Creative Writing Prompts from Oxymorons

Oxymoron:  (noun) phrase that combines two words that seem to be the opposite of each other, for example a deafening silence

For today's creative writing prompts, we are going to work with oxymorons. Below is the list we will be working with  today.  Feel free to come up with your own list of oxymorons if you would like and you can also work with those.

alone together, dry wine, false hope, firey ice, going nowhere, liquid crystal, partial silence, sinfully good, valuable junk, waking dream, snow-covered tulip

Poetry Writing Prompts:  Write a poem with at least two of the oxymorons in the poem.
OR
Write a poem with one of the oxymorons as the title.

Fiction Writing Prompt:  Write a story with one of the oxymorons as the title.

EssayWriting Prompt:  Write an essay about how you feel about oxymorons.  Do you enjoy them? Find them amusing or annoying?  What oxymorons are in your life? (For example, where I live, finding a snow-covered tulip is certainly possible.)

Creative Writing Prompts with Colors

COLORED DROPS ON THE GLASS
© Andrey Grinyov | Dreamstime.com



For your prompt today, I thought it would be fun to have a colorful abstract painting.  I love this one by Andrey Grinyov.  You can study the painting and write a list of what the shapes remind you of.  After you make your list,  free-write about one of the images it provoked for you.

Poetry Writing Prompt:  Look at the names of the colors listed below and write a poem with one of these color names as a title.  (Note:  I hijacked these color names from a catalog.)

Midnight Mauve, Cocoa Glow, Rose Radiance, Blue Shock, Mocha Latte, Waterfall, Bronze Treasure, Sparkling Blush, Twig

Fiction Writing Prompt:  Write a story about an animal that is named one of the colors above. 

Creative Nonfiction:  Pick one of the colors that provokes a memory for you and write about it. 

Creative Writing Prompts with Crocus and Random Words

CROCUS
© Aurinko | Dreamstime.com

Today, for your creative writing prompts, please pick from the following words or any version of the words below.   (For eample, if you would rather use "familiar" instead of "unfamiliar," that is fine.  Or "snoozed" instead of "snooze," etc.)

flitter, inscribe, trickle, reclaim, darken, refuse, crocus, hard knock, unfamiliar, find, snooze, elite, peer, clipped grass, sand trap, crash, snowbird, pail, tulip, willingly

Poetry Prompts: 

1.  Pick one word to be the title of your poem and write a 10 line poem.
2.  Pick at least 7 of the words and use them in a poem. 

Memoir Writing Prompt:  Pick 4 words to weave together a memory and write at least one paragraph about the memory. 

Fiction Writing Prompt:  Pick at least 4 words to start a story.  Put yourself on a timelimit of 8 minutes for both the opening line and what follows.  Continue if you would like to. 

And for your free-write prompt, study the picture.  See how something beautiful pops up of the soil which looks pretty "blah."  Reflect on the image and the concept, then write, write, write.

Random Words as Creative Writing Prompts

Photo by Jeff Jones/Dreamstime.com

Since it was on this day that the first book of crossword puzzles was published, I found some random words from two crossword puzzles and you can play with them any way you would like. 


Poetry Writing Prompt:  Write a poem with 8 lines, using one of the random words in each line.  Then pick the line you like best and write a poem with that line as the title.

Story Writing Prompt:  Write the opening line of a story using at least 5 of the words.  Then freewrite on that story for fifteen minutes.


Creative Nonfiction Prompt:  Pick one word that triggers a memory and write about the memory.

Random Words of the day:

lava, single, acres, gears, wear, soda, cigar, double-decker, mock, stray, prime, morph, RSVP, moss, scam, sirens, chain, slant, bend

Creative Writing Prompts with Kangaroos and John Steinbeck

YOUNG JOEY WITH MUM
© Gary Unwin | Dreamstime.com

April is National Poetry Month and today we celebrate Poem in Your Pocket Day!

Here is my bonus page of pocket poems for you today.  You can click here:

http://promptsforwriters.blogspot.com/p/poem-in-your-pocket-day-poems.html

And for your regular prompts:

Today I also offer you a picture of two kangaroos.  The little one seems to be watching something.

Fiction Writing Prompt: 

Write a short scene about what the kangaroo sees.

********

Today is the day The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck was published in 1939.

Here is a quote by John Steinbeck:

"I am impelled, not to squeak like a grateful and apologetic mouse, but to roar like a lion out of pride in my profession."

Memoir Writing Prompt:  Write about a time when you were very proud of something.

Poetry Writing Prompt:  Write a poem about something you are proud of. 

Creative Writing Prompts: Tunnel Under a Railway

Photo credit:  This photo is by Peter Guess and it is titled "Tunnel Under Railway."  It is a a tunnel under the Cumbrian West Coast line near Dalston, Carlisle, Cumbria, UK.  Many thanks to the photographer and to Dreamstime for making the photo available. 


Fiction Writing Prompt

Study the picture and start a short story where two people meet under this tunnel.  Focus on dialogue and let us see who the characters are through the dialogue.  

Creative Nonfiction Prompt

Do you have any memories connected to tunnels or railways?  Explore the theme of tunnels and/or railways in your writing. 

Poetry Writing Prompt

Explore the theme of tunnels or railways in a poem. 

Creative Writing Prompts with Kathie Giorgio

Today I'm very thrilled to introduce our first guest prompter, Kathie Giorgio, the director of AllWriters' Workplace and Workshop.  Kathie was my writing teacher after I finished college.   I learned more from Kathie about the writing life in one year than I did in all my years of college combined.  I'd like to say thank you to Kathie for providing today's creative writing prompts and for being such a great teacher who helps get writers where they want to be.  You can read more about Kathie under the prompts.  ENJOY the prompts and have a wonderful weekend.  Also, don't forget to comment!

Creative Writing Prompts on Dali Time 
by Kathie Giorgio 

Poetry Writing Prompt:

Clocks are often used in literature as a metaphor for the passing of time.  In this painting, time doesn’t seem to be passing, but melting away.  Spend the next twenty minutes writing the rough draft of a poem where time melts, rather than flies. Try to connect in a new way with the idea of a clock as metaphor.  Your working title is, “Time Melts.”

Fiction Writing Prompts:

While looking at the painting, start to formulate an idea for a short story.  You can take this storyline one of two ways:

1)      Write a story in which the painting becomes literal: A person is holding a pocket watch and it begins to melt in his hand.

2)      Write a story in which the painting is metaphorical.  Write about a person who feels like time is melting away from his grasp.

Journal Writing Prompt:

Try to remember what it was like to learn to tell time.  Did you learn on a clock face or digitally?  When did time become a concrete concept for you?  Start your journal entry with, “Time began to have a meaning for me when…”

KATHIE GIORGIO’S first novel, “The Home For Wayward Clocks,” was released on February 1, 2011, by Mint Hill Books, a division of Main Street Rag Publishing Company.   New stories will be appearing soon in Lalitamba, Karamu, Alimentum, Gemini, and Evening Street Review.  Her poem, "In Retrospect," appears now in Fearless Books' newest anthology on love and touch.  Her short stories have appeared in Los Angeles Review, Harpur Palate, Fiction International, Dos Passos Review, Ars Medica, Thema, CutThroat, The Pedestal, Bayou, Epiphany, Eclipse, Potomac Review, Arabesques Review, Hurricane Review, Oyez Review, Jabberwock Review, Karamu Review, Reed Magazine, The Binnacle, Licking River Review, Bellowing Ark, Hiss Quarterly, Midway Journal, The Externalist, Fogged Clarity, and many more.  Her stories have also been in anthologies by Papier Mache Press, Main Street Rag Publishing Company, EBibliotekos, and Susurrus Press.  She has been the featured author in Women Writers’ ezine.  She’s been nominated twice for the Million Writer Award and for the Best of the Net anthology.  She is the director and founder of AllWriters’ Workplace & Workshop, a creative writing studio.  She also teaches for Writers’ Digest and serves on their advisory board.

Kathie's websites:
http://www.allwriters.org/
http://www.kathiegiorgio.org/
http://www.mainstreetrag.com/KGiorgio.html

Creative Writing Prompts Inspired by Hana Matsuri and Gratitude

Many thanks to Sascha Dunkhorst and Dreamstime.com for making this photo available.

Today's Creative Writing Prompts are Inspired by Gratitude

Today Hana Matsuri, Buddha's birthday, is celebrated in many parts of the world.  Children in Japan will take turns pouring sweet tea over a Buddha with flowers.  For those celebrating, it is a day of gratitude. 


Starter Prompt for EVERYBODY today:

In the spirit of gratitude, make a list of 10 things you are grateful for.  Taking moments to reflect on gratitude has been proved to lift moods, so this is something I recommend you do on a regular basis.  Your list can include simple things such as your warm cup of morning coffee, to something super-big, like a project you recently finished at home, work or school. 

Creative Nonfiction Prompt:  Pick one thing from your gratitude list and write a little testimony about how it is important to your life. 

Fiction Writing Prompt:  Pick something from your list that you can turn into a conflict.  Then create a character who struggles before the good ending comes full circle.  For example, if you are grateful for a new bike, perhaps this could be turned into a story about a character who crashes his bike, but through some great miracle, he is okay and somehow gets another bike by winning a contest or ???? 

Poetry Writing Prompts:

1.  Pick something from your gratitude list and write a poem that shows how and why you are grateful for it.  Make sure to include details about the thing you are grateful for. 

2.  Research the story of the Buddha's birth.  It is quite fantastic as far as images are concerned.  Dragons apparently flew from the sky, and they poured fragrant water all over the land.  Collect some of the vibrant images from the story and write a poem about anything that uses some of those images.


Why not celebrate National Poetry Month by buying yourself a new journal? 



                                                      

Creative Writing Prompts Inspired by the Beatles

Today's Creative Writing Prompts:  Playing Around with the Beatles

Who doesn't love the Beatles?  It was on this day in 1964 that the Beatles held the top 5 popular songs on the charts.   

The top five songs were, in this order: "Can't Buy Me Love," "Twist and Shout," "She Loves You," "I Want to Hold Your Hand," and "Please Please Me."

Here is a flashback of the Beatles for your viewing pleasure, many thanks to YouTube's share button.

Poetry Writing Prompts:  Bouncing off the song titles from the Beatles, here are three possible titles for poems you can write today.  Please write for 10 minutes without stopping. 

How to Buy My Love

Why I love __________ (insert the name of something you like, not a person)

I Want to Hold Hands with ______________ (insert the name of a famous person)

Note about National Poetry Month:  Since April is National Poetry Month, I will be including a poetry prompt in every post this month.  Please feel free to post a sample of your writing that is inspired by the prompts, and as always, feedback on the pompts is apprecaited.  Thanks!


Fiction Writing Prompts:

Here are some story starters bouncing off the word "please":

1.  Of all things that made him happy, it was peanut butter that pleased him most because. . .

2.  Every time she tried to please her mother, she failed.  One time she even tried. . .

3.  After John died, the only thing that could please her was. . .

Journal Writing Prompt:

Write about a memory of holding hands with someone.


Reference on today's facts about the Beatles is from The Writer's Almanac.  Retried on April 4, 2011 from http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2011/04/04