Image:  “Crystal Cave” used with permission of the artist, Geoff Stearn, via Creative Commons.  Some rights reserved.

Definition:  A writing prompt is like a nudge.  It is a way to get your creative mind going by giving you an idea to explore.  It is like going into a cave.  You know where you go in, but you don’t know where you will go inside.  Let these writing prompts be like exploring a cave.  Begin your writing with the prompt, but let the writing take you wherever it wants to go.

Writing prompts:

• Every Sunday we…
• It changed my life.
• His toes were curled around it.
• It shot straight up out of the water
• When I looked out the window…
• It sat on the top shelf.
• When the door opened…
• It’s under my socks in the back of the closet.
• She lifted her magic wand and…
• The three words were…
• Every time this happens…
• I opened the closet and…
• The first time this happened…
• This is my first memory of it.
• Over the hill, I could barely see…
• I should have listened.
• I didn’t mean to.
• After the party…
• I could see through the crack…
• Even though I said it…
• It was too close!

Teachers and parents:  Check back often as I will add new prompts.  Feel free to use and distribute this material with the following attribution: The Young Writer’s Idea Box,  (c) d. ellis phelps, 2016.  Submit your student’s finished work here for publication via the “contact us” link.  Happy writing!

d. ellis phelps is the author of Making Room for George, Moon Shadow Sanctuary Press, 2016.  Her first full length manuscript of poetry, what holds her,  is under submission.