Use any of the following to start a piece of fiction or non-fiction:

1. Jessie shuffled his feet into the dirty ………
2. Opening the envelope, she peeked inside before gently removing ………
3. Memorial Day is a time for ………

Write a piece of flash fiction - complete within 500 words or less - or a piece of non-fiction of the same length - that uses the main theme of the exercise:

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One of the main factors being blamed for the state of our environment is air travel.  Are you willing to give up the possibility of flying to your favorite (or dream) destination in order to reduce the pollution in the atmosphere?  Write an opinion essay on this issue.

Write either a piece of fiction where your protagonist is in a position of facing a phobia in order to achieve her goal, or a piece of non-fiction about phobias: what they mean to those who have them, and how they can be overcome.

What’s your favorite brew?  What’s the drink you are most likely to reach for if you’re thirsty?  Write a journal entry about your favorite drink: what it is, how often you’re likely to drink it in a day, what you like about it, how you feel when you realize that there isn’t any in the house, and so on.

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Use any of the following in a piece of fiction or non-fiction:

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As American Idol draws to a close this week I thought it would be fun to use this in an exercise.  Use the American Idol setup as the backdrop for a scene of fiction, or a non-fiction article. 

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Use all of the following words in a piece of fiction – there’s 15 of them today and they all start with the same letter, M for May!

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As the amount of international disasters multiples, it seems as though we are always being guilted into contributing financially to one aid organization or another.  First of all, where’s your passion?  Are you for, or against, these organizations using the media in such as way that guilts you in such a way as to give money that you can’t really spare?  Using the side that you feel strongest about, write the for or against on this debate issue.

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There’s a lot of talk about everyone’s personal environmental footprint, about how each individual is responsible for a proportion of the environmental situation that we’re in and how we just examine our lifestyle to see how big a footprint we’re leaving.  Today I’d like you to take the idea of leaving a footprint, but put it into a social setting.

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