Category: Prompts

Spring Cleaning time is here – will you be doing any cleaning?

How about cleaning up more than your living space?

Relationships?

Goals?

Write about Spring Cleaning.

“Don’t write what sounds clever, write what’s true.” —Ethan Canin

Excerpted from “Novelist Curtis Sittenfeld Thinks Middle Age is Underrated,” by Lane Florsheim, The Wall Street Journal, March 1-2, 2025

Sittenfeld continued with, “That’s good advice for writing, but it’s also good advice for how to be a person. It can be hard to be sincere, but I think you have a much greater chance of connection with others if you are.”

Note From Marlene: You know what I say . . . Just Write!

But, what if you can’t remember what’s true?

“Write as honestly as you can about whatever it is.” Abigail Thomas

“Perhaps” is another blog post that might help when you can’t quite remember exactly what happened.

You know what to do . . .Just Write!

A contranym is a word with two opposite meanings.  

Or: Two meanings that contradict one another.

Use contranyms in your writing.

Bill: payment or an invoice

Bolt: leave quickly or fix/immobilize

Bound: confined/tied or going

Buckle: connect or break or collapse

Cleave: cling or split apart

Clip: attach or cut off

Dust: clean something or dust with powdered sugar

Fast: move rapidly or fixed in place

Finished: completed or destroyed

Hold up: support or impede

Left: gone or remaining

Original: authentic/traditional or novel never done before

Overlook: supervise or failing to oversee

Peer: person of nobility or an equal

Presently: now or soon

Put out: extinguish or generate

Sanction: approve or penalize

Table: discuss a topic or postpone discussion

#justwrite #iamawriter #iamwriting

A palindrome is a word that reads the same backwards as forwards.

Use these palindromes in your writing.

civic

deed

deified

kayak

level

madam

mom

noon

peep

pop

racecar

radar

refer

repaper

rotator

rotor

wow

And, thanks to the amazing writers I work with:

Taco cat

Yreka Bakery

#justwrite #iamwriting #iamawriter

Writing Prompt:

Ebbs and Flows

Just Write!

#justwrite #iamawriter #iamwriting

Write about something that happened to you that you wonder if you should tell people.

Would it help them to know?

Would it help you to write about it?

Just Write!

#justwrite #amwriting #iamawriter

Song lyrics can offer inspiration to write, like “Defying Gravity” in the production of “Wicked.”

Specific lines to use in your writing from “Defying Gravity.”

Something has changed within me

Something is not the same

I’m through with playing by

The rules of someone else’s game

It’s time to trust my instincts

I think I’ll try defying gravity
And you can’t pull me down

Write about something you own that brings you joy.

Or, write about something you own that does not bring you joy.

Why do you keep it?

#justwrite #iamwriting #iamawriter