History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Fun for Friday: Instagram Writing Prompts!

| June 2, 2023

This week, I’ve got another three writing prompts from the DefCon One Instagram account! Write a piece about a loan that is worth more than face value. Write a piece about building on the moon. Write a piece that takes place during a lunch break. Follow the DefCon One Instagram for writing prompts roughly every other […]

Fun for Friday: June 2023 Writing Prompts

| May 26, 2023

It’s almost a week until June begins, but with the way May ends, this is the time for the June writing prompts! This month, I’ve set the WayBack Machine to several old lists of prompts. Column 1 comes from a 2016 6-word writing challenge. Column 2 comes from 2020 writing prompts. And column 3 comes […]

Fun for Friday: Writing Prompts for Non-Fiction Turned to Fiction

| May 19, 2023

Sometimes, even non-fiction writing prompts can be a good source of inspiration if you look at them from a fictional lens. For example, the writing prompts offered here are meant to be more of journaling exercises. But you could also use them to stretch your fiction writing skills by writing them from the perspective of […]

Fun for Friday: Urban Images

| May 12, 2023

This week’s images all involve urban places. The first image shows two partial train or elevated rail cars, both in silhouette, with few people in either car. In the background, the cloudy sky is partially lit by the sun, as though the image was taken at sunrise or sunset. The second image is a nighttime […]

Fun for Friday: Smithsonian Air and Space Museum Writing Prompts

| May 5, 2023

If you like writing sci-fi, the Smithsonian Museum of Air and Space has prepared a writing prompt based on objects in their collection, originally for a Sci-Fi Family Day. If the images of Smithsonian artifacts in that document don’t spark any ideas, you can also search their multimedia gallery to see if something there works […]

Fun for Friday: May 2023 Writing Prompts

| April 28, 2023

In the not-entirely-accurate words of Justin Timberlake, “It’s gonna be May!” Okay, yeah, that’s a horrible joke but I love it anyway. And it is nearly May, which means it’s time for one of my favorite monthly challenges, MerMay! And MerMay is the source of the first column of words/phrases. There are a couple on […]

More DefCon One Writing Prompts

| April 21, 2023

This week, I’ve got another three writing prompts from the DefCon One Instagram account! Write a piece about what lies beyond the stars. Write a piece about what goes on in the clouds. Write a piece about nature infiltrating a place where it shouldn’t be. Follow the DefCon One Instagram for writing prompts roughly every […]

Fun for Friday: A Batch of Photo Prompts

| April 14, 2023

This week’s Fun for Friday is three somewhat random photo prompts. The first photo depicts four people wearing long pants and coats, and holding umbrellas, walking in front of a white wall painted with blue that resembles a waterfall or surf waves. The second photo depicts two elaborate microphones sitting on a flat surface in […]

Fun for Friday: Writing Prompts to Break Out of Writer’s Block

| April 7, 2023

If you’re feeling devoid of ideas, check out the suggestions here for some writing prompts that might help you break out of writer’s block. The prompts are generally designed for non-speculative stories, but it’s easy to insert a speculative element into them, if you like!  

Fun for Friday: April 2023 Writing Prompts

| March 31, 2023

It’s almost April, so time for the April writing prompts! This month, I did all random prompts. The first column is nouns, and the second column is verbs, except because English is how it is, some of those words can be either nouns or verbs. The third column is much more random, pulled from lists […]