Writing Prompts – scenarios and starting phrases
| “I don’t know what frightens me more, the power that crushes us, or our endless ability to endure it.” – Gregory David Roberts (Shantaram) |
| You wake up one morning and find that you aren’t in your bed; you aren’t even in your room. You’re in the middle of a giant maze. A sign is hanging from the ivy: “You have one hour. Don’t touch the walls.” |
| Grab the book, magazine, or newspaper nearest you and open up to a random page. Start your story with the first line at the top of the page and end your story with the last line at the bottom of the page. |
| Go to Google Images and do a search for “old Victoria BC photos.” Browse through them until something catches your eye. Construct a story that goes with the photo you are referencing. |
| Perception is reality. |
| “No dress rehearsal; this is our life.” (Tragically Hip) |
| “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” (Carl Jung) |
Writing Prompts – What if….?
| What if Germany had developed the atomic bomb before the US? |
| What if Superman was a bad guy? |
| What if we could all suddenly read each others’ thoughts? All of them. |
| What if someone could detect the feeling/emotions of others with perfect accuracy? |
| What if we found a way to produce clean energy through nuclear fusion and no longer needed to extract fossil fuels? (economy, social impact, politics, environment, employment) |
| What if the US invaded Canada, occupying it so it could access its natural resources? |
| What if the Internet was broken permanently? What would be affected? What would we do? (MIGHT ALSO READ: The Machine Stops (E.M. Forster, 1909 – short story) |
| What if Europe had never colonized North or South America? |
Heavy-Duty Essay Starters
| Alice falls down the rabbit hole. Milo drives through the tollbooth. Dorothy is swept up in the tornado. Neo takes the red pill. Don’t tell us about another world you’ve imagined, heard about, or created. Rather, tell us about its portal. |
| In French, there is no difference between “conscience” and “consciousness.” In Japanese, there is a single word that specifically refers to the splittable wooden chopsticks you get at restaurants. The German word “fremdschämen” encapsulates the feeling you get when you’re embarrassed on behalf of someone else. All of these require explanation in order to properly communicate their meaning, and are, to varying degrees, untranslatable. Choose a word, explain what it means, and then talk about why it cannot (or should not) be translated from its original language. |
| How did the art patronage system work during the Renaissance? |
| Why was the generation following World War I known as the “Lost Generation”? (You might want to read All Quiet on the Western Front to enrich your thoughts on this topic. Or perhaps compare the lost generation of WW1 with that of the Vietnam War for Americans.) |
| Compare the Salem Witch Trials era to another historical period in which there existed hysteria inspired by fear and paranoia. Consider events such as The Red Scare of the 1950’s, Soviet spy paranoia in the 1960’s, the Great Fear in France in the late 1700’s, the Loudon Possessions in 1632, the McCarthy hearings in the US… |
| Impostors play a significant role throughout Russian history. Characterize the effect of imposture on Russia. |
| Explore the similarities, if any exist, between the reasons for the decline of the Roman Empire and the decline (or predicted decline) of any other empire. |
| Examine the nature of post-Apartheid squatter settlements in South Africa. |
| Outline the events that shaped the Chinese occupation of Tibet and highlight some of the social, religious, political, and/or economic effects. |