50 Five-Minute Writing Prompts

1. If I took the time to wander, I would…

2. For years I wandered…
(from The Tradition by Kathleen Jamie)

3. I walk at the land’s edge…
(from Poem by Kathleen Jamie poem)

4. The seed I’d most like to plant is…

5. As a seed, I was…
(from Wild Pansy by Lisa Bellamy)

6. If I decided to go deeper, I would…

7. In my bottom drawer is…

8. If I walked into my museum of ideas, I would see…

9. Pride of place would be…

10. The biggest surprise is…

11. The one I’d most like to liberate is…

12. If my idea was liberated and knocked on my door, I would ask it…

13. In my garden grows…

14. The place I love to sit is…

15. The most carefully tended area is…

16. At the back of the potting shed is…

17. In amongst the roses, grows…

18. Walk across the lawn and you will find…

19. Look in the pond for…

20. Hidden under the path is…

21. Buried in the rockery is…

22. In the patch of nettles, be careful of…

23. The garden as a whole is…

24. I enjoy writing when…

25. I have experienced the magic of writing when…

26. To connect with the joy of writing, I will…

27. If I were to ask…

28. I love a good story that…

29. It’s not fair that…

30. Let me tell you about the time I went to…

31. My mornings are…

32. I remember the bread…

33. Every so often, I meet with…

34. When things come together, it feels…

35. This summer, I would like to…

36. Once I had a vintage…

37. My favourite thing I would describe as vintage is…

38. I remember…

39. I don’t remember…

40. Then I heard…

41. Let me tell you about my vintage…

42. I came across this scarf when…

43. You’ll never believe it but this scarf…

44. I was told the colours in this scarf…

45. I wore this scarf at a time in my life when I was…

46. Even today, when I pick up this scarf, I…

47. If we hadn’t…

48. We wouldn’t have…
(from ‘If At The Wedding, At The Zoo’ by Lydia Davis)

49. When I chop onions…

50. What if…