⏳ Weekly Writing Prompt | November 23: What You Alone Love
“The secret is not to write about what you love best, but about what you, alone, love at all.”
Welcome to the Weekly Writers’ Hour Contest!
This is a prompt-only week (no contest, no submission window, no prize) just an invitation to notice what moves you. From now through early January, we’ll continue sharing a weekly prompt to keep help keep the words flowing. The full Weekly Writers’ Hour Contest returns in mid-January 2026.
This week’s prompt is an invitation to notice the small, specific things you love, and to write from that spark.
📝 PROMPT
This week, make a list of things that stir your emotions.
Be as specific as you can. Choose one item from your list.
Write about it.
Write in the genre of your choosing.
There is no contest submission window for this prompt. We’ll resume the full contest (prizes, publication, and editorial selection) in mid-January.
A Note from Our Editorial Team
This week’s prompt asks you to pay attention to the things that move you. It’s inspired by Annie Dillard’s reminder: “The secret is not to write about what you love best, but about what you, alone, love at all.”
Dillard wasn’t urging writers toward grand passions or universal themes. She was pointing us toward the odd, intimate particulars, the things that tug at your attention for reasons you can’t fully articulate.
One way to approach this prompt is to begin with a list. Let it be loose and instinctive. Write down anything that stirs you: a scratch on a wooden table, the way someone you loved tied their shoes, the smell of a certain subway station in summer, a phrase your grandmother mispronounced.
Choose one item from the list and follow that detail into a new piece of writing.
Congratulations to the winners of Ghosts of First Drafts Past!
We are thrilled to share the contest results for the week of October 26. Writers were invited to revisit a piece of writing that had been left behind. Special thanks once again to our guest judge, Kailey Brennan DelloRusso.
First Place: You Should Go Into the Woods by Audrey Adams
Second Place: Wednesdays by Gabriele Hickman
Third Place: So, how are you feeling? by Jocelyn Cheek
Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to everyone who participated. It’s a pleasure to share these pieces with you.
PS: ✍️ Write with us daily at Writers’ Hour
Come work on your submission at Writers’ Hour—our daily silent writing sprints—where writers around the world gather together to write. It’s the perfect environment to focus, share space with other writers, and make progress on your contest entry.
If you’re craving more creative community or a steadier writing rhythm, you’re always welcome inside the London Writers’ Salon. Our members write together, learn together, and support one another all year long. Learn more about membership.
🔒 Paid Subscriber Perk: Editorial Feedback Lottery
This week, three paid subscribers will be chosen at random to receive personalized feedback on up to 500 words written in response to this prompt.
How to enter the feedback lottery: