Writing Prompts

“I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts. All right, one of them does, but we do not like her very much.” […]

“What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open.” –Muriel Rukeyser Tell me the truth about your life—right now, today, this moment.

“‘No’ is a complete sentence.” — Anne Lamott, O Magazine Tell me the history of the times you’ve said “no,” and describe the ways you’ve said “no.” Start with the words, “There was the ‘no’ I said when…”. Each paragraph or stanza come back to this starting line.

“Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. . . . It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.” ―James Baldwin Tell

“I urge you to pursue preserving your personal history to allow your children and grandchildren to know who you were as a child and what your hopes and dreams were.” —Oprah Winfrey Write a letter to your great, great, great, great grandchild, or another imaginary child far in the future, and tell them who you

“Use what talents you have; the woods would have little music if no birds sang their song except those who sang best.” — Reverend Oliver G. Wilson Tell me about something you love to do but aren’t necessarily good at. Tell me about this activity in detail so I can love it as much as

“Nothing can happen to you that is worse than living in fear that something could happen to you.” —Unknown What are you afraid of? Begin with the words, “I’m afraid…”. Complete the rest of the sentence in as many ways as you can, without thinking, without stopping.

“Writing begins from a rant, but it doesn’t end there. You write until the writing brings you to a place of light. You have to travel through the rant to the light. . . . When I was younger, I did a lot of ranting. But ranting is uncomposted writing. No one wants to accept

“What we have before us are some breathtaking opportunities disguised as insoluble problems.” —Unknown Tell me about a time when something that seemed like a terrible problem turned into a life-changing opportunity.

“We must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind us to the fact that each moment of life is a miracle and a mystery.” —H.G. Wells Make a list: The top ten things I most often fail to notice. Be as specific as you can. Then choose one of the items on your

“It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.” —Alan Cohen What needs to

“I think about Emerson and his love of stories and conversation, and how he once said that he would walk a hundred miles through a snowstorm to have one good conversation.” —Phil Cousineau, The Art of Pilgrimage Tell me about a memorable conversation you still cherish.

“We don’t always know what makes us happy. We know, instead, what we think should. We are baffled and confused when our attempts at happiness fail . . . we are mute when it comes to naming accurately our own preferences, delights, gifts, talents. The voice of our original self is often muted, overwhelmed, even

“Probably one of the first strokes of grace in my life was my father’s becoming totally paralyzed when I was eight years old, because it led me to becoming the kind of person I am now. Sometimes we understand grace only in retrospect. If someone were to ask me what grace is, I would probably