Literary – April 3

Richard Thompson was born on this date in 1949. He tells an epic tale of love and villainy in his classic 1952 Vincent Black Lightning: Writing prompt: Write a scene demonstrating your protagonist’s abiding love for the soul of an inanimate...

Literary – April 2

“If you shut up truth, and bury it underground, it will but grow.” -Émile Zola, born this date in 1840. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which a lie your protagonist told, or a truth your protag buried, long ago is exposed with far greater consequences than if your protag had dealt with the issue at the time.

Literary – April 1

“When you want to fool the world, tell the truth.” -Otto von Bismarck, born this date in 1815. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which circumstances conspire to prevent your protagonist from believing the truth.

Literary – March 31

Nikolai Gogol was born on this date in 1809. In 1834, he received an appointment to a job for which he was utterly unqualified: a professor of medieval history, a position he avoided and shirked onto colleagues until he quit the next year. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist undertakes a task that someone important has given him/her but which your protag has no clue how to...

Literary – March 30

Vincent van Gogh was born on this date in 1853. Writing prompt: From the perspective of your antagonist, write the story contained in his 1886 painting A Pair of Shoes (click the title for a larger image).

Literary – March 29

“George once said to me, ‘If we’d known we were going to be The Beatles we’d have tried harder.’ ” -Eric Idle, born this date in 1943. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist should have tried harder to avoid becoming known for something.

Literary – March 28

Russell Banks was born on this date in 1940. Of his obsession with school buses, Banks said, “From the child’s point of view, it is the first time he leaves home and goes out into the larger world. It is the connecting cord between the family and the outside world and has both positive and negative implications.” Writing prompt: Write the scene of your protagonist leaving for her/his first day at...

Literary – March 27

Quentin Tarantino, who was so bored by school that he dropped out in 9th grade and got a job as an usher at a pornographic movie theater, was born on this date in 1963. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist describes to a new friend the most bizarre job s/he ever worked.