Photo by Benjamin Gimmel

Happy Spring! Or for those of you reading this in the Midwest or on the East Coast, Happy Second Winter!

Well, regardless of the weather outside, have you taken your creative temperature lately? If you’re a writer like me you understand that the “flow” can vary widely, from steady bursts to meager trickles to tipping back your canteen and swallowing a mouthful of desert.

If you’re in a rut and spitting up sand, do what I do and stop what you’re struggling with and write something radically different. Just to goose your juices a little bit and reassure yourself that your creativity is still intact.

Here are a few of my favorite spring-themed writing prompts that never fail to light a fire under my brain and get me back on track. I’d love to hear if any of these help you out. Happy writing!

1. Imagine you’re Peter Cottontail hopping down the bunny trail with another Easter on its way, but this year you’ve got a raging case of genital warts from messing around in Farmer Glen’s radish patch. How will you explain yourself to Mrs. Cottontail?

2. You’re a hitchhiker picked up by two Grinnell College students on their way to Florida for spring break. Even though you have severe gastrointestinal problems you don’t want to disappoint your new friends and not enjoy a burrito and cheap tequila shooters. How’s the last 5 hours of that drive to Cocoa Beach going to go?

3. You’ve been recruited to help your doddering grandmother spring-clean her sweet little cottage by the lake. When you’re alone sweeping up the hall you hear a voice coming from the attic that sounds just like your grandfather who allegedly ran off when you were 9 begging for someone to loosen the screws on his head vise. What’s the rest of your afternoon look like?

4. Write from the POV of a pollen cloud coming of age during the great Hay Fever Festival. What’s it like to learn that you’re essentially the “semen” of the flower world?

5. You’re sixteen now and believe you’re too old to be receiving kites for your birthday, but there you are unwrapping another friggin’ kite and smiling real big just so Aidan Welke doesn’t get his feelings hurt. What might happen if when the cake comes out and everybody starts singing you grab the cutting knife with no intention of using it on the cake?