“Timidity is the root of prudence in the majority of men.”Carl Philipp Gottlieb von Clausewitz Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about something you’re should but are too scared to do. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist justifies his/her timidity with prudence.
“I think it’s easier than ever to hear only what you want to hear. That doesn’t make a good citizen.”Eli Pariser Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about how you’ll expand your sources of knowledge and information to encounter ideas you don’t want to hear. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which reality pierces your protagonist’s filter...
“Good resolutions are like babies crying in church. They should be carried out immediately.”Charles M. Sheldon Journal prompt: Reflect on your previous journal entries and spend at least 20 minutes writing about the habit you’ll replace with a better one in the new year. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist realizes that s/he has procrastinated too long.
“Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great.”Roger de Rabutin, comte de Bussy Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about an experience when a person or thing’s absence allowed you to understand that what you felt about that person or thing wasn’t really love. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which a chance encounter with a...
“Often the test of courage is not to die but to live.”Vittorio Alfieri Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about the most trying experience you’ve lived through. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist feels s/he would rather die than continue to experience the situation.
“The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.”G.K. Chesterton Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about a time being open-minded led you to bite off more than you could chew. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which a new idea prevents your protagonist from closing his/her mind before taking the idea a step too...
“Magicians are the most honest people in the world; they tell you they’re gonna fool you, and then they do it.”James Randi Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about the last time you got fooled but found the humor in the experience. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your antagonist tells your protagonist that your protagonist is about to get fooled and then proceeds to...
“Knowledge is proud that it knows so much;wisdom is humble that it knows no more.”William Cowper Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about what you don’t know about a topic about which you’ve earned significant expertise. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which an ally humbles your protagonist by asking a question that reveals your protagonist isn’t as...