Writing Prompts

Sometimes we just need a little prompting.
Years ago I started gathering phrases, words, scenarios, ideas and anything else I thought might serve as a writing prompt someday. Some are images I wanted to flesh out, underscores I wanted to illustrate, plots I wanted to unfold or words I wanted a character to use. If you're looking for a place to start, hopefully one of these will help. Take what you want and add what you like...
  • We don't know how or why, but this is what we've got. So, for now, we're doing it.
  • To find out the marvelous things only we dead know.
  • Innocent grace
  • Like mournful doves
  • I'm so weed free, I'm like a well-tended garden.
  • The forever moment
  • A withered gate, where a willow tree stood, bent and withered.
  • Life is a sweet and happy tragedy.
  • A piece of my life fell off today.
  • Lilac-laden skies.
  • Art begins where imitation ends (Wilde)
  • A spoon and a sarong.
  • The Wounded City
  • The City of Orphans
  • The soundtrack to my life
  • A flat earth
  • A direct ancestor headed up the building of the Tower of Babel. My family has always been trying to reach Heaven; I figure they've all got it wrong so far.
  • A bottled message from a man on a floating island.
  • Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the king, I tell you. (Lewis)
  • Praise and folly
  • Rebels in Utopia
  • There are billions of people in the world, and they're all looking for each other.
  • The thing about a Sunday...
  • Rain baptism
  • Poetry is for the weak.
  • How could I love this place? It always hated me.
  • God could just give you a boat, but no! You're going to cross the sea on dry land.
  • Wishing within reason
  • Letters and legends to which your story lends?
  • A voice like a cold wind.
  • Job: Enter the devil.
  • All these little dramas are being played out under the guise of normality.
  • You know, once you've gotten to know me better, you're going to want new friends.
  • Me and my basement.
  • "No, it might happen. Rather easily. The problem is the dream's not big enough." (Norman Maine, A Star is Born)
  • You've got everything you want! Why aren't you happy?
  • The love letter of 1902
  • The Royal Exchange, Manchester.
  • Food? No. Weaned myself off the stuff years ago.
  • Life would be easier if you didn't want great things.
  • Hope is immortal
  • Reason! I'd almost given up on you.
  • What do you like in your coffee? -Whiskey. Or cream and sugar, whatever you've got.
  •  Life isn't something you can live on.
  •  And the rain came down-- common grace and saving grace.
  • Some place where there isn't any trouble....It's not a place you can get to by a boat or a train. It's far, far away, behind the moon, beyond the rain... (Dorothy, The Wizard of Oz)
  • That's the ideal, and I'm not it.
  • The disappointment of reality.
  • Good Friday. The world in mourning, cloaked in black. 
  • The female lead, leaving the set.
  • Swam ashore, man, like a duck!
  • Each tombstone has a story saying for example, goodnight sweet prince and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. -- You killed him. -- I didn't say what kind of angels. 
  • Coffee Drama: Asleep on the couch. "Excuse me, you're getting blood on the floor and...I need a refill. Thanks."
  • In a magician's jacket. "I've got a tissue!" And on and on and on...
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