May 11, 2025 Writing Prompts for the Week

May 11, 2025

Happy Sunday! It’s Mother’s Day in my part of the world and, whether you celebrate or not, it’s also a good time to think about where we come from and what’s shaped us.

We are all a product of our experiences and, more than that, a product of what we’ve chosen to make from those experiences. And, of course, our writing flows from that as well.

Today’s a great day to ponder what parts of ourselves we share in our creative work (and how) and whether there are even greater depths to explore.

And now, how about some prompts??

This Week’s Prompts*

  1. "It's allergy medicine, just allergy medicine—I promise."

  2. It was silent next door and Mikey's mind couldn't help but plumb the dark depths of possibilities.

  3. There were eight tumblers, there should have been 12, and there was only one logical reason for the discrepancy.

  4. He couldn't tell if his runny nose was the result of the in-full-bloom trees or something more sinister.

  5. "I didn't realize 'I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down' was a quote about your sneezing," she jeered.

  6. The bird just wouldn't stop chirping outside her window.

  7. Something was burrowing into the side of the house, and she resolved to catch it in action.

*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 City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami
I’ll be honest: The jury is still out on this one. I generally like Murakami’s work a great deal, but I can’t seem to tell where this book is going. There’s the disappearance of a childhood love, a city that may or may not really exist, a librarian that may or may not exist…it’s an unusual one. On the upside, even if the story doesn’t turn around for me, I know I’m absorbing a top-quality writing style.

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

❝

Stories aren’t made of language: they’re made of something else…perhaps they’re made of life.

Philip Pullman

👨‍🎨 David Zinn uses chalk to turn everyday objects into whimsical art. Talk about looking at things from a new perspective! Here’s a short (3-minute) film about his work.

🗣️ Author Fredrik Backman is certainly making his mark on the literary world. (If you haven’t ready one of his novels, someone you know has.) Here’s what he has to say about writing and procrastination.

💡The irony about creativity is that sometimes constraints help bring it out even more than complete freedom does. Here’s an exploration of creating rules for your creativity.

Top (Published) First Line of the Week

I had been working as a salesgirl at I. Magnin, “san Francisco’s Finest Department Store,” for one month when the guy from the shoe department leaned in to my ear and whispered, “See me when you can.”

From Shopgirls by Jessica Anya Blau

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

P.S.

Writers, as a group, are concerned about AI but copywriters (marketing and advertising writers) might be most so. The good news? It’s not a tool that’s going to take their jobs; it’s a tool that’s going to enhance them. Here’s a podcast episode about why AI just can’t do what real people can.

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