WRITING PROMPTS | PROMPTLY WRITTEN

Prompt Yourself: Weekly Prompts February 12–18

Prompts to tempt your muses

Welcome to the seventh week of writing prompts in 2024! The wedding superstition rhyme I used last week produced some interesting prompts, so I thought I’d give it another go, this time with some surprising, opposite, or contrary prompts inspired by the poem:

Monday for wealth; Tuesday for health; Wednesday the best day of all; Thursday for crosses; Friday for losses; Saturday no luck at all.

Before we get started, here are a couple of quick reminders:

How This Works

1. Use these prompts to write poetry, fiction, an essay, creative non-fiction, or an article. They are totally open to interpretation! Include a link to the prompt at the bottom of your post.
2. If you use one of these prompts, you can submit the result here at PW, to any publication that accepts prompts from other publications, or self-publish. If you submit somewhere besides PW, make sure to include a link to the prompt and tag PW editors so that we do not miss reading your story!
3. You don’t have to use PW’s prompts to submit work here. We are an open publication for established and new writers to submit their writing — usually based on writing prompts from here or elsewhere, but unprompted stories are also welcome!
4. Please be sure to use the correct Reader Interest Tags when you submit your work to PW so it lands in the right place on the homepage. Please use ONE (not multiple) of the following tags: Poetry, Fiction, Essay, or Articles. Your other four tags can be whatever you wish them to be.
5. Please ONLY submit drafts. To do this, once you have finished writing, instead of hitting the Publish button, click on the three dots (…), choose Add to Publication, click on Promptly Written, and then submit. This will put it into our queue, and we will publish it on our end.
6. Each week, you will find prompts for Monday-Sunday. However, you do not have to use them in the order they are written. Browse them all and use only the ones that resonate with you. Submit your work any time during the week (or long after!).
7. If you previously wrote for PW but haven’t in a while, you may need to go to the Submission Guidelines and ask to be a writer again. We went on hiatus a few months ago and stopped accepting submissions; if you were a writer with us before that time, you will need to sign up again.
8. Have fun!

Are you ready? Great! Let’s get prompting!

Monday‘s Wealth

Class differences can really change the dynamic between characters. When writing a story, knowing the character’s family economic situation now (during the story) as well as previously, if different (ie, in childhood) will help you to write convincing, well-rounded, and nuanced characters. Consider the following prompts to stretch those muscles:

• Write a story about a character attending a private school on a scholarship who struggles with pretending to come from the same kind of wealthy background as their peers.
• Imagine a workplace where employees from different socioeconomic backgrounds must collaborate on a project. Write about the tensions, misunderstandings, and moments of unity/clarity that might arise.
• Write about someone who inherits a valuable family heirloom during a time of financial hardship. As they grapple with the ethical dilemma of selling it to alleviate their family’s financial struggles, explore their internal conflict — their sense of duty, personal values, and the expectations of those around them.
• Imagine a scenario in which a character is mistaken for somebody of another class — either a rich person mistaken for poor, or vice versa. How might that character react? How might they feel in that moment? Do they speak up, or play along with the misunderstanding to avoid confrontation or embarrassment?

Alternatively, write an essay about what class mobility means to you, and how you think class consciousness influences your writing (if it does).

Tuesday’s Health

The American Philosophical Society’s 1888 “Proceedings… [for] Promoting Useful Knowledge”, from which I got this wedding rhyme, also contains some fascinating folk medicine. Write a story, poem, or essay inspired by one of these pieces of wisdom (page 163), or another old wives’ tale:

• “To cure a bite, use a hair of the dog that caused it: it is sometimes placed between two slices of buttered bread and eaten as a sandwich.” (This may be the origin of the phrase, ‘hair of the dog,’ to refer to alcohol curing a hangover!)
• “A potato carried in the trousers’ pocket will cure the rheumatism.” (Leopold Bloom carries a potato in James Joyce’s Ulysses !)
• “A young person ought not to sleep with an older one, as it robs the younger of its vitality.” (Not bad advice, really.)
• “A piece of rope with which a person has been hung will cure by its touch fits [seizures], epilepsy, etc.” (Morbid!)
• “Boys believe that by urinating on their limbs before going to swim they can be protected against the cramp.” (Sanitary!)
• “White spots in the nails indicate coming presents.” (Or, you know, vitamin deficiency.)
• “If the nose itches, it is a sign of danger, of seeing a fool, or kissing a stranger.” (Which one?!)

Wednesday, the Best Day of All

In my last set of prompts, I proposed writing about your “very best day” or imagining what a perfect day might be like. This week, I want you to write about your very worst day, in the vein of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

• This can be a true story or a work of fiction.
• If writing it in the form of a poem, try to make it rhyme… badly! Don’t be afraid to get silly!

Thursday’s Crosses

I struggled to come up with prompts that involve crosses and crossings, but here we go:

• Write about a character who must cross a dangerous obstacle, such as a river, a busy street, or a mountain pass.
• Write a legal drama where a character undergoes a rigorous cross-examination on the witness stand. Explore the tension, revelations, and impact of this intense questioning on the character’s credibility and the case.
• Write a story about a character who never ‘crosses their Ts’, literally or metaphorically.
• Write an essay or poem about what the symbol of the cross means to you (had to finally put this one out there!). Do you ever wear one? What do you think about when you see the Christian cross?

Friday’s Losses

To be more literal than last week’s prompts:

• Write about a character who loses a competition, sport, or game. Are they a good sport about it, or react poorly? Why did they want to win — was it important to them?
• Explore the story of a character who begins to lose their memories one by one. This could be a fictional story, a poem, or an essay inspired by real events, such as the mental decline of an elderly loved one.
• Write a fantasy story or epic poem about a character’s quest to recover a powerful artifact that has been lost to time. Explore the challenges, sacrifices, and emotional toll of the journey to reclaim what was once thought to be gone forever.

Saturday’s Luck

Do you have a lucky charm? What superstitions do you follow to bring good (or bad) luck?

• Write an essay or poem about something that brings you good luck.
• Write a story about a character who possesses an object believed to bring good luck. Explore the impact of this charm on their life, relationships, and decisions. How does their perception of luck change over time?

Random Words Sunday

Choose 5 or more of these 10 random words (you may use any form, including plurals, any tense, or changing to a noun/verb/adjective):

1. Fanciful
2. Indefinite
3. Heirloom
4. Critic
5. Sunhat
6. Joyous
7. Gala
8. Dilemma
9. Bespoke
10. Painted

Bonus Prompt — Write a ‘background’ poem, flash fiction (<500 words), or essay.

There you have it! Another week’s worth of prompts to tempt your muses. I look forward to reading your submissions, so make sure to tag me, Dr. Casey Lawrence, if you use one of these prompts!

Don’t forget, there are Writing Sparks available in the Monthly Theme from ADEOLA SHEEHY-ADEKALE, and all our previous prompts are still very much adoptable if you’re in need of inspiration.

Enjoying my content? Check out my first novel, Out of Order, available in eBook and paperback from JMS Books. Not looking to buy a book right now? Consider showing your support by buying me a coffee, and make sure to subscribe to my stories on Medium!