Daily Writing Prompts Excerpts from 642 Things to Write About By The San Francisco Writers’ Grotto

Formatting Your DWP’s O Each day, you’ll write: O The warm up number O The date the warm up was assigned O The full prompt, and O Your response O Your warm ups do NOT have to be on their own sheet of paper. At the bottom of each warm up, either draw a line or skip a line. The following day, write the next warm up under the line, on the same sheet of paper.

DWP #1 What can happen in a second?

DWP #2 A houseplant is dying. Tell it why it needs to live.

DWP #3 Write Facebook status updates for the year 2017.

DWP #4 You are an astronaut. Describe your perfect day.

DWP #5 Tell a story that begins with a ransom note.

DWP #6 Something you had that was stolen.

DWP #7 The long-lost roommate…

DWP #8 What a character holding a blue object is thinking right now…

DWP #9 You are a superhero. What powers do you have and how do you use them?

DWP #10 Tell a complete stranger about a beloved family tradition.

DWP #11 Pick a small object to be given one day to your great- grandchild. Write a letter to that child explaining why you have chosen this object.

DWP #12 Describe yourself in the third person—your physical appearance and personality— as though you were a character in a book.

DWP #13 Describe something you wanted badly and, once you got it, never used.

DWP #14 Describe an electronic device in the future that you won’t know how to operate.

DWP #15 A storm destroys your uncle’s shed and kills his six-year-old son. Describe the color of the sky right before the storm hit.

DWP #16 Write a story that is set in Argentina in 1932, in which a teacup plays a crucial role.

DWP #17 Describe the most recent moment when you couldn’t think of anything to say.

DWP #18 What can happen to you in high school that can alter the course of your life?

DWP #19 Put two people who hate each other in an elevator together for twelve hours. What happens?

DWP #20 A man jumps from the fortieth story of a building. As he’s passing the twenty-eighth floor, he hears a phone ring and regrets that he jumped. Why?

DWP #21 Write a recipe for disaster.

DWP #22 Tell the true story of a dramatic moment of your life, but weave in one secret and one lie.

DWP #23 How you feel about love these days…

DWP #24 If you had one week to live…

DWP #25 The next major medicine that will be invented and what will happen as a result of it.

DWP #26 Something you’ve always regretted saying…

DWP #27 The thoughts of the first man on earth to eat an oyster.

DWP #28 The time you were most terrified—your knees were knocking, your heart was racing, you could hardly stand to be in your own skin.

DWP #29 The difference between the first death you remember and the most recent one…

DWP #30 Your city one hundred years from now

DWP #31 Write a short story in which you are the villain.

DWP #32 A bad situation that turned out for the best…

DWP #33 Finding a bag of cash

DWP #34 Thoughts on your favorite pet’s personality

DWP #35 The worst thing that could happen

DWP #36 The best thing that could happen

DWP #37 A man giving a speech to a crowd of thousands is suddenly caught in a bold- faced lie.

DWP #38 Choose how you will die.

DWP #39 What would you be doing if you weren’t doing this?

DWP #40 Write, in ridiculous detail, directions on how to get to your house.

DWP #41 A useless love– a connection that doesn’t fit into the plans of anyone connected.

DWP #42 You are a medieval Greek deity, hoping to move up the ranks of Olympus. What are your powers, and how will you use them to impress Zeus and the others?

DWP #43 Share that embarrassing story your family always shares about you.

DWP #44 Pick a person, then ask yourself: what is the hardest choice this person has ever had to make? Write about it.

DWP #45 You just realized you lost something valuable in a nightclub (a necklace, a wallet, a phone). What happens next?

DWP #46 The best sandwich in the whole, wide world

DWP #47 Think of a difficult conversation you’ve had recently. Write here what you couldn’t say then.

DWP #48 Waiting

DWP #49 An estranged mother and son who haven’t seen or spoken to each other in more than twenty years meet in line at the post office in December, arms full of packages to be mailed. What do they say to each other?

DWP #50 Write a scene that begins: “it was the first time I killed a man.”

DWP #51 The president’s personal to-do list

DWP #52 Write a scene in which a person is leaving a restaurant with their spouse. As they leave the building, the person runs into a former lover. What words are exchanged or not exchanged? What is the body language between the characters saying?

DWP #53 Pick a country and imagine we’ve been at war with it for fourteen years. Write a love story set in this world.

DWP #54 Write from the perspective of a historical figure like Franklin Roosevelt, Marilyn Monroe, or Jack the Ripper.

DWP #55 A soldier is about to embark on a mission that she knows will kill her.

DWP #56 You’re having lunch with a friend. In the middle of the meal, your friend gets a phone call. Write down only their part of the conversation.

DWP #57 Start a story that begins with the line: “When I confronted him, he denied that he’d ever said it.”

DWP #58 A newly invented product that will change your life

DWP #59 What nobody ever said to you

DWP #60 A tree from the point of view of one of its leaves

DWP #61 Your bedroom from the point of view of a stranger forced to occupy it for a week

DWP #62