Writing prompt for January 31st

With pen and paper in hand, visit a popular bookstore.

Sit at a table or in a comfy chair, and write down the snippets of dialogue you hear as people walk by.

Don't look at their faces, just keep your head down and write.

Writing prompt for January 30th

Take one bite of your favorite food or candy.

Pretend it's the last bite of your last meal.

Write down what you're feeling and thinking.

Writing prompt for January 29th

Choose a friend, relative, celebrity or artist whose birthday is coming up.

Write a song or poem in honor of the occasion.

Writing prompt for January 27th

Remember your favorite summertime activity, and describe it in vivid detail.

How old were you?

Where did it take place?

Writing prompt for January 26th

Today is “Chinese New Year” and the beginning of the Year of the Ox.

Briefly use the Internet to research Chinese New Year customs if you are not already familiar with them.

Write a short story or scene using the holiday celebration as a background.

Writing prompt for January 25th

Describe the first person you disliked.

Why did you despise him/her?

What did she/he look like?

How did it feel to loathe someone?

Writing prompt for January 24th

If you had to choose the single most valuable thing you ever learned, what would it be?

How did you learn it?

Writing prompt for January 23rd

Write a haiku (three unrhymed lines of five, seven and five syllables) about the season of winter.

Writing prompt for January 22nd

Find a short article in a newspaper or magazine.

Write a poem based on its subject.

Writing prompt for January 21st

Imagine you see a co-worker in his car, pulling out of your work parking lot.

He/she is crying.

Why?

Writing prompt for January 20th

Sitting in a café, your character is given a note: "It's in your best interest to meet me at 7 p.m. tonight, alone, at Pine and 4th."

Write your character's thoughts as he decides what to do.

Writing prompt for January 19th

Write about what Martin Luther King, Jr.

What does he represent to you?

How did his life or death effect your life?

How do you feel about celebrating his life as a national holiday?

Writing prompt for January 17th

Think of a time when you were nasty to someone.

Put yourself in that person's place.

Write how she might think or feel.

Writing prompt for January 15th

Select a common child's game, such as hide and seek.

Write a passage that describes people participating in the game, but don't actually name the game until the end of the exercise.

Writing prompt for January 14th

If you could have anything occur on every wedding anniversary, what would you want to happen?

Write it as a short story.

Writing prompt for January 12th

If you were on the committee to assign ratings to films, how would you define the categories?

Think of ways an artist could push, but remain in, those categories.

Writing prompt for January 11th

Choose your favorite genre of music.

Write the lyrics for a song in that genre.

Writing prompt for January 9th

The 1st U.S. balloon flight occurred on this day in 1793.

Write, from imagination or experience, what it like to take a ride in a hot air balloon.

Writing prompt for January 8th

Choose a family favorite recipe.

Write about how that recipe came to be.

Who usually makes the dish?

Why them?

What would happen if they stopped?

Writing prompt for January 7th

Write about an ongoing project that's keeping you from writing.

Why is it so important?

Writing prompt for January 6th

Select your favorite style of poetry (e.g. haiku, free verse, cinquain, etc.) and write a poem.

Writing prompt for January 5th

Write about why you don't have time to write today.

Did you learn anything from this exercise?

At day's end, rewrite it with a twist of humor.

Writing prompt for January 4th

Take any two popular fairy tales and combine them.

Be sure to include: characters, setting, plot, problem, and solution.

Writing prompt for January 3rd

If you could eliminate one day from your past so that you had never experienced it, which day would you erase?

Explain what happened on that day.

Writing prompt for January 2nd

Compose an inaugural speech for President-elect Barack Obama to deliver.

Writing prompt for January 1st

Take the day off!!!

Happy New Year!