Creative Writing Prompts

Here are some writing exercises that might stimulate your creativity and encourage you to write about the unique experiences you’ve had. If you're a caregiver writing about patients, confidentiality is essential. When we write about our patients or co-workers, we must always shield their identities. It is possible to change all the recognizable facts without sacrificing the emotional truth.

1) Try writing your nursing (or your "life") “autobiography.”

2) Write about something that happened from your point of view, then from another’s point of view.

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3) Write a “list” poem or essay: what you like, what you fear, what you wish. Begin each line with “I like,” “I fear,” or “I wish.”

4) Write a poem or essay describing some procedure or process step by step. Nursing procedures, or any daily activities that we often take for granted, make good subjects for close observation.

5) Write about a birth or death you have witnessed.

6) Make a list of ten routine things you did at work today then write about one of them—the one that seems to say to you, write about me!

7) Write about something that happened and change the ending.

8) Write about a difficult event or situation.

9) Find a favorite (or disturbing) picture or painting. Look at it for several days. Study it. Write about it.

10) Write about something you’ve always kept secret.