Have some free time on your hands in the next few weeks, and want to get creative? Here are five prompts that might just help!

1. Write about a character alone and away from family for the first time ever during the holidays. Are they are alone by choice, or out of necessity? Where are they? What has happened? How do they spend their day? If you have time to write for a longer period of time, ensure your character undergoes some form of transformation in the course of your writing. Their perspective and emotional state is quite different, by the end.

2. Ever had the feeling, during a snow storm, that the snow is never, ever going to stop? Write about a time when it doesn’t…

3. In the midst of a holiday meal, a stranger appears. You decide who this person is and what they want. The day is completely transformed – for better or for worse – by the secrets they reveal.

4. Write about a bizarre New Year’s resolution – and what happened as a result in the year that followed.

5. Someone gives you a gift, this holiday season: a key, laid on velvet, in a sandalwood box. What does it unlock? Begin with the moment you unwrap the key, and write from there.

If you use one of these prompts, I’d love to hear from you! Contact me here: julie[at] centauriartscamp.com

Check back in a few days for a second set of prompts!