Adventures in Creative Writing: Prompts

So I haven't told anyone this, but I've started teaching a Creative Writing class! It's fun, but unfortunately, they didn't advertise it properly and so I have only one student. I have a few writing prompts here that I've collected and wondered which ones were the most interesting to do and which helped with writer's block.

I invite anyone interested to try one of the following prompts out to see if they help with stimulating ideas. Also, if you could let me know which you liked the best and which helped the most, I'd really appreciate that

Writing Prompt #1:  Show & Tell

Children in elementary school look forward to show & tell days eagerly. After all, it's the day that they can openly bring their special treasures to school and share them with everyone. But the point isn't just to bring the objects to school, but to tell others about them, to share details that help others understand why an ordinary teddy bear or a banged up toy dump truck is something special.

Now for the prompt: Choose something for show & tell, but rather than bringing your object to class, your job is to write a short story or poem that shows us the object and tells us why it's important to you. You'll need to use lots of details to demonstrate the significance of the object -- use your words to create images that *show* readers the object and why it is important to you.

Writing Prompt #2:  Jumble Story

Preparation: Before you read the next part of this prompt, choose 4 numbers (from 1 to 10--preferably 4 different numbers). Each number corresponds to an item on the list below. The first number is the character your story is going to focus on, the second number is the setting for your story, and so forth.

Now, write a story with the character, setting, time period, and situation that you've chosen. The character that you've chosen should be the main character in the story but isn't necessarily the only character in the story. Likewise, most of the story will take place in the setting that you've chosen, but you can include other settings or elaborate on the setting that you have chosen (breaking it into several smaller settings, for example). The situation or challenge that you've chosen may involve the main character or your main character may observe someone else who must deal with the situation or challenge. In other words, you can combine these elements anyway that you desire, so long as all four are included in your story.

Do this one as many times as you like--There are literally dozens of possibilities/combinations to create!


Character

1. a new mother
2. a photographer
3. a recent high school graduate
4. a restaurant owner or manager
5. an alien from outer space
6. a homeless child
7. a 93-year-old woman
8. an environmentalist
9. a college student
10. a jazz musician

Setting

1. near a National Forest
2. a wedding reception
3. a celebration party
4. an expensive restaurant
5. a shopping mall
6. a city park
7. the porch of an old farmhouse
8. a polluted stream
9. a college library
10. a concert hall

Time

1. during a forest fire
2. after a fight
3. the night of high school graduation
4. after a big meal
5. sometime in December
6. late at night
7. after a big thunderstorm has passed
8. in early spring
9. first week of the school year
10. during a concert

Situation/Challenge

1. an important decision needs to be made
2. a secret needs to be confessed to someone else
3. someone's pride has been injured
4. a death has occurred
5. someone has found or lost something
6. someone has accused someone else of doing something wrong
7. reminiscing on how things have changed
8. someone feels like giving up
9. something embarrassing has just happened
10. someone has just reached an important goal

Writing Prompt #3: Historical Fiction

Choose a historical figure whom you know something about. Choose one of the following sentence beginnings below, and complete the sentence for your figure. Compose a short story in first-person, speaking as the historical figure where you explain the figure's wish, dream, or fear.

           The thing that I regret most about my life is _____________________.

           If I could accomplish one more thing, I would ___________________.

           The accomplishment that I am proudest of is ___________________.

           If I could live anywhere in the world, I would choose ______________.

           The saddest moment in life was when ________________________.

           My favorite childhood memory is _____________________________.

           The thing that scares me the most is _________________________.



Writing Prompt #4: Confess a Secret

Create a character who has a secret to confess, but who is afraid to confess it. Write the diary or journal entries that your character would write as she or he considers the secret, explores why it needs to be confessed, thinks about who will be affected if the secret is known, and considers why she or he is afraid. Write a series of diary or journal entries, as if they were written over a period of several days or a week. In the entries, you can incorporate the main character's interactions with others and explore the ways that the day-to-day events that the character experiences influence the way that she or he thinks about the secret and confession. Your character's decision to tell (or not) should be revealed in the final diary or journal entry. All the entries need to work together as a whole -- they should sound like the writings of a single person, and should show consistency from one entry to the next (for example, if the person writes in the diary that she is afraid of water in one journal entry, it would be inconsistent to have her mention that she had been water skiing in the entry written two days later).

Writing Prompt #5: Random Words Epigraph

Definition of an Epigraph (in case you’re unfamiliar with the term): a quotation at the beginning of a book, chapter, or section of a book, usually related to its theme.

Step One: Randomly choose 15 entries from your dictionary. Just flip through the pages, close your eyes, and put your finger down on the page. Copy down the word that is closest to your finger. If your finger lands on a word that you don't know, you can choose the word just above or just below it. For the purposes of this writing prompt, count paired words as a single entry (for instance, "melting pot" is listed as a single entry).

Step Two: Shape your list of dictionary entries into a poem, using at least ten of the entries (you can, of course, use them all if you want). You can add articles, helping and to be verbs, coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions.

Step Three: Use your poem as an epigraph for a short story. Compose a story that incorporates the themes and images that are included in your poem. The relationship between the poem and your short story should be clear to your readers, but it should not be stated explicitly in your story. Your job is to use the poem as a jumping off point. You can add more images and themes, but those that are included in your poem should be the major images and themes in your story.

Writing Prompt #6: Childhood Place

Think of an important place or event from your childhood. Write a fictionalized story about a child who goes to this place or this event as a children's book for someone about the same age that you were when you were in the place or involved in the event. Because you're writing a fictionalized record of the place or event, your details don't have to conform to actual truth. You can weave two or three (or more) memories about the place together in one story. You can make up things about the place that you're not sure of or that you wish had occurred. Your story should show how you thought and felt about the place or event as a child. Your reader has never been to the place you are describing, so you will need to use specific, concrete details which make the place vivid and your perspectives clear.

Important Note: Choose a place that you are comfortable talking about and sharing with other people. Don't dredge up memories that you don't want to deal with or aren't ready to deal with. If you're having trouble writing about a childhood place, talk to me and we'll find an alternative with which you do feel comfortable.


Well, that's it for now. Enjoy~!