Writing Prompts

“There’s this moment in creation, when you’ve made something truly special, where you become euphoric. And then, utterly lonely.” —John Mayer Tell me about your loneliness. Tell me about all the different kinds of loneliness you have known. Begin each paragraph with the words, “There is the kind of loneliness that…”. Make each paragraph a […]

“This is the bright home in which I live, this is where I ask my friends to come, this is where I want to love all the things it has taken me so long to learn to love.” —David Whyte, The House of Belonging Tell me about the things it has taken you “so long

“What a wonderful life I’ve had. I only wished I’d realized it sooner.” –Colette Tell me about something you grew to appreciate or understand only in hindsight.

“A poem begins with the writer and ends with the reader.” —Ellen Bass What does this mean to you? What’s the relationship between self-expression for its own sake and communication with your reader?

“Limitation is what differentiates a flood from a lake. In the making of things, limitations allow you to choose from something rather than everything.” — Corita King Write about a limitation you chose and how it affected your life.

“What I try to do is write. I may write for two weeks ‘the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat,’’…. And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try. When I’m writing, I write. And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m

“What is always speaking silently is the body.” –Norman Brown If my body could speak, it would tell me…

“A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called “leaves”) imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head,