Category Archives: Writing Prompts

500 Club (5/17)

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This Thursday I find myself ready to melt into the concrete. With some luck, maybe we can also thaw a bit of that creative glacier with a few writing prompts. Who knows where the word-runoff could lead.

Here’s what to do:

  1. Write 500 words based on one of the two prompts below.
  2. Post it to your blog.
  3. Give us a small taste in the comments below along with a link to the full text.

As always, feel free to change the name and sex of the characters as you see fit. After all, it’s your story.:

1. Finish this opener: Only one left. The first two were wasted.

2. Flashback Challenge: Write 500 words where the last half is a flashback. The first half should stand on its own, but have the flashback change the way the reader sees the first half.

500 Club (5/10)

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I see we found our way to another Thursday and yet another set of writing prompts. Let’s see if we can’t wring some creative thoughts in 500 words. Think you can do it? Here’s all you need to know to get at it:

The rules as we see fit:

  1. Write 500 words based on one of the two prompts below.
  2. Post it to your blog.
  3. Give us a small taste in the comments below along with a link to the full text.

As always, feel free to change the name and sex of the characters as you see fit. After all, it’s your story.:

1. Deus ex machina: Where a seemingly unsolvable situation is neatly wrapped up by an intervening god, character, event, object, etc. A device better avoided… except this time. Write 500 words from the view-point of that intervening god, character, event or object.

2. Picture Worth 1,000 500 Words: Write 500 words based on the picture below.

Click for larger image.

500 Club (4/26)

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Hi everybody, it’s time to write!

Here’s the rules for our little game:

  1. Write 500 words based on one of the two prompts below.
  2. Post it to your blog.
  3. Give us a line or two in the comments, along with a link back to the full text.

1. Write a story about a tight-knit community. Does your hero want to break free, or remake the rest of the world in his community’s image? And would that be a good or a very bad thing?

2. Start with an omen. A raven, a black cat, a shining light haloing someone’s head. Just make sure your omen foreshadows the opposite of what we expect (halo = bad! Raven = good!)

Good luck and have fun!

500 Club (4/19)

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Hello Thursday!

I have some writing prompts ready and waiting to be tackled. Carve out a few minutes and give them a try.

Here’s all you’ll need to know:

  1. Write 500 words based on one of the two prompts below.
  2. Post it to your blog.
  3. Give us a small taste in the comments below along with a link to the full text.

As always, feel free to change the name and sex of the characters as you see fit. After all, it’s your story.:

1. Finish this opening: Killing the headlights and coasting up the driveway, the crunch of the gravel under the tires was the only indication he had arrived. He checked the passenger seat again. No turning back now.

2. Work a poem into a 500 word story. The poem can be as long or as short as you like, made up or well-known (just remember to give credit where credit is due).

500 Club (3/29)

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Let’s take a break from the Round Robin story to give you a chance stretch your creative muscle too. Use these prompts to go crazy. Break outside of your normal writing style. It’s only 500 words. How hard can that be? Give it a try. Even Bat Boy can do it.

Here’s all you’ll need to know:

  1. Write 500 words based on one of the two prompts below.
  2. Post it to your blog.
  3. Give us a small taste in the comments below along with a link to the full text.

As always, feel free to change the name and sex of the characters as you see fit. After all, it’s your story.:

1. Finish this opening: Bill had no problem showing his home. The rooms were clean, the appliances new, and the walls completely repaired. He doubted seriously anyone would notice the…

2. Pick a headline from any news source you like, the wackier the better. Off-beat tabloids are the best for these. Now, without reading the story, create your own.

500 Club (3/8)

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What will your journey be like?

Dust off that keyboard, and sharpen those pencils. Today we’re going on a trip. More accurately, we’ll be writing about a trip, the journey. Here lies the heart of the heart of your story. A and B might be really cool points, but it’s how they get connected that will make the story memorable.

Road Writing rules for the trip:

  1. Write 500 words based on one of the two prompts below.
  2. Post it to your blog.
  3. Give us a small taste in the comments below along with a link to the full text.

For today’s prompts you can create whatever kind of character you like, and all points can relate to places or a specific life event, whichever you choose:

1. Take two seemingly unrelated points and connect them. Examples: A monastery and dangling from a parachute; spelling bee finals and USMC sniper; Bunk bed and Niagara Falls.

2. Take two easily relatable points and connect them in a way that you would NOT expect. Examples: Your house to the neighbor’s house via submarine; Your house to China via the center of the Earth; childhood to adulthood via a wormhole through Pangea.

500 Club (3/1)

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It’s the first of March, so let’s bring this 500 Club in like a lion. Prompts wait below, warm in their lair and ready to play.

The Rules:

  1. Write 500 words based on one of the two prompts below.
  2. Post it to your blog.
  3. In the comments below, drop the first line or two along with a link to the rest of the story.

The prompts today have a qualifier. Think of your default protagonist. White, male, adult, straight? Today I want you to change at least two of those defining characteristics. If you always write men, try a woman on for size. If you always write about straight characters, hit up the LBGT spectrum. If you always write about white people, try slipping into the POV of an asian, or native american, or black person. And if you always write about people in their mid-20s, try an elderly or very young perspective instead.

(If you get absolutely stuck, try this: write as you normally would, then go back and change Paul to Pam, but leave in the girlfriend. The point is to stretch as a writer, and to realize you CAN write from the perspective of X Y or Z. Just write a person, know what I mean?)

1. Billy found the body in the river. 

OR

2. It all started when the cat came in. I knew it was bad luck, but nobody listened to me. God, I hate being right.

Happy writing!

500 Club (2/16)

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Feel like you’re dragging today? Finding it tough to tackle that blank page? Sounds like you can use a little stretch, some creative calisthenics. A quick writing prompt will get you going in no time.

Here’s what to do:

  1. Write 500 words based on one of the two prompts below.
  2. Post it to your blog.
  3. Give us a small taste in the comments below along with a link to the full text.

And now on to the prompts:

1. Your Senses: Write 500 words focusing on the sense of touch.

2. Writing Challenge: Break outside of your comfort zone. Write 500 words from the point of view of someone unlike yourself. Examples: Little person, amputee, autistic, or deaf.

*Feel free to change the name or sex of the characters as needed.

500 Club (1/26)

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Another Thursday brings us another 500 Club! Scroll down for two more prompts waiting to be explored.

Here’s what to do:

  1. Write 500 words based on one of the two prompts below.
  2. Post it to your blog.
  3. Give us a small taste in the comments below along with a link to the full text.

And now on to the prompts:

1. Attracting Opposites: In 500 words, convincingly combine two opposite elements. Blend fire and ice, love and hate, or space travel and deep-sea diving. Pick one of those or choose your own, just make sure they’re extreme opposites and make them coalesce.

2. Things Out of Place: Write a short story about something out of place. Maybe stacks and stacks of book, but not in a library or book store. Or, a full working kitchen at the heart of a cave. Make it believable and make it in 500 words.

*Feel free to change the name or sex of the characters as needed.

500 Club (1/5/2012)

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New Year, new prompts. Let’s not get out of the habit of letting our creativity play. Make it your New Year’s Resolution. Start writing now!

Here’s what to do:

  1. Write 500 words based on one of the two prompts below.
  2. Post it to your blog.
  3. Give us a small taste in the comments below along with a link to the full text.

And now on to the prompts:

1. Finish this opener: Joe swore he’d never do it again, but here he was, standing out front with _______ in hand and unable to stop from going in.

2. The new year marks ends and beginnings. Write 500 words where the last line mirrors the first.

*Feel free to change the name or sex of the characters as needed.