Weekly Challenges

Come on, don’t be a couch potato! Get up off the couch and paint a couple of couch potatoes chilling out in their living room, or depict any other idiom you’re fond of.

Write a poem, story, or nonfiction piece about the demolition of a building you or others have grown attached to. What memories or people do you associate with the structure – and what does its destruction now symbolize? 

Your physical characteristics change with the seasons … Take it away from here!

Show us a visual representation of your favorite meal or spread, complete with side dishes and dessert, as you might see it laid out on special occasions – or just in a dream!

Write about a couple, or a pair of roommates, touring a new apartment or house for sale. Delve into the intricacies of their relationship or friendship as you explore the physical space through their eyes.

Look up Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day, identify and define it, and use it to great effect or in as many varied ways as possible in a short story or poem.

Take your favorite idiom, lines of poetry, or quote (no more than 2-3 sentences) and use an entire sheet of paper to write it out in the most beautiful or most experimental typography you can dream up!

If you were to be reincarnated as any type of person or creature, in any country, in any future era, what fantastical future would you create for yourself?

Wherever you are at this very moment, pause and take a breath. Use as many senses as you can to absorb your surroundings. Write a descriptive poem or observation about your environment.

You’ve wandered off-trail on a hike out into the desert and lost your way. Up ahead, in the baking heat, it’s surely a mirage, but … Create the shimmering, heavenlike oasis you would like to come upon.

Write about someone – passenger or driver – stuck in an hours-long traffic jam. Where are they? Do they get up, get out, explore? Get into trouble? 

Write an opinion piece based on a current news story. Take a side and make a persuasive argument. Try to keep it tight, writing only 3-4 paragraphs.