Try Two Pages

a writing prompt for you

When words just aren’t flowing, I turn to one of the many writing books I’ve collected for inspiration. At the very end of the highest shelf is the tiny book Two Pages by Abigail Thomas.

I flip through this little gem more than just about any other book when my writing muscles feel creaky, and I never fail to find something to play with on the page.

Thomas started writing at age 48, and now at 82, has written “two collections of short stories, one tiny novel, four memoirs, a book about writing memoir, and three children’s books” and Two Pages—described on her Substack What Comes Next? like this:

This small book contains prompts for two-page exercises that Abigail Thomas, author of fiction and memoirs, assigned in writing workshops. They were compiled by her students. Use them if you need a side door into work that is too daunting to enter from the front. Use them to write something absurd or profound or to surprise yourself. Don’t worry if what you write turns out to be a little less or a lot more than two pages. That would be missing the point.

Every single page of Two Pages has three ideas. Some suggest a scene that is funny, familiar, ridiculous, or particular. Like “of searching for some lost object colored red” or “about a classroom you remember” or “in which someone hollers, ‘Love the hat!’” Most pages give three unrelated words and suggest writing about all three.

Every prompt can result in fiction, memoir, poetry, or just fun with words. Two pages is possible any time.

a writing prompt

With thanks to Abigail Thomas, here are the suggestions on page 71. Enjoy!

write two pages

• about a music lesson

• about an untrainable animal

• with scissors, blue sky, and pickle

Which one will you try today? Let us know with a comment.

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Welcome to Writing in Company! This is a community for you, whatever your experience with writing. It’s an invitation to write about what matters—grief, gratitude, grace, and more. In an off-kilter world, using our words can help us stay centered and move toward healing and wholeness. Writing in company with others saved me once. Let’s keep writing now, alone and together, and trust our words to help us see and say what matters.

Each week I share some ideas and a writing prompt, meant to be jumping-off points. Use the prompts however you like—to journal, to draft a writing project, as prayer ideas, or for another creative endeavor. If this one doesn’t resonate, look back through the archive for more. Clicking the heart to like this post helps keep my writing prompts visible and my own writer’s heart grateful.

Photo by Jan Kahánek on Unsplash