Writing Prompts & Exercises

How much creative work do you do in a day? When Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei was asked this question for the New York Times Style Magazine’s Artist’s Questionnaire series, he said, “My work is trying to break the boundary of what is normally called ‘creative.’ I avoid trying to be creative. I try to push myself into normal life and bring the integrity of a normal life into the so-called art world.” Take inspiration from the idea of breaking down these boundaries and consider all the different ways your creative identity potentially bleeds over into your daily tasks and vice versa. Write a personal essay that begins with an exploration of how your relationship to language, craft, or aesthetics has affected your general outlook. Then expand on how this artistic perspective manifests in your day-to-day habits, actions, and interactions.

Over the course of Rita Dove’s three-stanza prose poem “Prose in a Small Space,” the speaker meanders through a sequence of questions, observations, and digressions, periodically returning to the functionality of the prose poem form itself. “Prose likes to hear itself talk; prose is development and denouement, anticipation hovering near the canapés, lust rampant in the antipasta,” writes Dove. This week, forgo the options of line breaks and nonstandard grammar of more conventional poetry, and compose a series of short prose poems that take greater advantage of other poetry elements—rhythm, prosody, diction, pacing, and sensory details. Allow your prose to “hear itself talk,” develop, and conclude.

In Bye Bye I Love You: The Story of Our First and Last Words (The MIT Press, 2025), linguist and author Michael Erard examines the beginnings of language in infancy and the endings in aging and death from a range of angles: common and idiosyncratic utterances, perspectives on their importance, and the beliefs and practices underpinning first words and last words from different eras, cultures, and religions. Write a short story that revolves around either someone’s first or final words—perhaps a sentence, phrase, or fragment that could be interpreted in multiple ways or is somehow cryptic. How do the other characters respond? Are there disagreements about the significance or meaning of these words?

“There’s so much more to a book than just the reading; there is a sensuousness,” author and illustrator Maurice Sendak once said in a 1970 interview. Contrary to the growing demand of audiobooks and e-books, the tactile and tangible presence of a printed book is still regarded by antiquarian and rare book collectors, as well as bookstore lovers. Write a personal essay that examines your own book collecting philosophies, whether you dabble in digital editions or hold onto print books from certain periods of your life. As a reader and a writer, how do you perceive the value and enjoyment of a book as an object—the tactile delights, the smell, the sound of the pages, the craftsmanship, the wear and tear, the inscriptions found in used tomes? What does this say about your artistic pursuits and how they have evolved over time?

Australian author Gerald Murnane talks about being drawn to the “bewildering and at the same time satisfying feeling” of getting lost in familiar places in an interview in the Winter 2024 issue of the Paris Review. “I can very readily get myself lost in strange country towns or on back roads,” Murnane says, “knowing all the time where I am, that there’s no threat to my safety, that I can navigate myself home eventually.” Write a poem that explores the state of being lost, whether from a memory of a childhood incident, visiting a town, walking a new route, or perhaps from simply feeling lost in a chaotic or difficult situation. Amidst the bewilderment, are you able to find something you enjoy about being lost?

The phrase “for love nor money” is used when referring to an impossibility of persuading someone to do something, that they will not even do it for love or money. This week take inspiration from this idea of ineffective incentives and write a short story in which your main character insists there is something they would never do. Consider your character’s past and what has led them to this conviction. What happens if the circumstances shift for your character and love or money hangs in the balance? Do they hold true to their stance and resist all temptation?

In “Eat, Memory,” an essay published by Harper’s Magazine in 2017, author David Wong Louie, who passed away a year after its publication, wrote about his experiences enduring years of treatment for throat cancer. Radiation, chemotherapy, a gastrostomy feeding tube, and laryngectomy surgery all affected his lifelong love for eating food and drinking, and he discovered how his memories of time spent with family and friends were deeply tied to communal dining. Write a lyric essay composed of short vignettes of memories you have that are tied to food—whether preparing and cooking meals, celebrating while eating out at a restaurant, buying produce at the market, or recalling phases of favorite snacks shared with friends. Taken together, how do these memories reveal a larger portrait of how you’ve enjoyed or been nourished by time spent around food?

In a recent video, Maggie Millner, Yale Review senior editor and author of Couplets: A Love Story (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023), speaks about her favorite love poems, including June Jordan’s short poem “Resolution #1,003,” which she says “illustrates the way that love between two people can inspire a politics, a kind of political vision.” Spend some time thinking about the relationships in your life and who might inspire in you a sort of political vision. Write a poem that captures how to “love who loves me” and “stay indifferent to indifference,” as Jordan writes in her poem. How might the circumstances, breadth, and boundaries of your adoration for someone be political?

“I don’t like you, but I love you / Seems that I’m always thinking of you” begins the 1962 hit song “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me,” written by Smokey Robinson and performed by The Miracles. What does the speaker mean by this seemingly contradictory sentiment of loving, but not liking? Write a short story in which the narrative revolves around a character who feels similarly—loving, but not liking another character. It may be a childhood friend with a deep, lifelong bond whom the protagonist is on the outs with or a romantic interest who isn’t measuring up in some way. Depending on the story’s point of view, you might experiment with inner monologue, dialogue, or pay close attention to the physical communication between your characters to gesture toward the emotions at play.

Written around 2000 BCE in ancient Mesopotamia, “The Love Song of Shu-Sin” holds the record as the oldest known love poem. Forty centuries later, love poetry continues to be written, in times of joy and sorrow, for all different types of occasions in as many different styles as there are writers. Choose a favorite love poem and spend some time considering the people and things you’ve loved. Write a personal essay that reflects on the elements of the poem that most deeply resonate with you, whether it be the diction, imagery, or sentiments expressed. In what ways does this poem remind you of meaningful relationships in your life? How do these words reflect a message about love?

Edges of Ailey is an immersive exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art centered around the twentieth-century choreographer, dancer, and artist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. The show spotlights multimedia presentations of Ailey’s work, recorded footage, notebooks and drawings, as well as works that inspired Ailey and have been inspired by him in the forms of literature, music, and visual art. Write a poem centered on movements of the body, whether a creative motion like a dance move or the everyday, repetitive motion of carrying out a task. Allow yourself the freedom to experiment with page space—choosing different sizes or styles of script, incorporating small drawings or cutouts—to create a collage-like piece.

“Det finnes ikke dårlig vær, bare dårlige klær” is a rhyming proverb in Norwegian that means there’s no bad weather, just bad clothing. This sentiment points not just to a high value of functional comfort, but to the cultural importance of time spent outdoors—especially in a country whose inland regions see considerably cold temperatures and snowfall. Write a short story in which the main action is set in motion by a discrepancy between a character’s choice of clothing and the weather, such as light clothing on a frigid day, too many layers that prove to be too hot, or delicate clothing that encounters splattered mud or dust storms. What are the circumstances that lead your character to don an inappropriate ensemble? Consider what the initial decision, the response, and the ultimate conclusion reveal about your character’s personality and motivations.

Mati Diop’s 2024 hybrid documentary, Dahomey, chronicles the repatriation of twenty-six cultural treasures—including sculptures and a throne plundered during France’s colonial rule over the Kingdom of Dahomey—following them from the Musée du quai Branly in Paris back to the present-day Republic of Benin. Diop intersperses her footage with poetic voice-over narration representing the sentiments of a statue of a king, and uses cameras placed in the perspective of the looted artifacts while they’re in transit, the screen going dark when the crates are sealed and shipped. Think of an artwork, artifact, or other personally significant object that, due to its location in time or geography, has existed during a tumultuous period. Write a lyrical essay that gives the item voice and expression, using imaginative language to animate the inanimate with the capability of experience or witnessing.

Ariel Francisco’s poem “On the Shore of Lake Atitlán, Apparently I Ruined Breakfast,” published in the Academy of American Poets’ Poet-a-Day series, recounts a puckish remark which derails the upbeat mood of a meal with the speaker’s mother and aunt. Commenting about the poem, Francisco acknowledges his teenage immaturity returning to him as an adult on this trip to Guatemala, his mother’s homeland. “This poem tries to capture what I often do in real life: upend a beautiful moment with something flippant,” he says. This week write a poem that attempts to capture a tendency you have, perhaps one that you’ve been self-critical about in your life. Francisco’s poem strikes a lighthearted tone throughout, which you might decide to mirror, or you could magnify your behavior’s ultimate consequences for a dramatically darker note that turns unexpectedly bright.

In the film Nightbitch, an adaptation of Rachel Yoder’s 2021 novel of the same name directed by Marielle Heller, a new mother contends with the growing feeling of being trapped in domestic caretaking, having left her job and put aside her pursuits as a visual artist in order to stay at home and take care of her small toddler. With her husband away for work, the repetitiveness, exhaustion, and difficulties of motherhood take a surreal turn, as her instincts begin to manifest in canine form. Write a short story that begins similarly with the acknowledgment of an element of horror in something very mundane and common, perhaps an aspect of a relationship, a job, or milestone that isn’t often depicted in gory detail or a negative light. You might find that adding a touch of fantasy or dark comedy will help illuminate your perspective.

In a recent New York Times article about New Year’s resolutions, Holly Burns describes the value of creating resolutions that are connected to other people. Burns cites Stephanie Harrison, author of New Happy: Getting Happiness Right in a World That’s Got It Wrong (TarcherPerigee, 2024), who says: “Our society has treated happiness as a highly individualistic pursuit—the idea being that it’s something that you make for yourself, that you get for yourself, and you do it all alone,” and yet, research shows that interpersonal relationships contribute to a significant portion of people’s happiness. Inspired by the idea of creating resolutions for the year (or beyond) that involve spending time with others, write a personal essay that reflects on times when you have discovered joy when helping or being helped by another person, perhaps unexpectedly. How might you incorporate this into future habits?

Just last month, the bald eagle officially became the national bird of the United States, signed into law by President Biden. Though its official status is new, the bald eagle has long served as an emblem of the country, depicted on the Great Seal and on coins and bills for much of the twentieth century—a symbol of strength, courage, freedom, and independence. Many U.S. states use reptiles, amphibians, insects, fish, and even dinosaurs as their symbols. This week research and consider the various animal emblems and symbols in your midst and choose one to write a poem that draws a personal connection to the animal’s symbolic meaning, whether real or imagined. As you triangulate a relationship between yourself, an animal symbol, and a physical location in this way, explore any unexpected thematic directions within your poem.

The dreaded rejection letter, whether from a job application or a beloved literary journal, is often met with mixed feelings of inadequacy and disappointment. Something you worked hard on, had high hopes for, or saw a future in just didn’t pan out. Instead of imagining the receiving end, take the initiative to write a rejection letter to one of your characters. Consider the circumstance for the letter, if it’s professional or personal, and how well the writer knows the addressee. Is there room to infuse some humor or will you use this as an opportunity to write the letter you’ve always wished was sent to you? Write with truth and intent.

These cold and dark winter months, coupled with holiday get-togethers catching up with old friends and spending time with family, make for a good time to revisit cozy, old favorites: beloved books and movies enjoyed on repeat that bring back memories. But how do these nostalgic works hold up? As cultural norms, perspectives, and language evolve around us, what once seemed hilarious, edgy, insightful, shocking, or relevant may no longer seem that way. Revisit a favorite childhood book or film, or simply one that you’ve encountered many times, and write an essay that reflects on how the work has, or has not, held up. Include any sociocultural norms that have evolved and the parts of you that have changed to offer a new perspective.

In Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume, a septology whose first two books translated from the Danish by Barbara J. Haveland were published in November by New Directions, the protagonist is an antiquarian bookseller residing with her husband in France, who suddenly begins reliving the same day over and over again—a mysterious and seemingly endless predicament that creates a spectrum of conflicts in her life. Write a poem that imagines this Groundhog Day premise. Choose a particular day in your life that’s significant to you, and then write into the possibilities and quandaries that arise as the same day, and same actions, recur endlessly. In your imagination, what transpires when you know exactly what will happen each day while everyone else around you repeats their steps? How can you play with replicating the repetition in verse form?

Anthropomorphism refers to the behavior of projecting human attributes onto nonhuman animals and objects, while anthropodenial is a term that refers to an assumption of human exceptionalism and is a blindness to the humanlike characteristics of other animals. This week write a short story that includes both an incident of anthropomorphism and an incident of anthropodenial. You might decide to have one character whose perspective swings from one tendency to the other; or two characters who discover they have oppositional beliefs. Over the course of the story, is there a middle ground to be reached? How does someone’s beliefs about the differences between human and nonhuman animals connect to other aspects of their personality?

The act of presidential pardons is in the news again, and not just for pardoning Thanksgiving turkeys. Public interest in this presidential power granted by the U.S. Constitution, and inspired by an early English law granting kings “the prerogative of mercy,” has peaked due to the sitting president’s recent decision to pardon his son. If you had the power to pardon someone you love for their offenses, would you? Write a personal essay revolving around this thought experiment, reflecting on your own ideas about forgiveness, punishment, and justice. Choose someone you have had a close relationship with at some point in your life as the subject of your pardon, and feel free to openly interpret what constitutes an offense. Imagine how this act of mercy and power could transform both of your lives.

For nearly three decades, from the early 1980s until 2013, Dr. Jonathan Zizmor’s skincare ads for his dermatology practice were a mainstay in New York City subway cars, touting treatments for various skin problems and displaying the doctor’s own slightly smiling visage. A 2016 New York Times article noting his retirement stated: “To know Dr. Zizmor is to know the city’s secret handshake, to appreciate its quirkier, more pedestrian pleasures that natives claim as their own.” What’s hyperlocal to where you live? Brainstorm some ideas of things that might qualify as local lore, your city’s secret handshake—perhaps some idiosyncratic window displays or advertisements, a distinctive element of the urban landscape, a quirk of the natural environment, or public street art. Write an ode to one of these items, to commemorate and share its pedestrian pleasures.

Restaurants in Dhaka have begun serving human meat in the world of Bangladeshi author Mojaffor Hossain’s short story “Meet Human Meat,” translated from the Bengali by Mohammad Shafiqul Islam. The characters in the story discuss this new trend with matter-of-factness, talking about logistics like supply and demand, how it’s advertised on menus, where the humans are sourced, the various modes of preparation, and dish accompaniments. Hossain uses this satirical conceit to touch upon larger topics, such as the Rohingya refugee crisis with restaurants serving “the meat of Rohingyas.” Write a short story that hinges on an outrageous idea, using it as a conceit for larger themes you’re interested in exploring. You may find that setting your story in a universe in which something taboo is commonplace and unremarkable will allow you some unexpected creative freedom.