“New year — a new chapter, new verse, or just the same old story? Ultimately we write it. The choice is ours.” —Alex Morritt

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It's the beginning of a creative new year and time to weave new dreams and new hopes for your creative life, as well as reflect upon the plans of the prior year that have gone wrong and the resolutions that have been broken.

Use the following short list of writing prompts to ignite your imagination for journal writing or as an exercise to get you back to your daily creative thinking and creative writing habit after the holiday break. So, grab a pen and a cup of coffee, get cozy and start writing. Happy writing!

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Hibernation

Imagine a wicked witch had put you under a spell and you had fallen asleep through winter. What would you have missed out on? What if, instead of the witch, it was a compassionate wizard or your fairy godmother — what would they have saved you from by casting this spell?

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Labels

Think of two words you hated the previous year and two words you loved. Think of “why” you felt the way you did about them. What could have made things be the other way round? When could at least one of your hated words have become a loved one, and in what case would at least one of the loved words turn into a hated one?

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Unmistakable

You receive an unusual email message. It is a letter from one of the mistakes you’ve made last year, which has come to life. Write what your mistake wrote to you.

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Snowflake

You wake up one morning to find you are traveling inside a snowflake. What was the weirdest thing that happened to you on this journey?

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Planetary

Write about a snowball that was actually a camouflaged tiny planet.

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Springing Forth

Write a list of winter-related words. Then use them all in a piece of writing on a spring theme.

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Snowman

On returning home, you find a huge snowman standing in your living room. “I came for the interview.” he says in a strange sounding voice. You notice that, although close enough to the burning fireplace, he’s not melting. Continue the story.

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Treasure

Write about a time when the turning of the year came with the disappearance of your most treasured possession.

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Patchwork

If your present creative life was a quilt what would it look like? Describe it in detail. Try to make the description as vivid as possible, so that the reader could live your creative experience through it. Also describe what the quilt looked like in the beginning of the previous year and what it is going to look like a year ahead from now.

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Conversations

You’re hosting a party for New Year’s Eve. An Unfulfilled Wish (or Dream) and a Broken Resolution, both coming from the previous year, come to life and sneak in, uninvited. They start a conversation with one of your guests. Write part of this conversation.

©2012 Maria Chatzi. All rights reserved.

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