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Featuring everything new and experienced authors need to develop creative and technical skills. Check out writing development articles, our Word of the Day, writing prompts, anthology opportunities and more!

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Prompts

Final Prompts from Comicfan

We're not ready to let go of Comicfan as our resident prompt genius, so we are featuring his last prompts again, Prompt 892 and 893. If you would like, you can take a stab at either one for a lasting memorial to Wayne. Anyone that wants to, please post a prompt in honour of Wayne. I've created topics for each one of them, 892 and 893. Let us know in the below comments which one you did .   Prompt 892 - Creative  Tag - List of Words Use the following words in a story - a storm
wildone

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February Travels - The People We Encounter

Vacations are always a special treat.  You get time away from your humdrum life, time to recreate yourself and time to expand your horizons.  What a better vacation than to visit a friend in a new place to reconnect and explore.  Let's write some character sketches about the people we see and why.  I'm choosing some challenging scenarios to get writing something uncomfortable.  Good luck!   117 - You are at a resort on a tropical island when suddenly you hear your name.  Looking up, yo
Cole Matthews

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February 18 - Black History Month Prompts

February is Black History Month in the US.  It is a time when we celebrate the achievements of African Americans and honor their struggles and triumphs in US history.  Black History Month started in February 1926 as “Negro History Week” by Carter G. Woodson – a historian who helped establish the field of African American studies.   It has since been expanded to include the entire month of February and is now celebrated in many other countries besides the US.  Here are two prompts in honor of Bla
Valkyrie

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February 11 No weather for Mad Hatters

Around here you have to hold onto your hat, unless you want a workout. Let's make it a theme.   PT 21 List of words. You had a stressful week at work and no time for grocery shopping. There's a storm outside, and you are hungry. Besides rice and canned beans, all you have in your fridge is two eggs, shrimp, one red pepper, a dragon fruit, fish sauce, and a jar with kimchi. What’s cooking? And to stay with the Valentine theme, sorta... PT22 While on a second honeym
Aditus

Aditus in Prompts

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Father Christmas, Krampus, Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas, and Kris Kringle

There is a rich tradition in the West of creating Christmas and Yuletide tales.  Both sacred and secular versions of stories populate the airwaves and Internet with versions of light in the darkness, good defeating evil, epiphanies about faith, and even simple tales of happily ever after.  While we love to challenge conventions in these prompts.  Sometimes it is fun to go with the flow.  For these prompts, I'd like to challenge writers to create some wonderful stories of love winning, light conq
Cole Matthews

Cole Matthews in Prompts

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Fantasy Island

Ahhh!  The lovely idea of an island filled with magic, mystery, and love.  In the depths of winter, let's take a journey to a place with tropical drinks, grass huts, and warm breezes.   #203 - Use the following words in a story.  Daiquiri, husk, oar, coati, sanguine, furtive, umbrella, and turkey. #204 - You get up early in the morning.  The sun is just starting to ease upwards with brilliant rays bathing the palm trees and bougainvillea's growing against the seawall.  As you make your
Cole Matthews

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Fanfiction Prompts

Think of a favorite book, game, show, or movie. Did you ever want to change something? Be a part of it? PT# 113 Choose a short scene and jump right in, be it as a new/random side character or even one of the MCs. PT # 114 You love a book/game/movie, but you always thought one of the characters chose the wrong love interest. Write a short scene where you hint at a different choice.  
Aditus

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Fan-tastic

I’m melting. What do you do when it’s hot? Hug the AC? Work surrounded by fans? Jump into the lake/sea/pool? Well, there are treats: less clothes, skimpy shorts, no shirts - did I say less clothes? Okay, to the prompts. #143 Daydreaming, your MC follows a hot person through the grocery shop until they reach the produce section. They grab the same...melon. What happens, dinner or nothing? Something in-between? # 144 Describe your favorite place in summer. Make us feel it.
Aditus

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Famous First Words

I always wondered if famous authors stare at a white sheet of paper or a blinking cursor, wrestling with the very first word, the first sentence, like me. There is a story somewhere, but how to begin? Or do the words just pour out of them? PT#77 Let’s borrow an opening line of a famous book and write a short piece of fiction or a poem. I’m pretty much f*cked. (The Martian by Andy Weir) All children, except one, grow up. (Peter Pan by J.M: Barrie) He was born with a gift
Aditus

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Everybody's Irish on St. Paddy's Day!

We're just a couple of weeks away from drinking green beer and eating corned beef and cabbage, so let's celebrate all things St. Patrick's Day!    PT Prompt #207 HR calls you into their office based on a report of an unfortunate pinching incident on St. Patrick's Day.  Who made the report, why, and is it true?     PT Prompt #208 After a night of drinking too much green beer and Guinness, you wake up in a strange bed that's much too small for you.  Next to you,
Valkyrie

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Emotional Rescue

Ahhhh!  The plot is thickening.  The characters have developed perfectly.  You have balanced your pace so there is riveting action, informative scene setting, and a richness to your tableau.  Everything seems to be going so well, and yet, your beta reader drops a bomb on you.  "It's just falling flat."   What are you supposed to do?  Where do you turn?  How can you enrich and round out your characters?  How about a little emotional rescue?  Let's try filling in the back story of y
Cole Matthews

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Do You Want to Know a Secret?

Psst… I have a secret…. Few things grab our attention more than knowing a good (or not so good) secret. Secrets add suspense and tension to stories, and are great ways to sprinkle in conflict.  I know something you don’t know…  How many of you heard this from your siblings as kid?     Secrets can be benign or life-shattering.  They are mysterious, dramatic, and powerful. Secrets shape our lives and can be a great tool for character development.  Revealing a secret
Valkyrie

Valkyrie in Prompts

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Disability Pride

I’m writing this blog on July 26th, which is the 32nd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  July is Disability Pride Month, which honors the passage of the ADA.  The ADA prohibits discrimination based on disability and guarantees equal accommodation to people with disabilities in areas including access, transportation, and telecommunications.  I had a wonderful discussion today with one of my patients (I work with adults with developmental disabilities) about the ADA and wha
Valkyrie

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Dessert Prompts - Part 2

We had a request for more dessert prompts, so here is part two of deliciousness or disaster! PT Prompt #127 A line cook at a Michelin starred restaurant is cooking the pastry chef’s signature dessert and accidentally spills something into it.  The dessert was meant for a table celebrating their anniversary; however, it is sent instead to an undercover food critic notorious for destroying restaurants’ reputations.  What was spilt, and what is the outcome?   PT Prompt #12
Valkyrie

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Dessert Prompts

Upon request of a certain hungry someone I offer: PT# 125 A couple has dinner at a fancy restaurant and is about to enjoy their famous lava cake on ice. They slowly slide their spoons into the molten chocolate and find—something that doesn’t belong. What is it? How do they react? Will they get their money back? PT #126 Create a dessert that will satisfy even the hungriest GA member using the following words: sparklers, cream, chocolate-covered ants, strawberries, blue cheese, walnu
Aditus

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Desert Prompts Part Two

We had a great week of exploring the Mesa area together and writing in the late afternoons.  One of the ideas I hadwas an abandoned space.  It was a vacation spa with mineral waters and even a museum of taxidermy.  This was a space I stumbled upon and wanted to capture its essence both for imagination and historical purposes.  Valkyrie enjoyed the idea as much as I did as you will read.   We also pulled out some of our prompt books and randomly selected an idea or two.  One of them was abou
Cole Matthews

Cole Matthews in Prompts

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Desert Prompts

I've just returned from spending a little over a week in the sunny southwestern US visiting my good friend and fellow prompt team member @Cole Matthews and his husband.  We had a great time going for walks in the desert, shopping at antique malls (the inspiration for Prompt #121), going to a concert, and of course, writing prompt responses!  Every time we get together, we always spend part of that time choosing prompts and then writing about them.  I've selected my favorite two out of the six we
Valkyrie

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December Festivities, and not just the flashy ones!

December offers such a wealth of subject matter on which we can write.  There are the parties with friends.  Gatherings with relatives.  The symbols and holidays are liberally sprinkled throughout the month. I wanted to explore some different paths this year beyond Christmas. Prompt #93 - Winter Solstice - You are invited to a bonfire on December 20th in the middle of a clearing in the woods.  The snow blankets in a thick layer on the grass and coats the tree limbs.  There are tents with fe
Cole Matthews

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Curses and Bears

I’d like to thank Libby Drew; she inspired me to create PT#131 when she cursed my fellow prompter Cole Matthews. PT #131 Invent a colorful curse or charm, depending on your current mood, and maybe tell us something about it, such as why or who. PT #132 Your MC goes camping with someone who never did this before. Write a story or vignette and use the word bear five times without talking about the actual animal.   Please include the prompt number either in your story/
Aditus

Aditus in Prompts

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Cinco de Mayo

May is a month full of days both fun and solemn.  We start the month with Beltane - Gaelic May Day at the approximate halfway point between spring and summer, to welcome summer, and end with Memorial Day in the US (a day we remember those who died in service of our country).  Memorial Day is also the unofficial start of summer in the US.  While not an official holiday, Star Wars fans celebrate their fandom on May the Fourth, usually by binge-watching the movies.  Another holiday growing in popul
Valkyrie

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Christmas Eve Prompts

Brrr!! It's so cold and dark this time of year.  Time to put on that cardigan sweater, you know, the one with the patches on the elbows, pull out your trusty computer, sit by a roaring fireplace and let your imagination go wild.  Or, if you don't have a roaring fireplace, maybe write about one! There is a fireplace blackened with soot.  But, as you're about to pile in some wood, there is something sticking out from the corner.  What is it? Immerse yourself in the mood and write a
Cole Matthews

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Bits and Pieces

"Bits and pieces put together, to present a semblance of a whole" - Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN I've always been intrigued by the ideas suggested in this quotation.  It suggests, quite correctly, that art and artifice are simply representations, and parts of a story.  Narratives necessarily pick and choose the elements they want to reveal in order to make a coherent story.  The artist decides what things are presented to a consumer of their art and what things to leave out.  For
Prompts

Beam Me some Prompts

In honor of the latest Readers’ Choice Awards category, I thought it would be nice to feature some prompts based on one of the most difficult genres to write.  Who’s brave enough to tackle some sci-fi?   PT Prompt #116 An archeologist on an expedition to study ancient ruins in the deep rainforest takes a wrong turn and discovers irrefutable proof of alien presence on Earth.  What did they find and what are the implications of the findings?   PT Prompt #117 A m
Valkyrie

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Be Our Guest

@AC Benus was kind enough to start off our guest prompts during National Poetry Writing Month with a couple of poetry prompts.  Since the Prompt Team started, we've had a few members send us prompt suggestions, so we thought it was time we featured one of them. If you have any ideas for prompts, please feel free to send them to myself, Aditus, or Cole Matthews, and you may be featured in a future edition of the prompt blog.  All types of prompts are welcome - creative, word lists, poetry, techni
Valkyrie

Valkyrie in Prompts

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Artful Prompts

Writing is an art that sometimes is inspired by other forms of art, including music, architecture, painting, or sculpture. Pt: 107: Someone drew a stairway with chalk on a street. Your MC sets foot on it and pretends to walk downward; suddenly he enters a basement. Describe what he finds.   Pt 108:   What happened?  
Aditus

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