Words are magical. Let’s make something spectacular today.
Below you will find five sets of words. Choose one word from each group, and write a sentence using all those words. Look at the lists carefully. Let ambiguity work for you.
You may reorder the words however you like. Include as many additional words as you need. Experiment with sentence structure. Make punctuation do some heavy lifting.
While it’s fun to create nonsensical sentences sometimes, you should aim to write a brilliant and, well, magical sentence with this prompt.
Group 1
scale
scoop
plant
address
excuse
Group 2
groan
champion
fly
squeak
fool
Group 3
upstage
jam
highlight
bandage
flesh
Group 4
frame
notice
number
produce
report
Group 5
study
type
tower
wave
label
Prompt #22 – Challenge:
Opening with the sentence you have just crafted, write a narrative of at least 500 words.
In literature, we associate wind with seasons and change. Wind stirs up, brings in, and carries away. Ponder those three actions for a moment.
Write 100-200 words about a time in your life when change came and stirred things up.
Write 100-200 words about a time when change brought something new.
Write 100-200 words about a time when change carried away something.
Prompt #21 – Challenge:
Write a poem of 3-5 stanzas that explores the three actions of winds you contemplated above. Use diction and imagery that craft a mood authentic to what you felt in each season.
Wallpaper. It’s the background to everything that happens in a room. Sometimes it is so muted that no one notices. Other times, it’s so loud that it drowns out everything else.
Good designers coordinate everything that goes into the room with the wallpaper. Harmony abounds. Bad designers ignore it altogether so that sometimes the wallpaper and the objects in the room clash, creating the visual equivalent of cacophony.
Think about your life. What is the wallpaper? What do you have going on in the background? Take a few moments to write a visual description of how the wallpaper looks in the entryway of your life right now. This space represents the part of you that people see when they first meet you. What are the colors? Patterns? Images?
Add details about the objects you’ve collected, the things you give time and space. To what extent do they harmonize or clash with the things you do?
For this part of the prompt, stick to sensory descriptions––sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures.
Prompt #20 – Challenge
Let’s go deeper. Explain the meaning behind the wallpaper and the objects that adorn your life’s entryway.
Why those colors, textures, designs, and objects? What is their significance? Is there obvious meaning in these things, or is their nature hidden? Why?
It’s the busy season for college applications. Between coaching grad school and undergrad applicants on their essays, updating workshop materials, and taking a little time to enjoy the family, ALHQ has been MIA.
But we’re back now. And here is a quick update.
Thanks to the delta variant, workshops are all virtual now. If you are interested in attending an online overview workshop, please contact me at alwayslearninghq@gmail.com.
An unexpectedly high number of applicants to grad school and competitive undergrad majors are seeking help with their essays, so I am booked for individual coaching through September 1, 2021.
I am scheduling individual coaching for students who have applications due mid-October, starting September 6, 2021. If you would like to work with me, I would love to help you. The back-and-forth of editing and revising a personal essay and supplemental essays for 2-3 specific schools usually takes 2-3 weeks. Please keep this timeframe in mind as you request coaching.
Unfortunately, if you request individual coaching less than a week before your application deadline, I will not be able to help you polish your essay, but I can possibly give you quick feedback. Send me an email, and we’ll see if we can make it work.
The ALHQ blog is back next Monday with a post on the best college essay brainstorming videos on YouTube.
(Wait… didn’t you post that we shouldn’t watch YouTube videos when writing our essays? Yes. Yes, we did, but that post was about watching videos of OTHER students’ essays. These videos are workshop videos you can use to generate top-notch essay ideas.)
On Wednesdays We Write returns on September 1, 2021. We are SO excited. So if you’re a classroom teacher in search of bellringers, journaling topics, or à la carte writing assignments, join us next week. If you’re a student or professional looking for writing inspiration and opportunity, come back on the first. We’ve got a fresh batch of prompts waiting for you.
“On Wednesdays We Write” will be on hiatus for the summer. Whew! It’s been a year.
The plan for this series is to write a total of 40 prompt and challenge prompt sets that teachers, students, and writers can use to generate creative ideas and stand-alone works.
Ultimately, these prompts will become a year-long writing unit for teachers to integrate as it fits their curriculum. We will publish this content as a booklet, complete with rubrics for each primary prompt, challenge, and super challenge. In addition, we will make available downloadable slide presentations for ease of using these prompts in the classroom, uploading them to an LMS, or incorporating them into remote instruction.
While we finish writing the next 21 prompts, the content on Always Learning HQ will shift to focus on personal statements and admissions essays. It’s that time of year again, and word on the street is that with a record number of colleges and universities choosing to be SAT/ACT-optional, essays will be even more important.
We also hope to drop some teaching resources that address style and mechanics and maybe even some helpful exercises for emerging literary analysis writers.
We’ll be back on September 1 with new prompts for “On Wednesdays We Write.” Have a restful summer!
Here are two stacks of blank index cards. Let’s say each one contains ten cards. For the pile on the left, write one thing per card that you are grateful to have done so far this year. For the stack on the right, write one thing per card that you hope to do by the end of the year.
Prompt #19 – Challenge:
Choose one card from each pile to develop more fully. Use both narrative and descriptive elements as you reflect on the past and dream about the future.
Share your reflection or dream in the comments.
Not sure what’s going on with these “On Wednesdays We Write” prompts? Click here to find out.
You’ve got 90 days to make it happen. What new thing do you want to see come into your life in the next three months? Is it a skill? Knowledge? Possession? Relationship? Experience?
Make a list of all the new things you’d like to explore in the next quarter. How many can you identify?
Choose one of the items on your list and explore in writing what it is, how you imagine it will impact your life, and what your action steps will be for making it happen.
Again, you have only 90 days, so get going with the groundwork, and make your life sparkle.
Prompt #18 Challenge:
Write a poetic tribute to the new thing you will pursue in the coming months. It can be as lofty as an ode, as basic as a limerick, or as unfettered as free verse.
Not sure what’s going on with these “On Wednesdays We Write” prompts? Click here to find out.
What in your sphere is old? Think about the people, places, possessions, events, experiences, emotions, and attitudes that characterize your slice of the pie we call life.
Which of these has been around for a while? Are they still here because they are classics? Are they around because you don’t like change? Anything outdated? Unneeded? Unwanted? What does old look like in your life?
Identify something from each category above, and write a short paragraph about the history of each in your world.
Prompt #17 Challenge:
Title a document with the name of one of the elements you selected for the main prompt.
Divide your writing space into two columns.
In the left column, write why you should keep this old thing. In the right column, make a case for letting it go.
Prompt #17 Super Challenge:
Choose one of the following titles: “Growth: A Case for Moving On” or “Growth: A Case for Holding On.”
Write a fully developed work on one old thing in your life that reflects the title you have chosen. In this piece, explain the history, the case for moving on or holding on, and how you anticipate personal growth will manifest as a result.
Not sure what’s going on with these “On Wednesdays We Write” prompts? Click here to find out.
Describe this photo. Include elements of color, size, shape, and pattern. What visual “textures” are present? What is happening with light? How does the light enable and enhance all the visual elements? Capture with your words a description so vivid that an artist could paint the scene.
Prompt #16 Challenge:
Journal about the associations you have with the image in this photograph. They might be psychological or emotional, real-life or imagined. What does it make you think? How does it make you feel?
Not sure what’s going on with these “On Wednesdays We Write” prompts? Click here to find out.
Select one of the pairs of images above and describe how someone would perceive each photo subject using the sense of touch. Texture, movement, and temperature work together to give dimension to physical sensations. Try to include all three in your descriptions.
Prompt #15 Challenge:
Write a brief narrative that brings together both elements in the pair you chose. Incorporate the tactile descriptions you wrote in the first part of this exercise.
Not sure what’s going on with these “On Wednesdays We Write” prompts? Click here to find out.
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