Colour writing prompts

Here are some colour questions I’ve used often in workshops. They are from one of my favourite writing books - Rip the Page by Karen Benke. It is aimed at children but has lots of brilliant exercises for thinking outside the box.

What is the name of your colour?

How does your colour move?

In what season was it born?

What place does it take you?

What time of day or night does it like?

What does your colour wish for?

What is hidden behind it?

What sound isn’t your colour?

What 3 other things aren’t your colour?

What is it a box of?

What is it a song of?

What is it the shape of?

Who are its friends?

Other invitations for using colour in your writing:

• Pick a colour to create a particular mood or atmosphere. Make a list of all the objects, plants, weather formations that could be that colour. Use them in your piece without mentioning the colour by name.

• Go on a walk in your neighbourhood with the intention of noticing a particular colour. Either sit on a bench somewhere and write what you’ve noticed or take a quiet moment when you get back home.

• Go out into nature and take notes of all the different colours you can see. The shades of green or brown, for instance. Name them all. What do they remind you of?

• What colours do you remember in memories or dreams? Highlight these in your writing.

• Maggie Nelson wrote a book about the colour blue, Bluets. Here is a link to the Guardian review of the book. Which colour could you write a book about? What would you include?

• Explore colour with paints. How do you feel afterwards? Journal about colours and your feelings about them.