Creative Writing Prompts for Autumn

Fall leaves 4, a photo by alana sise on Flickr.

For today's poetry writing prompt, write an "Ode to Falling Leaves."

If you want to write a story today, start a story with two characters in this scene.

Creative Writing Prompt About Shoes

Since yesterday marked the birthday of Lyman Frank Baum (writer of The Wizard of Oz), I thought it would fun to have creative writing prompts about shoes.  In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy is given the shoes of the Wicked Witch's sister to wear as she journeys through Oz.  The movie made shiny red shoes famous, and I remember buying a pair of red sparkly mary jane's for my daughter when she was young so that she could have shoes just like Dorothy. 

Free-Write:  Think about shoes to get your writing started.  Think about shoes you have worn that might have marked a special occasion, shoes you might have lost, shoes that you loved when you were a child, shoes you wanted but could not have, etc.   Go where your mind takes you.

Fun-Write:  Write about a pair of shoes you invent that can do anything.  Write about your design, what do they look like? What can they do?  What makes them special?

Fiction-Writing Practice:  Start creating a character in relation to the shoes he or she wears.  Why does your character wear those shoes?  What parts of the personality can you connect with the shoes he or she wears?

OR

For those of you in progress with a novel, spend some time reflecting on the shoes your character wears.  Write out a scene that references which shoes your character is wearing. 

Poetry Writing Prompt:  Write an ode to your favorite pair of shoes.  They can be shoes you have now or shoes you used to have.

Creative Writing Prompts With Random Words

MARBLES
© Jack Dagley | Dreamstime.com

Random Words of the Day:

charm, change, cricle, glass jars, ghost, watercolors, open, flag, hooting, anger, megaphone, barrel, rock, blocked, throw, doze, harvest, watch, escape, glitter, marbles

Fiction Writing Prompts:  Make some opening lines using 3 of the words (or any version of the words) in each line.   Then choose one to start a story. 

Examples: 

The charming ghosts circled her as she daydreamed about her journey. . .

He kept rocks in glass jars, next to his watercolors. . .

Poetry Writing Prompt:  Use 5 of the words in an 8-line poem.

Free-Write Prompt:  Pick a word that triggers something you can write about and write for 10 minutes without stoppping.

Happy Writing! 



Creative Writing Prompts About Things We Find

THE TURTLE AND THE BEE
© Ra Khalil | Dreamstime.com

Over where I live, spring time sets us free from the cold and going for walks is something we truly enjoy after being couped up all winter.  Today, I want you to think about things you have found in the past.  And if you have the time and the weather is nice by you, make a walk part of this prompt and see what you find on your walk.  Record what you discover. 

Creative Writing Prompts For All:  Make a list of things you remember finding, perhaps something you found or discovered on your walk today.

Free-Write Prompt:  Write about one of the things from you list.

Fiction Writing Prompt:  Write a story where your character finds something that helps him or her solve a problem.  What does your character find?  How is it found?  How does it help with the problem?

Poetry Writing Prompt:  Write a poem about something you have found.  Below is a poem from Ted Kooser's American Life in Poetry Column that features a poem about finding a turtle by Jeff Worley.  Notice how the first stanza is about explaining why the turtle was there to be found, and the second stanza starts "I imagine. . . "  Try writing a poem in that style or make a style of your own.

I hope you enjoy the poem below and your writing today.


BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

A poem is an experience like any other, and we can learn as much or more about, say, an apple from a poem about an apple as from the apple itself. Since I was a boy, I’ve been picking up things, but I’ve never found a turtle shell until I found one in this poem by Jeff Worley, who lives in Kentucky.

On Finding a Turtle Shell in Daniel Boone National Forest

This one got tired

of lugging his fortress

wherever he went,

was done with duck and cover

at every explosion

through rustling leaves

of fox and dog and skunk.

Said au revoir to the ritual

of pulling himself together. . .

I imagine him waiting

for the cover of darkness

to let down his hinged drawbridge.

He wanted, after so many

protracted years of caution,

to dance naked and nimble

as a flame under the moon—

even if dancing just once

was all that the teeth

of the forest would allow.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2008 by Jeff Worley, whose most recent book of poems is Best to Keep Moving, Larkspur Press, 2009, which includes this poem. Reprinted from Poetry East, Nos. 62 & 63, Fall, 2008, by permission of Jeff Worley and the publisher.
Introduction copyright © 2009 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

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: Two by Two

© Marilyn Barbone | Dreamstime.com

Today's photo is "Twins Together" by Marilyn Barbone.  Today's writing prompts have two steps, since we are focusing on "twos" today.

1.  Time yourself for 5 minutes and make a list of things in life that come in twos.  For example, here are a few things from my list:

Reese's peanut butter cups
warm mittens
socks
drumsticks

2.  a. Fiction Writing Prompt:  Start a story with something from your list in the opening line.
Example:  She was sure she hid the Reese's peanut butter cups in the best place ever, but when she went to retrieve them from the _________________________, they were gone.  


b.  Creative Nonfiction Writing Prompt:  Pick one thing from your list that prompts a memory and write about it in relation to your life. 
Example:  I'll never forget the soft gray mittens my grandmother made for me. . .

c.  Poetry Writing Prompt:  Write a 14 line poem about one of the subjects.

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: 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 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 with the Decorah Eaglets

Creative Writing Prompts

If you haven't see the Decorah Eaglets, you have to take a minute to watch this video.  I think it is just an amazing project to have a web cam follow the life of these beautiful creatures.

Fiction Writing Prompt:  Write a short story that starts out with a character observing a live creature in nature.

Creative Nonfiction:  Write about a strong connection you have had from observing an animal and how it influenced you. 

Poetry Writing Prompt:  Write a poem about an animal that is endangered or has been endangered.  See the poem below for  inspiration. 

Song Writing Prompt:  Write a song about animals who have become or are becoming extinct. 

BONUS!

Since it is National Poetry Month, I've inserted a Ted Kooser column from American Life in Poetry that features a strong and sad poem about many endangered species by poet Charles Harper Webb.  You can use this to jump start a poem of your own if you'd like. 

*******************************************************
American Life in Poetry: Column 203

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

To read in the news that a platoon of soldiers has been killed is a terrible thing, but to learn the name of just one of them makes the news even more vivid and sad. To hold the name of someone or something on our lips is a powerful thing. It is the badge of individuality and separateness. Charles Harper Webb, a California poet, takes advantage of the power of naming in this poem about the steady extinction of animal species.

The Animals are Leaving

One by one, like guests at a late party   

They shake our hands and step into the dark:   

Arabian ostrich; Long-eared kit fox; Mysterious starling.

One by one, like sheep counted to close our eyes,   

They leap the fence and disappear into the woods:   

Atlas bear; Passenger pigeon; North Island laughing owl;   

Great auk; Dodo; Eastern wapiti; Badlands bighorn sheep.

One by one, like grade school friends,   

They move away and fade out of memory:   

Portuguese ibex; Blue buck; Auroch; Oregon bison;   

Spanish imperial eagle; Japanese wolf; Hawksbill   

Sea turtle; Cape lion; Heath hen; Raiatea thrush.

One by one, like children at a fire drill, they march outside,   

And keep marching, though teachers cry, “Come back!”   

Waved albatross; White-bearded spider monkey;   

Pygmy chimpanzee; Australian night parrot;   

Turquoise parakeet; Indian cheetah; Korean tiger;   

Eastern harbor seal ; Ceylon elephant ; Great Indian rhinoceros.

One by one, like actors in a play that ran for years   

And wowed the world, they link their hands and bow   

Before the curtain falls.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright © 2006 by Charles Harper Webb. Reprinted from “Amplified Dog,” by Charles Harper Webb, published by Red Hen Press, 2006, by permission of the author and publisher. Introduction copyright © 2009 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.