that has no more than 70 words, and no fewer than 50 words total. You can use the 8 words in any order.
You will see that they can be used as nouns, verbs, or adjectives. You may add suffixes like –ed, –ing.

chimney
forest
candlelight
fish
glass
honey
letter
tomato

PS: This is one of my favorite warm -up exercises. You will see this again. H

© CWC

Writing Prompt August 27, 2010

Practice prompt before the prompt proper:

Write your life story in 6 words. Here is a famous example by Ernest Hemingway: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

Next, along the lines of the fictional town, Grover’s Corners created by Thornton Wilder in his play “Our Town,” write the 6 word life stories of 25 or 30 members residing in your fictional town. Name your town.

© CWC

Writing Prompt August 26th, 2010

A rock is out looking for work. It needs a resume. Write the resume.

(Prompt history: I actually made this up the other day when I was leading a resume workshop at a local career fair. The participants chose a rock from a bag I brought, and looked at it, wrote down some characteristics about it and chose a career for it from one of the list I provided: museum curator, quarry equipment operator, forest ranger, e.g.)

© CWC