St. Patrick’s Day Writing Prompts!

Writing Prompts!

1. Make a list of pros and cons of being a leprechaun…
2. Write an essay about everything you know about Ireland.
3. Write an essay about why someone should visit Ireland. Persuade your audience using Rhetoric with either: Logos, Pathos or Ethos.
4. “I woke up the day after St. Patrick’s Day and found myself in…”
5. “At the end of the rainbow, I didn’t find a pot of gold but I did find…”
6. Write about your favorite lucky charm and why it’s your favorite or who may have stolen it 😉
7. Research and write an essay about St. Patrick.
8. Research and write an essay about Niall of the Nine Hostages, a high Irish king and warlord.
9. Write a short story, poem or limerick about St. Patrick and/or Niall of the Nine Hostages.
10. Watch this music video, use it as inspiration to write your very own Irish drinking song 🙂

House Of Pain – Jump Around – Rhino Records

~Sara

#amwriting #WritingPrompts, Missed Connections – Week of 12/14 to 12/20, 2015

After browsing our local classified ads website here, I came across some amusing and downright lovely personal ads. So I thought I’d try something different for writing prompts today– I will give you a screenshot of the ad, and you will write a story about it. It can be the background to it or the conclusion to what happens after the ad is answered. The story can be either flippant or very serious. Your choice. But be sure to make it insightful and entertaining for your readers either way.

(If the images are difficult to read, right-click, open image in another tab.)

Writing Prompts:

1. Udderly Enamored With Shapely Legs…

2. A Wonderful Thank You…

3. A Close Encounter Of A Blue Kind…

4. A Rendezvous With Florence Nightingale…

5. Smoking-Hot Ladies…

Good luck and write on!

~Sara

#WritingPrompts, Week of Sunday 11/08 to Monday 11/16, 2015

Writing Prompts:

1. “Put the money in a suitcase and…”
2. If you could only make it to the other side on that rope bridge across the wild river rippling white…
3. Write about the formation of an unlikely friendship.
4. Under a curse, your raven hair turns into ruby strands and…
5. “Blue skies in the morning and clear skies at night. It’s memories like that,” she said, “that really…”
6. His snoring was the last straw…
7. Flying saucers land in Ventura, California and the locals make first contact.
8. Wouldn’t it just figure that the very same day Rosamund decided to go to the city…
9. As they peered into the crystal ball, the foggy glass cleared and an image shimmered into view…
10. He whispered in her ear and walked away.

~Sara

Prompts from: Apple Apps Store, Writing Prompts by 21 x 20 Media, Inc. Download with iTunes here and from Writing.com. With grammar and typos of prompts corrected, copy-edited and tweaked for relevance.

Writing Prompts – Week of Monday, February 23rd. to Sunday March 1st., 2015.

Writing Prompts:

1. You die, only to find that heaven is only hell.
2. What do you see on the other side of the door when you look through a peephole?
3. A druid finds an ill elf in the crook of a tree.
4. Force a relationship between two seemingly different things. For example: How is friendship like a baseball game?
5. A dire warning about the end of the world appears on a computer screen during your Internet search for Nostradamus.
6. “You need three hats for a one-day outing, why?!”
7. Write a short dialogue between two political candidates about an issue you care absolutely nothing about.
8. If we get to the garage first…
9. Write about a world where 1+1 does not equal 2.
10. While climbing a mountain in the Himalayas, one climber falls into a ravine and dies, and the rest of the group…
11. Your dream job becomes a nightmare.
12. She/he climbed the tree to get a better view, but what she/he saw frightened her/him even more.
13. “Pick a card, any card!” The magician held the deck out. Cautiously, a member of the audience began to pull a card…
14. You are elected the mayor of a town you are visiting, but you don’t know the language spoken there.
15. An old friend finds you on a social networking site.

~Sara

Prompts from: Apple Apps Store, Writing Prompts by 21 x 20 Media, Inc. Download with iTunes here and from Writing.com. With grammar and typos of prompts corrected, copy-edited and tweaked for relevance.

Writing Prompts – Week of January 19th to January 25th, 2015.

Writing Prompts:

1. Paint splattered on a canvas… Think Jackson Pollock.
2. “Funny colored hat, crazy shoes, weird handbag, and dazzling hair – I’m so ready for this interview!” you think to yourself…
3. A couple helicopter to a remote island for a romantic dinner and end up being forgotten in an oncoming tropical storm.
4. Write a story in which exactly five different things go ‘click’.
5. At Target‘s customer service counter you plead with the representative, “It’s a package deal? What if I just want the package without the deal, or the deal without the package?”
6. Close your eyes, spin yourself around, then with your eyes still closed, point to something. Open your eyes and write about what you’ve pointed to.
7. Write a love poem from the perspective of a pirate writing to the woman he loves. Think kim dotcom and his wife with his dots (children) :p
8. An old man finds a coin that reminds him of a special day from his youth.
9. The bridegroom insists he wants to wear lime-green socks at his wedding, to match his tie. You have to buy the socks for him.
10. Write a poem about the number three.
11. A detective constable and his/her cat communicate telepathically while they try to stop the criminals from taking over the pet food industry.
12. Read the story of Matt DeHart at National Post, here then use these four words in a fictional story that resolves his plight: Hacker – Creeper – Soldier – Spy. (Additional information about Anonymous may be found here at Wikipedia too.)
13. You are a Roman gladiator in a strange arena and the lions are…
14. Two males pick up a female hitchhiker who makes their lives very difficult.
15. What I know about myself is…
16. An Apple employee dies during a secret business meeting in Beijing, People’s Republic of China where he had gone to investigate new malware called, WireLurker.
17. You’re a famous YouTuber on YouTube. You’ve just said, “That’s it for this edition about gaming” (or substitute this topic for another if you wish) when something happens…
18. Blue cheese or bleu cheese?

Prompts from: Apple Apps Store, Writing Prompts by 21 x 20 Media, Inc. Download with iTunes here. And from Writing.com. With grammar and typos of prompts corrected, copy-edited and tweaked for relevance.

Writing Prompts: July 10th – July 21st, 2014.

Writing Prompts:

July 10th – July 21st, 2014.

 

1. You found a winning lottery ticket in a bus station.
2. You can’t decide between a vacation in the mountains or at the beach, so you …
3. Your utilities are suddenly shut off in your home.
4. The copier wasn’t working again and I was on my last nerve when suddenly…
5. The car’s battery suddenly died on the way to the awards ceremony and she/he was expecting to win the top award….
6. She/he was so glad that she/he made the mistake of doing…
7. A couple searching for a new town to raise their baby in, thought they had asked all the right questions… Unfortunately, they forgot to ask the most important one…
8. The person you’re most compatible with turns out to be an artificially intelligent (AI) computer.
9. Write about spending a day with your personal hero (living or dead).
10. A movie rental isn’t the movie on the cover, it’s a local politician in a very delicate position…
11. The new pool was installed and the invitations were sent. But would anyone show up for the party?
12. The mountain looked intimidating but her/his life depended on getting to the bottom.
13. … And *poof* he/she/they was/were gone.
14. Someone tries to kill you for possessing a figurine that an old friend had sent you as a gift.
15. You are being driven around by the worst driver ever.

~Sara

Prompts from: Apple Apps Store, Writing Prompts by 21 x 20 Media, Inc. Download with iTunes here. With grammar and typos of prompts corrected, copy-edited and tweaked for relevance.

Writing Prompts: June 29th – July 6th, 2014.

1. It was the mean-spirited nature behind it that really bothered him/her. He/she didn’t mind not making the team. What ticked him/her off about it was…
2. For some reason the ______ aren’t happy today.
3. Write a mock editorial about something quite serious.
4. The subject was learning faster than they expected. It was time to up the ante…
5. Your friend discovers an alternative fuel that could potentially alter earth forever…
6. Write a story or poem that begins with: “There was only one way out, so I chose to do…”
7. The ink blobbed on the small white card reminded him/her of…
8. “I can’t believe you cheated on him/her. He’s/she’s so HOT!”
9. Thank goodness _______ insisted we take all those _______.
10. You had given up hope ever finding your dog. But while driving through your neighbourhood, you see your dog on a leash leading a blind person across a very busy street… What do you say or do?
11. Write a story about two sisters/brothers/friends vacationing in a Southeast Asian country, on a shoestring budget.
12. What does a person mean when they say they need space?
13. Jot down twenty words about your life; use them to create a poem or story about something other than your life…
14. Write a recipe for successful recipe writing.
15. You thought you’d enrolled in a class about _______. During the first session, you find it’s something else instead…
16. He/she crouched behind the sofa in terror as a hand came through the window.
17. Write about the color ______.
18. Write about something that irks you or brings you joy.
19. Write a short poem about the first thing you remember thinking about today.
20. An unknown person from Egypt sends you a box containing a rock etched with peculiar hieroglyphics.

~Sara
 
Prompts from: Apple Apps Store, Writing Prompts by 21 x 20 Media, Inc. Download with iTunes here. With grammar and typos of prompts corrected, copy-edited and tweaked for relevance.

Sara’s Writing Prompts

Friggatriskaidekaphobia!

No, I didn’t just swear at you! 😉 But this week has a notoriously bad day in it…A day with ominous bias attached to it, Friday the 13th!  Wait! Don’t run away in horror yet!  I have writing prompts for you to scribble away this superstition into oblivion – well at least until the next Friday the 13th December 2013.

That will leave you free to worry about whether or not The Mayan Long Calendar was miscalculated by scholars and the actual impending date of doom for the Mayan Apocalypse will occur on December 21st 2013 (instead of the previously proposed December 21st 2012).  AAAAH! Kidding! 😛

But just to be sure, make sure you have plenty of Mole sauce and Cocoa beans on hand for sacrificial offerings to Quetzalcoatl. Have fun and Write on!  🙂

Prompts:

Week of September 7th – 14th 2013.

1. You go to a hairstylist to get a new ‘do, and you tell them that you trust them. Well, your trust bought you a fluorescent green Mohawk!
2. Write about your first memories of a bad or even lucky day on Friday the 13th.
3. I thought it was a skateboard!
4. I had nothing to lose, so I…
5. Why did the postman cross the road?
6. Write a story or poem about a broken promise.
7. It was like nothing had ever happened. Tom didn’t remember a thing and I was off the hook, or so I thought.
8. Write a story that includes the following: “Our faithful vehicle chose that moment to run out of gas.”
9. “Attitude is everything”, she told me.
10. I watched them go on and on for hours. Just when I thought, they were going to stop, on they went again, until finally…
11. A mouse and a mole were sitting in a hole when along comes a troll…
12. When Arthur lifts the cover off the trash can…
13. While digging a new flowerbed, your neighbor finds a bone that looks suspiciously like a human femur.
14. You’ve taken your first trip to an intergalactic dance club from your colony on Mars, tell us about your boogie/clubbing adventure!
15. In a lab somewhere, chemists formulate the perfect formula to finally…
16. The smell of roasting meat wafted out of the restaurant as he dug through the dumpster in the back.
17. “So you don’t remember the man in a black trench coat, even though the video recorded you ringing him up?” Father Damien Karras SJ wasn’t buying it. Duh-duh-DUUUH! *insert creepy Friday the 13th Film Noir/Horror plot mash-up here* 😉
18. Combine two animals to form a new species. Write about an adventure had by a baby animal of that new species…
19. While writing in a dark forest, cowering behind a tall oak tree…
20. Sorry, but swimmers are not allowed to…
21. You receive a package in the mail. There is no return address. Inside is a large pair of clown shoes filled with jelly beans.
22. An old man finds a coin that reminds him of a special day from his youth.
23. Write a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper or a local MP about an issue that’s important to you. (it can be satire if you wish)
24. I was reading a writing prompt on https://barriewritersclub.wordpress.com/ when suddenly… 😉

All lovely writing prompts were gathered from Writing.com‘s prompt machine!  With a few tweaks here and there from me.  Enjoy!

~Sara

Sara’s Writing Prompts

Hello!  So have you been busy writing this past week or have you been too busy getting the kids ready for the first day back to school?  Do you need some inspiration or a prompt to get  your creativity flowing?  Yes?  Good!  I have a whole list of writing prompts just for you.  Take a few minutes, consider where these prompts will lead you then write on!

 

Prompts:

Week of August 26th to September 1st, 2013.

1. Little did John know the panther was just yards away, watching his every move.
2. A straight line and a curved line argue which one is more useful.
3. An unknown person from Egypt sends you a box containing a rock etched with hieroglyphics.
4. One day, your dog starts talking to you.
5. Right before she dies, your mother tells you you’re adopted.
6. He raised his goblet: “Cheers! Here’s to Love!” Then she quipped back, “Define Love.”
7. Write about the smallest insect you’ve ever seen.
8. A frozen pond in the middle of the desert catches the attention of scientists from around the world.
9. You’re in a log cabin deep in the woods. No utilities. Lake plentiful with fish and a prehistoric animal…
10. You just discovered the reason your adopted son is so disruptive of every aspect of family life: Attachment Disorder. What now?
11. “Your name will be in lights, kiddo!” said D. W. Griffith to Mary Pickford.
12. A day after you submit your thesis, you get a call from the Director of the CIA or CSIS/CSEC.
13. Write about the life of a box of Lime Jello.
14. Now you know the reason your neighbor has been sitting in his yard, looking at his shed and brooding.
15. If you could get a job in any occupation, what would you do for a living?
16. Add a dab of this, a dribble of that and stir. Within seconds, you’ll have…
17. The commercials said the shampoo would make my hair grow strong. I didn’t expect…
18. I don’t usually read the end of a book first, but this time I just had to know!
19. A for-hire corporate spy has stolen a flash-drive with sensitive information on it. He must transfer it to his employer within the next week because…
20. A ring is found with an intriguing inscription inside.
21. Pick a marketing slogan and use it in a poem or short-story.
22. You are being driven around by the worst driver ever.
23. The calendar says March 10th, but the last day you remember is March 1st.
24. A stop at the pub on the way home changed his destiny.
25. A circle, a square and a triangle…
26. When her cell phone rings, they think nothing of it. But when his rings too…
27. “Couldn’t you hear me knocking?” she asked. “Uh, no… I was… “
28. The cup tipped over, spilling its contents onto her mobile phone, which was the only remaining connection to the outside world.
29. If life is a TV channel, I’m currently on…

Prompts gathered from Writing.com.

Sara’s Writing Prompts: Film and Media Edition!

Hooray for Hollywood! There’s no business like show business.

 

Hello there! Did you get all your pieces handed in for the BWC Anthology? Yes?! Great!  I know I dillydallied getting around to handing mine in on time too.  So this week for writing prompts I thought we could take a look at story telling from the perspective of Media and Communications.  We need a break from all that frenzied typing and formatting we did to get our submissions in on time!

Let’s have some fun and write something about what we watch, hear and consume from media daily.  Whether it’s from those annoying Sham-WOW commercials with Vince the Sham-WOW-Guy to Movie Blockbusters and Classic Silver Screen Gems, or even to the dishy tell-all books we read about our favorite celebrities.   We’ll use these examples as inspiration to create our own narrative spin on some of Hollywood’s most popular stories along with ideas from the music industry as well.  Grab your pencils or flex those fingers over your keyboard, and let’s begin!

 

Writing Prompts:

• List ten things you do when you procrastinate then turn them into a television advertisement for ADHD medication and/or products.  Use this as your tagline: I never finish what I… 😛

• Retell the Nativity Story in modern or urban/ghetto diatribe-language. Feel free to channel the West Coast Hip-Hop style of Tupac Shakur or if you want to be grittier, go East Coast style with Jay-Z.  😉

• Write about what you’d say to an unexpected guest use the film “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” with Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier and Katharine Hepburn or for Generation X-Y (Millennials) use the rebooted version, “Guess Who” with Bernie Mac, Ashton Kutcher and Zoë Saldaña.  What happens next? Tell us!

• Write an excuse for not working today or missing school. Think “Office Space” with Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston and the curious case of employee redundancy with the character Milton. Or “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” with Matthew Broderick, Mia Sara and perhaps elaborate further upon Ben Stein’s characters’ infamous monotone teaching soliloquy.

• Imagine your life is now a book sitting on a store shelf.  A book, you didn’t authorize!  – What does the blurb on the inside of the book cover reveal? Think “Oprah: A Biography” by Kitty Kelley or “Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography” by Andrew Morton. Make it under 500 words and all of it complete fiction!

• Write a story about why Fortune 500 companies would start hiring Fortune Tellers and Astrologists.  Think of the television series, “Medium” with Patricia Arquette or James Van Praagh’s life portrayed on “The Ghost Whisperer” with Jennifer Love Hewitt’s character.

•  Create a story, script, play or poem inspired by a line in a Margret Atwood novel, film, story or poem.

Movie Plot Remixes:

• Write a story related to a holiday you had.  Think any of The National Lampoon’s Vacation movie franchise, with Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo with their revolving cast of kids who played their teenage son and daughter characters in these films.  This can be a creative nonfiction experience you’ve personally had or it can be complete fiction.

• A Hippie or Hipster (for Gen. X-Y) bride and groom have a way-out-there New Age wedding!  Tell us what transpires…Think “Betsy’s Wedding” with Alan Alda and Molly Ringwald or the original film version of “The In-Laws” with Peter Falk and Alan Arkin.

•  A handsome college graduate student who’s working as a pizza delivery boy gets a very special tip…Think “The Graduate “ with Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft or “Loverboy” with Patrick Dempsey, Kirstie Alley and Carrie Fisher.

•  A river rafting trip leads to new friends and enemies…Think “Deliverance” with Jon Voight and Burt Reynolds for a darker perspective or for Gen. X-Y try a tamer reboot of “Without a Paddle” starring Seth Green, Matthew Lillard and Dax Shepard.

•  A good friend becomes a leader of a cult or high priest in a coven of witches…Think “Sound of My Voice” with Brit Marling, “Rosemary’s Baby” with Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon and Ralph Bellamy or for Gen. X-Y:  “The Craft” with Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk and Neve Campbell.

***If you’re feeling especially brave, mix a few of these plots and characters together and write a farcical type of story!***

Have fun with these gone Hollywood prompts and Write On!

~Sara

References and prompt ideas from:

“Creative Writing Prompts a Reader’s Digest Magazine”, Creative Writing Prompts Online.

Creative Writing Prompts Online, n.d. Web. 1 August 2013.

http://creativewritingprompts.com/

“Hatch’s Plot Bank”, Creative Writing Prompts Online.

Hatch’s Plot Bank Online, n.d. Web. 1 August 2013.

http://www.angelfire.com/nc/tcrpress/plotbank.html