For this week’s creative prompts, the focus is family, in the broadest sense: family of origin, family of choice, family of frustration and misunderstanding and station wagons and forgiveness. Animals, plants. Family. Take a few minutes, or more, to write it out—or art it out, whatever your medium may be.
Here are just a few ground rules to help you along: Don’t waste too much time picking from the prompts (although we know they’re all amazing), just choose the first one that strikes your fancy and get to work. Set a kitchen timer if you want to add the pressure of a ticking clock or make sure to get in a certain amount of creative time–but know that you can go over time if you’re still inspired.
- Imagine a conversation wherein your great-great-great-grandchildren are being told about you. What would you like them to know? And what details do you hope to have been expunged from the family record by that time?
- Write about your oldest living family member. Associate them with an animal.
- Write about your youngest living family member. Associate them with a plant or flower.
- If you’ve ever had your ancestral DNA analyzed, did you find something that surprised you? If so, what did you discover, and why was it a surprise? Embrace the surprise. If you haven’t had this done, invent your results.
- Think about a fictional family from literature, screen, or any other artistic realm. Imagine yourself a part of that family, and write a dinnertime scene or prose poem.
- Write a fully invented word origin and history for your own last name or maiden name.
- Think about a time spent with a group of family to whom you weren’t blood related, but in whose company you felt a deep sense of connectedness and belonging.
- Use a personal family photo and endeavor to make it unfamiliar. If you did not know the person or people in it, what would you see?
- Use a ‘family photo’ from the internet—a cheesy stock photo, a famous family, an archival image. Write ekphrastically, or compose a letter to someone in the photo.
- Use two pieces of found text from very different sources—a couple lines or a paragraph from each. Bring them together somehow in a piece of writing. Marry them or make of them a family, even in conflict.
Did you miss earlier prompts lists? Here they are.
Like what you’ve written? Put it away for a week, then revisit, and revise, revise, revise. 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]