Writer's Journey

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Writing Prompt: The Journey to Each Other

July 22, 2026

As academic and/or creative writers, we need to strengthen our skills daily. Often we have projects with deadlines that we need meet, so those writing assignments become our priority. When we only focus on one style of writing, however, our work can become predictable and dull. We stop growing as writers. In order to grow, we need challenges that push us to think outside of our normal patterns. Here's a writing prompt to help you challenge yourself a bit: Write a scene at least 400 words long (longer if possible) that highlights the thoughts of two characters. One character is on a train coming to meet the other character. Both characters' thoughts need to be shared with the reader. You can define how these characters know each other (friends, family, classmates, peers through work or a project). You can also define their relationship with the tone of their thoughts: are they angry with each other, in love, trying to forgive each other, starting life together, about t...

Writing Prompt: Flying Fish and Finished Stories

July 13, 2026

This writing exercise can be an interesting challenge for writers who need to have a little creative fun or for students hoping to hone their writing skills. The more we write, the better writers we become. Writing can be fun! Not every student agrees because sometimes we create stress for students by introducing them to academic writing before we teach them to write creatively. We ask them to write academic paragraphs that have perfect grammar and spelling on the first draft. Any mistakes bring down their grade. Instead, build writing skills with fun writing exercises that can be edited the next day (or the next week) without any negativity associated with the editing process. Even professional writers never produce a perfect first draft. Here’s a fun exercise: Finish this sentence: One day, fifty flying fish_________________________________. Now use that sentence as the start of a short story that must be at least two paragraphs long (or six sentences for younger stu...

Finish the Sentence (And Keep Writing)

July 10, 2026

Looking for some fun writing exercises to boost your creativity or enjoy with your kids? Here's a fun writing prompt to sharpen your writing skills and strengthen your creativity. Finish the following sentences and then keep writing. Use each prompt as the first sentence in a paragraph (at least five sentences long). You can keep the story going with several paragraphs if you're having fun. Each writing prompt should start a new paragraph/story. The ___________________ ate all of the _______________I had in my kitchen. The yellow ____________________ scared me when I saw it. The airplane carrying_________________ flew to ______________. When I opened the door, I smelled the _____________________ my Mom was cooking.

Summer Island Writing Prompt

July 09, 2026

The more we write, the better writers we become. That's what I tell all of my students. Sometimes we need a break from our writing projects required for school or for our career. Writing prompts can help us refresh our creativity while honing our writing skills. For a fun activity, try this writing prompt: Write at least a 500-word story that uses this information: You (or your character) have to live on an island for one entire summer with just one friend. You can’t leave the island until the summer is over, and you won’t have any visitors. You will be the lighthouse operator. The owner of the lighthouse will ship over three months’ worth of food. What food would you have shipped over that is easy to cook? What would you plant in the garden that you could eat? What eight items (besides clothes) would you take with you? You have to do something productive and also something fun each day. What would you do to stay busy?

Show, Don't Tell

July 08, 2026

You often hear writing coaches tell students to use the "show, don't tell" technique when writing. This technique means to let the readers experience an emotion or visualize a setting with descriptive wording rather than just a blunt information dump. When we walk into a cold room, we might wrap our arms around ourselves or grab a sweater. If we have a warm drink such as hot cocoa or coffee, we might wrap both hands around the cup to get our fingers warm. Describing those actions draws the reader into our story more than saying, "It was cold in the room." Readers can picture the actions of trying to get warm. Nothing particular comes to mind with just writing that it was cold. There's nothing to visualize for the reader. Writing Prompt: Use dialogue or descriptive language to show the readers what is happening instead of telling them. Example: He was cold. (telling) He stepped out and felt the bitter wind hit his cheeks. He immediately stepped back in and ...

Grammar Guide: When to Use a Comma

July 07, 2026

Nothing gets us in trouble more as a writer than misusing punctuation. A misplaced comma can change the meaning of what we are saying. To help you understand the basic rules, I am going to keep the sample sentences very basic. First rule: Any part of a sentence that can be deleted without changing the basic meaning of the sentence should have commas before and after that word, clause, or phrase. Example: Oslo, who is my smallest dog, is learning how to sit. Identify the core sentence: Oslo is learning how to sit. The fact that he is my smallest dog is a clause that can be deleted without changing that core sentence. This additional information is just a bonus for the reader. The clause needs to be separated by commas. If the wording being removed changes the meaning of the sentence, no commas are needed. Example: Dogs who are afraid of water wouldn’t like to swim in my lake. No commas should be put around who are afraid of water because that is key to the sentence. Without t...

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