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young writers

7 Creative Writing Prompts for a New Year

Melinda Tognini January 7, 2020 No Comments
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It’s a new year, and potentially a new decade, depending on your definition of when one begins and ends. My hope for you is that you’re able to kick creative year off to a good start, especially for those of you on school holidays and with time to spare.

However, I am also aware that life sometimes makes that difficult, such as the loss of a loved one, or the occurance of catastrophic events such as the current bush fires in Australia. If that’s you, then I hope you can extend some grace to yourself at this time. If you’re like me, though, and it’s simply your own procrastination in your way, then I hope these prompts will help you to simply begin.

1. Random words

Use the following random words in a piece of creative work, whether that be a poem, story or piece of artwork:

  • new
  • annual
  • kookaburra
  • hope
  • tea

2. Images

Create a piece of work prompted by this image:

Image is of a person standing on a wooden jetty looking out over a lake at sunset
[Image by enriquelopezgarre from Pixabay.]

3. A Line from Poetry

“If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse’s feet,
don’t go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street.”

Write the story of a character who doesn’t listen to this piece of ‘advice’. What happens next?? (This line of poetry comes from ‘A Smuggler’s Song’ by Rudyard Kipling).

4. Observation

Head out and sit in a place where there are other people. Create a list of brief descriptions of the people you observe. Choose two or three, and make up a reason they are here: Where did they come from, and why have they arrived here? Is it to meet someone? For work? For fun? Just passing through?

5. Objects

Select an object that is important to you. Write the biography of that object: how did you come to have it? Who gave it to you? Why is it important to you? Where do you normally keep it? What memories do you have that includes that object?

6. Lists

Create a list of places you’ve lived or visited. Be specific. It could be somewhere on the other side of the country, or the world, but it could easily be the park at the end of your street, or the BMX track you helped make as a kid, or the set of a school play you’ve involved in. Select one as the setting for a story, whether that be fiction or non fiction. Alternatively represent that setting in a piece of music or art work.

7. Current Reads

Pick up the current book you’re reading. Turn to page 42. Select the sixth sentence. Use this sentence as the beginning of a new story. Alternatively, include it in a poem, song or piece of artwork.

Over to You

Now it’s up to you: just begin.

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Previous MAD Kids #1: Emilie on Saving Dogs and Sharing the Dignity
Next 7 Tasks for Memoirists and Family Historians to Kick Start the Year
Melinda Tognini

story-gatherer & mentor

Related Posts
Creative Prompts for Young (and not so young) Writers January 5, 2021
Creative Writing Prompts: Stories of Childhood November 2, 2020
Writing Prompts: Living Histories August 25, 2020

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  • Latest Comments

    Thanks, Davida!
    In 6 Degrees of Separation: From No Friend But the Mountains to Hero on a Bicycle
    Ha Ha - great pun!
    In 6 Degrees of Separation: From No Friend But the Mountains to Hero on a Bicycle
    Hi Margaret, the book by Shirley Hughes would probably be classified as young adult, so it's a fairly easy read, but it was still interesting. Another one (aimed at an adult audience but still fiction) is An Italian Affair by Caroline Montague.
    In 6 Degrees of Separation: From No Friend But the Mountains to Hero on a Bicycle

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    • 6 Degrees of Separation: From Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret to The Muddleheaded Wombat
    • 6 Degrees of Separation: From No Friend But the Mountains to Hero on a Bicycle
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    • Six Degrees of Separation: From The Turn of the Screw to No Friend but the Mountains

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