Writing Prompts

“Living a self-conscious life, under the pressure of time, I work with the consciousness of death at my shoulder, not constantly, but often enough to leave a mark upon all of my life’s decisions and actions. And it does not matter whether this death comes next week or thirty years from now; this consciousness gives […]

“The artist is extremely lucky who is presented with the worst possible ordeal which will not actually kill him. At that point, he’s in business.” —John Berryman If you’ve experienced trauma in your life, do you think it’s fueled your creativity? Has it fueled your desire to express yourself in writing, or has it been

“The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.” —Muriel Rukeyser Make a list of stories that make up your universe. Share part of your list with just enough detail to intrigue us. Then choose one story from your list to tell us the whole thing.

“I don’t need to create my life. I only need to follow the thread that’s already there.” —Unknown Tell me about a positive thread in your life that has always been there. Even if you couldn’t see it at the time—but only in retrospect—tell me about one thread that has woven through your life and

“Eight of the ten things you have decided about yourself at the age of twenty will, over time, prove to be false. The other two things will prove to be so true that you’ll look back in twenty years and howl.” —Cheryl Strayed Where did you think you life was going at twenty? Who did

“It’s not what you produce as you write that’s important; it’s who you become as you write that’s important.” —Louise DeSalvo, American writer How has writing changed your life? When I write, I become…

“You have the need and the right to spend part of your life caring for your soul. It is not easy. “You have to resist the demands of the work-oriented, often defensive, element in your psyche that measures life only in terms of output – how much you produce – not in terms of the

“Each time I write, each time the authentic words break through, I am changed. The older order that I was collapses and dies. I lose control. I do not know exactly what words will appear on the page. I follow language. I follow the sound of the words, and I am surprised and transformed by

“I have forced myself to begin writing when I’ve been utterly exhausted, when I’ve felt my soul as thin as a playing card . . . and somehow the activity of writing changes everything.” —Joyce Carol Oates How do you change when you are writing?

“Grief is the rope burns left behind when what we have held to most dearly is pulled out of reach, beyond our grasp.” —Stephen Levine Describe your grief in as much vivid detail as you can.

“Everything is gestation and then birthing. To let each impression and each embryo of a feeling come to completion, entirely in itself, in the dark, in the unsayable, the unconscious, beyond the reach of one’s own understanding, and with deep humility and patience to wait for the hour when a new clarity is born: this

“Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.” —Charlie Chaplin Tell me about a time you were willing to make a fool of yourself—to take a risk where you knew you could fall flat on your face. Tell us the story of the risk and what happened after.

“Time can do all sorts of things. It’s almost like a magician. It can turn autumn into spring and babies into children, seeds into flowers and tadpoles into frogs, caterpillars into cocoons, and cocoons into butterflies. And life into death. There’s nothing that time can’t do. Except run backwards. That’s its trouble really, it can

“If I tell you my character has grey hair, you will not see her. If I tell you she has a tiny scar at the upper left corner of her lip from which protrudes one grey whisker—you will make up the rest of her face with absolute clarity. If I tell you my character is