More Writing Ideas

Write something that begins: "I'm waiting for my mirror."

Imagine the secret, undiscovered life of the moon. Write the story of some of it.

Write about: a little black box; a sandbox; a cereal box.

Write about the three most dangerous things about shaking hands.

Think of something that you have recently purchased. Are you pleased with it? Or is it unsatisfying in some way? Write a letter to the store or manufacturer telling them what you think of their product. Make some solid suggestions about what might improve the product. Or detail the ways this product has been a wonderful addition to your life.

Pretend you are an old person or write about an old person you know, or imagine one.

Write about a plan you have for the distant or immediate future.

Describe a tree in the wind, a mechanical toy, or a cat seeing a movement in the grass.

Invent a monster and describe it. Tell where it lives, what it eats, how it passes time, and so on.

What causes hypocrisy in school? in sports? in families?

Visualize a place you really love, be there, see the details. Write about it. It could be a corner of your bedroom, a tree you sat under, a table at McDonald's, a place by a river. What colors, smells, sounds are there. What happens there?

Why should "People" be put on the endangered species list?

Write a minibiography or autobiography using single words only, no phrases or sentences. (Born. Empty. Birthday. Four. Vague. Birthday. Five. Clearer. House. Pond. Hill. Kindergarten. Rhythm Band. Sand...and so on.)

Write a story or poem that begins or ends with: "Our bodies contain about 9.5 pints of blood."

Write in different places - in a laundromat where you can pick up the rhythm of the washing machines. Write at busstops, in the cafeteria, in the gym during a game. Write what is going on around you or within you.

Write a story in which butterflies and pencils play an important role.

Write about a person who will not agree that "Wishing things away is not effective."

Write a letter for Amnesty International (an organization which is dedicated to protecting human rights throughout the world - one project is to write letters to governments that are torturing prisoners or holding them illegally) See Br. Tom for info.

Describe in detail a movement you have seen. For example, a kid walking down the street or a basketball player shooting a foul shot or a teacher turning around to write on the blackboard.

Write a short play with impossible character in a weird situation: biblical, comic strip, TV anchorpersons, school administrators, government officials.

Write about the most wonderful things that have happened to you in a doctor's office.

Write an inaugural address for the next president, or for anyone assuming any office or position (king of the hobos, mayor of nerdville, lord of the flies)

What do families from the moon do on weekends?

Write about leaving. Approach it any way you want. Write about your divorce, leaving the house this morning, a death, a loss.

Write about a homeless, hungry dog; country roads; or someone who is shy.

Do you agree or disagree that being a parent does not make one a parent?

What caused your last headache?

What uniforms or emblems have you worn in your life?

Write about covering for someone, a muddy road, or becoming 18.

Write about the night: a place at night, a moon dance, a nocturnal animal, or the dark night of someone's soul.

Write a defense of some person or action that was publicly criticized but which you approve of.

Write a letter that can't be delivered. Write to an object (a broken pen, a window, your shoes), a body part (your hair, your fingernails). Then have the thing write back.

At night at home alone, what do you believe is in your closet?

Walk through a graveyard meeting the people beneath the stones. Talk with them - or just listen.

What do you do that makes you different from most other people?

Describe one of these situations: going home, sticking together, a showdown, blocking the view, biting the dust, flying off the handle.

Aristotle said: "All paid employments absorb and degrade the mind." Do you agree or disagree? Explain by writing an essay or telling a story.

Write a sports story entitled "The Uninvited".

What makes you want to fire a shotgun at your television?

Are you a packrat? What kinds of things do you hoard? What do you do with these things?

Explain why it's always the old lady's fault.

Write a real or imaginary diary entry focusing on fear, hope or regret.

Have you ever been ditched by your friends? Have you ever ditched one of them? Tell the story.

If you were one inch tall, what are some things you would do that you can't do now?

If you had only one last message to leave to the handful of people who are most important to you, what would it be in 25 words or less?

Describe how to fish the old way, how ants fight, or how not to use the microwave.

Are the adults you know happy in their work? Describe and/or interview someone who is happy or dissatisfied with his/her work.

Why do some people think that it pays to be ignorant? Does it? Can it?

What is it that adults just don't get about being a kid or a teenager?

Tell the story of a time when you were very confused.

Write about a time when someone's encouragement taught you confidence.

What are the three most dangerous things about birthdays?

Describe the way you feel most of the time? Are you in charge of this feeling or does it seem to be in charge of you?

Think forward to your own middle and later adult years. What will you be like? Will you be able to accept your physical decline? How easy or difficult has this been for older adults you have known?

Argue for or against easy As in school.

Write a letter to a city's tourist and information bureau...or visit a city's official website. Plan a week's vacation there. Where will you stay? Where will you eat? How will you get there? What will it all cost? Etc.? OR tell the story of an imaginary visit to that place. Use lots of interesting detail.

What happens to you when you see a cop? Do you get an instant mini-heart attack? seethe with rage? roll over and beg? what?

Write a story or personal essay based on this quote: "Often the test of courage is not to die but to live."

How much privacy should teenagers have? How much do they need?

Will you become a parent? When? Why? Tell the story.

Write about a good friend who isn't a friend anymore.

Tell a story about a lesson from an expert, flirting, or getting cut.

Write about something you believed in once but don't believe in now.

An old man who could be your grandfather (or great-grandfather) is standing out in the sun. You see him look down into the gravel at his feet; then he looks up into the tangled branches of a tree. He pauses, then he notices you and says ____________. Continue the story.

Write about how to undo something or how to forget something.

Imagine that you are suddenly a stranger in your own life - no one knows you, but they talk about you. What do they seem to know about you? What could you tell them that they don't know?

A eulogy is a speech of praise for someone who has died. Write a eulogy for someone in your family, living or dead. Write a eulogy for yourself.

What bugs you about Madonna, Bill Cosby, Michael Jackson, or some other celebrity?

When you were a child, did you torture small animals and/or bugs? How do you feel about it now? Tell the story.

Write about a time when you defended what you loved.

Describe the perfect day. Use a zillion details. Make it a possible day - not a dream day.

What nasty tricks have you played on people? What nasty tricks have been played on you?

Write what a person finds in a note that has been crumpled up and thrown in the trash. Then tell the story of what it means.

What do you think about a married couple's choice not to have children? Don't write about this if all you can say is "I don't care; it's their decision."

Write about cages. Do you have any? What's in them? Are you in a cage? How can you tell? Is a cage a good thing? A bad thing?

Imagine that there are voices muttering or screaming or whispering or whining in your head. What are they saying?

Tell the story of a time when you learned something from your father or your mother.

Write about the streets of your city? Write about one street of your city.

Write a recipe for friendship, love, or healing a broken heart.

If you were suddenly changed into a nonhuman thing, what would it be? What would you do?

Try to write like "Weird Al". Pick a popular song and rewrite the lyrics to make fun of it.

Write an objective description of someone in this class as if you were preparing a WANTED poster to be hung in a public place.

Imagine the small world (its people and creatures) that exists inside your left shoe.

What would it mean to you if, some day, your marriage ended in divorce?

Write a warrior's code.

Try to explain why spectator sports are so popular in America.

Do sins really exist? How can you tell one way or the other?

Imagine and write a conversation between yourself and the sun as you wake up in the morning - or as it sets.

What did you do the last time money was burning a hole in your pocket?

What textures or noises make your skin crawl? Write a story or poem using one or as many as you can think of.

Is today's youth more screwed up than previous generations? In what ways will your children be screwed up?

Describe the interesting people you meet somewhere in particular.

Create a mythical character - not an all-powerful super-hero but an everyday spirit of the gas pump, parking lot, study hall, stinky locker, etc. Give this character some special abilities, but keep him/her/it connected to the earth and your realities. Make it a poem or a story. Write from the spirit's point of view. Or not.

Do you wish you were someone else? Who would you be? Why?

If your feet have imagination, how would you know? How would they show it? What about your fingers, your hair, your spine, your stomach?

Write about the three most fearsome things that face the United States,

Write a piece that begins: The old drunk at the table bent his head to answer his own question.

Write a poem in which maybe every line begins with the phrase "Don't they..." for example:

Don't they realize that I am a small gray bird?
Don't they ever save anything for tomorrow?
Don't they look like small birds huddled against the wind which is the indifference of the world?

Write a story entitled "A Dog's Devotion." This story could be for children or it could be a horror story, a mystery, a love story, or a ...

Have you ever had a psychic experience or seen a UFO?

What does pain do to a person's mind?

Write about the joys, frustrations, pains of using a computer.

Who do you think will be or should be the first female president of the U.S. or the first African American/Asian/Hispanic/Native American president? Explain.

Describe something close up and then far away.

Choose a specific section or statement from the school's student handbook, and argue with it. Why should it be changed or eliminated?

Choose the stupidest one of these writing ideas and explain why you hate it so much.

Write a found poem. Look around for some sentences or phrases that already exist: on a cereal box, newspaper, magazine textbook, etc. or something you have heard someone say. Write them down as if they were a poem.

Tell about a lonely boy, a robber, and a dog.

Take something you feel strongly about - positive or negative - and write about it as though you love it. Go as far as you can. Then write as if you hate it. Go as far as you can. Then write as if you have no feelings about it at all.

Of all the things you have done in your life, which is the one you would most like to undo? Which is the one that makes you happiest to remember?

Why have you lost all of your friends? Where will your new ones come from?

Write a story that illustrates the three most dangerous things about photographs.

Write about the way fat people are represented in the movies; compare this to the ways fat people are in real life.

When is nothing better than something?