Odd Prompts

 

#1: Write a story which starts with someone eating a pickle and potato sandwich.

#2: Write a short script where the plot has to do with evil dolls trying to take over something.

#3: Write about writers' block.

#4: List five election issues that would be ridiculous to includes as part of your election platform (e.g. outlawing mechanical pencils and clicky pens, mandating every person over the age of 30 must own an emergency last rites kit). Choose one of the ridiculous issues and write a speech in favor of it.

#5: Write a children's story that is insanely inappropriate but can't use graphic language, curses, or violence.

#6: List five careers. Write about someone with one of those careers who wants to quit it.

#7: Write down a list of murder methods. Choose one at random from the list to use in a story.

#8: Write a romance story in which the hero must have a last name corresponding with a physical characteristic (e.g. Jacques Hairyback or Flora Dimple).

#9: Come up with 10 different ways to:

• say hello
• order a pizza
• congratulate someone on a job well done
• apologize
• return to the store something that's broken

Write a story involving at least one of these methods.

 

#10: Search for "random Renaissance painting" (or any other inspirational image search text you can think of) on any online internet image search engine. Picking one image, write half a page each of:

• Statements about this image (e.g. "I meant bring me the BREAD of John the Baptist").
• Questions about this image (e.g. "How many of those cherubs look like their necks are broken?").
• Explanations of this image (e.g. "The painter ran out of blue paint halfway through and had to improvise for the color of the sky").
• Commands said by people in this image or about this image (e.g. "Stop telling me to smile!" or "Bring me some gasoline!").

#11: Write starting with a word that sounds like "chute" (e.g. "chute," "shoot," "shooed").

#12: Write about a character named X "The [article of clothing]" Y (e.g. Julie "The Yellow Darted Skirt" Whyte) or simply referred to by their clothing (e.g. "the man in the brown suit" or "the woman in black").