History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

The Big Pink Book Prompt 8: Zen?

| July 20, 2026

The eighth page of the Big Pink Book has some zen-like vibes. There are mandalas at the top left and bottom right corners, one in pink and gold and the other in black and white. At the top right is a cartoon frog doing yoga, and at the bottom left is a gold flower with […]

Fun for Friday: The Big Pink Book of Prompts: Weird Combination

| July 17, 2026

I’m back today with how I used prompt 7 in the Big Pink Book, which had four stickers that presented a weird combination. I used them to write a drabble, interpreting the stickers as futuristic warning symbols indicating atmospheric and other dangers! This page shows you some insight into both my drafting and revision processes. […]

The Big Pink Book Prompt 7: Weird Combination

| July 13, 2026

Prompt 7 in the Big Pink Book is a little weird (and so is my photo of it, which cuts off the top of the page that has the number!). There are four stickers (technically five, but who’s counting?) in a vertical line. At the top, there’s a square sticker depicting a blue eye with […]

Fun for Friday: Another Batch of DefConOne Instagram Writing Prompts

| July 10, 2026

It’s time for some more prompts from the DefCon One Instagram account! Write a piece about a person who frames artwork. Write a piece about a constellation resembling a gate. Write a piece about a knight attempting to reach a location. Follow the DefCon One Instagram account for writing prompts on Fridays, or check them out when […]

Fun for Friday: The Big Pink Book of Prompts, Fantasy Vibes = Rhymes!

| July 3, 2026

For the sixth prompt in my Big Pink Book, I decided to use the fantasy imagery, particularly the unicorn, to write some poetry. At the top of the page, I wrote seven lines of what amounted to vaguely iambic pentameter (it’s not perfect, but it’s in that ballpark). And none of the lines rhymed, though […]

The Big Pink Book Prompt 6: Fantasy Theme

| June 29, 2026

The sixth prompt in the Big Pink Book is a mostly blank page. The stickers are an empty thought bubble with a green border at the top right, and a row of stickers across the bottom of the page. From left to right, they’re a rectangular sticker with a photorealistic blue sky and pink-ish clouds […]

Fun for Friday: July 2026 Writing Prompts

| June 26, 2026

It’s time for the July 2026 writing prompts! This month, the first column is the little life July 2025 prompts from @pastichecostudio. Many of these are summer-themed prompts, but they’re also very evocative! The second column is the Doodlewash July 2025 World Watercolor Month prompts, which was the 10th anniversary of World Watercolor Month. This […]

Fun for Friday: The Big Pink Book of Prompts, Flags and Leaves

| June 19, 2026

So this prompt page wound up with me writing a lot of tiny notes, and it’s kind of a mess, honestly. Instead of trying to transcribe it, I’ll summarize what I’ve got. First off, I identified the flags as papel picado, because I hadn’t known their actual name before. They’re connected to the Day of […]

The Big Pink Book Prompt 5: Flags and Leaves

| June 15, 2026

The next prompt in the Big Pink Book is another page with loads of room for writing. It has a small round sticker at top left that says “Here” (glittery yellow with purple text), a string of black and gold papel picado (perforated paper flags often seen at Day of the Dead events), and a […]

Fun for Friday: The Big Pink Book of Prompts, Magical Books

| June 12, 2026

On Monday, I shared the blank version of this page, and today, you get to see what I did with it! Here’s what my notes say: Hymnal of Transformation (with an arrow pointing to the books) music as magic = lyramancy RyA theme -> predicament what if you have to finish a hymn if you […]