History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Fun for Friday: March 2026 Writing Prompts!

| February 27, 2026

It’s almost March, so it’s time for the March 2026 writing prompts! This month, we’re starting with a throwback or two. Column 1 (and the image) is from my March 2018 writing prompts, and column 2 is from my March 2019 writing prompts. I figure those are plenty old to bring them back. (And we […]

Fun for Friday: DCO Instagram Prompts Are Back!

| February 13, 2026

I’m back with prompts from the DefCon One Instagram account! These are from late September and through October, so some of them have a bit of a fall theme. Write a piece about someone using a fork as a rake … or vice versa? Write a piece featuring a new candy trend. Write a piece […]

Fun for Friday: February 2026 Writing Prompts!

| January 30, 2026

We’re almost through January now, so here’s February’s writing prompts! This month, I’ve picked prompts from art challenges. The first two columns are definitely more February themed, but without too much overlap. The third column adds a nice random element to the mix! Column 1 is Doodlewash’s February 2025 prompts. Column 2 is from Natural Beach Living […]

January 2026 Writing Prompts

| December 26, 2025

We’ve still got almost a week of December, but it’s time for the first monthly writing prompts for 2026! This month, I’ve got one list that’s decidedly winter themed, while the other two have fewer winter-specific prompts. Column 1 is Doodlewash’s January 2026 prompts. The list included a few plants and animals I wasn’t familiar […]

December 2025 Writing Prompts!

| November 28, 2025

It’s time for the December 2025 writing prompts, and this month, I’m doing a little something different! The first image and first column of words are a throwback to 2017, which was the first time I did December writing prompts on this blog! This is a list that was designed for six-word stories, but you […]

Fun for Friday: November 2025 Writing Prompts

| October 31, 2025

I’m not entirely sure where October went, but here we are at the end of the month, ready for the November 2025 writing prompts! This month, the first column comes from Kick in the Creatives. The second column is from Doodlewash. The third column is a new-to-me art challenge, Gouachevember. There’s a very small amount […]

Fun for Friday: Back to DefCon One Instagram Prompts

| October 24, 2025

It’s time for some more prompts from the DefCon One Instagram account! Write a piece about a grocery store in a soap opera. Write a piece where a wicked person is squashed. Write a cozy piece with a stuffed animal and hot cocoa. Then change something to make it weird! Follow the DefCon One Instagram account for […]

Fun for Friday: Solo TTRPGs as Writing Exercises

| October 17, 2025

One of the panels that I attended at Worldcon in Seattle back in August was about using solo TTRPGs as writing exercises. If you’re not familiar with the concept of solo TTRPGs, these are often short games that use a randomizing element like a deck of playing cards, a few dice, or a tarot deck […]

Fun for Friday: Agnotology?

| October 10, 2025

This week’s post is a little less etymology and more about a concept I just learned about called agnotology, which is the study of deliberate, culturally induced ignorance or doubt. The second part of the word is of course the same Greek root that gives us other “-logy” words, and the “agnoto-” is from Neoclassical […]

Fun for Friday: Weird (and Spooky) October Science

| October 3, 2025

Time for more weird science to inspire your writing or maybe just pique your curiosity! With this month being October, I thought it might be fun to focus more on spooky science, and the internet provided! The U.S. Department of Energy has a list celebrating spooky science from last October, which gives some brief summaries of […]