Non-fiction Writing Prompts

10-minute prompts for your writing practice

This wonderful 10-minute writing prompt exercise is based on the freewriting concept Peter Elbow developed in 1973. If you have never used prompts, you are in for a treat.

The Benefits of this freewriting exercise are numerous. It’ll help you:

  1. Build writing muscles.
  2. Warm up before your writing project.
  3. Increase creativity by imagining.
  4. Discover your voice.
  5. Expand your scope through creative constraints and boundaries.
  6. Reduce mental blocks associated with writing.
  7. Develop your practice if done consistently.

Instructions: Select a prompt and write for 10 minutes.

10 minutes is doable for anyone. It is just the right amount of time to get pen to paper. Repeat daily.

These chosen prompts here are ones you can revisit time and time again. Each time will be different. You’ll have another memory. You imagine something else depending on your mood. You’ll remember something else. You will write with another slant. It’s a joyful and meditative moment.

Reap from the benefits of writing prompts.

Without further ado, here list of writing prompts to build your writing muscle.

  1. Write about your favourite place in the city.
  2. Describe your city.
  3. Describe a popular shopping district
  4. Look around your place. Write about one object in detail.
  5. Add the history of a place or a street. Think about what is exciting about this. What is drama and societal shifts?
  6. Write about your university or school.
  7. Write about your library.
  8. Write about the place you hang out in.
  9. Write about the place you used to hang out in.
  10. Write about a time you were lost in a city.
  11. Write about a village
  12. Write about a city.
  13. Write about a museum.
  14. Write about your first job.
  15. Write a snippet out of your career path
  16. Write a letter to your 14-year-old self.
  17. Write about why you write.
  18. Which artwork deeply moves you? It can be visual art or music. Think of the feelings that are stirred up.
  19. Describe your favourite film scene.
  20. Study the setting and overt and subtle details. Write with these details in mind. Use it as a frame for your writing.
  21. Write about a certain pivotal moment.
  22. Write with a historical event in mind.
  23. Write about school days but frame it within a historic event.
  24. Write around a NASA, ESA or SANSA launch.
  25. Write about UN Assembly or COP27.
  26. Write about an event, extraordinary or ordinary.
  27. Write about a dinner party.
  28. Write about a lunch date.
  29. Write about the industrial revolution, the Russian revolution, Fashion Revolution
  30. Write about a protest
  31. Write about when you dressed up in formal attire
  32. Write about the days of summer
  33. Write a short piece mixing two polar styles. Lately, in conversations about books and movies, discussions about the mix of genres and subgenres are rampant. break traditions, and form your own mixture.
  34. Write a short piece in a genre outside your comfort zone.
  35. Write a film review.
  36. Write a quick book review.
  37. Write a quick user guide,
  38. Write some try an interview.
  39. Write ad copy for an object in front of you.
  40. Write try an op-piece for the New York.
  41. Write a youtube script.
  42. Think of all your memories. List them out. Pause, meditate and think about it.
  43. Write the truth without holding back
  44. Recall a moment of perfect peace, perfect joy, perfect kindness. Describe it.
  45. List out four or more pivotal news events that are important to you in the 20th or 21st century such as the LOCKDOWN.
  46. Look through a dictionary. Find a word and write about it.
  47. Flip through a magazine. Write about an image or article that you stop at.
  48. Look at a news website. What are some impressions of the page?
  49. Look at any website. What was the editor thinking about?
  50. Write a paragraph with 7 similar things.
  51. Write a page with 7 different random objects. For example, a plant, a mode of transport, a machine, a bird, a shoe or another fashion piece, rain or sunshine, a guitar.
  52. Select the city or cities that define you and why it inspires you.
  53. List out what your caregiver taught you. Life lessons.
  54. List out your own life lessons. ‘Real practice makes progress’. Writing system writing process.
  55. Write your bio through the eyes of a stranger.
  56. Tell your story from the perspective of a foreign journalist.
  57. Write about a garden.
  58. Tell your story from the perspective of your grandchild.
  59. Interview friends and family. record it and listen to it. Write out the highlights.
  60. Apply words of wisdom to your past mistakes.
  61. Write about the beauty of Nigeria, Ghana, or Romania.
  62. Write about the lesser-known places
  63. Write dramatically about something mundane
  64. Write about your sensitivities, and weaknesses scientifically. Gather all the facts and write about coping mechanisms.
  65. Act like the editor of the Guardian
  66. Act like the art and culture editor.
  67. Write a documentary.
  68. Write a few sentences about your biography as if it is a documentary.
  69. Write facts about an event as if it is an action film, a nature film, or a technology firm.
  70. Describe a very personal accomplishment when you were younger, including setting and emotional details.
  71. Writing about your wishes and ambitions as a teenager and as an adult.
  72. Describe a wave of emotions.
  73. Write about an important vacation and who you travelled with. Where are they now? Do you still know them or like them?
  74. Describe an event of sadness. Describe an event of anger. Write an event of happiness. Write an event of pride. Describe an event of joy. Add details by answering WH questions.
  75. Describe one experience that most shaped you.
  76. Describe all your stories of birth or death.
  77. describe your ancestors in the context of history.
  78. Tell a story backwards.
  79. Predict what will happen tomorrow.
  80. Describe a walk in the park or something uneventful as if it is the most inspiring event in your life and detail your philosophy.
  81. Describe every person at a party and their ideas, their philosophy, style, their strengths and their weakness.
  82. Describe the drama of nature that you have experienced.
  83. Describe a tornado or an earthquake or a rainstorm.
  84. Describe your strength as if you are a teacher.
  85. Describe your weakness as if you are a professor.
  86. Describe the similarity and differences between you and your family through a positive lens.
  87. Describe a moment when you figure out what you were doing.
  88. Describe the journey. Explain what happened and how you figure it out, how much effort it took? Describe the mistakes and how you felt. describe the trials and tribulations.
  89. Describe a fork in the road of your life.
  90. Define your favourite mediums of expression. What do you know about the medium?
  91. If you were earth’s leader, how would fix some problems?
  92. You are a happy inventor, what will you invent? What is the name of the invention?
  93. You are a creative inventor.
  94. You are a sustainable inventor? What plant-based invention have you created what is it called? What does it do?
  95. You discover you have magical powers.
  96. If you would like to receive these in an email, you can receive one per week.
  97. Imagine you are walking on a road and you hit an intersection, how do you decide which road to take?
  98. Describe a life episode that is so remarkable, a time you will never forget.
  99. Describe a time you made an impact on someone, what did you say or do to help them
  100. Describe a relationship with an extended family member. Who were they? Who were you to them?
  101. Journeys cannot be underestimated. Describe one of your favourites in detail to a friend.

The list will grow and change as needed.

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