2025 Get Started Right Writing Challenge: Day 5

For the fifth day of this 10-day Get Started Right Writing Challenge, let’s get back to writing.

Write for at least 15 minutes. If you’ve been writing every day anyway, that’s great. Here’s a little extra time. You can write fiction, poetry, nonfiction, or whatever strikes your fancy. And you don’t have to finish whatever you start or even be happy with what you write. Just write.

Not sure what to write? Then, I’ve got a few prompts you can peruse:

• 100 Creative Writing Prompts.
• 25 Plot Twist Ideas.
• 30 Poetry Prompts.
• 6 Types of Creative Nonfiction Essays to Try.

So find a good starting place, set your timers, and get writing…and share what you write in the comments. Of course, you can always pick up where you left off on Day 2 as well.

Note on commenting: If you wish to comment on the site, go to Disqus to create a free new account, verify your account on this site below (one-time thing), and then comment away. It’s free, easy, and the comments (for the most part) don’t require manual approval like on the old site.

*****

Writer’s Digest University is pleased to present an exclusive virtual conference for novel writers! On January 24-26, our Novel Writing Virtual Conference will provide expert insights from SEVEN award-winning and best-selling authors on the finer points of how to write a novel.

Click to continue.

*****

Here’s my 15-minute writing session:

“random Shock City scene,” Robert Lee Brewer

Jacob started to open the door and then called back to the cashier, “Are there any good radio stations out here?”

The cashier whistled and replied, “There’s that one country station, but they don’t play much country anymore. Not real country. There’s a college station that plays bluegrass on Saturday evenings. But it’s Thursday, so I guess that don’t help. Hmm…”

“Well, thanks anyway.”

“Yep,” replied the cashier thoughtfully, and then, he seemed to turn deadly serious. “Just make sure you stay to the main road and hightail it outta here while you can.”

“What?”

“If you’re passing through,” he repeated, “it’s best that you keep moving, because this ain’t the kinda place you want to get stranded in, and that’s probably all I can say.”

Just then, Jacob heard a loud noise outside. Almost like a growl mixed with a yelp. Something large out in the shadows. Something that made him want to jump fully back into the store and bar the doors. And then, he watched in disbelief as something, maybe night itself, swooped into the light where the gas pumps were and took his car…his entire car!

Jacob fell backward from shock, and the cashier ran over and locked the door while looking out the window, surely just seeing his own reflection.

“Well, dang, mister,” he said. “It looks like you missed your chance.”