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December 15 2024 Writing Prompts for the Week

Happy Sunday! We’re wrapping up the year, but, contrary to instinct, that means this is an exceptionally good time to start a new habit.

Just think: If you can get yourself started with (or refine!) a writing habit now…it’ll be so much easier to stick with it past the new year and into the deep midwinter. Good job, you!

This Week’s Prompts*

  1. Four muffins, three scones, two sticks of butter, and five tiny plates. And then, well, this.

  2. Describe the physical texture of something within your arm’s reach right now, and then turn it into a character’s personality.

  3. Fervent wishing wasn’t just a habit for Helmsley, it was a compulsion—long-enduring and deeply occupying.

  4. “Shh...” she whispered, pulling the blankets right up to the tip of my nose.

  5. Describe the first thing you think of when you hear the word “camouflage”

  6. Tiny cabins lined the river bank, clearly once tidy and well-cared-for but now derelict and each in real danger of falling in on themselves.

  7. I am the villain of this story: We have to both be clear on point before we can begin.

*How to Use These Prompts: The italicized prompts let you create your writing entirely from scratch; the non-italicized prompts are intended as your first line and jumping off point. But, at the same time, there are no rules. Write on!

Book(s) We’re Reading This Week

Cher: The Memoir by Cher
You’d probably expect this icon to have led an interesting life, but who knew how much life she’d lived before she even turned 16? This is one of those memoirs that makes you appreciate a talented artist all the more.

Grab it on Bookshop.org (and support local bookstores!)
Grab it on Amazon

The primary benefit of practicing any art, whether well or badly, is that it enables one's soul to grow.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr

🎶 Sure, it’s labelled “autumn,” but this’ll be a great non-vocal playlist for writing throughout the winter, too
💌 Liz Gilbert (of “Eat, Pray, Love” and “Big Magic”) is encouraging us to write letters of love to ourselves and we’re here for it
⚙️ With a grand total of 44, there’s almost a new writing hack to try for each week of the year

Top (Published) First Line of the Week

Midway through his son’s graduation from college, somewhere between the Ns and the Os, Roger Pomeroy decided that he owed it to himself to go back to school.

From The Hole We’re In by Gabrielle Zevin

Grab it on Bookshop.org (and support local bookstores!)
Grab it on Amazon

Hey! Let's answer that question from the beginning of the newsletter. How often do you plan to write each week in 2025?

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P.S.

Looking for a way to write for a living—and still get paid well? Check out this training about copywriting. If it was good enough for F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, and Joseph Heller, it might just be good enough for you, too.

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