History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Fun for Friday: August 2021 Writing Prompts!

| July 30, 2021

It’s the end of July, so it’s time for the August 2021 writing prompts! The words this month come from all over the place, but there are quite a few summer words tossed in to suit the month. You can focus your writing on the dog days of summer or on the fleeting freedom before […]

Fun for Friday: Three Summery Images!

| July 23, 2021

For this week’s Fun for Friday, I’ve got a handful of summer photographs, all of which have a bit of a vintage look to them. The first image (deleted) is a field of very small lavender flowers that appear to be on an uphill slope. Above, the sky is blue with puffy white clouds. The […]

Fun for Friday: Creative Writing Exercises for Solo Writers or Groups

| July 16, 2021

If you’re looking for some fun writing exercises that you can do on your own or with a group, check out these 34 creative writing exercises! In addition to explaining the various exercises, the article also gives some ideas on how they can be used by a group that isn’t all in one place, which […]

Fun for Friday: Three Mismatched Images

| July 9, 2021

This week’s Fun for Friday is a collection of three images that really don’t go together. Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to write something that includes something from the three images. Feel free to interpret them as you see fit! The first image is a closeup of a dragonfly in flight, […]

Fun for Friday: 20 Writing Games

| July 2, 2021

If you’re having trouble getting started on your writing, why not try out one of these writing games. They might just give you the spark of inspiration you’re looking for, but even if they don’t, they seem like they’d be fun things to try out!  

Fun for Friday: July 2021 Writing Prompts

| June 25, 2021

July is still a few days away, but today’s the day to get your fresh writing prompts for the next month! It’s summer in the northern hemisphere, so we’ve got some July-inspired words, but also a lot of fairly random words. As always, I’ve tried to include some that have more than one potential meaning, […]

Fun for Friday: Writing Exercises from Famous Authors

| June 18, 2021

Writing isn’t all fun and games, but if you bring the right attitude to it, you can leverage that for a bit more fun. Today, I’ve found an article about writing exercises suggested by famous authors. And while most people see the word “exercise” and anticipate a decided lack of fun, the exercises listed in […]

Fun for Friday: Three Beautiful Images

| June 11, 2021

It’s time for some beautiful images to inspire your writing. (Images deleted.) The first photo is of a pagoda building in a lush green setting, with mist and a narrow waterfall in the background. The second photo is a silhouetted person at twilight (or sunrise) reaching upward for a very slender crescent moon. The third […]

Fun for Friday: Weird Writing Prompts from Wikipedia

| June 4, 2021

Sometimes, the best way to come up with a writing prompt is to look for something utterly strange or unbelievable, because truth is stranger than fiction. Electric Literature has collected ideas for stories or novels from weird Wikipedia articles. Even if you don’t find one on this list that speaks to you, simply the idea […]

Fun for Friday: June 2021 Writing Prompts

| May 28, 2021

June is just around the corner, so it’s time for another month of writing prompts! For this month, the words are drawn from a variety of sources and aren’t necessarily themed toward the month. There are also some fun things tucked in there like “lyrics” and “quote,” which might not mean talking about those things, […]