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Close your eyes briefly. Think of one object that's in the room and focus on it. Without opening your eyes, recall as much detail as you can about it. After 3 minutes or so, open your eyes and write about that object without looking at it.
Choose a poem you like. Take the last line and use that as the first line of your own poem.
Describe what you feel right now using your sense of smell. If you feel frustrated, write about what your frustration smells like. Use vivid words. Don't skimp on adjectives.
Write about a weird day in your workplace.
In 400 words, create your ideal place.
Write a letter to the 10-year old child you had been.
Write about one of the most difficult decisions you've made in your life.
Begin a 500-word piece with "If I had the power to change something, I would change..."
List 20 things you're afraid of. Pick one fear and write about it.
Use the following words in a story: hypocrite, cookie jar, city, telephone
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Write about a time you hid from someone, or a time you disguised who you really were.
In 200 words, write about what this metaphor makes you think of: "a garnish of joy"
What do you do on a rainy day? Write about it in 250 words.
Write about what you'd cook for an enemy.
Try to use all of the words in a story: plastic bottle, hockey puck, dirty handkerchief, crumpled note, unhinged door
List the names of 5-8 of your relatives and write a profile (in 50 words or less) of each.
Write about Valentine's Day without mentioning these words: Valentine's Day, cupid, love, roses, flowers, hearts, February
It was Erica Jong who said, "If you don't risk anything, you risk more." Write about what this means to you.
Use these words in a story: hurricane, flashlight, lawn mower
Think of a product you wouldn't be caught dead using. The company who makes that product plans to stop its production. Write a strong letter to the company and convince them not to take that product off the market.
In 300 words, fictionalize an event that happened to one of your parents, siblings or relatives.
Use the first line of a nursery rhyme (take your pick) to start a story.
A picture is worth more than a blank page. Take out those dusty photo albums. Pick out photo #14. Count however way you like, but make sure you stop at photo #14. Look at the photo for 2-3 minutes. Then for 10 minutes, write all the feelings that photograph made you feel. Don`t censor yourself. Just write.
List down all the clichés you can think of, then choose one you`re most familiar with, or the one that strikes your fancy. Make that the first line of your poem. You can take the cliché literally or figuratively.
For this prompt, you'll come up with a poem about an object that describes you. First, choose an object. Next, list down the reasons you think the object you chose represents you. From your list of reasons, which one is the most powerful? Which one conveys the strongest image of you? Once you`ve chosen your main image, list down things that support this main image. Build your poem from there.
Moving from one place to another, and one house to another, is a big task. Write about one of your most memorable house moves.
Write about what you'd say to an uninvited guest.
In 200 words, write about your first toy.
Write about one of the easiest decisions you've made in your life.
Write an excuse for not coming in to work today.
Begin a story with the line, "The clock winked."
What`s your idea of a perfect vacation?
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Choose one of your physical features and write about how you can change or disguise that feature.
In 200 words, describe a hot day.
Write a story about a town that ran out of sugar supply.
Think of a human attribute for "pride" and freewrite on it for 5 minutes.
A drunk man sits next to you in a bar, thinks you're his buddy, and starts confessing "the truth." Write about what "the truth" is.
"A funny thing happened on my way to..."
What's the worst meal you've had? Write about it as if the event is taking place right now.
Pick a character in a day time soap and put him or her in a stranded commuter train. Write about what he or she is feeling or thinking at that moment.
Take out your high school yearbook and pick someone from your class. Write about what you think he or she is doing now. Go ahead and fictionalize that person.
Write a story with the help of this image: "The shore fumed at the waves"
List 10 things you usually do on a rainy day. Pick one from your list and freewrite for 5 minutes.
Recall a time when you did something to get noticed. Write about it.
The dictionary atop your shelf has more than 200,000 words defined. Why don't you blow off some of the dust on its cover and randomly pick out 10 words? Don't look at the meanings; just concentrate on the words. Write down your chosen words on a (blank) sheet of paper. Now, you're going to have fun creating meanings for those words. What do the words make you think of? What do you think should they mean?
Electricity is a recent discovery. Think of 12 things to do when there's no power.
Below are 3 sets of words. Use all the words in each set to write mini stories in 300 words or less:
SET 1: paper clips, principal, lunchbox, swing, girl with a pink ribbon
SET 2: biology, class card, foreign student, leaf, blood sample
SET 3: typewriter, filing cabinet, puncher, clerk, carbon paper, janitor
Write a story about irony, with a teacher as the main character and a fuse box as the key object. Set your story in a lab.
Begin a story with "There was once a chance I didn't take..."
Re-write the fairy tale, Snow White, from the point of view of Bashful, one of the 7 dwarves.
Write a story about an empty glass.
Write about a blue-colored object.
List 10 challenges you've faced in the last 3 months. Pick one challenge and write about it.
Write an exaggeration of an ailment or illness (cough, fever, asthma).
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What does "a string of laughter" make you think of?
In 500 words or less, write about "a plate of sunshine."
List 10 things you can do with tissue paper. Pick one from the list and write about it.
Write a 150-word profile of someone named "Margaret Mallory.
Write about a joyous moment.
Start freewriting with the help of this image: "a melon strolling on two tendrils" (a line in Sylvia Plath's poem, Metaphors)
In 300 words, write about "deceit."
Write about a memory related to a holiday.
Flip through a magazine and create a story around the first image you see.
List 15 simple pleasures. Pick one and write about it.
What reward would you like to give yourself after writing 500 words?
Recall an uplifting experience and write about it.'
Fairy tales have happy endings. All of us know what happened in that mushy fairy tale, Cinderella. Yeah, it's romantic, the prince actually finding Cinderella. They lived happily ever after. But happy endings can sometimes be, well...boring. No zing. So predictable. So...happy. What if the shoe fit one of the sisters? What happens then? Play with your imagination here. Be funny if you like. Or serious if you feel like it. Or be an Alfred Hitchcock. Whatever you're into, write your ending to the Cinderella story -- but this time, make it so that the shoe fit one of the icky sisters. What does Prince Charming do? How does Cinderella cope with it? And what about the Fairy Godmother? Start your story here.
Make a list of 40 things that happened to you this month. They can be funny, embarrassing, happy, or infuriating. Then pick one from your list and write about it.
Write about a brief but scary encounter with one of your old professors.
Where do you go when you want to get away from the pressures of life, family, work, etc? Write about that place.
Write about the color of hunger.
Imagine your life is now a book. In 100 words, write the blurb for it. (It's what people will read on the back cover.)
What's the most boring day you've had? Describe it, but this time, make it sound not boring at all.
You're in a room full of people and you're the only blind person there. Describe the room and the people in your mind.
Invent a hot or sensational issue and write a news story about it.
List 20 things that annoy you. Pick one and write about it.
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Put Shaggy (Scooby-Doo's partner) and Batgirl in an elevator and write a 200-word scene.
Do a 5-minute freewrite with the phrase, "Anger suffers as grief withdraws" as your guide.
Write about the "fickle finger of Fate."
Write about a good thing gone bad.
Write about the biggest lie you've ever told.
List 10-15 things worth saving then choose 1 of those things and write about it.
Begin with "I thought I saw..."
Write about a task, job, or chore you dislike.
Write the story of a disastrous family picnic.
Take two people who dislike each other and stick them in the backseat of a cab. What happens?
Write a letter to the teacher who gave you a hard time in grade school or high school.
Write about a moment when you and another person (sibling, friend, parent, etc.) bonded.
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