WRITING PROMPTS

Prompt #36 — Write Like Bryan Owens

Owens’s piece (view here) explores the sublime, considering the emotional relays between beauty and terror and the contrast between an expansive natural world and a…

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Prompt #35 — Write Like Gene Morgan

The oft-mumbled misanthropic curse, “fucking people” is transformed beautifully in Morgan’s piece (view here). He imagines a world in which sexual intercourse overcomes people in…

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Prompt #34 — Write Like Kendra Grant Malone

Writing a normal situation into a strange one can be a fun way to turn a story on its head. In “45 Walker Street” (view…

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Prompt #33 — Write Like Lou Amyx

Amyx’s piece (view here) departs from the typical travelogue in that it focuses more on the speaker’s haphazard traveling companions than the destination. Although the…

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Prompt #32 — Write Like Jasmine Dreame Wagner

In Wagner’s story (view story here), the scientific idea of String Theory—that there is a potential set of equations that can link Newtonian and Particle…

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Prompt #31 — Write Like Gary L. McDowell

The titular confession in McDowell’s story (view here) is never explicitly given. The speaker gives instructions for the appropriate way to confess, providing the breadcrumbs…

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Prompt #30 — The Time Capsule

Time capsules are by nature a random amalgamation of items. We often make them in elementary or middle school by throwing items into a box…

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Prompt #29 — Write Like Jenny Gillespie

We usually consider diamond shopping an emotional event, often, though not necessarily, linked to a marriage proposal. In Gillespie’s piece (view story here), this event…

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Prompt #28 — Write like Bill Hutchison

Hutchison’s piece (view the story here) proceeds both as a how-to handbook and a complex consideration of a ritualized process. It also approaches an emotionally…

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Prompt #27

It’s Cherry Blossom season! Right now, millions of people come to Japan to see these trees. Exactly when the Cherry Blossoms bloom depends on the…

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