60 Writing Prompts 2017-2018

These are prompts I came up with in my second year of judging a contest. You are free to use any of them if they will help you in your writing:

1. Write a poem or short story, using Romance as one of your genres. Start and end the story or poem with this sentence, bolded for judging convenience:

"Can I have this last dance?"

Given April 9 - 10, 2017 = 7 Entries

2. Write a short story or poem with one of these Stevie Wonder song titles (you may pick which one) bolded at the very end and the beginning. You may start and end with different song titles or the same one. That and the genre are up to you.

Blame it on the Sun
Superstition
Isn't She Lovely?
I Just Called to Say I Love You

Given April 11 - 12, 2017 = 4 Entries

3. Tomorrow (April 16) is the day that Charlie Chaplin was born in 1889. Write a Poem or Short Story with one of these Chaplin movie titles as your title. The genre is yours to decide.

These are the titles:

1. City Lights
2. Modern Times
3. The Great Dictator
4. The Kid
5. A Countess from Hong Kong
6. The Gold Rush

Given April 15 - 16, 2017 = 12 Entries!

4. Your character is a passenger on a plane.

Everything seems normal until the Captain announces, "This is your Captain speaking..."

Write about what happens next in your poem or story. You pick the genre.

Given April 18 - 19, 2017 =

5. Start and end your poem or story with the following sentence, bolded:

"The simple answer is no."

The genre is up to you.

Given April 25 - 26, 2017 = 3 Entries

6. A character is accidentally locked into a public place overnight. Write the poem or short story about what happens next. The genre is up to you.

Given May 2 - 3, 2017 = 4 Entries

7. Get inspired by this quote and write a short story or poem. You do not have to use the quotation in your item.
The genre is up to you. Here is the quote:

"Don't count the days, make the days count." Muhammad Ali

Given May 9 - 10, 2017 = 4 Entries

8. Incorporate the following words bolded for judging convenience in your story or poem (any genre):

ocean
tide
wind
moon
clandestine
fish

Given May 16 - 17, 2017 = 2 Entries

9. Ernest Hemingway wrote about the 1920's in his classic memoir, "A Moveable Feast." Use this quote from that book (MY FAVORITE BOOK EVER) as the starting OR ending sentence in your poem or short story. Please bold it, as I have done here.

"You expected to be sad in the fall." Ernest Hemingway

YOU PICK THE GENRE! (W/ 1920's Merit Badge Incentive)

Given May 23 - 24, 2017 = 13 entries !!!

10. Abraham Lincoln once said:

"Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."

Get inspired by this quote and write a short story or poem about a character who makes the affirmative choice to be happy. You pick the genre.

Given May 30 - 31, 2017 = 2 Entries

11. On a recent visit to my doctor, I was asked to wear a mask. Oddly enough, they also wanted to take my picture.

Write about a character who has funny things happen on a doctor visit. Your character can be animal or human. Please put this poem or short story in the Comedy genre and try to find the humor in the horror that is modern medicine.

Given June 6 - 7, 2017 = 3 Entries

12. Start or end your story or poem with these bolded song lyrics from the 1966 song, Walk Away Renee by The Left Banke:

"Your name and mine inside a heart upon a wall
Still finds a way to haunt me, though they're so small"

Please put your story or poem in the "Romance" genre.

Given June 13-14, 2017 = 4 entries

13. A herd of bulls escapes their summer enclosure and they run wild in the city of your choice. They end up at a country club with pool, golf, spa and tennis courts, all the amenities. What happens next once they get to this exclusive club? Do they apply for membership? Write a poem or story about the resulting events.

Please put your story or poem in the Comedy Genre.

(This prompt is based on a true story involving a herd of Bison in Baltimore about ten years ago)

Given June 19-20, 2017 = 1 Entry

14. Get inspired by this quote from Frank Sinatra:

"The best revenge is massive success."

Write a short story or poem inspired by this quotation about revenge. You pick the genre.

Given June 20-21, 2017 = 4 entries

15. Get inspired by this quote from Charlie Chaplin:

"Nothing is permanent in this wicked world, not even our troubles."

Write a short story or poem inspired by this quotation about life. You pick the genre.

Given June 27 -28, 2017 = 4 Entries

16. Get inspired by this quote from Ernest Hemingway:

"If two people love each other there can be no happy end to it."

Write a short story or poem inspired by this quotation about love. Please select "Romance" as on of your genres.

Given July 4 - 5, 2017 = 2 Entries

17. Get inspired by this quote from Sir Winston Churchill:

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."

Write a short story or poem inspired by this quotation. The genre is up to you.

Given July 11 - 12, 2017 = 2 Entries

18. Start OR end you mysterious story or poem with the following quotation from Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven", bolded:

"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary."

PLEASE select "Mystery" as one of your genres.

Given July 18 - 19 2017 = 5 Entries

19. Get inspired by this quotation and write a short story or poem - you pick the genre!

"Sometimes good things fall apart, so better things can come together."

Marilyn Monroe

Given July 25 - 26, 2017 = 3 Entries

20. Get inspired by this quotation and write a short story or poem - you pick the genre!

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass... it's about learning to dance in the rain."

Vivian Greene

Given August 1 - 2 2017 = 2 Entries

21. Get inspired by this quotation and write a short story or poem - you pick the genre!

“The battle between good and evil is endlessly fascinating because we are participants every day.”


Stephen King

Given August 8 - 9, 2017 = 6 entries

22. Get inspired by this quotation and write a short story or poem - you pick the genre!

“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.”


Ernest Hemingway

Given August 15 - 16, 2017 = 3 Entries

23. Monday, next week, is the solar eclipse. I have read that it can make animals act strangely. My problem is how do I prevent my Basset Hound from looking at the sun. Do I buy her sunglasses? Will she wear them?

Write a short story or poem in the Comedy Genre about animal confusion during the total solar eclipse, using all of these words, bolded (for judging convenience):

Basset Hound
Cow
Black Cat
Squirrel
August moon
Solar eclipse
Sunglasses

Given August 17 - 18, 2017 = 2 Entries

24. Get inspired by the following quotation and write a poem or a short story. The title should be "Starting Over."

You may select the genre.

Here is the quote:

"Being able to persist is not the most important thing - the ability to start over is."

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Given August 22 - 23, 2017 = 3 Entries

25. Get inspired by the following quotation and write a poem or a short story.

You may select the genre.

Here is the quote:

"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

George Santayana

Given August 29 - 30, 2017 = 1 Entry

26. In order to be eligible, one of your genres MUST beTEEN!

The prize (for the site birthday week) is 17,000 gift points.



Get inspired by the following quotation with regard to teenage bullying, and write a poem or a short story.

Here is the quote:

“We explain when someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you do not stoop to their level. Our motto is when they go low, you go high.”

Former First Lady Michelle Obama

Given September 5 - 6, 2017 = 3 Entries

27. Use the following words, bolded for judging convenience in your poem or short story. You may pick any genre you choose:

Autumn
Leaves
Hurricane
aftermath
Power outage
flooding
recovery

Given September 12 - 13, 2017 = 3 entries

28. Get inspired by the following quotation and write a short story or poem - you pick the genre:

"Those who do not complain are never pitied."

Jane Austen

Given September 19-20, 2017 = 5 Entries


29. Sixteen years ago yesterday, I opened my 4provinces account here.

It was two weeks to the day after 9/11/01.

Write a poem or short story about what you or your fictional character were doing two weeks after September 11, 2001. Please be sure and select "History" as one of your genres. It can be historical fiction or non-fiction - that's your choice.

Given September 26 - 27, 2017 = 2 entries

30. Use the following quote from Tennessee Williams' play, A Streetcar Named Desire, as your opening OR closing line for your poem or short story. Please bold it for judging convience. Here is the quote:

"We've had this date with each other from the beginning."


Given October 3 - 4, 2017 = 2 Entries

31. October 7th was the anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe's Death in 1849.

In addition to being a poet, he was a literary critic, an early writer of short stories and the inventor/first writer of The Detective Story genre.

On October 2, 1849, Mr. Poe was taken ill on the streets of Baltimore and carried to a hospital where he died. He was 40 years old.

Legend has it that one of the last things he said was:

"Reynolds."

No one knows who Reynolds is or what Edgar Allan Poe was trying to communicate.

Write a short story or poem and title it "Reynolds".

Solve the mystery of Poe's last words for your reader or don't. It's up to you. One of your genres should be "Mystery". You pick the others.

Given October 10 - 11, 2017 = 3 Entries

32. You pick the genre. Use the following words in your story or poem, bolded for judging convenience.

apples
banjo
hound
carnival
practice
cow

In order to bold, you type { b } before the word (without the spaces) and { /b } after the word(s) (without the spaces) that you want to bold.

Given October 17 - 18, 2017 = 4 entries

33. You pick the genre. Get inspired by the following Tennessee Williams quotation and write a short story or poem:

"All cruel people describe themselves as paragons of frankness."

Given October 24 - 25, 2017 = 2 entries

34. You pick the genre. Get inspired by the following Edgar Allan Poe quotation (from his "Eleonora") and write a short story or poem:

"They, who dream by day, are cognizant of many things which escape those who only dream by night."

Given October 31 - November 1, 2017 = 1 entry

35. Make one of your genres Romance please.

Start or end your first person short story or poem with the following sentence, bolded.

"He(or She) handed me the book that changed my life."

Given November 7 - 8, 2017 = 4 entries

36. Trees are being cut down in a woods, to make way for a housing development. Write from the point of view of a displaced woodland animal, such as a deer, squirrel or bear.

Please select "Nature" for one of your genres.

Start or end your short story or poem with the following sentence, bolded.

"In five short days, our beautiful trees were gone."

Given November 14 - 15, 2017 = 7 entries

37. Write a story or poem about giving thanks from the point of view of an animal. You pick the animal and please put it in the Animal Genre.

Given November 21 - 22, 2017 = 1 entry


38. Write a story or a poem, that includes a Moose as a character. Give it the title: "A Night at The Opera". You choose the genre.

Given November 28 - 29, 2017 = 2 entries

39. Write a story or a poem (you choose the genre) that ends with this line from Joni Mitchell's song, Big Yellow Taxi, bolded:

"They paved paradise, put up a parking lot."

Given December 5 - 6, 2017 = 4 entries

40. Write a story or a poem that begins with this line, bolded:

"Strangely, the bells were silent that morning."

Given December 8 - 9, 2017 = 3 entries

41. Write a story or a poem inspired by this John Lennon quote:

"There's a great woman behind every idiot."

Given December 12 - 13, 2017 = 2 entries

42. Write a story or a poem in the Mystery Genre.

As the title, please use:

"The Missing Ornament"

And end the poem or story with this line, bolded:

"The final symphony was upon us"

Given December 17 - 18, 2017 = 4 entries

43. Write a story or poem using this line bolded as the first AND last line:

"That mistletoe magic is always with me."

Given December 19 - 20, 2017 = 1 entry

44. Ernest Hemingway wrote 47 endings to his novel, A Farewell to Arms before he finally settled on one sentence.

Use his final choice as the ending to your story or poem. Please bold it for the judges:

"After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain."

Given December 22 - 23, 2017 = 5 entries

45. Write a short story or a poem about a Basset Hound's ideal Christmas or holiday celebration

Given December 24 - 25, 2017 = 5 entries

46. Write a short story or a poem (selecting Comedy as one of your genres) about trying to return a Christmas gift to the store where the gift giver works.

Given December 26 - 27, 2017 = 3 Entries

47. Write a story or poem about being stranded in an airport or train station, with a power outage, in a snow storm for two days. There are no phones working, cell or otherwise and the Internet is down. The genre is up to you.

Given January 2 - 3, 2018 = 4 entries

48.
Write a poem or a short story ending with the following Edgar Allan Poe quotation, bolded:

"I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat."

Given January 9 - 10, 2018 = 6 entries

49. Write a poem or a short story beginning with the following Edgar Allan Poe quotation, bolded:

"Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see."

Given January 16 - 17, 2018 = 4 Entries

50. Prompt Written by Sophurky : Write a complete STORY or POEM using 16 sentences/lines only. Write about anything you wish. Genre is MYSTERY. (You must choose this as one of your Genres.) Include your line count for poems and word count for stories IN your forum post as usual - and make sure to only use 16 sentences/lines.

Given January 23 (Writer's Cramp's 16th Anniversary) - 24, 2018 = 13 entries

51. This is the last line from Sue Grafton's final book, "Y is for Yesterday." She passed away at the end of December. Get inspired by this quotation and write a story or poem - you pick the genre. (You do not have to include the quotation in the item submitted - just get inspired by it.)

"I'm not saying justice is for sale, but if you have enough money, you can sometimes enjoy the benefits of a short-term lease." Sue Grafton

Given January 30 - 31, 2018 = 5 Entries

52. Write a poem or short story, choosing "Spiritual" as one of your genres. Use all of the following words bolded for judging convenience:

faith
destiny
time
watch
tide
ocean

Given February 6 - 7, 2018 = 7 entries

53. Every February 13th or Valentine's Day Eve, legend has it that someone anonymous puts a red rose on Edgar Allan Poe's grave in Baltimore, Maryland. Write the story or poem behind the mystery of the rose.

Given February 13 - 14, 2018 = 1 entry

54. In memory and tribute to a fellow writer here, who passed away in 2015, use the last line of her poem, "WHISPERS"  as the last line of your short story or poem. This is the line - please bold it for judging convenience.

"May you walk this day knowing you are loved"

Given February 20 - 21, 2018 = 3 Entries

55. In your story or poem, a letter from a stranger changes everything.

Make sure you choose the Romance genre as one of your genres, and have fun!

Given February 27 - 28, 2018 = 2 entries

56. Get inspired by the following quote (you don't have to use it, just get inspired by it) in your poem or short story:

"You have enemies. Good. That means you stood up for something, sometime in your life"

Winston Churchill.

Given March 6 - 7, 2018 = 3 Entries

57. In honor of St. Patrick's Day Week, here is a list of titles of Irish Songs.

1. Four Green Fields
2. Dirty Old Town
3. Gentle Annie
4. The Parting Glass
5. Finnegan's Wake
6. Rocky Road to Dublin
7. Whiskey in the Jar
8. Danny Boy
9. Raglan Road

Pick one of these titles as the starting line of your poem or short story and pick another one of these titles as the ending line of that poem or story. Your story or poem can be in any genre and you do not have to mention St. Patrick's Day. Please bold the two titles you select for judging convenience.

Given March 13 - 14, 2018 = 2 Entries

58. Your character senses the presence of a shadowy figure from the past. Write about how those from the past can influence the present and the future. The story or poem should take place on the first day of Spring. Pick "Dark" as one of your genres.

Given March 20 - 21, 2018 = 1 Entry

59. It is the week leading up to Easter holiday. Write a poem or story from the point of view of a bunny rabbit, looking forward to or dreading his/her signature holiday.

The genre(s) are up to you.

Given March 27 - 28, 2018 = 2 Entries

60. Get inspired by the following quotation and write a short story or poem:

"I felt that I breathed an atmosphere of sorrow"

Edgar Allan Poe

Given April 3 - 4, 2018 = 3 Entries