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Literary – February 23
Samuel Pepys, one of history’s most noted diarists, was born on this date in 1633. Writing prompt: Write your protagonist’s personal journal entry for her or his most important birthday.
read moreJournaling + Fiction – February 23
“It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen.”Aristotle Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about a time you did the wrong thing for the right reasons. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist does the right thing for the wrong reasons.
read moreBig Questions – February 23
What has made you contemplate taking your own life? 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 voice of a character you want to know more about. Photo from Unsplash, the internet’s source of freely usable...
read moreRomance – February 23
“Strange to see how a good dinner and feasting reconciles everybody.” -Samuel Pepys, born this date in 1633. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which a meal intended to be a reconciliation turns into a new source of conflict.
read moreMystery – February 23
“When I was reporting crime . . . I never had the sense of clockwork conspiracies, or some kind of imposing order of evil. What I sensed was things just sort of falling apart. That’s my sense of how crime works, that it’s not any kind of calculated evil driven by the devil, but just control disintegrating. Things fall apart and happen out of stupidity and carelessness.”- John Sanford, who also is Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Roswell Camp, born this date in 1944. Writing prompt: Describe your...
read moreSciFi/Fantasy – February 23
“Nothing happens In contradiction to nature — only in contradiction to what we know of it.” – Dana Scully, born this date in 1964. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which a scrupulous skeptic makes merciless fun of your protagonist’s explanation for an apparently inexplicable phenomenon.
read moreSecondary – February 23
Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay on the flight that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, was born on this date in 1915. Describe a situation in which you were conflicted about the rightness of a thing you were told to do.
read morePrimary – February 23
Wizard of Oz director Victor Fleming was born on this date in 1889. Write a story about why you think there’s no place like home.
read moreBeat Your Muse with a Club
Inc. magazine has an interesting profile of the CEO of the country’s largest independent advertising agency in its November issue. Here’s what the reporter took away: Creativity doesn’t need a muse. It needs a drill sergeant. The article is good – worth reading – but doesn’t actually spend much time going into the counterintuitive nature of that headline (my thoughts on the paradox of limitations driving creativity are here). I dug into the article because it struck me about the same way as this Jack London...
read moreLiterary – February 22
“The longest absence is less perilous to love than the terrible trials of incessant proximity.” -Edna St. Vincent Millay, born this date in 1892. Writing prompt: Write a scene proving familiarity breeds contempt.
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David B. Schlosser is an author of award-winning fiction and non-fiction, and an editor of award-winning fiction and non-fiction.
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