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Big Questions – February 15
What’s the best thing about the place you grew up? 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 15
Charles Tiffany was born on this date in 1812. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist is surprised when s/he does not receive the extravagant gift s/he expected.
read moreMystery – February 15
“Come, my puckish partners in plunder!”- 1960s TV-show Batman’s The Joker, Cesar Romero, born this date in 1907. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist encounters a “bad guy” s/he’s confronted too many times to count.
read moreSciFi/Fantasy – February 15
“In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.” -Galileo Galilei, born on this date in 1564. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist is humiliated by the authority of a thousand despite being correct.
read moreSecondary – February 15
Italian astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei, born on this date in 1564, once wrote, “I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him.” Explain what you think Galileo meant and defend your disagreement or agreement.
read morePrimary – February 15
Polar explorer Ernest Shackleton was born on this date in 1874. He believed, “Difficulties are just things to overcome, after all.” What do you think he meant when he said that?
read moreLiterary – Valentine’s Day
The Importance of Being Earnest opened on this date in 1895, staging Oscar Wilde’s story of two women in love with two men who are each pretending to be a third person. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist discovers that the person s/he loves is not the person your protagonist thinks s/he knows.
read moreJournaling + Fiction – Valentine’s Day
“When people talk, listen completely.”Ernest Hemingway Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about how you made the person with whom you were talking feel the last time you didn’t listen completely. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist is talking but not being heard.
read moreBig Questions – Valentine’s Day
Does lightning strike twice? 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 – Valentine’s Day
Charles, Duke of Orleans, wrote the first valentine from captivity in the Tower of London, when he wrote St. Valentine’s Day love poems to his wife during his imprisonment from 1415-1440. Writing prompt: Write a letter from your protagonist’s partner to your protagonist after they have been forcibly separated for a year or more.
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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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