The prompts I write and use are most often written about people doing something, or a person saying something, or something happening. Like:
And then there was an explosion. 
She opened the door.
"Oh no," he said.
Like that.
I like prompts of that nature, because even though they are specific, they are also open-ended. However, I'll be the first to admit that I can get stuck in a rut. Give me a break on this, I'm a Cancer, and we like routine and stability.
Once shown the way out of a rut, however, I will cautiously enthusiastically embrace the new. And the other night at my writing group, our fearless leader offered up a different kind of prompt, one that I ultimately wrote seven, count 'em, seven pages on. (A wee bit of back-story here. My writing group has been meeting for over ten years with me part of it for nearly eight, reading and commenting on each other's work. But lately our output has been sporadic. And so Karen instituted a new rule: if nobody shows up with work, we write. Hence, the prompt.)
So here was the prompt of the evening:
Write about a memorable gift.
And I did.
So herewith, some prompts of a different color. Write about:
Your favorite toy.
Your first car.
Your first kiss.
A road trip.
The first time you rode on a plane.
Your best birthday.
The best day of your life.
The worst day of your life.
Those ought to get you started. And remember, the "you" in the prompts can be you, or you writing as one of your characters. So have at it, and report back here to tell how it went if you like. As always, you're also welcome to post the result of the prompt in the comments section.
PS. For the last few months, I've been amassing a collection of prompts. I've got about six months worth of them written, and I want to put them together into an inexpensive product to sell. Here's my question: what would your preferred deliver method for prompts be? For instance, would you like to have them all together in a PDF Ebook that you could print out and put in your journal? Or would you prefer to have one emailed to you each day? Or perhaps seven of them emailed to you each Sunday? I'd love to have your input.
Jessica Baverstock
I don’t yet have an opinion one way or the other about preferred delivery method. I’ve been so distracted with my current project that I haven’t used these prompts. (Sorry!)
However, I just wanted to say that ‘The worst day of your life’ can be quite revealing. I once heard about the worst day of someone’s life, and it was only much later it occurred to me that the worst day wasn’t watching someone die or go through medical trauma (which this person would have experienced a lot of) but it was a far more personal and emotional reason.
So I would think that prompt could be used to dig deeper into a character – not just picking the obvious (when dad died) but something more subtle and perhaps unexpected.
Charlotte Dixon
Jessica, I’m actually glad you’ve been so busy with your current project that you’ve not used any of my prompts. Yay for you! And that’s quite an interesting take on “the worst day of your life.” Hmmmm, makes me curious to hear more. And to experiment with it myself.