Writing Workshop: Word of the Day (Week 1)

Familiar words and their secret selves

Create a compendium of stories

Welcome to the first week of exploring how single words can take us to unexpected places.

For the next three weeks, we’re exploring words and their meanings through timed 10-minute writing prompts with an eye towards building a small body of work.

We think we know these words. We use them, read them, skip over them. But what happens when we stop and really listen, when we hold a word like “fugitive” in our mouth and let it lead us somewhere new? It might take you to that time you ran away from home at seven. Or to the escaped parakeet that lived in your garage. Or to the way love feels when it’s slipping through your fingers.

This week, we’re working with familiar words that have hidden depths. These are words you’ve probably used before, but maybe never really examined. Like old friends you’ve never asked about their childhood, these words have stories to tell if we just pause to listen.

Writing Workshop: Word of the Day (Start Here)

Are you ready to add 21 new pieces of micro prose to your TOC in the next three weeks? This post is free to all subscribers until August 31, 2025!

Guidelines

• Remember, the prompt is only a way in. Prompts are a way to get around overthinking and over stressing. It’s a way to tap into stories we might not otherwise have easy access to. Start with the prompt and then let yourself go in whatever direction you feel led.

• Micro prose is 300 words or less, not including the title, but we don’t worry about the first drafts as long as you stop at the end of the 10 minutes. Most writers will end up with a piece that’s 125-650, depending on if you write by hand or type (either is fine).

• After you title the piece, count up the words, and add it to your TOC (and the comment section below), you can then go back if you want to keep writing.

• Don’t judge your work or dismiss possibilities. What feels unexpected or irrelevant might be exactly what wants to emerge. Stay curious about where your writing leads you rather than deciding if it’s good or makes sense.

• Trust the process. Some pieces will feel “successful” and others might feel like Anne Lamott’s shitty first drafts. That’s okay! The goal is consistency and discovery, not perfection.

• Don’t pre-plan your writing. Resist the urge to think about what you’ll write before you start the timer. Let the prompt and the moment guide you.

• When you get stuck, keep your hand moving. If you hit a wall, start by describing the word in as much detail as possible. If necessary, write the last word over and over until something new emerges.

• Feedback is not required nor expected, but if you want to leave positive feedback for each other: Focus on what works rather than what doesn’t (“I loved the detail about...” rather than “good job”). Be specific and respect the generative nature—no suggestions for improvements. We want to discover what sings and encourage the writer (and ourselves) to keep exploring.

Getting Organized

Set up your binder! If you haven’t already, grab a 1” binder and 5 or 8 tab dividers. Create a new tab for this workshop behind your other sessions and label it “WW: Word of the Day.”

Download this session’s organizational materials:

• Word of the Day Cover Sheet. Add this behind the appropriate tab for this session.

• Word of the Day Table of Contents Template. Track your pieces as you create them.

• Learn more about my Binder System here and download the Binder System cover sheet, Binder System spine, and master TOC.

• Single Micro Prose Formatting Template. Type up your work, even if it’s still a first draft, and assemble your individual pieces into a working draft.

What To Do

1. Write for exactly 10 minutes, no more and no less (learn why here)

2. Finish your sentence when the timer goes off.

3. Add a title and count up your words (don’t include the title in your count)

4. Add it to your Table of Contents

5. Share in comments. Post your title and word count, or if you’re feeling brave, share the entire piece

6. At the end of the week. Type up all of your work, one micro narrative per page, and add it to your binder with the most recent piece on top. Make sure your TOC is always on the top and up to date.

Find Your Micro Buddy

Looking for an accountability partner for these 3 weeks? Leave a comment in the Writer-ish chat if you’d like to be paired with a micro buddy. Here’s how it works:

• Communication. Agree in advance to share your pieces via the Substack chat (I don’t recommend sharing email unless you already know them).

• Accountability. Agree on check-in frequency (daily, every few days, weekly)

• Feedback approach. Try the “2 + 1” method—share 2 things you love about a piece, 1 thing you’d like to know more about

• Work sharing. Decide how many pieces you’ll share with each other (3, 5, or 7 pieces total). Remember: less is always easier to start with.

• Support style. Are you cheerleaders, gentle nudgers, or detailed readers?

Having a micro buddy makes the journey more fun and helps you stay consistent. Plus, it’s amazing how much you learn about your own work when you read someone else’s. Just remember that everything is in progress and you are not trying to fix each other’s work, but celebrate what really sings.

Week 1 Word List

This week we’re working with Familiar Words with Hidden Depths - words we think we know but that can surprise us when we really listen.

Your words for Week 1 (choose any for your prompts):

• Antic - n. a playful trick or prank; adj. grotesque or bizarre

• Askew - adj. not in a straight or level position

• Bemuse - v. to puzzle, confuse, or bewilder

• Contrite - adj. feeling regret and sorrow for one’s wrongs

• Embellish - v. to make something more attractive by adding decorative details

• Fester - v. to become worse or more intense; to form pus

• Flotsam - n. debris or wreckage floating on water

• Fugitive - n. a person who has escaped; adj. quick to disappear, fleeting

• Jettison - v. to throw overboard; to discard what’s unwanted

• Livid - adj. furiously angry; discolored by bruising

• Nascent - adj. just beginning to exist; not fully formed

• Restive - adj. unable to keep still or silent; restless

• Slough - v. to shed or remove; n. a swamp or muddy place

• Untoward - adj. unexpected and inappropriate; inconvenient

• Verbose - adj. using more words than needed

Week 1 Writing Prompts

Each week, aim for 2 prompts minimum from the seven below. Micro prose wizards, if you have the time and energy to bring it on, go for 1 a day with the intention of having 21 micro prose pieces at the end of our 3 weeks. You can do it!

Set your timer for exactly 10 minutes per piece. When time’s up, finish your sentence, add a title, and count your words. Add it to your TOC and share it in the comments.

Tip: Don’t overthink your choice. Just choose a word and start writing.

Prompt 1: First Encounter

Choose a word from this week’s list. Write about the first time you remember encountering this word—not its definition, but the actual word itself. Was it in a book? Did someone say it to you? How old were you? What did you think it meant before you knew?

Prompt 2: The Sound of It

Pick a word and focus only on how it sounds. What does it remind you of? If this word were a musical instrument, what would it be? Write about a memory triggered not by the word’s meaning but purely by its sound.

Prompt 3: Mistaken Identity

Choose a word and write about a time when you (or someone else) used it wrong, misunderstood it, or confused it with another word. What happened? What did that mistake reveal or create?

Prompt 4: The Body Knows

Select a word and locate it in your body. Where does “fugitive” live—in your feet, ready to run? Where does “verbose” sit—in your throat, your chest? Write about what your body remembers when it holds this word.

Prompt 5: Opposite Day

Pick a word and write about its opposite—but not the dictionary opposite. What’s the emotional opposite? The spiritual opposite? If “askew” is crooked, what in your life has been desperately, necessarily crooked?

Prompt 6: Word as Compass

Choose a word and let it guide you through a day in your past. How would a “restive” day unfold? What would you notice on an “antic” afternoon? Let the word reshape a memory.

Prompt 7: The Word Between

Select two words from the list. Write about the space between them—the story that connects “slough” to “embellish,” or the journey from “verbose” to “fugitive.” What lives in that liminal space?

If you have time, try all the prompts again—you’ll never write the same prompt the same way twice, even if you choose the same word.

A Note on Definitions and Rules

The definitions provided are just one possibility. You have complete permission to:

• Use what you thought the word meant before you knew

• Confuse it with another word entirely

• Make the opposite true

• Invent your own definition based on sound alone

• Let the word mean what it needs to mean for your story

If “verbose” wants to mean “a green vegetable” in your piece, let it. If “fugitive” becomes “a type of pastry,” follow that thread. The definitions are here as one possible doorway, but you can build your own door—or climb through the window.

This workshop is about where words take us, not where dictionaries say they should go. Trust your mishearings, your child-logic, your dream-definitions. Often the “wrong” meaning leads to the right story.

Notes

If you’re struggling to start, try writing the word at the top of your page in different styles—cursive, print, all caps. Sometimes your hand knows things your brain doesn’t.

Remember: You’re not writing about the word’s definition. You’re using the word as a doorway.

• Which words feel comfortable in your mouth? Which ones feel foreign? There’s a story in that difference.

• Read the word list out loud before bed. See which words visit your dreams.

Next week, we’ll play with words that dance on the tongue—unusual sounds, borrowed words, and terms that feel alive. But for now, invite these familiar words reveal their secret selves.

This Week’s Challenge

Choose your most surprising piece from this week, such as one where the word took you somewhere you didn’t expect. Share the first and last line in the comments and reflect on your process. What journey did those 10 minutes contain?