Sep 14, 2022
Write a “Bad” Poem
When you try to be “good” it doesn’t always work, but something fascinating happens when you try to be “bad.”
When you try to be “good” it doesn’t always work, but something fascinating happens when you try to be “bad.”
Take a deep dive into your obsession with this poetry prompt from Luther Hughes.
We build memories from these narratives. Classes instructor Jenessa Abrams wants you to try changing your story with this two-part writing prompt.
Speculative fiction is fueled by curiosity and questions. Try your hand at starting a new work (or building on something you’ve already started) with this exercise from classes instructor Tara Campbell.
A story changes depending on who’s doing the telling. Try a different version of a scene in your short story or novel to learn about your characters.
Choose a scene you’re working on in your novel and consider what that scene might look like from the perspective of someone else in the room.
This exercise is meant to let you use a part of your identity as a perspective, rather than just a subject that you’re putting under pressure and scrutiny.
What nuggets of life are you sharing that need poems? Write the poem about how your cat won’t leave you alone with help from this prompt by Lillian-Yvonne Bertram.
Whether you write fiction, nonfiction, or poetry, this writing exercise from Aatif Rashid will help you write lyrical sentences rich with sensory detail.
One way to consider the essay is as a way to capture, study, and release back into the world a question or story that preoccupies you.
The oracle part sounds mysterious, but it just means drawing cards from a shuffled deck and treating the results as an answer key for generating new writing.
Learn how to devise a rough concept for a magical realist story with this prompt from classes instructor Jessica Reidy.
Thwart your own impulses toward one genre or another with this generative writing exercise from Ben Purkert.
Try out Atom Evie Atkinson’s speculative artist’s statement, developed to help her students pivot from past educations to a utopian future of their own design.
Sanjena Sathian thinks the most interesting writing material comes from locating mystery in our own lives. Try out this writing exercise to write into that mystery.
Storytelling is like the TARDIS in ‘Doctor Who’—the narrower and more specific we get on the outside, the bigger it gets on the inside.
Poems and stories are only two sorts of lies, but they’re the ones Steven Duong tells most often. Try out his writing exercise to generate new work.
There’s comedic gold all around you—if you know how to mine it. Check out this writing prompt used by Catapult instructor Caitlin Kunkel in one of her classes!
When I’m feeling stuck and lonely, I try to remember that I’m in conversation with the world—that I am alive in it and it is alive through me.
Simon Han shares an exercise to help make your sentences stronger and more surprising during the revision process.
