While creativity reflects individual inventiveness, almost all creative writers use prompts—sets of guiding instructions—to help get momentum going. Often, these work a bit like friction: they provide some resistance that allows for forward motion. Below, we suggest some prompts based on existing science micros; you can follow them as rigorously or as deviantly as you want. Feel free to invent your own, or to use other suggestions for forms such as the “Golden Shovel” and the “Larding.”

What you’re aiming for is:

• 365 words, or less. (A micro can be as long as 1000 words; short as one word.)
• You can write in any mode or genre: dialog, lines, continuous prose, comics, etc.
• You can write creative nonfiction – things that, more or less, actually happen(ed) – or fiction – imagined possibilities (but likely based in things that happen)
• Each micro should contain a single scientific idea or piece of information, one that you can back up with verifiable sources you’ll share alongside your micro

In Take Climate Action, we’ll also help you accompany your micro with a suggested tangible action someone can take in order to support our Earth’s microclimates and wellbeing for generations to come