prompts

Penny Prompts – Age is a Number

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In celebration of the upcoming release, at the end of this month, of Louise Penny’s newest Armand Gamache mystery book, Mrs. Wolcott’s Ghost, I invite you to join me each Wednesday from now until October 27th for special writing prompts I’ve devised using excerpts from her books.

While on our summer holiday, we stopped for tea at the Three Pines Cafe, which may have been the impetus for doing this series now.

(c)2026

“…wiped the condensation off the bathroom mirror and a man in his late fifties appeared…”
 
“Though it happened each and every morning, the face that looked back could still surprise him. Away from any reflection, he was in his early forties. But each morning he was reminded that was not actually true.”

Armand Gamache, The Black Wolf by Louise Penny

I think many of us have had this same moment that Armand is feeling when something comes up that we are no longer able to do or look into the mirror accidentally and wonder who that is looking back at us.

At a conference, and I may have written about this before, I was asked my age, and I replied, “38.” Friends, I was 48, and it took me a full ten minutes or more to realize that. Even now, more than a decade later, I still think I’m 38 give or take a few years.

Today’s prompt is:

How old do  you feel? If you could go back to any age in your past (or perhaps a future age), what is it about that age that makes it a happy time for you? What are things you did then that you don’t do now (for whatever reason) that you would like to do again? What about things you did that you don’t necessarily regret, but what would you have thought twice about or not done with the wisdom you now have?

Writing Prompt

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[I’m checking out a new book of writing prompts. To be honest, I usually find these unhelpful because, as a writer, I can usually write my own prompts, but in previewing this book, I like how it’s set up, and thought I’d share a few of them with you over the next few weeks.]

This prompt comes from the book, 5-Minute Daily Writing Prompts: 501 Prompts to Unleash Creativity and Spark Inspiration by Tarn Wilson, currently on sale in the Kindle Store for $1.99

Prompt 40

Adventure, Plot

Brainstorm ways characters could be confined in a space together (stuck on an island, in an airplane, in a stopped elevator, etc.). Choose one. Decide which characters are in the space.

Continue the Story Write a scene in which they are in conflict.

[Note: Exercising my right of personal preference: By the time this prompt posts, I will be almost three weeks post-op from my torn Achilles tendon repair surgery, which means for the last three weeks, I’ve been more or less in bed, staring at my family who has been helping me, which is kind of like being confined in a space together since my bed was moved to the first floor, etc., so I might be writing about this experience. Time will tell, as you’re reading this in the future from my writing it in the past. Have a good week. Welcome (soon) Fall, but not literally, let’s just say Welcome Autumn.]

Writing Prompt

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[I’m checking out a new book of writing prompts. To be honest, I usually find these unhelpful because, as a writer, I can usually write my own prompts, but in previewing this book, I like how it’s set up, and thought I’d share a few of them with you over the next few weeks.]

This prompt comes from the book, 5-Minute Daily Writing Prompts: 501 Prompts to Unleash Creativity and Spark Inspiration by Tarn Wilson, currently on sale in the Kindle Store for $1.99

Prompt 23

Memoir, First Lines

Begin a story or memoir with “The first time I saw. . .” You might write about a person,m, place, animal, landscape, or object.

Continue the Story End your story or memoir with “The last time I saw. . .”

Writing Prompt

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[I’m checking out a new book of writing prompts. To be honest, I usually find these unhelpful because, as a writer, I can usually write my own prompts, but in previewing this book, I like how it’s set up, and thought I’d share a few of them with you over the next few weeks.]

This prompt comes from the book, 5-Minute Daily Writing Prompts: 501 Prompts to Unleash Creativity and Spark Inspiration by Tarn Wilson, currently on sale in the Kindle Store for $1.99

Prompt 13

Fantasy

A character is assembling a jigsaw puzzle and realizes the image is of their own kitchen – with one difference. What do they see?

Continue the Story They look up from the puzzle, and…

Writing Prompt

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[I’m checking out a new book of writing prompts. To be honest, I usually find these unhelpful because, as a writer, I can usually write my own prompts, but in previewing this book, I like how it’s set up, and thought I’d share a few of them with you over the next few weeks.]

This prompt comes from the book, 5-Minute Daily Writing Prompts: 501 Prompts to Unleash Creativity and Spark Inspiration by Tarn Wilson, currently on sale in the Kindle Store for $1.99

Prompt 5

Mystery

Your character goes down to the basement to get something and notices the pale outline of a hidden door. They open it to find an elaborate labyrinth of tunnels.

Continue the Story What happened 100 years earlier?

Writing Prompt

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[I’m checking out a new book of writing prompts. To be honest, I usually find these unhelpful because, as a writer, I can usually write my own prompts, but in previewing this book, I like how it’s set up, and thought I’d share a few of them with you over the next few weeks.]

This prompt comes from the book, 5-Minute Daily Writing Prompts: 501 Prompts to Unleash Creativity and Spark Inspiration by Tarn Wilson, currently on sale in the Kindle Store for $1.99

Prompt 3

Memoir, Voice

Remember a place you have lived that has emotional significance. In the voice of a tour guide, introduce someone to this place.

Continue the Story The tour guide shares important “historical events” from your life.

National Biographer’s Day

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Today is one of those made up holidays (aren’t they all) that caught my eye as I was planning the subjects for this month’s writing. I have taken a memoir class for the last thirteen years, and now that I’m working again, I won’t be able to return. This has made me fall into my feels, so I thought that memoir is very similar to biographies, and as it turns out today is National Biographer’s Day, which isn’t as generic as I thought it would be.

It commemorates the anniversary of the first day that Samuel Johnson met his biographer, James Boswell in 1763 in London. Samuel Johnson was an English writer and the biography written about him is said to be one of the most celebrated English biographies. Dr. Johnson himself was a biographer in his own right in addition to his other writing talents.

He is also known to have said that the “best biographers were those who ate, drank, and ‘lived in social intercourse’ with those about whom they wrote.”

In honor of this momentous occasion, a few thoughts, suggestions, and writing prompts:

  • 1. What is the best/most satisfying biography you’ve read?
  • 2. Whose biography would you like to read but haven’t yet?
  • 3. Begin writing a biography of someone you care about or want to discover more about.
  • 4. It’s not biography as much as autobiography or memoir, but write a few paragraphs of your own biography. Start anywhere in your life.

Spend your weekend learning about others and yourself.