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Writing prompts

Drafts, edits, rewrites. For when the words exist but refuse to line up.

• creative Critique a short story or poem draft for the one craft weakness holding it back

  Find the one craft problem actually holding your draft back, not a list of nitpicks.

• learn Translate a dense academic or technical passage into precise English for research use

  Get a research grade translation that keeps the terminology intact, not smoothed away.

• creative Critique a personal essay draft for the moment it stops being honest

  Find the exact line where your essay flinched, so you can go back and not flinch.

• creative Plan a short story collection around one recurring image across five stories

  Build five stories around one image so the collection reads as a whole, not a pile.

• creative Explain the translation choices in a literary passage against its source text

  Get a translator's real trade offs explained, phrase by phrase, not a rewrite.

• creative Critique a short story draft for telling instead of showing

  Find every place your story states a feeling instead of dramatising it.

• work Critique a first draft cover letter for sounding generic

  Find out why your cover letter reads like it could go to anyone.

• creative Critique a poem draft for where the imagery is doing no work

  Find out which images in your poem are earning their place and which are just decoration.

• creative Plan a short story collection around a single unifying thread instead of a random pile of drafts

  Turn a folder of loose story drafts into a collection that actually hangs together.

• creative Explain why a piece of music or art moves you, in your own words

  Put words to why that song or painting gets you, every single time.

• creative Reframe a creative rejection from a gallery or publisher as specific feedback

  Stop one gallery or publisher rejection deciding whether the work is any good.

• life Translate a rambling voice note into a clear message for a family group chat

  Turn a five minute rambling voice note into a message people will actually read.

• creative Explain a plot hole in your short story before a reader spots it

  Find out if that plot hole is real before a reader points it out for you.

• creative Generate five distinct short story openings from one theme for a writer stuck on a first line

  Five genuinely different first lines, so you can stop staring at a blank page.

• creative Turn a childhood memory into a five scene short story outline

  Turn a real memory into a short story you would not be embarrassed to show anyone.

• creative Generate five opening lines for a personal essay about a formative failure

  Get five different ways into a personal essay you have been avoiding writing.

• life Write a birthday card message that does not sound like every other one

  Write a birthday message that sounds like you, not a card shop shelf.

• creative Summarise Your Own Short Story Into a Two Line Cover Letter Pitch

  Get a two line pitch for your story that says what it is actually about.

• creative Summarise a Feature Script Into a One Page Synopsis for Financiers

  Get the one page synopsis financiers actually read before requesting your script.

• creative Summarise Your Novel's Plot Into a Two Sentence Elevator Pitch

  Get your whole novel down to the two sentences you would actually say out loud.

• creative Summarise a Novel Manuscript Into a Query-Ready Comp Title Pitch

  Turn a finished manuscript into the pitch a query letter actually needs.

• creative Reframe a Flat Antagonist Into Someone With a Coherent Case

  Give your villain a reason that makes sense to them, not just to the plot.

• creative Translate Show Don't Tell Feedback Into a Concrete Rewrite

  Turn vague show don't tell feedback into an actual usable rewrite.

• learn Translate Your Own Writing Sample Into a Different Register

  Shift your writing into a different register without losing what it actually says.

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