Prompts for 25 Hours of New Works Festival

Below are the prompts for the 25 Hour New Work Festival. Every hour, there will be a brand new prompt! Feel free to write on any, and all, of these prompts!
 
 A couple things to consider: -Set the timer for some allotted period of time (I recommend somewhere between 10-20 minutes), and just start writing! If you’re feeling inspired at the end of the allotted time, keep going! If you don’t feel inspired, set the timer one more time and give it another shot! You can write a monologue, scene, sketch, song, poem, full length play. You can take these prompts in any direction you’d like.

Please do not worry about your work being “polished”, “complete”, etc. This is a super low key, encouraging event to just support the act of creating new work.  

Once you’ve written something- email it to andrew@youngactorsstudio.com. From there you have three choices:1) Indicate you want it written in the Festival.2) You’re not sure if you want it in the Festival. You want me to make the decision.3) You don’t want it in the Festival, but you want to at least feel like you accomplished it!

FIRST PROMPT- 10AM, January 1st, 2021

Write something where the character is holding the only source of light (e.g. a candle, flashlight, the sun, bright light emanating from their being, etc.)

SECOND PROMPT- 11AM January 1st, 2021

Recall a bizarre/wonderful/terrible Halloween outfit you’ve worn. Now write something in which a character is wearing that outfit… and it’s not Halloween.

THIRD PROMPT- 12PM, January 1st, 2021

Take a seemingly tedious, annoying experience you’ve had, and write it as a children’s fairy tale.

Fourth Prompt- 1PM, January 1st, 2021

Write something where the characters cannot sit, walk, or stand (e.g. they can swim, float, parachute, bicycle, trampoline, hover).

Fifth Prompt- 2PM, January 1st, 2021

Take the thing you were most obsessed with at 10 years old, and write something

Sixth Prompt- 3PM, January 1st, 2021

Write something in which one character can only have one word lines, and the other characters has lines that go on at least for a couple sentences.

Seventh Prompt- 4PM, January 1st, 2021

Take a particular habit that really annoys you, and write a character who engages in this habit to an incredible degree.

Eighth Prompt- 5PM- January 1st, 2021

Take a particular extreme weather day, and have a character wearing clothes completely wrong for the weather.

Ninth Prompt- 6PM- January 1st, 2021

Whatever you write must include this line “The last dog I saw had three eyes”

Tenth Prompt- 7PM- January 1st, 2021

Write something set 100 years in the future where they are uncovering an “artifact” from 2020.

Eleventh Prompt- 8PM- January 1st, 2021

Take the most boring place you can think of, and have a character begin with “Oh my god!!!!!!!!!!!” (with that exact amount of exclamation points)

Twelfth Prompt- 9PM- January 1st, 2021

Write something from the perspective of an animal or insect.

Thirteenth Prompt- 10PM- January 1st, 2021

Write something in which a character shows a very elaborate tattoo.

Fourteenth Prompt- 11PM- January 1st, 2021

Take something you value. Now write something in which a character is destroying that thing for a particular reason.

Fifteenth Prompt- 12AM- January 2nd, 2021

Whatever you write must include a magic spell

Sixteenth Prompt- 1AM- January 2nd, 2021

Write something in which the character(s) are physically incapable of moving anything but their heads

Seventeenth Prompt- 2AM- January 2nd, 2021

Write something that takes place at 2am with a character laughing (or crying) hysterically.

Eighteenth Prompt- 3AM- January 2nd, 2021

Write something in which a character is a compulsive liar

Nineteenth Prompt- 4AM- January 2nd, 2021

Write something in which the entire thing is whispered.

Twentieth Prompt- 5AM- January 2nd, 2021

Write something in which a character has just gotten out of a massive (literal, metaphorical, emotional, physical) hole.

Twenty First Prompt- 6AM- January 2nd, 2021

Write something in which a character is hiding.

Twenty Second Prompt- 7AM- January 2nd, 2021

Take the most annoying song you can think of. Now write something in which it’s your character’s favorite song and they are either singing or dancing to it.

Twenty Third Prompt- 8AM- January 2nd, 201

Whatever you write must include three different languages being spoken at some point.

Twenty Fourth Prompt-9AM- January 2nd, 2021

Write something in which an incredibly beautiful character is trapped in an incredibly ugly place. NOTE: Beautiful and ugly can mean whatever you want to you- physical, spiritual, emotional, etc.

Twenty Fifth Prompt-10AM- January 2nd, 2021

Write something in which an incredibly ugly character is trapped in an incredibly beautiful place. NOTE: Beautiful and ugly can mean whatever you want to you- physical, spiritual, emotional, etc.

Twenty Sixth Prompt- 11AM- January 2nd, 2021

Write something in which a character is ageless.

Twenty Seventh Prompt- 12PM- January 2nd, 2021

Write something that is intended for a future version of you.

Twenty Eighth Prompt- 1PM- January 2nd, 2021

Write something in which a character is buying a MASSIVE amount of some ordinary item. (for example, bottle of water, hand soap, laundry detergent)

Twenty Ninth Prompt- 2PM- January 2nd, 2021

Take a place you’ve never been before. And set what you write there.

Thirtieth Prompt- 3PM- January 2nd, 2021

Take your favorite game you played at recess as a kid. And write with a character(s) playing that game for the last time.

Thirty First Prompt- 4PM- January 2nd, 2021

Whatever you write must include a massive physical change in the character (they get injured, they shrink to one foot, they transform into some creature, etc.)

Thirty Second Prompt- 5PM- January 2nd, 2021

Write something that takes place in 1996

Thirty Third Prompt- 6PM- January 2nd, 2021

Whatever you write must include a character digging a hole to bury something.

Thirty Fourth Prompt- 7PM- January 2nd, 2021

Whatever you write must include a love poem in which a character compares their love to a planet.

Thirty Fifth Prompt- 8PM- January 2nd, 2021

Write something in which two characters exist at least 100 years apart from one another (example: two intersecting monologues- one set is 2020, the other set in 1920; or a scene between a person from 1400 visiting someone in 2020)

Thirty Sixth Prompt- 9PM- January 2nd, 2021

Take your favorite children’s book, and use that as some kind of inspiration for whatever you write.

Thirty Seventh Prompt- 10PM- January 2nd, 2021

Take a recipe for something you love to eat, and use that to write something.