Purposeful Prose's Cozy Winter Prompts

It is winter time, and for writers, it can be difficult to find inspiration when everything feels as though it’s been written about a million times over. So, let us help you! Enjoy these prompts during your holiday season! Fiction

1. You’ve visited your partner’s/best friend’s family for the holidays for the first time. They have traditions that are very different from yours. There’s nothing wrong with that, but during the latter half of the night, your friend/partner takes out a stone tablet with an inscription you’ve never seen before. The atmosphere in the cozy family room has suddenly turned eerie.
   

2. You’re shopping for presents in-person to get away from your computer and apps for a time. Walking down the familiar streets, you stop by your favorite coffee shop for a hot beverage. While you’re there, you hear some patrons talk about the interesting new shop that’s renting space at the end of the block. According to these patrons, they’d found unique, exciting gifts they hadn’t thought of getting their loved ones. Intrigued by the possibility and your steaming traveling mug, you make your way towards the new shop. When you open the door, a bell rings, and you enter an empty, bright room.
   

3. You are assisting a small charity with their holiday giving. You’ve volunteered with them every year to the letter, but for some reason, this year has presented more challenges than any past years combined. To help you with your task, an object to your left has become enchanted. An object to your right has, somehow, come alive. Is this the solution you were asking for or have your problems only just begun?
   

4. You have received a Christmas card in the mail with no return address, just your own name and address. The card has three smiling snowmen and the words, “Season’s Greetings!” in a stylistic, cursive font. When you open the card, you read the following: “Dear [Name], When you were five years old, you had a wish that you wanted fulfilled by the time you were [your current age]. If you didn’t throw away the dreams of your youth, meet me by the warehouse on the corner of Coral and Madison St. the day after you receive this letter, 3:25pm. You will understand why the time is important when you get there. If you have truly grown up, I will understand. Yours, A Friend”
   

5. Growing up, you adored fairy tales. The idea of a happy ending appealed to you, but you’re a realist now. You still read, but mostly nonfiction. The idea of picking up a novel sounds interesting, but you never feel like you have the time. You feel disenchanted with the idea of revisiting those childhood tales until one night. You dust off an old book of fairy tales during a night when you’re up later than usual. However, when you open the book, the stories are nothing like you remembered them as being. You remembered being young and the characters feeling like friends, but you notice that their dialogue doesn’t sound as excited as it once was, as though they were telling the story half-heartedly. What happens now?

Personal

1. Think about a time when you had to pretend to be someone other than you are. Maybe you pretended to feel differently than you do about something/someone, to have an interest that you don’t really have, or you made a rash decision while struggling with imposter syndrome. Now, imagine that you’ve been cloned, and imagine that the personality of your clone encompasses the “mask” you wore during the time you pretended to be someone else. How does that interaction go? What happens?
   

2. The holiday season will likely mean a lot of shopping, and sometimes, shopping means impulse buying or the opportunity thereof. Think about the last time you had an intuition about something, good or bad. Did you follow your instinct or did you let the moment pass you by? Some people theorize that every time you make a choice, there’s a parallel universe in which you made the opposite choice. Consider what your parallel universe might have looked like if you made a decision other than the one you made, and write a story about it.
   

3. When it comes to gifts, it’s the thought that counts! Do you remember the most thoughtful gift you ever received? It might have been a bike for your tenth birthday, a picture drawn by your child, or a more abstract gift like understanding or love. What made that gift so thoughtful to you? Was the meaning behind the gift greater than the gift itself? You received your gift. Now, give your thoughts to it!
   

4. With the holidays comes traditional music! Whether it’s being piped into a store, whether it plays on the radio, or whether it’s in an ad, music is everywhere, especially during the holidays. Imagine that the next song you’ll hear randomly will be on an official track list for your biopic. What important part of your life will that song represent? Write that scene with the song in mind!
   

5. “Home” means something different to everyone. Sometimes, home is where you grew up and formed core memories. Other people think of their home as a place they eventually move to. For others still, “home” is a person rather than a place. What you consider to be home is personal to you, so pick a moment in your life when all you wanted to do was go back home. Make that the central problem to your story. What did “home” mean to you when you wanted to go back, and what did you do when you got there? Did you get there?
   

If you write something using one of these prompts, I’d love to take a look! Send me a message or comment below. I can’t wait to see what you come up with.