Non-Fiction Prompt #17

 •  February 20

Like Prompt #11, this exercise requires you to consider an unexpected antagonist: your own body. There are countless memoirs about illness, so many...

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Non-Fiction Prompt #16

 •  February 17

Here's a prompt to make use of any post-Valentine's Day ruminating. The New York Times recently began releasing the podcast version of their Modern...

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Non-Fiction Prompt #15

 •  February 15

The November 15, 2015 episode of radio show This American Life told several stories around the theme of "Status Updates." Their episode synopsis...

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Non-Fiction Prompt #14

 •  January 22

Write about a time you were out of your element, a fish out of water. The "fish out of water" story is a classic one, with potential for tension,...

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Non-Fiction Prompt #13

 •  January 19

A favourite movie of mine is that 1998 Gwyneth Paltrow flick, Sliding Doors. The narrator runs to catch a subway train. In one version of her life,...

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Non-Fiction Prompt #12

 •  January 18

Recall an incident from your childhood and write about it, limiting your narration to the child's perspective, or the "Voice of Innocence." In...

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Non-Fiction Prompt #11

 •  January 15

There are four basic different kinds of conflict: Man against man Man against self Man against society Man against nature (or...

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Non-Fiction Prompt #10

 •  January 13

Making the Familiar Unfamiliar:  A challenge in creative writing is to use a variety of descriptive techniques to depict ordinary scenes and...

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Non-Fiction Prompt #9

 •  January 12

Write a scene of a personal experience that risks painting you in a negative light. For example, you could write about a time you bullied somebody,...

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Non-Fiction Prompt #8

 •  January 11

This prompt is adapted from an exercise in Brian Kitelely's 3 AM Epiphany. The original prompt, titled "Déjà Vu," asks the writer to write a...

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