How’s your writing year going so far? Extremely fucking well I hope! My plan for what writing I’d like to get done this year has been shifted around and re-drafted in the past few days, as I found myself experiencing a stronger pull to the projects I wanted to work on in the second half of the year than the ones I’d planned for this first half.
Not so long ago, I would have been rigid in my thought processes, dead set on sticking with the plan that had already been committed to paper. But in 2021, I’m giving myself permission to change my mind. And it feels so good! I’ve never felt freer as a writer than I do now.
The prompts below can be used in any way you wish. Though I’m using as stepping stones into short stories and poems. If you do end up using one, or several, it would be a joy and a privilege to read what you’ve conjured. So feel free to drop me a line and a link to where I can read your work. If you do garner something from these prompts and would like to see more, or have suggestions for other writerly posts, please do let me know in the comments.
Wyrd Creative Writing Prompts
- Winter has always been the season of the wolf.
- Then there was silence.
- The ice is singing, can you hear it?
- I don’t know you anymore.
- Grandmother, what are you thinking about?
- The seasons pass, then pass again.
- Let us outwit time.
- When I was a wolf.
- I am not going to die tonight.
- The North is calling my name.
- Write about being the first one up on a midwinter morning.
- Write from the perspective of an animal going to slaughter.
- Write about being lost in the woods.
- Write about roadkill.
- Write about someone you love dying and the universe’s indifference.
- Write about a child understanding for the first time where meat comes from.
- Write about a dead person looking back at a day in their life.
- Write from the perspective of a Huldra.
- Write from the perspective of a hermit.
- Write about a vampire celebrating their 1,000th birthday.
What I Was Listening To While Writing This Post
Celebrating the strange and the shadowy, the damned and unseen 
So I’ve been thinking about the wolf and wolves, and I wrote and posted something about it and them and winter. The link for this is https://wordpress.com/post/clcouch123.wordpress.com/8549. I don’t know much about pingbacks, but I think this citing links my post and yours in a way. At my post, I gave the link for your post and your blog. I enjoy thinking figuratively about winter. Your prompt made that even better. I hope you are really well. Thanks for inciting writing.
I have just read your piece…it is staggeringly powerful! I loved it! š I am extremely happy right now, thank you!
I’m glad you approve. I probably used up what little I know about wolves, but they deserve to be appreciated for what and who they are. That you’re happy is an honor for me to feel.
[…] is a response to a prompt: https://wyrdwordsandeffigies.wordpress.com/2021/01/17/write-yourself-awake-wyrd-creative-writing-pro…. Katie writes fantastically about winter and folklore, self-awareness and the growth of […]
So far my writing year is going… slowly and rather gingerly, as I try to ease my way back into trying to write just a tiny bit more, and more regularly (focusing on using a creative writing book for ideas/exercises at the mo). As long as I manage more than last year, where other than notes I achieved maybe three paragraphs of actual fiction… š Thank you for these writing prompts. I think I can sense some ideas simmering in response to some of them, and that is what I need. š
Thank you also for the post you did on climate change writing prompts. It’s upsetting but thought-provoking and extremely important, and I am going to take a careful look at them.
Slowly and gingerly is absolutely fine! ā¤ And it's a brilliant idea to use a creative writing book for ideas. One of my favourite creative writing books is Writing The Bright Moment by Roselle Angwin. Creative Writing by Linda Anderson is also excellent. It makes me so damn happy that these writing prompts have set some ideas simmering in your mind…I'm smiling about it right now! And I'm also glad that you're going to work with the prompts on climate change. It makes putting up these posts so worthwhile. x
Thank you for telling me about the Roselle Angwin book, I hadn’t heard of that before and am going to look it up! Funnily enough, the exact book I’m currently using for ideas and exercises is called ‘Creative Writing’ and is by, or at least edited by, Linda Anderson – it’s a whacking great thing with a red cover. I wonder if it’s the one you mentioned. š
Yes!!!! That is the one! š It’s brilliant, isn’t it! Let me know what you think of Roselle Angwin. It has been a few years since I read that book, and I’ve been meaning to return to it. x
For the goodness and freedom that you feel, I’m happy you gave yourself permission.
The prompts are appealing. I shall work from them and let you know how it goes.