This Week’s Tweeted Writing Prompts (October 26-November 1)

Each day, we tweet writing prompts to help writers get out of their shells for the creative process. Follow us on twitter (@TSHighSociety) to be inspired daily, or subscribe to the blog to get a digest of the prompts every Sunday!  

Poetry Writing Prompts

• Sunday: Early Midterm Voting is upon us! Write a poem that uses a past/current political slogan as the opening line.
  • Try this: We Polked you in ’44, We shall Pierce you in ’52 — 1852 U.S. presidential campaign slogan of Franklin Pierce (ridiculous, see more slogans here)
• Monday: Condense an origin story into a 10-line poem.
• Tuesday: Define a color in 20 lines.
• Wednesday: Write 15 lines without using “the” “a” or “an”.
• Thursday: Draft a poem in couplets that highlights a resume of useless, though well-developed skills.
• Friday (Halloween!): To celebrate the holiday, craft a poem about a phobia. 13 lines.
• Saturday: Write a poem associating a person with a specific time of day. See Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays” for inspiration. (Special thanks to Shawn Delgado, who contributed this prompt!)

Fiction Writing Prompts

• Sunday: Write a flash story that starts with a campaigner coming to a character’s door with information about an upcoming election.
• Monday: Often attributed to Hemingway, “For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.” Write your own #6wordstory, and share it with us in the comments below!
• Tuesday: Write the letter that a mail carrier feels compelled to open, illegally, on the daily route.
• Wednesday: Write a paragraph story based on one of Picasso’s paintings.
• Thursday: Two folks with long-term vendettas show up at the same local bar. 150 words about the interior of the place, smell, visuals, back-story, from the point of view of another person at the location.
• Friday—Halloween: Write a paragraph describing a location normally considered positive; then rewrite the setting with foreboding or eerie imagery.
• Saturday: Sketch a character who has 2-3 personality traits that are in opposition. Write 3 paragraphs to connect them.

How did it go this week?  Which prompt was most generative?  We’d love to know! Tell us in the comments below.

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