Prompt: Write about owning a smart toilet. Do not research beforehand, be purely creative.
Starter: The floor caved with an alarming sound.
Quote: “An invention has to make sense in the world it finishes in, not in the world it started.” -Tim O’Reilly
Prompt: What do you need to forgive yourself for?
Starter: “I can take you more seriously as a shooter wearing the beanie.”
Quote: “One of the secrets of a long and fruitful life is to forgive everybody everything every night before you go to bed.” -Bernard Baruch
Prompt: Convince your parents you deserve a new car.
Starter: “Was that supposed to hurt?”
Quote: “Beware: It is a quick transition from nourishing sense of gratitude to a poisonous sense of entitlement.” -Steve Maraboli
Prompt: Write about a time when you had to change your plans at the last minute, no matter how big or small.
Story Starter: My designated driver is drunk.
Quote: “You can plan events, but if they go according to your plan they are not events.” -John Berger
Prompt: Would you rather be too hot or too cold? Why? Explain then tell of a time when you were one of each.
Starter: “Tell me again why you think you deserve a raise.”
Quote: “Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have not unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.” -William Strunk, Jr.
Prompt: Describe your antagonist’s worst fear.
Starter: She should have known this was not meant for her.
Quote: “Your writing voice is the deepest possible reflection of who you are. The job of your voice is not to seduce or flatter or make well-shaped sentences. In your voice, your readers should be able to hear the contents of your mind, your heart, your soul.” -Meg Rosoff
Prompt: Describe your protagonist’s worst fear.
Starter: I will not be afraid, I will not be afraid, I will not be afraid…
Quote: “The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen.” -Lee Iacocca
Prompt: Wedding crashers.
Starter: “No one will ever know.”
Quote: “Sometimes the writing leads to the revelations, not the other way around.” -Julia Glass
Prompt: One more time.
Starter: The more I looked, the harder it became to look away.
Quote: “Sometimes I wonder if I’m a character being written, or if I’m writing myself.” -Marilyn Manson
Prompt: Who and/or what do you pray for? Who and/or what do you pray to?
Starter: I hated to be late.
Quote: “But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?” -Mark Twain
Prompt: Jesus and Satan sit down to dinner together- how do you suppose it would go? What would they discuss? What would they eat? Would they get along? Would there be tension? Elaborate as much as possible.
Starter: If I never saw him again, it would still be too soon.
Quote: “Whether you’re keeping a journal or writing as a meditation, it’s the same thing. What’s important is you’re having a relationship with your mind.” -Natalie Goldberg
Finding the Write Idea 