9 writing prompts from Mike Birbiglia

I’ve started listening to Mike Birbiglia’s podcast “Working It Out”, mainly because I was a bit worried I’d had the same podcast idea as him. I ended up getting sucked in to the damn thing because he interviews a lot of comedians I really like. Hanna Gadsby, Tig Notaro, Pete Holmes and Maria Bamford are all interviewed early on.

I love the section he has in the podcast called The Slow Round where he asks the guest a question based on one of the many writing prompts he uses himself. Mike mentions “free writing” a lot, a method I really encourage my students to do. This means write as much as you can without trying to be funny, or stopping when you arrive at a conclusion or joke. Just stopping when you really can’t go on.

You can also answer prompts in list form if that’s more appealing. My lists exercise is here:

Exercise: The Power Of Lists

I feel a bit scummy paywalling someone elses work(!) but I always paywall exercises. You can hear these prompts for free by listening to Mike’s excellent podcast.