New Prompts

Here are some ideas that i had:

1) Break-ups

2) Friends

3) School (It's starting in late August/ Early Sept)

I really liked the one sentence prompt; I thought it was a little bit challenging and had sort of a twist with the life story thing. But then, I like short, poetry-like writing. =]

What about asking people to write about something they did yesterday at 11:00 (for example)? To make it kind of strange and less repetitive than relationships, school, money.

Or maybe another prompt could ask you to quickly put three things around you into a list, then a poem or sentence.

Loved the Ghosts prompt from last year. For obvious reasons.

One prompt that I don't think has been done (and I don't know if it can be) is fan-fiction. I, for one, find delving into an already-established universe, and then doing whatever you want with it, is a different sort of writing.

And '2012'. That will make people think.

Science Fiction may also be interesting for short stories.

Of course, this is coming from a guy who digs Warhammer 40,000.

It's dark.

Like, no, not dark.

Pitch black.

something around being green, a way to save the planet, tips, suggestions...
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Credula vitam spes fovet et melius cras fore semper dicit - Credulous hope supports our life, and always says that tomorrow will be better. (Tibullus)

oh, darkness is a good one. what about something like,"what do you think of when you hear this word?" and put one word per week or day or something?

or: describe your least favorite food in a way that would make it appealing to an onlooker. you may use footnotes to express your disgust if necessary.

concrete poetry, on the computer, using only the tools we have on YWP.

That was done last year for the 'eye' prompt by a friend of mine.

Quite cool.

sweet. i would liked to have seen it.

http://youngwritersproject.org/node/1105?size=thumbnail

And there you go!

zomgeh, geist can magically produce eyes. i love it! it's amazing. but how did the spacing stay? roar. mine didn't.
anyway, though, gg, maybe for a prompt you should just make them come up with their own prompt. it's prompting me! haha

He actually just took a picture of it from Microsoft Word.

That's why it's an image.

cheating, but okay. very nice finished product. i like it. let's do it. :)

okay, heres a cool prompt idea i thought of this morning:
things that you would metaphorically see in a side view mirror. things that are "closer then they appear" or things that are just off to the side. cool, right? yeah, i thought so, too.
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Last night in my bed, I stared up at the stars in the sky and thought, "WHERE THE HELL IS THE CEILING?!"

hahaa i love that quote...

These might be obvious but:
1) Limerick, or other formed poetry. I find that people get the most creative when they're the most constrained
2) Write a Paragraph describing you, but you aren't allowed to use any adjectives. You have to show who you are completely by your actions (a good exercise in "show, don't tell")
3)Write a review of a movie you recently saw
4)The e-mail you never got (do with it what you will)
5)A poem based off of song Lyrics (Name of song must be included)
6)Partner poems; one poem but gives two different perspectives. For an example see "Chrysalis Diary" by Paul Fleischman the one side is him as a caterpillar and the other side is him as a butterfly, and it's the growth between the two
7)Letter to the editoresque piece. Make a point, support it, make others see you point, all in under 200 words! Can you do it?
8)Analyze an object from an angle your not used to. Write about a tree lying on the ground and looking up through the branches, write about high school from the POV of a textbook, this one's more wide open.

I think using simple little prompts would be best for good responses. Easy ones that you can really get into like, 'why is the sky blue?' or 'why do you draw?' or 'what are eyes/hands/mouths/etc for?' You can get pretty deep with things like that. It keeps the subject nice and direct while still letting the writer go pretty much anywhere.
I dunno... I thought it was a good idea... ^^;
As for getting more kids into writing, i would just try to go with wide ranges of subjects and maybe put a little more advertisement out there.

Been meaning to do this. Offreadin, by the way, fantabulous. I especially like the limerick and letter to the editor ideas. Also: how about writing a song from a poem?

Mine:

1. Partner works: not two-sided, but literally with a partner. I think writing with somebody would be fun. I for one as a writer can never begin anything very well, but I can take a beginning and run with it.

2. Riddles. Riddles, wordplay, and puns. I think we should all write at least one - extra points if they're verse, as well as funny.

I'm out, now - but I may be back with more.

/gradster(1)/ - clever but still distraught

http://nmhwu.wordpress.com/

My slightly pathetic tribute:
-Write a poem in meter but make the subject compliment the meter. E.g. trimeter like 6/8 could be good for a story about a wild ride on horseback through america because 6/8 sounds like a galloping horse... or something like that.

--perspiciens--

Ú i vethed nâ i onnad. Si boe ú-dhanna. Ae ú-esteli, esteliach nad.
-Evenstar

What about posing a problem, like one of those lateral thinking puzzles, or a problem that requires creative problem solving and you print the most creative solutions. This is an example of a lateral thinking puzzle:
A man is returning from Switzerland by train. If he had been in a non-smoking car he would have died.
It's from http://www.rinkworks.com/brainfood/p/latreal1.shtml#p_latreal3 the answer is there, too.

“I write one page of masterpiece to ninety one pages of s***,” Hemingway confided to F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1934. “I try to put the s*** in the wastebasket.”

how about a "what does this make you think of" prompt, that's easier for me cuz i go off on tangents of randomness in my writing. so like incorperate the sentence "And so she will be loved" or what does "heartless" make you think of. or "loveless" what's the difference between the two?
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"I've decided that as long as I was going to Hell,
I might as well do it thoroughly."
-Edward Cullen, Twilight

How about...
1. Things that annoy you...
2. A bed time story type of thing that explains how something happened... Like "How the grass became green" Or "How cats lost their speech"
3. Make nicknames for your friends and yourself and then write a story about them... maybe even with them... *Its really fun... lol... *
4. College room mate ideas... *Like, How do you imagine you room mate to be in college?? What will they be like? How will they act??? Will you get along??? * It works for summer camp too... *Schedualing visits has gotten me into that state of mind... Imagining room mates and classes and such... lol*

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"We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love."

1) Tell us why you should be President.
2) Make a description of who your alter-ego would be.
3) Imagine that you are a younger sibling to yourself, then tell us about you through your "younger-sibling-ness."
4) Would you rather be able to fly or read minds? Tell us which you would prefer and why.
5) Make up a wacky story about an adventure you and your "imaginary friend" went on. (Note that you can be the "imaginary" one...)
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"Perfection doesn't exist, in my mind. Only greatness does." ~Geist

1) (Inspired by the book Godless: What do you think is worth worshiping? It can be anything.
2) Write a story without using the verb "to be" in any form.
3) "Between a rock and a hard place" -decide between two undesirable choices.
4) Write a story told without pronouns; the audience guesses whether the characters are male or female.
5) Write a 400-word biography, in which you have to give a full impression of someone's character.
6) Invent a genre.
7) Write a character portrait in fragmented sentences with no verbs. Give a full impression of the character.

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"It's either broken or it's French."

Uh, gg.

Bot.

Delete now.

um... what the heck???
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"Oh, look! A pony!"

How about the first line of a song, like,
I want to be as free as the spirits, for those who laugh......(Common Be)

"You have just been elected President of the United States of America... and now must give a speech to your election committee. What would it be?"

"If you were to start a non-profit organization to deal with a new-age conflict or world issue, what would the issue be and what would your plan of action consist of?"

The Ship Is Sinking, Sailor Let Go!

How about:
1) how you relieve stress
2) an all poem newspaper in which YWP only posts poems, no prose
3) an all prose newspaper
4) what super power you would like to have
5) "Invent a new sport"

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"You're awfully small to be so hugely irritating."- Edward Cullen, Breaking Dawn.

explaining in detail random objects, like lamps, tables, ect. you can find good descriptive words this way

My slightly sad contribution is something for all the strange people out there. I say write about waiting rooms. The next time you go in for a doctors visit observe all the crazy people that have to have something treated. The best waiting room is the emergency room. At least I think it is.

I would love to have more lyrics prompts, they can be specific types of lyrics or not. That would be awesome!!!

OMG i totally agree with the whole ER waiting room thing, if you end up there at like 11:00pm new years eve, hahaha the people u will meet wil lbe colorful..or n e time l8er in the night really, people do really stupid things..=)

"happiness shines in a cirle of ponies"..words to live by!

still equally as interesting , still many things to be learned from your room buddy in a hospital ,many things.

"happiness shines in a cirle of ponies"..words to live by!

The best time to go into the ER is Christmas Eve. There are a lot of gabbing family members that happen to be on a high of eggnog and there is always that one cousin that had to go on the roof to meet Santa. Dumb cousin, he should have known that Santa could take him on!

A good prompt I like is even stranger. I like to write about motorcycles. Not just about riding on them. I like the body work some people put on them. Flames, logos, and I've even seen one with "Big Bertha" painted on the side.

Got a good one.

What animal would you think the American people would most likely be characterized by, and why?