After reading a good story, you can follow these three easy steps to turn your story questions into writing prompts. See 5 sample prompts based on the fairy tale ‘The Golden Dress,’ to help you on your writing way!
Birthdays & Birthstones Poetry Prompt—The Tempest as Fairy Tale
Explore Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” and write a fairy tale poem about a royal birth where magic is afoot and things aren’t what they seem.
Birthdays & Birthstones Poetry Prompt: Celebration
Join us as we write about celebrating birthdays, and consider how the formal aspects of our poems add emotional resonance to personal observations.
Birthdays & Birthstones Poetry Prompt: Hidden Riches
A chunk of quartz crystal caught my eye. Inside the quartz were ribbons of tourmaline, October’s birthstone. What is the hidden gem in your writing?
Birthdays & Birthstones Poetry Prompt: A Rossetti List Poem
Come write poetry inspired by Christina Rossetti’s list poem “The Months” and see if you like how she describes your birthday month.
A Publishing Opportunity for Our Patrons
This National Poetry Month, we’re going to combine our 30 Days of poem-making with another organization’s effort: The Drawdown EcoChallenge. Here’s how to participate—and maybe get published.
Form It: Little Lamb Poetry Prompt
“Form It” is a poetry prompt that focuses on exploring our topic through form poetry. The prompt includes recommendations for each form’s best use! This time, we’re going to “form” a little lamb. 🙂
Poetry Prompt: Misunderstood Lion
When you think of lions, do you think of affection? Come learn about the surprising ways of lions and write a roaring good poem.
30 Days, 30 Poems Challenge—For National Poetry Month!
With three ways to take the 30 Days Challenge for National Poetry Month, it’s simple and fun. Choose one, or mix it up. Then tell the community what you’re doing, and share your poem-ing along the way.
Animate: Lions & Lambs Poetry Prompt
This week’s poetry prompt asks you to become two fabled mammals at odds— lions & lambs. Whether a powerful, shaggy maned lion or a gentle, nursery-rhyme worthy lamb. Join us, animate yourself, and create poetry.
Poetry Prompt: Behind the Velvet Rope
This week we find ourselves on either side of a legendary barrier and consider its significance. Join the line with us as we create poetry about the velvet rope.
Poetry Prompt: Quiet as Velvet
Learn about poet Elinor Wylie’s brief but soap-opera-worthy life, and read one of her most well-known poems. Then glean inspiration from her style and create your own quiet-as-velvet poem.
Form It: Satin Bow Poetry Prompt
“Form It” is a poetry prompt that focuses on exploring our topic through form poetry. The prompt includes recommendations for each form’s best use! This time, we’re going to “form” a satin bow. 🙂
Animate: Satin & Velvet Poetry Prompt
This week’s poetry prompt asks you to imagine yourself as soft, luxurious satin or velvet. Join us, animate yourself into the hopes, dreams, and potential of these sumptuous fabrics and create poetry.
Poetry Prompt: A Bridge to Life
Bridges can be grand in scale or an unassuming link from one place to the next. Many of us have a favorite. Come read a bridge poem by Marianne Moore and share your own “bridge to life” poems.
By Hand: Pruning as Craeft
By Hand is a monthly prompt focused on freeing our words by using our hands. This month, we’re exploring pruning as craeft with Megan Willome as our guide.
Poetry Prompt: A Tunnel to the Underworld
In Greek mythology, Persephone was snatched from the world she knew and taken to the underworld to become the wife of Hades. Come tunnel your way to the underworld with us, in poetry.
Teach It: How Do They Tell a Story? First, You Listen
Literacy specialist Callie Feyen says the best way to help children write is first to listen.