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- November 23, 2025 Writing Prompts for the Week
November 23, 2025 Writing Prompts for the Week
Happy Sunday! It’s a few days out from Thanksgiving in the US and, if you haven’t started your grocery shopping yet: It’s TIME. As of this writing, the traffic at the grocery stores has already started to pick up. This is the season when you’re most likely to get hit by a cart. (I have 🙋♀️. Trader Joe’s is no joke.)
This is also a great time to figure out how you’re going to also incorporate the other necessities of the week. Yes to relaxing and yes to spending time with people you love (or, at least, people you tolerate). But, also, yes to keeping up with your movement routines and yes to keeping up with your writing.
And, in that spirit…here are your prompts!
This Week’s Prompts*
My grandmother tossed coriander into her olive marinade so, of course, my mother never touched the stuff.
Each house on the block was quiet at this early hour, until systematically awoken, one by one, by a brick through one of each of the kitchen windows.
There wasn't a barbecue on the block that Sherell was going to be welcomed back to.
Write a scene in which someone sees something up in a tree that definitely shouldn't be there.
The lining in his coat was a deep, hypnotic purple and flashed into view each time he swept his arms wide in dramatic welcome.
"If anything, we're talking sprinkles at best," the TV meteorologist promised, clearly nowhere near a window.
Conrad's flight to Atlanta would now take off within the hour, but he'd all but lost his chance to make the connection to Baton Rouge.
*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
A Death in the Family by James Agee
This one won the Pulitzer Prize in 1958 which certainly speaks well for quality, but also gives insight into what people were most interested in reading 67 years ago. Chronically the brief time before and (this can’t possibly be a spoiler) then after a father is killed, the novel shares insight into the experiences of a variety of his family members. I don’t know that it’s one I’ll revisit, but it’s certainly a good one for writers to read.
Grab it on Bookshop.org (and support local bookstores!)
Grab it on Amazon
You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.
Links We Like (And Think You Will, Too)
🛒 Speaking of grocery stores, it turns out they’re prime places to improve your life? Why? Because of the positive power of interacting with strangers.
Sue Monk Kidd has a book out about creativity and living and it’s going on my To Read list. Interested but sure you’re ready to commit? Check out this write up and interview.
🥐 Need a different kind of challenge/habit to support your writing creativity? How about one that’s also going to make you a contender for the Great British Bake Off? This website features a monthly baking challenge and this is a great time of year to cozy up to your oven.
Top (Published) First Line of the Week
Cal Jenkins was born in the spring of 1920 with one leg shorter than the other.
From Buckeye by Patrick Ryan
Grab it on Bookshop.org (and support local bookstores!)
Grab it on Amazon
P.S.
I’ll be the first person to tell you that reading is important (not to mention, incredibly enjoyable). But is your consumption to creation ratio a little off? Here’s a podcast episode about how to evaluate it and what changes you can make.
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