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- February 16, 2025 Writing Prompts for the Week
February 16, 2025 Writing Prompts for the Week
Happy Sunday! This new year has been a lot so far, don’t you think? All of that “let’s circle back in the new year” has hit hard and there’s a whole lot going on in the world. Soooo…
You’ll see that today’s Links We Like is very much focused on helping us all just find a little bit of peace and calm in our days. Take good care of yourself. And, by the way, a great way to do that is…to write:
This Week’s Prompts*
Describe someone walking home on the coldest day of the year, and what they experience and encounter.
"See now, a 'barn raising' would mean we were building this up, but a 'barn razing,' well that's more apt, since we're all about to tear it down."
Describe what happens when a herd of sheep somehow get loose on a major highway.
So this is what a beating heart feels like, right here in my hand.
The old woman squinted, looked me over, and gave out a sound somewhere between a grunt and a sign.
Toward the middle of Act II, right after Annie, who plays Lady Korsikov, delivered her monologue, Jasper developped an overwhelming urge to sneeze.
Describe what happens when two people who hate each other get trapped in an elevator together.
*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
The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
Every time Lauren’s husband goes up into the attic, he comes down a new man. Literally. For those of us who like the “alternative lives/what might have been” type of storyline this is a fun and interesting new take. It’s very readable and provides a new way to puzzle through a deep concept: What is “good enough?”
Grab it on Bookshop.org (and support local bookstores!)
Grab it on Amazon
I think the deeper you go into questions, the deeper or more interesting the questions get. And I think that’s the job of art.
Links We Like (And Think You Will, Too)
🖍️ Sure, you write: But do you doodle? It turns out that doodling can have big benefits for our brains and Sunni Brown’s got just the Ted talk to prove it.
🪫 Feeling a little burned out lately? Join the club. Or, actually, don’t: Instead, give this self-compassion meditation for burnout a try. It’s only 10 minutes long and could completely turn around your day.
🔐 We like to think that creativity thrives in freedom. But sometimes, it can be the opposite of freedom (aka, constraints) that get us going again. Here are constraints to experiment with and see if they kickstart your creative mind.
Top (Published) First Line of the Week
It was a strange, sultry summer, the summer of the Subway Pricker, but Brooke Orr had decided not to let that interfere with the business of life in New York.
From Entitlement by Rumaan Alam
Grab it on Bookshop.org (and support local bookstores!)
Grab it on Amazon
What do you like (or would you like) to buy to go along with your writing practice? |
P.S.
Finding a new career can be tricky—you might be burned out in the one you’ve got, but it feels risky to try something new. In this podcast episode (you can read the show notes before you dig in), Tori talks about how she walked away from a corporate career…and into a six-figure writing career. Definitely an inspiring listen.
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