In response to comments from a few workshop participants about challenges they’re hitting up against in the writing process, here are a dozen prompts for days when you’re bored with what you’re writing or not liking your work, generally feeling stuck or asking yourself who cares?
- Write a letter to yourself when you were 10 years old.
- Write a letter to yourself when you were 18 years old.
- Write a letter to yourself now.
- Write a letter to yourself to read right before you die.
- Write your obituary.
- Write an itemized list of the 10 dearest belongings you own (regardless of whether or not they’re “valuable”). Name to whom each should be given when you’re gone, & tell the history of the item & why it’s significant to you.
- Write about the best year of your life (so far).
- Write about your greatest loss & how it changed you.
- Write a list of the things you need to do before you die. This is not a typical to-do list (i.e. write a will & etc) nor a “bucket list,” as it’s not about what you want to do. It’s about what you must do so that you can die in peace.
- Write erotica in any genre.
- Write about the very thing you’re most afraid to write.