Whether you want to write sporadically, a little each day, or pursue your magnus opus, I invite you to join me in the Shortest Month Writing Challenge 2020. During February I will provide a writing prompt every day to help you achieve whatever your writing aim.

 

The prompts can be used to write a piece of flash fiction or poem each day, resulting in 29 flash stories or poems by the end of the month. By the very laws of writing, these can’t all be bad, indeed some will be good and some excellent! Or you could write a sentence. Or string together two or three at a time to come up with a story or poem. Or dip in and out as and when you feel the need for inspiration. And if you are working on a longer piece, the prompts can be used as an anchor for your next chapter or scene. The choice is yours – the more inventive, the more exciting.

 

I will list the daily prompts here and post them on the Creativity, Inspiration & Muses Facebook group (please ask to join if you’d like to be a member). Feel free to comment on your progress and highs (and lows!) on the Facebook group.

 

I leave you with the quote I always return to with my writing:

 

“Write a little every day, without hope, without despair.” Isak Dinesen/Karen Blixen

 

Good luck and, most importantly, enjoy!

Shortest Month Writing Challenge. Whether you wrote every day, sporadically, or just thought creative thoughts about the prompts during February, you are to congratulate yourself. The prompts will remain on my website for the foreseeable, so if you started late, keep going! I have heard from so many of you - a piece a day, one long piece, incorporating the prompts into a novel - from around the country and the world. However you approached the challenge,  congratulations and respect.

 

Please feel free to share your experiences in my Facebook group Creativity, Inspiration & Muses    If you're not already a member, please ask to join and I'll sign you up.

 

 

Feb 29th - Write to the following ending -   ... there came a cheer and a deluge of applause.

Feb 28th - Write a piece which includes a chipped mug and a rabbit.

Feb 27th - 'I want you to do a little favour for me, if you don't mind.'

Feb 26th - Picture

Feb 25th - 'On the line.'

Feb 24th - Write an acrostic poem or prose - see exercise below.

Think of an emotion or state of mind, e.g confused, angry, resigned. You can now do one of two things:

a. Write the letters down the side of a page and write an acrostic poem, one where each line starts with the given letter and the whole poem conveys the feeling.

Or

b. Write a paragraph of prose where each sentence starts with the next letter of the word and again the whole paragraph conveys the feeling.

Example of b. ANGRY - Again, that name! Never had he heard Corinna mentioned so frequently. Great, and now his mother was at it too. Really, they could all shut up. Yes, silence, the lot of you!

 

Feb 23rd - Write a piece where a lie is told to protect someone else.

Feb 22nd - A character who walks with an uneven step.

Feb 21st - A person sees a photo of themself in a place they have no memory of.

Feb 20th - 'Never would have I believed that...'

Feb 19th - With everything in the room to choose from, why had she chosen the...?

Feb 18th - Up hill.

Feb 17th - 'He looks so different in the photograph,' he said.

Feb 16th - The lantern

Feb 15th - Write a piece where a character quotes from a fictional book.

Feb 14th - Valentine's Day special! - Write a piece where two people are in love without using the words 'love', 'adore', or similar.

Feb 13th - Write a piece including the words - maximum, mosquito, marble.

Feb 12th - Write a piece that takes place at a party.

Feb 11th - Use the following setting - A lake surrounded by mountains covered in snow.

Feb 10th - Write a piece including the word 'bucket'.

Feb 9th - Write a piece inspired by this picture - The Card Players by Paul Cezanne

Feb 8th - Who gives a damn about the milk?

Feb 7th - Write a piece with this line of dialogue - 'George! George McCarthy. Hey! How you doing?'

Feb 6th - 10 things you should never ...   - complete the title as you like.

Feb 5th - Write a piece in the form of a letter or letters, or a text exchange.

Feb 4th - Write a piece including a pet with a peculiar name.

Feb 3rd - Write a piece inspired by this photo.

 

Feb 2nd - She/He Woke in the night with the cold.

Feb 1st - Write a piece set on a stage.