October Writing Prompts
- Describe the color orange in words without using the word orange.
2. You go to your best friends house and find a skeleton in your closet. Is it a real skeleton, or a proverbial one? If it is real, whose skeleton is it and why is it in their closet? If it is proverbial, then what is their secret?
3. Write about a family going to find the perfect pumpkin. What are they looking for? A jack-o-lantern pumpkin, one for pumpkin pie, or something else? Write about their journey to find the pumpkin.
4. You open a can of pop and something else is inside of it. What is in it? How did it get there?
5. You are walking alone at night with just your phone for a flashlight when you hear eerie music playing. You follow the sound to discover….?
6. Write a poem about a pumpkin.
7. Create a list of 31 things to do during the month of October.
8. Write about someone who either hates or loves Pumpkin Spice flavoring. Tell the story of why they hate/love the flavor.
9. You are walking down a sidewalk at night when you see an old run-down house, with a small candle lit in the window. No one has lived in the house for many years, but suddenly you see a shadow shaped like a person pass by the candle light. Who is it, and what are they doing at the house?
10. Tell the story of four friends going camping in the wilderness on Halloween night because they want to escape something more sinister at home. What are they trying to escape from?
11. Create a campfire story that friends tell around a campfire on a chilly autumn night.
12. Write a poem about autumn.
13. Create a list of things you think every Pumpkin Patch or Apple Orchard should have for visitors in the fall.
14. Write about a visit to an Apple Orchard or Pumpkin Patch, either real or imagined.
15. Create dialog between a pumpkin and a sunflower growing in a Farmer’s Field. What types of things might they talk about?
16. Write about a dog who desperately wants to dress up in a costume for Halloween, and a cat who is extremely annoyed with the dog.
17. Tell the tale of a raven named Edgar who won’t stop yelling “Nevermore.” Who taught him this phrase? Who named him Edgar? Why won’t he stop yelling the phrase?
18. Describe a walk through a cemetery on a cold fall night. Why is someone walking through the cemetery? What do they see?
19. Write about someone wandering on a foggy day who disappears and is never seen again. Where did they go? Why are they never seen again? What happens to them?
20. Your character is walking through a cemetery on a dark, drizzly, foggy night and a black cat crosses their path, then turns around and talks to the character. Why is the cat there? What does the cat say to the character? How does the character react?
21. Tell a tale using the following words somewhere in the story: Foggy, dark, drizzly, eerily, bright, colorful, chilly, pumpkins, black cat, shadows, leaves, toilet paper. You may modify these words slightly, such as using fog instead of foggy, or eerie instead of eerily.
22. Describe 2020 so far to someone living in 2160.
23. Create a legend that has been passed down from generation to generation. Where did the tale come from? Why is shared over and over again? What happens in the tale?
24. Write about a character who has to drink the same fall beverage every morning, but goes to their favorite coffee shop only to find the beverage is no longer there. What will they drink instead? Why is the beverage no longer there?
25. Create a character who must relive the same autumn day every day. Why must they live the same day over and over again? What do they try to change each day? Which day are they repeating and what is the significance of that day? How will they break out of the cycle of repeating the day?
26. Describe Trick-or-Treating from the viewpoint of the cat living in a house where kids are coming to the door in costumes and the cat’s owner is passing out candy to them. Does the cat like people coming over? Find them invasive? Does the cat just ignore them?
27. Tell the story of a mad-scientist from the perspective of a child who comes to visit the scientist’s house. What do they find inside? Do they go back home safely? Report the scientist to the police? Join the scientist?
28. Finish this story: “But I know how to pick a lock. I need someone to throw the toilet paper.”
29. Describe an autumn moment your character wants to always remember.
30. Finish this story: “I can’t get the blood off. Now what?”
31. You find a skeleton hanging upside down from a tree in your grandparents old woods. Who is it? Why are they there? How did they get upside down hanging from a tree?
My A-muse-ing Life 