'The trees sway, stars in their hair' - 12 writing prompts for December

Writing with the Seasons - December 2024

Welcome to Writing with the Seasons, a series of writing prompts, ideas and inspiration. If you’re not already a subscriber, you can sign up here!

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To bring the year to a close, here are 12 writing prompts inspired by deep space and the dark skies of winter. These are suitable for writing poetry, fiction and non-fiction and, I hope, will keep you writing throughout the festive season. Set a timer for at least ten minutes and start writing!

✨ #1 — ‘The trees sway, stars in their hair. Amidst ice, in the fog, a rock rests like God’s thumb’ writes Finnish poet Sirkka Turkka (translated by Emily Jeremiah).

Writing prompt: Write a scene in which the natural world comes alive under the night sky.

✨ #2 — In Jon Fosse’s novel ‘A Shining’ (translated from Norwegian by Damion Searles), a man starts driving without knowing where he’s going. On an isolated path, his car gets stuck. It’s dark, it begins to snow and instead of going to find help, he moves towards the dark forest. He says:

It’s silent. Totally silent. Yes, so quiet that it’s like you can reach out and touch the silence, and I stop. And then I stand there and listen to the silence. And it’s like the silence is speaking to me. But a silence can’t speak, can it. Yes, silence can speak in its way, and the voice you hear when it does, yes, whose voice it is.

Writing prompt: On this quiet December day, write about listening to silence.

✨ #3 — Dava Sobel’s book ‘The Planets’ explores the solar system in terms of science, history, mythology and the personal stories we carry. It begins:

My planet fetish began aged eight—around the time I learned that Earth had siblings in space, just as I had older brothers in high school. The presence of neighbouring worlds was a revelation at once specific and mysterious, for although each planet bore a name and held a place in the Sun's family, little was known about them. Pluto and Mercury, like Paris and Moscow, only better, beckoned a childish imagination.

Writing prompt: List 5-10 of your associations with the planets and space. Try to hone in on concrete, external details e.g. school projects, a memory of looking up at the moon, how you feel about travelling to the moon. Be alert for anything that catches your attention as Pam Houston calls these “glimmers.” When you’ve drafted your list, choose one glimmering idea to develop further.