Literary – November 28

“Opposition is true friendship.” -William Blake, born this date in 1757. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which a friend fails to persuade your protagonist to make a different choice than the objectively bad choice your protagonist makes.

Literary – November 27

“Growth demands a temporary surrender of security.” -Gail Sheehy, born this date in 1937. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist misses a chance to grow because s/he refuses to relinquish her/his security.

Literary – November 26

“Because, once alone, it is impossible to believe that one could ever have been otherwise. Loneliness is an absolute discovery.” -Marilynne Robinson, born this date in 1943. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist finds her/himself unexpectedly and against her/his will alone.

Literary – November 25

Sinclair Lewis said, “People will buy anything that is one to a customer.” Writing prompt: Describe one of your character’s desire for something that s/he feels s/he must have only because someone else also wants it.

Literary – November 24

“That’s what careless words do. They make people love you a little less.” -Arundhati Roy, born this date in 1961. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist unknowingly says something unforgivable to a loved one.

Literary – November 23

“I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.” -John Milton in Areopagitica, one of the most influential and impassioned philosophical defenses of the right to freedom of speech and expression, published on this date in 1644...

Literary – November 22

“To speak behind others’ backs is the ventilator of the heart.” -Marjane Satrapi, born this date in 1969. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist ventilates without knowing the subject of his/her vituperation is standing behind him/her.

Literary – November 21

“Every man is guilty of all the good he didn’t do.” -François-Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire, born this date in 1694. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist realizes s/he should have done something s/he earlier chose not to do.