March 2023:

• Write a story in which you are hunting a leprechaun. How would you find him? What would your journey look like?

• This week’s prompt is to write about what you would like to see happen this March. What sort of change do you want to see this spring?

• Write an adventure story about the day you found a magical four-leafed clover.

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February 2023:

• Write a short story about what it would be like to repeat the same day again!

• Write a story about what the picture of those rose means to you. How does it make you feel? What does it make you think of?

• Since this week is #loveteaching week, what better way to celebrate teachers than writing about what makes teachers and teaching so wonderful?

• Write about a significant Mardi Gras memory that you have! If you don’t have a great memory, maybe write what Mardi Gras means to you.

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January 2023:

• Why is peace important?

• What has the past year taught you? What was the best lesson that you learned?

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November 2022: 

• Write about November 30th in your character’s life, and what memories they have of the November events that took place each year on this day. What has changed? What has remained the same?

• What about your family and friends are you most grateful for? Why?

• November 17th is Homemade Bread Day! Write directions for how you think a loaf of bread is made.

• November is National Novel Writing Month. If you were going to write a book this month, what would it be about?

 

October 2022: 

• Describe the silliest Halloween costume you can imagine.

• Write an acrostic poem spelling the word OCTOBER.

• Friday October 14th is National Desert Day! Share with us your favorite dessert by writing a step-by-step recipe for how to make it!

• The Southern Screen Festival 2022 Writing Competition submission deadline has been extended to October 18th! The theme for this year’s competition is “Celebration and the South.”

 

September 2022: 

• Write a poem or short story inspired by a recent dream you had.

• Start a story with someone breaking an awkward silence at a family dinner.

• Write a poetry piece inspired by Poet Laureate Mona Lisa Saloy's work

• What would you do if you found out you had the magic powers?

 

August 2022: 

• You're playing with a toy car when it comes alive and starts driving around by itself. It can only make car sounds, but you have a feeling it wants you to follow it.

 

July 2022: 

• July is National Anti-Boredom Month! What activities do you like to do when boredom strikes? Tell us all about them! Make a list or write a story of a boring day that turned into a fun adventure!

• We’re talking space travel! Write a story in which your character boards a spaceship bound for another galaxy. What are they hoping to find? Describe their journey and what they discover along the way!

• It's National French Fries Day! What are your favorite types of french fries? Where's your favorite place to get them from? Describe your favorite way to eat fries!

• Imagine that you have the ability to read minds. How would life change for you and everyone around you?

 

June 2022: 

• Think of some of the song lyrics you have misheard throughout the years. Pick your favorite, and use these misheard lyrics as the title of a new creative writing piece. Write a story, scene, or poem based on this title.

• If you could create your DREAM summer camp, what would it be like? How long would it last? What kind of activities would you do? What would make it a unique summer camp experience unlike anything we've ever seen?

• National Smile Power Day is celebrated on June 15th. A fun fact about smiling is that it can instantly make another person feel better about themselves, build their self-confidence, and also improve their self-esteem.

• What's your favorite cookie? Do you have a family recipe for it? Describe your favorite cookie for us, the baking process, and/or why you believe it's the best kind!

 

May 2022:

• Where do you like to go visit during the summer? Imagine you're packing your bag for a summer vacation. Where are you going and how are you getting there? What are you bringing along?

• Describe summer using each of your five senses. What does summer look like? Sound like? Taste like? Feel like? Smell like?

• Let’s show our appreciation by recognizing the influence our teachers have on our lives! Write about how a teacher positively impacted you this school year. Feel free to share it with family, friends, and especially that teacher!

 

April 2022:

• It's Tell a Story Day! Write a favorite story that you’ve heard, or write a new story of your own.

• Here's a poetry prompt from Christina Thatcher: Read ‘To You’ by Kenneth Koch. Write a love or anti-love poem which includes a murder. Read her other prompts by clicking here.

• NaPoWriMo.net: "Many of us had to write 'acrostic' poems in school. These are poems in which the first letter of each line spells a word as you go down the poem. For example, the first line of an acrostic poem that spells the word “ghost” would start with a word beginning with “g”; the second line would start with a word beginning with an “h,” and so on. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a variation of an acrostic poem. But rather than spelling out a word with the first letters of each line, I’d like you to write a poem that reproduces a phrase with the first words of each line. Perhaps you could write a poem in which the first words of each line, read together, reproduce a treasured line of poetry? You could even try using a newspaper headline or something from a magazine article."

• Listen to one of your favorite songs and write a poem directly after based on the feelings and emotions it brought about in you. Let music inspire poetry.

 

March 2022:

• Grab the closest book. Go to page 23. Write down 10 words that catch your eye. Use 7 of those words in a poem.

• Pretend that you have found a four-leaf clover that will bring you extraordinary good luck for exactly one day. Write about your lucky day!

• Look what we found over the weekend! What do you think is the story behind this photo? Hint: 1991

 

February 2022: 

• What’s the greatest advice you’ve ever been given? What if you lived solely according to it?

• What happens when you decide to wear your grouchy pants? Describe a day when you were grouchy. What made you so grumpy and how did you get in a better mood?

• Valentine’s Day is right around the corner! How will you (not) be celebrating? Why do you think that love is often associated with the heart, as opposed to other organs in the body?

• If you could travel back in time, where would you go? Tell us why!

• Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?

 

January 2022:

• If you could travel back in time, where would you go? Tell us why!

• You’re Caught Red-Handed! Write about being caught doing something embarrassing. Set the scene for us!

• Do you enjoy playing sports or other active games? Write about an extreme or silly sport. If none inspire you, make up the rules for your own game!

• We’ve got the creativity bug! It’s the new year; time to revamp your space! Write a poem or some phrases that would make for good wall art in your home!

 

December 2021: 

• There are just a few days left of 2021. Do you make New Year’s resolutions? Have you thought about what you want to accomplish in 2022 yet? Do you think it is important to make New Year’s resolutions?

• Christmas is just around the corner! Create a Top 10 list of your favorite Christmas activities. Your favorite should be #1!

• We are challenging you this week to open up a dictionary to a random word. Define what that word means to you.

• Get creative and let your imagination run wild: Envision a dragon. Do you battle him? Or is the dragon friendly? Use descriptive language to create your own dragon-themed narrative.

• It’s the holiday season, which means it’s also a season of giving and sharing your love for others! Though we have others in mind, it’s important to practice self-care and self-love too! So we want to know…What’s your favorite thing about yourself? What do you believe are your best qualities? Show yourself some love today!

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November 2021:

• Suppose you can invite one special person, living or dead, to share your family’s Thanksgiving dinner this year. Think about who you would invite, and then write down 10 questions you would like to ask this person.

• You have the opportunity to visit another country that you have never been to before. Which country will you choose? Why?

• November is National Novel Writing Month! Have you ever sat down and tried writing your own novel? Have you thought about writing one but haven’t yet gotten started? If you were to write a novel, what kind of story would you write?

• November 3rd, is National Sandwich Day! Write a paragraph describing your favorite type of sandwich. Tell us why it is your favorite!

 

October 2021: ​​

• Halloween is just around the corner! We’re back to a scary theme this week, but with a little twist! What is something scary that you would like to try? What makes it scary for you? How might you overcome that fear?

• We all have dreams and goals we want to reach in life. Have you thought about yours recently? Are you on the right path and doing all you can to achieve them? What does your dream life look like in five years? Describe that life in detail.

• October 20th, is the National Day on Writing! What are some of your favorite pieces of writing you’ve ever written? Why do you enjoy writing? #whyiwrite What are you going to write today to celebrate? Open up to a blank page and start slow! Write a poem, a journal entry, a story, a chapter of that novel you’ve been wanting to write, or even a well-crafted social media post! Use writing as an outlet to unleash your creativity!

• October 13th is the International Day for Failure! Yes, you read that right. It was an initiative developed by Finland college students back in 2010. The idea around the day is to spread the argument that making mistakes and failing is normal and is even an invaluable part of a person’s growth and eventual success. International Day for Failure encourages people to try new and daring things while motivating and inspiring others to succeed through sharing stories of successful people and their failures along the way.

• Tell us the story of a successful person you know that had many failures throughout their journey. Share a failure of your own. How did you respond? What did you learn from it?

• With it now being October, it’s officially Spooky Season! We challenge you to write a personal narrative this week. Think of a time you were truly frightened. What happened? Describe how you felt.

 

September 2021:

• September 30th is International Podcast Day. If you listen to podcasts, do you have a favorite? Why do you like it so much? How often do you listen to them? If you don’t listen to podcasts, create your own! What would it be called? What topics would you cover?

• This week’s writing prompt challenges you to reflect on how you respond when your mood changes. We would like you to imagine you are in a bad mood. Is it easy or hard for you to snap out of it? Why or why not? Give an example of how you were able to get out of a bad mood or tell a story of a time you were stuck in that mood and what might have helped you in that situation now looking back at it.

• This week’s writing prompt is about helping others. We would like you to describe a situation in which you helped someone else. Ask yourself: How did it made them feel? How did it make me feel?

• In what ways can you offer your help to someone else this week?

• This week’s writing prompt will help you in identifying how you think of yourself. We would like you to act as if you have to explain who you are to a stranger. How would that go? What are your likes, dislikes, strengths, or weaknesses? Take the time to reflect on what makes you, YOU.

• September 1st is World Letter Writing Day! With advances in technology, paper and pen letter writing is becoming less popular. Have you ever given or received a hand-written letter? This week, we challenge you to write a letter to anyone you’d like! It can be a family member, friend, teacher, celebrity, mentor, etc. The letter can be a love letter, one filled with anger, or even one simply written to create memories. You can chose to share it, or not. Just write!

 

August 2021:

• It’s the start of a new school year! What parts of school are you most excited for or upset about returning to? If you were to make a list of pros and cons for school, which column would be longer? This week, we challenge you to write down things you dislike about school and what you can do as a student to make them better.

• TED Talks have become a popular platform for experts to speak on different topics, such as education, business, or technology. If you were to give a TED Talk, what would it be about? This week, we challenge you to write your own TED Talk about a topic in which you are an expert!

• As summer is winding down, we invite you to write about your favorite summertime memory (it could be from this summer or from years past). What made that memory stand out to you? How did it make you feel at the time and how do you feel thinking about it now?

 

July 2021: 

• What are your top 5 books? Do you have a favorite movie you can watch time and time again and never tire of? What is your go-to book or movie recommendation? Write a recommendation of a book or movie for a friend. Why do you think they would enjoy it?

• Stories that have crazy twists are so exciting! Have you ever been so shocked by the direction an author went with their story. Today’s writing prompt is to write a story where a character discovers something surprising.

• July 14th is National Shark Awareness Day! Do you have any shark stories? Do you fear them? Did you know there is a bigger chance of being struck by lightening than experiencing a shark attack? What other known ocean creatures are you afraid of or fascinated by? 

• July 7th is Global Forgiveness Day. Do you have a story of forgiveness? Giving or receiving--Which is more difficult or meaningful for you to do? Do you hold grudges? Is forgiving someone hard for you to do? Have you ever had to be forgiven by someone else for your wrongdoing? 

 

June 2021:

• June 9th is National Donald Duck Day! Do you have a favorite Disney cartoon or movie character? What attributes do they have that makes them stick out to you in particular

• Improving the Blank Page, an NWP-A/GEAR UP Youth Writing Program was inspired by Nicanor Parra's poem, "Young Poets". Do you have an inspirational poem that continues to speak to you? A favorite poet? Tell us how poetry impacts you!

• Do you remember your dreams? Is there a particular one that is reoccurring? Turn one of your strangest dreams into a story.

• Did you play in parks and on playgrounds often as a child? Which was your favorite: the monkey bars or the slides? Tell us what would be in your dream playground!

• It's Pride Month! In an effort to promote inclusivity, how can you be an ally and activist in your community?

 

May 2021:

• May 26th is National Paper Airplane Day! Have you ever made your own? Write a story about your paper airplane’s greatest travels! 

• It's almost summer time! Do you have a favorite season? What about it makes it so enjoyable for you? Describe what it is like and what you like to do during that time of year!

• Write about your favorite pie or explain your recipe process! 

• Write a letter to a teacher who has changed the way you view your education and/or life. 

 

April 2021:

• It is National Pet Month! Your pet is in charge of you for a day. What will they make you do?

• Describe a mistake you made and what you learned from it.

• Write about a historical figure who you believe truly changed the world.

• What does your best spring/summer day look like?

 

March 2021:

• What is the difference between a privilege and a right?  Give examples of each.

• You get to be your favorite animal for a day. What do you do?

• It turns out time travel is possible, and you have access to a time machine. Where do you go and during what time period? Why?​