Warmth and much light can make our plant friends happy. They can also help us feel stronger and more confident to reach out in new directions. For this week’s creative prompts, the theme is growth. Take a few minutes, or more, to consider the ripe passage of time and write it out—or art it out, whatever your medium may be. There aren’t many rules. Just pick a topic that makes your brain hum, don’t overthink anything, and let your imagination guide you. Work for five minutes or ten minutes, or for as long as your ideas keep flowing.
- Bring photosynthetic processes into your writing or art piece, even if green really has nothing to do with it.
- Create a piece in honor of gardens. Compose small sections of prose or poetry based on a sketch you make of a plot where 4 or more distinct things have been planted, are growing. Each section should have its own style and flavor but need not refer specifically to food or flowers.
- The word ripeness has a multitude of definitions, including a legal one. Focus on one or two and compose.
- Imagine plant-and-animal hybrids. Make a list of names and characteristics, or create a scene or stanza in which one of these entities plays a pivotal part.
- Write a memory, or scene, taking place in a garden, in a greenhouse, or on a farm.
- Consider the effects of UV light on indoor herb gardens. What would UV light do to your writing process? Alternatively, what naturally makes you break into blossom?
- Grasshoppers, neglect, toxic soil, or drought. Write about an element that stunts or halts growth, whether literal or metaphorical.
- Compose a scene in which flowers or other plants grow out of controland create chaos (or unexpected joy).
- Think of a fruit or vegetable that generates an evocative sensory memory for you when eaten at the peak of its seasonal ripeness. Write about it.
- Have you ever marked a wall to measure changes in height? Or put Xs on a calendar to mark progress? Consider a system you’ve used to track growth and let it inspire new writing.
If you’d like some extra inspiration, check out one of our earlier prompts lists. They’re here.
Like what you’ve written? Put it away for a week, then revisit and when it’s ready to go, submit. If you have feedback, or ideas for prompts, please get in touch.
[Photograph by Submittable team member Kelly Hart]