Suggested prompts for coming year -- HELP SELECT!
Hello all. I'm helping out over here at the YWP offices this week, and GG gave me the lovely job of typing up all the prompts that people wrote on the giant sheet of paper at the most recent workshop. In between some random tic-tac-toe games and nonsensical musings, I found a fair amount of good prompts (it was quite a challenge to move the paper around.) Here they are: AND GG IS SCREAMING (sort of) TO ADD YOUR OWN SUGGESTIONS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!
MUSIC- Why do you like it?
End a story with the words, “Oh yeah- this is fiction. You know that, right?”
Describe a rainbow. Don’t use any color names (at all)
Write about your best experience in the rain.
Use the words “carnivorous plants attacked” in a poem.
Tell the story of a small building and how it adjusts to all the new
owners, changes, etc.
Write an entire poem without the use of two letters (ie. S, U, B…)
Write a nonsense piece that somehow makes sense.
Incorporate as many song titles into one piece as humanly possible
Create a short story based on song lyrics
Tell a well-known story from the antagonist's point of view (have the antagonist win if you'd like.)
Your favorite pair of eyes. Color? Shape? Do they have anything else
special about them?
How does water
What if microwaves had minds of their own?
Write a poem in response to a painting (include link to picture of painting please).
Describe yourself without using the first person point of view, or your
name.
Your interpretation of rainbows.
Write about the most inspiring and/or exciting experience you’ve ever had.
Write something with the phrase “No, I’m not crazy”
OPPOSITES- Write about them.
PARENTS- Be honest.
Write a story with someone else.
Fiction- Best law you’ve ever broken.
Describe the sky to someone who has been blind their entire life.
Personify a tree.
Why do kids dread school?
Someone whose face was the Wal-Mart smiley logo.- Write about it.
You wake up to find you are a pane of glass. Elaborate.
Write the story of a band’s name.
Write a first person narrative with only one character.
Start a story/poem with the phrase “Stop talking about California!”
Write about the word “Soup”
Write about fruit.
Write about wind.
“Oh gosh, they're back..."
Why are zebras striped?
Up is down.
Why do you write? (think about it.)
What does it mean to be smart?
Close your eyes and write about what you hear.
Your best vacation story.
You've fallen asleep in Spanish class and wake up in Costa Rica.
Failure -- It's not all that it's cracked up to be.
What is cyber bullying?
Ode to an inanimate object.
“Hello my name is (insert famous name here)”
Death. Discuss.
Irrational phobias.
Solve a mystery (*cough* the butler did it *cough*).
The story of your life (in less than 140 characters).
Who would you die for (if anyone)? Why?
You are a rock. Do you have a soul? Why/why not?
“I am a rock, I am an island”
Describe the sound of thunder to someone who has been deaf their entire
life.
How would you feel if you saw everything in black and white?
Explain what would happen in a world without corners.
You are stuck in an elevator with a type of person you don't like... Write a dialog/story. Make it funny.
Write a parody of your favorite song.
Create a story about a man named Estabon.
Poem of only nouns.
What color is darkness?
Computers fail, the world must use crayons!
The Faulkner Exercise: Write a story that is one big, long, run-on sentence.
Vignette: Write about a tiny moment.
You live in Florida and write for the Florida Citrus Commission. Your task: Write a rhyming slogan or poem in which your first line ends with orange.
Write about aliens.
Write the worst opening paragraph ever.
What do you think of when you hear the word “sunset”?
Make a "bucket list". Things would would like to do before you die.
List 50 things you will never do.
What are the top 15 things you would buy with your last twenty dollars.
Begin a story with "and the hallway went silent"
List 13 good reasons to learn another language.
List nine good reasons to break off a wedding.
Make a list of the twelve worst movies of all time. Include explanations.
Make a list of the twelve best movies of all time. Include explanations.
Memorial Day
- Qwerty's blog
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*Ahem* ...Myself and a few
*Ahem*
...Myself and a few people apologize for the tic-tac toe games...
It helps to brainstorm! ....Kind of. :D
~Spazz.
~Spazz.
**coughcough** Si, they help
**coughcough**
Si, they help focus our chi!
XD
~Soso
totally OK.....
...on the tic tac and drawings...
gg
:D ~Spazz.
:D
~Spazz.
~Spazz.
A suggestion (if I may)
I often use song titles as workshop prompts. They tend to be the titles of "jazz" compositions-but, you know, whatever works, right?
Here are four:
-"Bob's Pink Cadillac"
-"The Last Of The Chicken Wings"
-"Diana In The Autumn Wind"
-"Midnight In Carlotta's Hair"
Best to all...
Reuben
Reuben Jackson
Those were fun to write... I
Those were fun to write... I think I might've drawn on the paper too. My favorites are incorporating as many song titles as possible into a piece, describing someone's eyes, ode to an inanimate object, irrational phobias (*cough* toilets *cough*), the story of your life in less than 140 characters, stuck in an elevator with someone you don't like, writing about a tiny moment... wow, these would all be fun to write about.
~E
.............................................................
These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, consume.
-Romeo and Juliet
Another Prompt
Explain a complicated subject (higher powers, love, suicide, et cetera) - through a simple medium (a children's song, a widely known painting, a household object, et cetera).
/gradster(1)/ - wiping tears
Secretary of Bureaucracy, ASAP.
http://nmhwu.wordpress.com/
-A
prompt idea
In the mirror....
write about what you see the mirror (metaphorical or literally)
prompt
Write about a random poster that you've seen.....
Describe how you feel about that specific topic that it is advertising.
Those Are Good
I would definitely write more if the Prompt's were as fun as these are. I mean, 9 good reasons to break off a wedding? Ha! That would be really hard to think of, but the experience would be funny.Keep thinking them up
Oh, i have one for you: You're stuck on a deserted island with a magic portal to your right, and a rescue boat to your left. Which do you choose to take, if any, and why? Elaborate.
Very Good Ideas!
These ideas are all very good! They made me think about how I would answer them and ways to write down my responses. This website is very good because it will raise children to love writing and do it well and creatively. I wish this site had existed when I was younger than a senior in high school!
I have a few new ones that I thought would also be good:
Pretend you are looking out a window. What do you see? What emotions rush at you?
Pick a smell that brings you back to your childhood and write about it in any form of writing. (narrative, poem, etc.)
Plan day with someone who you admire or idolize. What would you do or talk about?
If you were an animal what kind would you be? What would you do? Write about it in any form of writing you want. (narrative, poem, etc.)
How could you describe the taste and smell of chocolate to someone who has never had it before?
Write a story about a great Halloween adventure you had or wish you had.
Write about siblings. Is it better to be a middle child, youngest, or oldest? Would you like to be an only child?
If you had a twin who looked exactly like you, what would you do together?
Choose your favorite food and recipe and write about an adventure a character (and possibly other characters who helped) had making that food. Was it a hilarious disaster or did it turn out perfectly?
Are you a morning person or a night person?
If you could visit one country in the world all alone, what would you do there?
Pretend you are the wealthiest person on the planet. What would you do with your money? You could write about a yourself or a fictional character in a story about how they use the money.
If you could be the principal of your school for one day, what would you do?
If you could find out what will happen to you in the future, would you do it? Why or why not?
If you could have any animal as your pet, which would you choose and what would you do?
prompts
write your own version of a yankee Doodle, working on the railroad, or other famous poem--even robert frost!
write a story with someone
write a story with someone else....umm...a vignette sounds like it woul be fun...a bucket list....50 things you'll never do...and then the one where you're stuck in an elevator with someon you don't like...these sound like they would be fun to write...
how about this one-->
What would you do if you knew that today was your last day to live?
Katie S.
Excuse me.... So I like the
Excuse me....
So I like the one about music, rainbows(w/o using any colors), your favorite set of eyes, what color is darkness, what do you think of when you hear the work sunset? That is my oppinion, and maybe you could one one about what do you think of when you look at the stars, or what is you're most desired dream...(something like that, I would enjoy writing peices for those too... :-) )
~"If you lack the courage to start, then you have already finished"~
~The past is history, It lies behind us,Tomorrow is the future,It awaits our stop,Today is now,It is the moment.~
Excuse me.... So I like the
Excuse me....
So I like the one about music, rainbows(w/o using any colors), your favorite set of eyes, what color is darkness, what do you think of when you hear the work sunset? That is my oppinion, and maybe you could one one about what do you think of when you look at the stars, or what is you're most desired dream...(something like that, I would enjoy writing peices for those too... :-) )
~"If you lack the courage to start, then you have already finished"~
~The past is history, It lies behind us,Tomorrow is the future,It awaits our stop,Today is now,It is the moment.~
I also really like the ones
I also really like the ones from mpm_writer!!! :-)
I like them a lot.!! :-)
~"If you lack the courage to start, then you have already finished"~
~The past is history, It lies behind us,Tomorrow is the future,It awaits our stop,Today is now,It is the moment.~
In the mirror.... write
In the mirror....
write about what you see the mirror (metaphorical or literally)
Thank you
Thank you Maddison! I wrote what came to my head and what would be interesting to write about! :)
A lot of interesting things!
A lot of interesting things! I'm writing some of them as things to do before I die. Describing a rainbow without using colors is a hard one. I gave a lot of thought to the one related to music. Even though I thought I had an answer for that I realized I really like Eric Clapton songs although I don't usually admit it. Anyway, you all know the songs that have been there in the background our entire lives even if we don't particularly choose to listen to them.
Eric Clapton is
Eric Clapton is amazing.
:)
_____________________________
“Religion is for people who are scared to go to hell. Spirituality is for people who have already been there.”
-Bonnie Raitt
ASAP: Affluent Students Aspiring for Perspicacity
____________________
-Qwerty
Affluent Students Aspiring for Perspicacity
Never