Writing Prompts

Choose a prompt. Then write back.

Each prompt opens the submission form with the prompt already in place. You can write a response, save an excerpt, or bring it to the next meeting.

Prompt Desk

Start with one small, specific invitation.

This week: 2026-11-02

Begin with someone refusing an invitation.

Prompt collection

Prompt 1

Write about a doorway you have crossed more than once, and what changed each time.

Write a responsePrompt 2

Begin with the sentence: I thought I knew this road.

Write a responsePrompt 3

Describe a family object without naming it until the final line.

Write a responsePrompt 4

Write a scene where someone brings food instead of apologizing.

Write a responsePrompt 5

Make a list of ten sounds from a place you know, then turn three into a poem.

Write a responsePrompt 6

Write about a photograph that does not tell the whole truth.

Write a responsePrompt 7

Put two characters in a public place with a private problem.

Write a responsePrompt 8

Write a memory in third person, as if it happened to someone else.

Write a responsePrompt 9

Begin with someone refusing an invitation.

Write a responsePrompt 10

Write a room where someone has just left.

Write a responsePrompt 11

Give a character a harmless secret that becomes costly.

Write a responsePrompt 12

Write a scene where the most important thing is not said.

Write a responsePrompt 13

Describe a place using only sound and touch.

Write a responsePrompt 14

Write the same moment as comedy, then as tragedy.

Write a responsePrompt 15

Take a paragraph you like and cut it by one-third.

Write a responsePrompt 16

Write a poem made entirely of questions.

Write a responsePrompt 17

Let a minor character say the sentence everyone else avoids.

Write a responsePrompt 18

Write about a road everyone knows but nobody talks about.

Write a responsePrompt 19

Begin one page with weather that changes what people can say.

Write a responsePrompt 20

Write the story behind a recipe without naming the dish.

Write a responsePrompt 21

Describe a church, classroom, store, field, porch, or library after everyone has left.

Write a responsePrompt 22

Write about leaving eastern North Carolina, returning to it, or choosing to stay.

Write a responsePrompt 23

Create a character who is known for one thing and tired of being known for it.

Write a responsePrompt 24

Write a scene where a mistake becomes useful.

Write a responsePrompt 25

Write a letter you will never send.

Write a responsePrompt 26

Write about work people depend on but rarely notice.

Write a responsePrompt 27

Describe a place from the point of view of someone seeing it for the last time.

Write a responsePrompt 28

Write a paragraph that begins with a fact and ends with a feeling.

Write a responsePrompt 29

Create a scene around an overheard sentence.

Write a responsePrompt 30

Write about a local sign, nickname, phrase, or sound that belongs to a place.

Write a responsePrompt 31

Write a memory using only concrete details, then add one sentence of reflection.

Write a responsePrompt 32

Put a character in a waiting room and give them something urgent to hide.

Write a responsePrompt 33

Write about an ordinary errand that turns into a story.

Write a responsePrompt 34

Begin with the sentence: Nobody remembered it the same way.

Write a responsePrompt 35

Write a profile of someone who keeps a community going.

Write a responsePrompt 36

Write a grant paragraph for something your town actually needs.

Write a responsePrompt 37

Make a scene out of two people disagreeing politely.

Write a responsePrompt 38

Write about a house by describing what is missing from it.

Write a responsePrompt 39

Write a poem with five images and one unanswered question.

Write a responsePrompt 40

Write a scene in which money is present but never mentioned directly.

Write a responsePrompt 41

Describe a childhood rule and what it taught you.

Write a responsePrompt 42

Write about a place that changed while people were not looking.

Write a responsePrompt 43

Create a character who wants to leave without making it look like betrayal.

Write a responsePrompt 44

Write a scene where the setting does half the storytelling.

Write a responsePrompt 45

Write about something you know how to do with your hands.

Write a responsePrompt 46

Begin with a phone call that arrives at the wrong time.

Write a responsePrompt 47

Write a paragraph in the voice of a person who will not admit they are afraid.

Write a responsePrompt 48

Choose one sentence from an old draft and build a new page around it.

Write a responsePrompt 49

Write about a public celebration from the point of view of someone outside it.

Write a responsePrompt 50

Describe silence as if it were an object in the room.

Write a responsePrompt 51

Write a scene where a small kindness has complicated consequences.

Write a responsePrompt 52

End with someone deciding to begin again.

Write a response