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Literary – June 30
“You have to be taught to be second class; you’re not born that way.” -Lena Horne, born this date in 1917. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which a superior makes your protagonist aware of the real or perceived class differences between your protag and her/his...
read moreBig Questions – June 30
What do you do better than anyone else? 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 moreJournaling + Fiction – June 30
“We improve ourselves by victories over ourselves. There must be contest, and we must win.”Edward Gibbon Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about why a particular victory you’ve tried to win over yourself has to this point eluded you. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist loses a battle for self-control because her/his antagonist possesses greater self-control.
read moreRomance – June 30
“What is broken is broken — and I’d rather remember it as it was at its best than mend it and see the broken places as long as I lived.” -Margaret Mitchell, whose Gone With the Wind was first published on this date in 1936. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist breaks a dear friend’s prized possession and has to decide what to do about it.
read moreMystery – June 30
In 1870, Ada Kepley became the first woman to graduate from an accredited law school in the USA. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist is upstaged by a person of a gender not typically associated with his/her success.
read moreSciFi/Fantasy – June 30
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.” -Albert Einstein, who on this date in 1905 introduced his theory of relativity in “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies.” Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist determines the elegantly self-evident solution to an experience considered utterly inexplicable by everyone else in the world you’ve created.
read moreLiterary – June 29
“Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.” -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, born this date in 1900. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which a person your protagonist dearly loves refuses to believe s/he and your protag are not looking the same direction.
read moreBig Questions – June 29
What’s the biggest lie you’ve told to protect a friend? 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...
read moreJournaling + Fiction – June 29
“We cannot escape history.”Abraham Lincoln Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about a location or issue in your community that troubles many people but continues to exist because of historical inertia. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which a person or event your protagonist left behind long ago re-emerges at exactly the wrong time.
read moreRomance – June 29
“To live is to be slowly born.” -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, born this date in 1900. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which a single event awakens within your protagonist a stranger totally unknown to her/him.
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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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