WRITING PROMPTS | PROMPTLY WRITTEN

Prompt Yourself: Weekly Prompts May 19–26 (Gossip Guuuurl)

Writing prompts to tempt your muses

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Gossip is everywhere. It’s online, it’s on the playground, it’s at the office. We all know it when we hear it, and it’s pretty easy to think of gossiping as purely negative, but gossip isn’t always malicious, is it?

Although gossip is usually just “talking about a person behind their back,” it’s not necessarily cruel or petty. Sometimes it’s just how people connect, make sense of things, or share news. (Is that news usually juicy? Maybe. But that’s what makes gossip fun.)

When it comes to fiction, gossip can be a powerful tool. It can stir up trouble, reveal something a character hoped to keep buried, or change the way someone is seen — without a single fact ever being confirmed. A well-placed rumor can kick off a whole story.

The prompts below are all about the messy, intriguing world of gossip — half-truths, overheard conversations, reputations built or broken, secrets that were never meant to get out — and how we can use gossip and its consequences to drive our stories.

Before we get started, here are a couple of quick reminders:

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