Writing Prompts for your Future Use

If you're bored this summer, or if you ever need a writing prompt...these are short ones to get you going.  They're from the Austin Script Works annual 3-month writing marathon...the idea being, they give you a prompt every day for three months, and you're supposed to write on all of them.

1.  A crazed cell phone monologue - Jen Haley

2.  Someone can’t move - Sharon Sparlin

3.  The smell of bleach was ugly, but familiar - Leticia Rodriguez

4.  Two people in a room find a box - Caridad Svich

5.  Time begins to accelerate - John Walch

6.  When I wake up I want to see… - Julia Smith

7.  The cafeteria at your middle school. - Molly Rice

8.  Embrace that nothing is coming to you - Cheryl Parrish

9.  Something that makes you laugh. - Judith Rudakoff

10.  Follow one character gesture to the extreme - Sharon Sparlin

11. Write a play featuring one character wearing a full body neoprene wetsuit

12.  A scene about betrayal and cooking - Caridad Svich

13.  A mountain is not… - Julia Smith

14.  The queen of Spades - Jennifer Haley

15.  Wearing dark glasses while driving was a great place to cry - Leticia Rodriguez

16.  Things that live deep in the dirt - Molly Rice

17.  The environment becomes extremely hot or cold - John Walch

18.  Write a play where something about the internet is personified - Emily Cicchini

19.  A self portrait - Judith Rudakoff

20.  Sitting in silence.

21.  I’ve never told my best friend… - Julia Smith

22.  The last day of someone’s life - Caridad Svich

23.  30 seconds of synchronized movement - Jennifer Haley

24.  Someone can’t stop moving

25.  Write a sitcom with a violently apocalyptic ending - Molly Rice

26.  “Putting out the cigarette, he then gingerly picked it back up.” - Leticia Rodriguez

27. A pair of shoes or boots in a strange place - Judith Rudakoff

28.  Write a play about the color blue.

30.  A new haircut - Kristoffer Diaz

31.  Underneath a Bridge, there is… - Julia Smioth

32.  Write about letting go of something.

33.  Someone has just discovered they can literally walk on water - Dan Dietz.

34.  Your character looks out of an open window.  What do they see?  Caridad Svich

35.  The smell of hippies - Molly rice

36.  A discovery that leads to holding breath - Jennifer Haley

37.  Offstage explosions - John Walch

38.  Slow time down, then speed it up.

39. “The gang member’s son was dressed just like his dad.”

40. Write a scene that takes place in your favorite place in the world

41.  What time is it?

42.  Write a play based on a Leonard Cohen song.

43.  Write a play about someone who has just had surgery.

44.  Darkness.  then slowly light.  Figures emerge.  one of them asks a question.

45.  Falling is another word for…

46.  Write a play where one of the four elements is a character.

47.  Write a play with a duck.

48.  Write a play about someone who keeps losing their reflection.

49.  “Why didn’t you see the tree fall?  You were looking right at it.

50. The pungent odor of burning plastic.

51.  A case of food poisoning.

52.  The single thing that scares me most is…

53.  Write about a missed deadline

54.  Someone just broke something.

55.  Write about a glove on the stairs, and how it got there.

56.  Write about the worst piece of advice you ever followed.

57.  “There was a gash in the palm of his left hand.”

58.  Pretend you are a conspiracy theorist.

59.  Write about an unexpected shower.

60.  Write about home.  What is it?

61.  A character emerges from an unlikely place.

62.  A character apologizes…without using the words “sorry,” “apology,” or “fault.”