Writing Prompts of the Week

It’s finally March break! Yay! For some, this might mean that nothing changes, that they still have to go to work. For others – including me! – it means a lot of free time! In other words, for many, March Break is an opportunity to write more than ever. And if you don’t know where to start, here are a few writing prompts to get your hamster wheels rolling.

Sunday, February 28th

This prompt is a serious one and one that will be challenging. However, I think it will also be rewarding.

Most of us – and I think it’s safe to say that all of us – know someone (whether it be a family member, a friend, a neighbour, a classmate, etc.) who is affected by a rare disease. However, depending on how close we are to that person, we might not know all the impacts of the disease. We only witness what the affected person decides to or must show us. Often, there is so much more to it: medication, medical appointments, bullying… the list goes on.

This said, this prompt requires a bit of research. I want you to be able to put yourself in the shoes of someone who is affected by a rare disease. If you know someone, ask them if you can interview them for some insight. If you don’t know anyone, do some online digging. Tell us the story of someone whose reality is much different from the majority.

On a side note, this prompt is partially inspired by one of my favourite authors (and neuroscientist), Lisa Genova. This novelist wrote about Alzheimer’s, ALS, autism and many other neurological diseases. Ever heard of Still Alice (novel turned into Oscar-winning film)? Well, she wrote it.

Monday, March 1st

For this prompt, describe a hallucination. Many things can make us hallucinate: drugs, alcohol, medications, infections, fatigue… Pick one of these (or keep it a mystery), and show us a person hallucinating. Write about their thoughts, about them wondering if what they are experiencing is reality or not. What do they hallucinate about? Did they cause damage while they hallucinated? When did they – if they did – realize that they hallucinated? How is their reality different from the one they just experienced?

Tuesday, March 2nd

I’m a firm believer that good writers are also big readers, and I believe that we learn a lot from the great writers out there. This said, for this prompt, I want to pay homage to one of the first authors I was ever introduced to, Dr. Seuss. For today’s challenge, choose a story you’ve written or make up a new one, but write it in Dr. Seuss’s style. He’s known for his rhymes, repetition of words, and his imaginary creatures, to name a few things.

If you’re not familiar with Dr. Seuss, choose one of your favourite authors and try imitating their style. What literary techniques do they frequently use? What type of vocabulary do they use? How long are their paragraphs? The most important thing is that you learn from their work.

Wednesday, March 3rd

For this prompt, choose a letter of the alphabet and find as many words as you can that begin with that letter. Then write a short story or a poem using as many of them as possible. This writing technique is called alliterations. It works best in short passages or poems, but when well placed, it can do wonder in longer works as well. For an example, take a look at Lydia Davis’ poem, “Head, Heart.”

After this exercise, read it out loud. What effect did the alliteration cause in your text? Does it work for your story or not? Does it emphasize something and add power? Is it distracting? Would another letter work better?

Thursday, March 4th

Once again, it’s time to give you a challenge. For this week’s Tough Thursday, write a story about being angry. You can make this a piece of non-fiction by writing about a personal situation in which you felt anger, or you can make something up completely. You can even write from the point of view of a cat if you believe it has the potential to be angry. If you want, for this challenge, you can even write a poem!

For this prompt, don’t tell us why a character is angry. Instead, SHOW us that they are angry. The challenge? Avoid using the words “angry,” “frustrated,” or any other synonyms of “not happy.”

Friday, March 5th

Today is the Day of Unplugging. So, if possible, write this story with a pen and paper. Although this would be a great exercise (we’re slower when we write on paper and we can’t edit as we go, so we reflect more on our words), handwriting is not the prompt of the day.

For this prompt, write about what you think would happen if we were cut off from something or simply never had it before. Ideally, because it’s the Day of Unplugging, the “thing” should be related to technology. Think about it: what if cellphones never existed, but TV did? What if we suffered from a major power outage? What if Wi-Fi was never invented, or was invented but suddenly stops working for a very long period of time, and for everyone? I wonder if we'd survive.

Saturday, February 6th

Now, because I’m sure you did an amazing job writing all week, I thought I could spoil you and give you a fun one.

For this one, I want you to break grammar rules. Yes! Although following all syntax, spelling, and grammar rules is usually easier to read and more presentable, when we don't follow the rules, we can more easily incorporate accents, dialects, stutters, and more.

I encourage you to write some dialogue and try to play with how you can make sentences sound by misspelling words, contracting them, placing them in the wrong order, using the wrong pronouns or verb tenses, etc. The way a person speaks tells us a lot about a character and makes them more authentic. This is what I want you to try to achieve.

That’s it for this week! I hope you enjoyed these prompts, and I encourage you to share your writing with me on my Facebook Page (Noémi Blom - Writer) or my Instagram (@n.m.blom). I’d love to read and give you feedback on what you’ve come up with.

Not inspired? Check out last week’s prompts here.

Thank you!