Big Questions – December 20

To what vocation would you devote yourself if you knew you’d become the best practitioner in the world? 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...

Romance – December 20

“Shrinks will tell you there are only five problems: sex, money, intimacy, trust, children. No, six: add ‘parents,’ as in in-laws, Alzheimer’s, inheritance. And of course they are all related.” – Elizabeth Benedict, born this date in 1954. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist figures out that what s/he thinks is a problem is only a symptom of the real...

Mystery – December 20

Self-proclaimed psychic Uri Geller was born on this date in 1946. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist exposes an important public figure as a fraud.

SciFi/Fantasy – December 20

“Beauty and ingenuity beat perfection hands down, every time.”- Nalo Hopkinson, born this date in 1960. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist is judged the loser in a contest s/he rightfully won only because the opponent used appearances to win.

Secondary – December 20

It’s a Wonderful Life premiered on this date in 1946. Describe how your life would be different in the first person you saw this morning had never been born.

Primary – December 20

“Being spokesman for a generation is the worst job I ever had.” -Billy Bragg, born on this day in 1957. If you were picked to speak to the world for your generation for 2 minutes, what would you say?

Literary – December 19

“A man must dream a long time in order to act with grandeur, and dreaming is nursed in darkness.” – Jean Genet, born this date in 1910. Writing prompt: Write the scene of a moment when your protagonist developed an idea important to him or her because of hatred.

Journaling + Fiction – December 19

“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...