Writing Prompts

“Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression.” —Isaac Bashevis Singer Tell me how you get past the disappointment when you don’t yet have the skills to manifest your creative vision. Or a time you gave up because you weren’t good enough to actualize the thing you wanted to […]

“To live in this world you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the times comes to let it go, to let it go.” —Mary Oliver Tell me about a time this was true in your

“When I look back on all these worries I remember the story of the old man who said on his death bed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which never happened.” – Winston Churchill Tell me about your relationship with worry.

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” – Alan Kay Tell me about a time you invented your own future.

“I do not believe in God. I believe in cashmere.” —Fran Lebowitz Tell us about a material thing you love. Let it rip. Write an ode—a love song—to that thing.

“The way home has always been there. It has stretched out in front of me but I have not had the eyes to see it. The way home is a broad, dusty road. There are curves and overgrown places. Forest pathways and granite cliffs. The way home is always lit—by sunlight, by moon light, by

“A mind that is stretched to a new idea never returns to its original dimension.” —Oliver Wendell Holmes Tell me about a time exposure to a new idea changed your life irrevocably.

“Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can—there will always come a time when you are grateful you did.” —Sarah Caldwell Tell me about a life lesson you learned in a completely unexpected way from a completely unexpected source.

“I have walked through many lives, some of them my own, and I am not who I was, though some principle of being abides, from which I struggle not to stray.” —Stanley Kunitz, The Layers Respond to these three prompts, each for fifteen minutes. Do them in a row: Who I used to be Who

In Wild, the author recounts her months-long hike along the Pacific Crest Trail, a journey that she took entirely alone after life as she’d known it had fallen apart. “It was a world I’d never been to and yet had known was there all along . . . one I’d staggered to in sorrow and

“All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.” —Martin Luther King, Jr. Tell me about something you do or have done with excellence. Describe it in detail, and with pride.

“I have made this letter longer than usual, because I lack the time to make it short.” —Blaise Pascal Take a first draft of something you have written, that you like, and cut it by a quarter. Then cut it by another quarter. Do four revisions, each time cutting it further. (It’s okay to add

“I give assignments to my writing classes because it’s hard to make something up out of a clear blue sky. . . . It doesn’t have to be anything. It can contain a character who shows up out of breath. It can contain a lake and a bunch of swans. There can be conversation or

“In the center of our speed, in the core of our forward movement, we are often confused and lonely. That is why we have turned so full-heartedly to the memoir form. We have an intuition it will save us. Writing is the act of reaching across the abyss of isolation to share and reflect. It’s