Writing Prompts

Friday, July 17, 2026

In Letters to Melina, Franz Kafka writes, “The easy possibility of writing letters must have brought wrack and ruin to the souls of the world. Writing letters is actually an intercourse with ghosts and by no means just with the ghosts of the addressee but also with one’s own ghost, which secretly evolves inside the letter one is writing or even in a whole series of letters, where one letter corroborates another and can refer to it as witness…One can tell you the truth like no one else, and one can tell you the truth both for one’s own sake and for yours; in fact, one can even discover one’s own truth directly through you.” Write a letter to someone! Bonus points if you actually send it to them. If letter writing interests you, Transmission, the literary magazine, might interest you, too! Take a look at transmissionmag.com or @transmission.mag on Instagram.

Find a scent (a candle, a perfume, a room spray, something that will last the duration of your writing session) and let it lead you in your writing. What imagery does the scent bring to you? What emotional ties?

Take your notebook on a walk or hike. Make a list of at least 15 specific things that you notice. The more specific the better! See litter on the ground? What brand is it? Who do you think left it there and why? See birds? What song or instrument does their music remind you of? Are there clouds in the sky? How far do you think they’ve traveled? Use your findings in 30 minute writing sprint after your walk!

Go eavesdropping! Sit in a public space with your notebook and collect snippets of passing conversations. Listen to how people speak in fragments and run-ons. Listen for volume as it relates to emotion and facial expression. Note the difference between what is spoken and what is meant, and how we as writers may replicate that on the page. How might you dictate what you hear? This may help fiction writers navigate natural dialogue, and may help poets find new and strange phrases.

Go to magnetpoetry.com, navigate to the “play online” button, select a kit, and write a magnet poem!

Friday, July 10, 2026

There is a hidden message somewhere in your home. What is the message? Where is it? This could be a literal or metaphorical message—think height lines drawn inside door frames, a child’s doodle on a closet wall, the music of floorboards, etc.

In the editor’s note for the spring 2026 issue of Ploughshares, Annie Finch writes “I’m looking for poems in which structure and meaning are so tightly woven they can’t be separated—structure fully realized.” Write a poem or story in which the structure of the language you put on the page is fundamental to the meaning of the piece. Many libraries carry digital archives of Ploughshares if you need examples of what Finch received from this prompt. Try to think outside the box—outside the page, even.

So much of literature is some kind of fanfiction, from The Divine Comedy, to The Love Hypothesis, along with any after-poem you’ve ever read. Write in or about the tradition of fanfiction!

A creature you deem(ed) irredeemable (a flea, tick, villain of your past) gains the ability to speak to you. What do they say? Does it change anything?

Briefly research the communication system of fungi in ancient forests. Peter Wohlleben says a lot about this in The Hidden Life of Trees! Write a poem or story with your findings.

Friday, June 26, 2026

Look up “shrimp vision spectrum” and use your findings in a poem or story.

Write an Ouroboros story or poem that seamlessly loops back into itself.

Write an ekphrastic poem or story about the earliest piece of art you remember in your childhood home.

Go to your closet, close your eyes, and pick out a random article of clothing. Write a piece inspired by the sensory experience of that article.

Pick out five random books, pick out a few random words and/or phrases from each book, then write considering those words and phrases.

Write vengeful whimsy.

Tell the story you don’t want your mother to read. You know the one.

Describe a time you expected, or wanted, to feel a religious experience, but didn’t, or couldn’t.

Write exclusively in the future tense.

Write something about or around Olber’s Paradox.