Big Questions – December 22

What do you want to be when you grow up? Journaling prompt: Spend 15-20 minutes writing your answer in the spirit of exploring yourself and the world around you. If you can answer with a simple “yes” or “no,” explain the sources or implications of your response. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene that forces a character in your story to answer the question, or spend 15-20 minutes answering the question in the...

Romance – December 22

“Words themselves are all the ghosts we need.” -Donald Harington, born this date in 1935. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which the language a suitor uses to woo your protagonist prompts a traumatic memory.

Mystery – December 22

On this date in 1984, Bernard Goetz shot four men attempting to rob him on a New York City subway. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist debates his/her opinion about vigilante justice with a boss who disagrees.

SciFi/Fantasy – December 22

“Roswell was a smoke screen — we’ve had half a dozen better salvage operations.”- Deep Throat, in an effort to reveal the truth that aliens were scheduled to begin colonizing Earth on this date in 2012. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist realizes that someone s/he considered a fellow member of her/his species is something else entirely.

Secondary – December 22

What makes your generation unique from the two generations before yours? Prompt Inspiration will return on Monday, 4 January 2021.

Primary – December 22

Explain why your favorite games are those that you play with others or by yourself. Prompt Inspiration will return on Monday, 4 January 2021.

Bum Glue

In her craft book Write Away: One Novelist’s Approach to Fiction and the Writing Life, Elizabeth George spends an entire chapter on the value of what she calls “bum glue.” She defines it as that which keeps one’s bottom firmly attached to the chair in which one sits while writing. Although bum glue goes by many different names, the vast majority of successful authors confirm – or, at least, confess – it’s the...

Literary – December 21

F. Scott Fitzgerald died on this date in 1940 at age 44, leaving unfinished The Love of the Last Tycoon. The protagonist of the novel was based on Irving Thalberg, who once said, “Credit you give yourself is not worth having.” Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist figures out someone else is taking credit for his/her essential and important contribution to a group...