Day 23

What's their story?

Challenge: Tell the story in a series of poems. Rhyming isn't necessary.

Tip: Look outside of the picture. Stories are more than small squares that capture a single instant. They also have a past, a present, and a future that's bigger than the dimensions of a picture.

Ready. Set. Unravel.

Day 22

Pack your bags, book your flight, and travel. Go anywhere in the world that you've been, that you want to go, that you're making up. Write an adventure to somewhere other than the everyday setting.

Challenge: Write about going somewhere that's not normally thought of as exciting. Rather than traveling to a city, go to a suburb. Something along those lines.

Tip: Write what you know. If you know a certain section of NYC, write that. If you know a neighborhood in the suburbs of Paris, write that. If you want to step outside of that comfort zone, do some research so the setting becomes something you're familiar with.

Ready. Set. Travel.

Day 21

Fuck you.

Fill in the blanks and let out your feelings.

Challenge: Write with a tone other than bitterness or anger. Try something cheerful and chipper. Someone once said that swearing always has a negative connotation. I challenge you to disprove that statement.

Tip: Use your sentence structure to add to your piece. Shorter, choppy sentences help the piece feel quick like a racing mind while longer sentences give it a flowing, often rambling feel. Decide what you want your piece to sound and feel like and use your sentences to back that up.

Ready. Set. Rant.

Day 20

Recall a memory that makes you feel something - love, hate, anger, sadness - anything. Recount the tale.

Challenge: Write it as someone else's story, but keep all of the emotion in place.

Tip: If you find yourself rambling through your own stories but eloquently writing a fictional tale, write your story like it's fiction. It's really no different. There's a character, a setting, a plot. A story, whether it's fictional or not, is a story.

Ready. Set. Remember.

Day 19

Escape. Leave. Be anywhere but where you are.

Challenge: Write the piece like a scavenger hunt. Rather than coming out and blatantly saying what your setting is, give hints and don't reveal the location till the end.

Tip: Describe every detail when you're dealing with settings. The colors, the feeling, the smells, what it reminds you of. Every detail matters.

Ready. Set. Escape.

Day 18

"We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars." -Oscar Wilde

Challenge: Write like Oscar Wilde: witty, outrageous, and with a bit of satire.

Tip: Keep your point in mind. Decide what your writing about - the message you want to get across - and don't lose track or digress. If you're writing a short piece, you can simplify it to a word that sums up your point. Use it when necessary (don't overuse it) and stay on track.

Ready. Set. Oscar Wilde (which should most certainly be a verb).

Day 17

Write about something that makes you feel incomparably young. Maybe it's a song, a place, a memory - anything. Be young. Be timeless. Be infinite.

Challenge: Don't write in your normal location. Find somewhere new and possibly strange to write. In other words, don't move from the Starbucks up the street to the one two blocks away. Try writing on a park bench in a notebook or sitting on the floor with your laptop. Be adventurous.

Tip: Take inspiration from other works. For this prompt, Perks of Being a Wallflower, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, and The Art of Getting By  are three movies and/or books that have the feeling of youth. Don't be afraid to look at other stories. As artists learn from sitting in museums and sketching, writers learn from being encompassed in other stories and creating something like it.

Ready. Set. Be young.

Day 16

Why do you write?

Answer this through showing, not telling. Don't just list the reasons why, show the audience why writing is important to you and what it means.

Challenge: Write a fictional story that tells why you write without having anything to do with writing. Ex: You write because you want to make life better for people so you show this through a story about a selfless doctor. Something like that.

Tip: Start by jotting down the reasons that you write. From there, find the points in the list that inspire you to write a poem, story, memoir, anything. And just write.

Ready. Set. Write.

Day 15

Believe.

What's it even mean?

Challenge: Write a personal essay about one of your experiences where you had to learn to believe.

Tip: Don't be afraid to take risks as you write. Write what you've never told anyone. Write what you always think but never say. Writing is standing on a ledge, don't be afraid to take the plunge - the ground isn't really that far away.

Ready. Set. Believe.

Day 14

Listen to The Skin of my Yellow Country Teeth by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. (I realize it sounds like a really terrible song, but I promise it isn't.) Fall into the nostalgia of the guitar strings. Mark the seconds with the cymbal. Write what it stirs in you.

Challenge: Write about a first love - be it yours or not. Reminisce in the feeling of youth and naiveté.

Tip: Listen first, closing your eyes and feeling everything there is to feel. If your a planner, write words or phrases as they're inspired. After, replay the song as you write it. Inspiration often comes the best from the soundtrack your listening to.

Ready. Set. Listen.