Your Writing Starts Here: June 2025 Prompts

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Bonus: use this picture as a prompt. Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash

Can you believe its June already? I can’t. But part of that is because I spent two weeks of May in England. I believe I may have mentioned this here before, but it was glorious. London is one of the best, if not the absolute best, cities in the world, no? It’s slowly stealing my heart away from Paris. (With the bonus that they speak the same language. Sort of.) And Wells, where we hold our workshops, is pretty spectacular, too.

But I’m happy to be home. And I’m also lucky that I feel that way. How I missed watching Cocomelon with the four-year-old, listening to the thirteen-year-old’s theories of life (I learned about Dubai chocolate this morning and also got to taste some), eating the baked goods of the nine-year-old. (I’ll see the two grands who live nearby tonight.) And, oh yeah, seeing my children, too.

Anyway, it’s time for prompts. And here they are, laid out below. Paid subscribers get the PDF of them, too, which is handy to print out and stick in your journal.

Every couple of months I reprint the directions here. You probably don’t need them, but here they are anyway:

How to Prompt

--Here’s how we do it: choose how long you want to write, then set a timer and write for that amount of time. Five minutes is good for short spurts, fifteen to twenty to really dig in.

--The idea is to write. And by that, I mean, write. Like move your hand across the page or your fingers over the keyboard. This is not a thinking assignment. It is not a gazing out the window assignment. It is a writing assignment. Keep those hands moving.

--If you get stuck, don’t stop, just write something like I don’t know what to write or I hate prompts over and over again until new thoughts kick in.

--Sometimes the instructions refer to you, and sometimes, your proto. (I like to call the protagonist a proto because protagonist is one of those words I always misspell. Plus, I like the way proto sounds.) In all cases, the prompts apply to either writing from your own experience or making it up for your proto.

--I use the pronouns he, she, and they, interchangeably throughout. Emend as needed. Or use the one given and try writing from a different point of view for a change.

--Another great way to use prompts is to first write out your own memories or experience and then do the same for your proto.

--Prompts do not demand allegiance to their original meaning. They are a starting point. They are a way to begin getting words on the page. Let your brain and hand determine what to write. The prompt may describe a tree, and you end up writing about tin cans. That is fine.

--Remember, not all writing must be in service to your WIP. Writing something different can be fun. It’s okay, good even, for your writing brain to let loose occasionally and do something different.

--But prompts can also contribute to your understanding of your current project. You can use any of these prompts as starters for side writing to gain more knowledge about your WIP.

--Prompts are excellent warm-ups, a way to get yourself onto the page before your WIP writing begins.

--You’ll find thirty prompts here, one for each day of June. You can use them in order or pick and choose whichever appeals to you on a given day. I highly recommend printing these out, so you have them available without opening a device. (So that you, um, write, as opposed to giving into temptation to scroll.)

The Prompts

1.

Ugly toes.

2.

A wet spring day and all the blossoms dripping with rain.

3.

All she wanted was to….

4.

That’s a lie.

5.

Write about a sliding door moment.

6.

I can’t hear you.

7.

Could you please stop.

8.

Always choose a unicorn.

9.

Why are you saying that to me?

10.

It won’t work.

11.

Come back! Come back to me!

12.

If you just did this one thing…

13.

Clouds scudded across the sky

14.

There’s nothing better than ice cream.

15.

Write about a vacation your family took when you were a child.

16.

She wore only vintage clothing.

17.

The smells overwhelmed her.

18.

I’m on needles and pins thinking about it.

19.

Tiny dancer.

20.

Please, sir, can I have some more?

21.

Will you just be quiet?

22.

Fluffy, soft, and warm.

23.

Leaving on a jet plane…

24.

What if you’re wrong?

25.

You can’t do that.

26.

Why now?

27.

The beat goes on.

28.

And then, it began all over again.

29.

How can I be free?

30.

I did it.

Paid subscribers, your PDF comes after the wall.