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NewPages Blog :: Writing Prompts

Looking for a spark of inspiration? Our weekly writing prompts are designed to challenge your creativity, deepen your storytelling, and help you reconnect with your writing practice. Whether you’re journaling, drafting fiction, or just trying to get words on the page, these prompts offer a fresh starting point every Monday—straight from our newsletter.

Unlock the Secrets of the Flower Language

Happy Tuesday! Our latest newsletter went out yesterday, packed with literary discoveries—new magazines, books, reviews, bookstore updates, and a fresh writing prompt to spark your creativity.

This week’s newsletter (Issue 184) digs into the rarely used language of flowers—an ancient form of communication hidden in petals and stems.

✍️ Writing Prompt: Flower Language

Once upon a time, flowers weren’t just decorations—they carried messages, secrets, and spells. A red rose whispered love, lavender offered calm, and marigolds warned of grief or jealousy.

But as time passed, the language of flowers faded into myth. What if someone rediscovered it? What if a florist’s arrangements could influence emotions—or fate?

Your Creative Challenge:

💐 Fiction Prompt: Write a story where the language of flowers resurfaces in a powerful way. Who still knows it? Who needs to learn it? What happens when the flowers begin to speak again?

🌼 Poetry Prompt: Use flowers to express emotions too hard to say aloud. What truths bloom in silence?

🌍 Cross-Cultural Essay Prompt: Explore how different cultures have used flowers to communicate—from Chinese plum blossoms to Victorian bouquets.

🎨 Mixed Media Prompt: Create a visual piece that captures the symbolic power of flowers. Use real petals, digital art, or photography to tell a story beyond words.

Want more inspiration like this? Subscribe to the NewPages Newsletter for weekly writing prompts, book reviews, literary news, and more—straight to your inbox! Paying subscribers get early access to submission opportunities before they go live on our site, too!

Writing Through the Blur: Exploring Warped Perceptions of Time

a man going through a twisting tunnel of misshapen clocks

Every Monday, our newsletter subscribers receive a curated dose of literary goodness—new issue announcements, book reviews, upcoming releases, literary news, and a fresh writing prompt to spark creativity. If you’ve ever felt stuck staring at a blank page, our weekly prompts are here to help reignite that creative spark.

This week’s newsletter (Issue 183!) took a playful turn with a nod to The Time Warp—but instead of dancing through dimensions, we’re diving into the strange elasticity of time itself.

✍️ Writing Prompt: Warped Relativity

Einstein once explained relativity like this: sit on a hot stove for a minute and it feels like an hour; sit with someone you love for an hour and it feels like a minute. But what about the moments that defy even that logic?

Write about a time when the clock ticked forward, but your experience of it didn’t match. Maybe it was a season of grief that passed in a blur, or a long recovery that dragged on despite no dramatic events. Explore how time can feel warped not just by joy or boredom, but by numbness, uncertainty, or quiet endurance. How does time behave when life is neither thrilling nor tragic—just quietly, stubbornly hard?


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