Free Write
Sensory Detail and Setting Exercise
Whether you write fiction, nonfiction, or poetry, this writing exercise from Aatif Rashid will help you write lyrical sentences rich with sensory detail.
The Essay as a Form of Giving Up
One way to consider the essay is as a way to capture, study, and release back into the world a question or story that preoccupies you.
Divining Your Divergent Interests: The Card Oracle Method
The oracle part sounds mysterious, but it just means drawing cards from a shuffled deck and treating the results as an answer key for generating new writing.
Magical Realism and Cultural Context
Learn how to devise a rough concept for a magical realist story with this prompt from classes instructor Jessica Reidy.
Creation by Negation
Thwart your own impulses toward one genre or another with this generative writing exercise from Ben Purkert.
Speculative Artist’s Statement for Queer Writers
Try out Atom Evie Atkinson’s speculative artist’s statement, developed to help her students pivot from past educations to a utopian future of their own design.
Writing In Between the Real and Unreal
Sanjena Sathian thinks the most interesting writing material comes from locating mystery in our own lives. Try out this writing exercise to write into that mystery.
Creating Scenes for Discovery
Storytelling is like the TARDIS in ‘Doctor Who’—the narrower and more specific we get on the outside, the bigger it gets on the inside.
Tell More Lies
Poems and stories are only two sorts of lies, but they’re the ones Steven Duong tells most often. Try out his writing exercise to generate new work.
Turning Reality into Comedy
There’s comedic gold all around you—if you know how to mine it. Check out this writing prompt used by Catapult instructor Caitlin Kunkel in one of her classes!