Writing Activities

November 2025

• Writing prompt: Think about a fun thing that’s happened this camp. Now imagine that this was a real writing retreat camp instead of a virtual one, and you were here with everyone in person. Rewrite the fun incident as if it had happened in real life, and post it in the story hollow for everyone to enjoy!
  
• Tell me the story behind this post card. “Dear Friend, I reached home safe but I am feeling very lonely and miss you so much. Look for _____ soon. Pleasant dreams be yours.” That is all I can read from it. What is the word that I can’t decipher? What is the story behind the post card. Tell me more!
  
• A new kid named Spalding Smith moves into the neighborhood. What happens next?
  
• We need more thankful characters, so today’s challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to make a character thankful or grateful for something. Or write a new short story or scene with a thankful/grateful character. Leave a comment in a thread and tell me what they are thankful for.
  
• Today’s prompt comes from the song: “Be Thou My Vision.”
  
  Option 1: Incorporate the lyrics of the song below into a writing project you’re currently working on. Is it a new song for your characters? One that they associate with a childhood memory? Or maybe they struggle to believe the message? Feel free to use more verses than just the one I included.
  “Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
  Naught be all else to me save that thou art.
  Thou my best thought by day and by night;
  Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.”
  
  Option 2: If your book predates this song or it doesn’t exist in the world of your story, find a way to incorporate the theme of the song into your story.
  
• A bag of marbles—an antique teapot—three rubber bands—and a very irate babysitter!
  What do all four have in common? That’s up to you! Today’s motivational challenge is to get all four into the same story. Double points if you get them all into the same scene! 
  
• Write a story or a scene with a character and a setting that seem not to belong together. What is your character doing there? What happens next?
  
• Today’s prompt comes from a song: “Home Sweet Home.”
  
  Option 1: Incorporate the lyrics of the song below into a writing project that you’re currently working on. Is it sad for your characters because they have had to leave their home? Does it bring cozy, warm memories to mind of the home where they grew up? Or does it make them envious of those who had such a home?
  
  “Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam
  Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home
  A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there
  Which seek thro’ the world, is ne’er met elsewhere
  Home! Home!
  Sweet, sweet home!
  There’s no place like home
  There’s no place like home!
  An exile from home splendor dazzles in vain
  Oh give me my lowly thatched cottage again
  The birds singing gaily that came at my call
  And gave me the peace of mind dearer than all
  Home, home, sweet, sweet home
  There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home!”
  
  Option 2: If your book predates this song or it doesn’t exist in the world of your story, find a way to incorporate the theme of home into your story.
  
• The object of today’s prompt is to add a beloved childhood toy to your story, or write a scene with a favorite childhood toy in it. This could be
  ~ A little girl with her favorite doll
  ~ A small boy with his favorite truck in his pocket
  ~ A teen girl and her favorite stuffed animal on her bed
  ~ A teen boy who hides his special stuffed dog in his drawer with his socks
  ~ An adult who finds a childhood toy and it brings back memories
  
  March 2026
  
• Add a bouquet of flowers to your story. Does your character see them? Pick them? Receive them as a gift? Give them to someone they care about? What kind of flowers are they?
  
• Write a story or a scene where two characters don’t speak a word to each other. Why aren’t they talking? What can we learn from their silence?
  
• Scene Challenge
  –Lavender
  -Taupe
  -Rose
  -Violet
  -Lemon
  -Chartreuse
  Can you get them all in the same scene?
  
• Setting: A restaurant
  Characters: Three or more
  Conflict: An unresolved issue having nothing to do with the meal
  
• Your characters are at a party, and someone discovers an unusual item on the food table. What is it, and what do they do with it?
  
• Who needs plot bunnies?  I found a stash of them!  Can you use any of these??
  – A character named Maximus
  – An orphaned alpaca
  – A long hill with a flat tire
  – A sister named Faye
  – An abandoned farmhouse from 1830
  – An arrow
  – An egg with no trace of a bird to leave it
  – An avocado
  – An argument over shoes
  – A town named Lost
  – A lost gift card
  – A letter from someone dead
  – A cousin no one likes
  
• Write a paragraph or two describing a colour without ever using the name of the colour or anything commonly recognized as being that colour.
  
• Blend bright and dark colors in a single scene. What does the contrast show? How can you use it to further the plot, deepen the characters, or highlight the theme?
  
• Figure out a way to shake things up for your characters! Is it a literal earthquake, some bad news, something they weren’t expecting, or something they’ve been waiting for for a long time that they thought would never happen?
  
  Bonus: Show how your character’s life being shaken reveals what’s truly important to them.
  
• Plot bunny batch! 
  
  – A significant stone or rock
  – A cow named Petunia
  – A garden that doesn’t want to grow
  – A person named Marguerite
  – A new house
  – A flat tire
  – Two nephews
  – “How am I supposed to bake spaghetti like this?”
  
• Add a cold drink to your story or write a short story or scene that includes a cold drink. What is the drink? Who is drinking it? What is the weather like?
  
• Describe a concert from the perspective of a character who has never heard music. How would this affect your description of it?
  
• Add a dog, cat, or kitten to your writing.
  
• Write about your favourite childhood memory from the perspective of a child, not an adult.
  
• Take one (or more) of the prompts below and write a story of no more than 100 words. (You can expand on it later if you want, but for purposes of this challenge, you must keep it to 100 words or fewer.)
  – A teddy bear
  – A tired mom
  – A travel hub of some kind (train station, airport, etc.)
  – “Do you need help?”
  
• Pick a random State. Find the words to that state’s song. Take a line or phrase from that song and use it in your WIP or in a short story. Have fun!
  
• “There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
  There are thousands to prophesy failure;
  There are thousands to point out to you one by one,
  The dangers that wait to assail you.
  But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
  Just take off your coat and go to it;
  Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing
  That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.”
  
  How can the sentiment of that verse be translated into a story or scene or even a character’s development arc?
  
• Take a key dialogue scene from your book and write it in three different settings (examples: indoor/outdoor, standing/sitting/walking, vary the weather, put them in a vehicle/carriage or on horseback, have them doing different chores or work projects). Try to write all three as vividly as possible. See how the shift in setting changes the mood (and maybe even the content!) of your scene.
  
• Plot bunnies!!
  
  – a man named Alfred
  – a sister named Eve
  – a repentant felon
  – a Bichon puppy
  – two brothers
  – Matilda
  – Jack
  – snow skis
  – a hut with no window
  – a hot continent
  – apple pie
  
• What Does Your Shadow Do While You’re Sleeping?