Notes from the Inkpot
Writing, teaching, creating - one ink-stained idea at a time.
How to Teach Animal Farm: Practical Strategies, Discussion Ideas, and Activities That Actually Work
Teaching Animal Farm works best when you slow students down and focus on how Orwell builds power through language, propaganda, and responsibility. In this post, I break down how to teach it without drowning students in context, share activities that actually work in the classroom, and include a free set of Chapter 1 creative writing prompts you can use straight away.
31 Daily Writing Prompts for March: Voices Unheard
This month’s 31 prompts give voice to the women history forgot to hear — from myth and fairytale to modern retellings and speculative futures. Released in time for International Women’s Day, Voices Unheard invites writers to reimagine the silenced, the forgotten, and the misrepresented — and finally let them speak.
The Distance Fragments: A Free Poetry Writing Experience for Blackout & Erasure Poetry
The Distance Fragments is a free poetry writing experience designed for slower, more reflective writing. Built around blackout poetry, erasure, images, and fragment-led prompts, the collection invites writers to work through removal rather than expansion — noticing what remains once language is pared back. This resource acts as a taster for a new series of fragment-led poetry prompt collections, offering open-ended materials that can be used independently, combined, or revisited over time. Ideal for writers, teachers, and classrooms exploring blackout poetry or contemplative creative writing, The Distance Fragments prioritises space, restraint, and return over speed or completion.
Ekphrastic Writing for the Classroom: Art, Photo & Science Prompts for English Teachers
Ekphrastic writing — responding to art with words — is one of the most powerful ways to build voice, imagination, and close observation in the English classroom. This ultimate guide pulls together classical paintings, surreal artworks, historical photographs, sculpture, science imagery, and AI visuals, with practical teaching ideas, student prompts, and cross-curricular extensions. Whether you’re planning a cover lesson, a full unit, or a gallery walk, this is the resource you’ll want bookmarked.
What Are Digital Writing Boxes? (And Why Teachers & Writers Are Quietly Obsessed)
Digital writing boxes are downloadable sets of fictional relics and documents that spark creative writing through curiosity, investigation, and worldbuilding. In this post, I break down what they are, why they work for both teachers and writers, and how The Soot & Shadows Series blends historical mystery, folklore, and atmospheric relics into a flexible creative writing tool. If you’re tired of prompts that say “imagine a door…,” you’ll love this.
70 February Writing Prompts for Teens: Story Starters, Characters, Settings & Visual Ideas
February offers rich creative material that often gets overshadowed by Valentine’s Day. This post includes 70 writing prompts for teens that explore winter landscapes, folklore, survival, community, and seasonal change. With plot hooks, titles, opening lines, characters, settings, and picture prompts, it’s ideal for classroom or home learning in early spring.
2000+ Creative Writing Prompts for Teens (Ultimate Master List by Genre, Trope, Season & Month)
Explore more than 2000 creative writing prompts for teens in this growing master list. Each themed collection includes 70 original prompts designed to spark imagination, build storytelling confidence, and support daily writing habits. Browse by genre, trope, holiday, season or month to find the right ideas for fiction writing, journaling or creative warm-ups. New collections are added every Friday, making this resource ideal for teen writers, creative writing clubs, homeschool and classroom activities. Bookmark this page and return as the list expands.
70 Urban Fantasy Writing Prompts for Teens: Story Starters, Characters, Settings & Visual Ideas
Urban fantasy fuses magic with the modern world—think secret covens behind coffee shops, cursed metro lines, and enchanted city streets. In this post you’ll find 70 creative writing prompts for teens, including plot hooks, titles, opening lines, characters, settings, and picture prompts to spark fresh stories.
70 New Year Writing Prompts for Teens: Midnight Thresholds, Hidden Promises, and the Moment Between Years
This collection of 70 New Year writing prompts for teens explores the moment between years: when time turns, promises are made in secret, and the future feels both vast and unforgiving. Drawing on themes of Father Time, midnight thresholds, hidden resolutions, and cosmic consequence, these prompts invite writers into stories where celebration fades and meaning sharpens. Blending contemporary realism with magical realism, gothic atmosphere, and high-fantasy imagery, the prompts include plot hooks, story starters, character ideas, settings, and cinematic visual prompts — perfect for classrooms, writing clubs, or independent writers ready to explore what it really means to step into a new year.
70 January Writing Prompts for Teens: New Beginnings, Aftermaths, and Turning Points
January is a month of quiet turning points — what comes after the celebrations, when routines return and choices begin to matter. This collection of 70 January writing prompts invites teen writers to explore aftermath, new beginnings, and moments of change through plot hooks, opening and closing lines, character ideas, settings, and visual prompts designed for classrooms or independent writing.
70 Christmas Writing Prompts for Teens: Story Starters, Characters, Settings & Visual Ideas
Christmas is a season full of contrasts — cozy fireplaces and glittering lights, but also mystery, magic, and the occasional bit of chaos. These prompts invite teen writers to explore the holiday across genres, from festive romance and fantasy adventures to gothic tales and eerie mysteries. With 70 story starters, titles, characters, settings, and picture prompts, this collection sparks creativity for classrooms or independent writing, offering fresh takes on the season that go far beyond the expected.
A Million Stories in One: The Most Unexpected Christmas Gift for Creative Writers
Finding a Christmas gift for a writer is almost impossible. Another notebook won’t surprise them, and they already own every pen they need. What they really want isn’t stationery — it’s a spark. A doorway. A story waiting to begin.
This December, discover a gift that feels like a secret unearthed rather than something grabbed from a shelf. Digital writing boxes: immersive worlds built from fragments, clues, and forgotten documents, where nothing is explained and everything can become a story. A present that unfolds slowly, invites curiosity, and contains a million possibilities inside a single download.
If you’re searching for something rare, atmospheric, and unforgettable — a gift that feels like discovery — explore the four worlds waiting inside.
70 Winter Writing Prompts for Teens: Story Starters, Characters, Settings & Visual Ideas
Winter is more than just cold weather — it’s a season of stark beauty, hidden dangers, and powerful contrasts. From frozen forests and snowbound trains to icy queens and weary travelers, these prompts invite teen writers to explore survival, mystery, fantasy, and gothic tales shaped by winter’s grip. This collection of 70 prompts includes story starters, titles, characters, settings, and picture prompts, perfect for classrooms or independent writing.
31 Daily Writing Prompts for December: The Longest Night
Step into December with thirty-one hauntingly beautiful prompts inspired by the winter solstice. From cursed carolers to frost-lit markets and mirrors that show more than the year ahead, The Longest Night blends folklore, myth, and midwinter magic. Each prompt includes an image, opening and closing lines, and a plot idea — ready to spark stories in the classroom or at your own desk.
70 November Writing Prompts for Teens: Story Starters, Characters, Settings & Visual Ideas
November is full of contrasts — cozy fires and autumn leaves, but also secrets, shadows, and sudden chaos. From Bonfire Night and the Gunpowder Plot to Thanksgiving tables and Black Friday crowds, this month brims with inspiration. These 70 prompts include story starters, titles, characters, settings, and picture prompts to spark teen writers’ imaginations all season long.
1000 Creative Writing Prompts: Spark Imagination in Every Classroom and Notebook
Discover a free collection of 1000 Creative Writing Prompts designed to spark imagination in every classroom and notebook. From eerie openings to beautiful settings and clever twists, this downloadable PDF is packed with story ideas for teachers, students, and writers who want to make creativity part of their daily routine.
70 October Writing Prompts for Teens: Spooky Starters, Autumn Titles, Characters, Settings & Visual Ideas
October is the perfect month for storytelling—misty nights, glowing lanterns, and the thrill of Halloween in the air. This collection of 70 October writing prompts for teens is packed with spooky plot hooks, atmospheric titles, eerie opening and closing lines, character and setting ideas, and detailed picture prompts to spark your imagination. Whether you’re writing ghost stories, autumn adventures, or a hint of magical realism, you’ll find inspiration to carry you through the season.
70 Halloween Writing Prompts for Teens: Story Starters, Titles, Characters, Settings & Visual Ideas
Get into the spooky spirit with 70 Halloween writing prompts designed for teen writers. From eerie plot hooks and chilling titles to haunted settings and creepy character ideas, this collection brings the mystery and magic of October to life. Perfect for classrooms or young writers, these prompts encourage creativity through suspense, atmosphere, and a touch of fear.
Dark Inheritance: 31 Haunting October Writing Prompts for Teachers and Teens
October is the perfect month for eerie storytelling, and Dark Inheritance delivers 31 gothic-inspired prompts packed with secrets, curses, and unsettling twists. Each daily prompt includes a title, image, opening line, closing line, and full plot idea—ideal for classrooms or independent writers who want to embrace the darker side of creativity this Halloween season.
The Silent Directive: A Creative Writing Box Inspired by a World Without Sound
What if silence wasn’t a choice, but the law? In our latest writing boxThe Silent Directive, citizens live under a regime where sound itself is treason. Broadcasts, memos, detention registers, and propaganda leaflets reveal a world where silence is loyalty, silence is safety, and silence is survival. Unlike my other writing boxes, this one doesn’t whisper secrets — it issues orders in plain sight.