Two things are certain in the life of a writer from around these parts. The first is that the mountains have always been storytellers. It might be a romantic view of Appalachia but it doesn’t make it less true. The second is that one of the best ways to craft a story idea is to simply start with a writing prompt. Our own Linda Hoagland has preached that lesson to us for years at out monthly meetings.
Long before we ever put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboards), these ridges and hollers carried voices across time. Family stories were passed across kitchen tables, songs rising from front porches echoed, and memories were stitched into the land itself. To write about Appalachia is not only to describe a place. It is to listen to it.
Appalachian writer Silas House has often spoken about how place is inseparable from identity. That the land shapes the people and the people shape the stories. That very relationship is a gift to writers. The mountains give us endless starting points such as mystery, endurance, beauty, isolation, humor, and fierce love of home.
If you’re looking for a way into a new piece of writing, let the landscape guide you. Below are a few writing prompts inspired by Appalachian terrain and spirit. There are no rules here — just doorways. Walk through whichever one calls to you.
Prompt: A thick mountain fog rolls in so fast and unexpected that erases the road ahead. While walking through it your character hears a voice calling their name. It’s a voice that they recognize from a long time ago. Who is calling? And why now? Let the fog blur the line between the past and the present.
Prompt: There’s an old house sitting where the forest begins. No one in town can agree on who built it or why is was left abandoned. One evening a light appears in the upstairs window. Who lit it and what do they want? Write from the perspective of someone who has lived close by for their entire life.
*Place is memory and place is story. This is often echoed in the work of Appalachian writers who understand that the land hold history and keeps score.
Prompt: I remember the last Five and Dime in Virginia. It was owned by my friend’s grandfather. For this prompt, the final (pick a unique store to your town) store in a small mountain town is closing after 100 years. On the last day people come not just to shop, but to remember. Write a series of scenes that take place inside the store over the course of that final day. Focus on familiar objects, smell, overheard conversations.
*Ron Rash has written about Appalachia with a deep sense of time layered over the place. The feeling that every location contains the lives that passed through it.
Prompt: Your character has always been told not to climb a certain peak near where he lives. The old folks say the mountain is alive. Not in a metaphorical way, but in a literal one. It is aware. One day your character(s) decides to go anyway. Describe the climb. What changes along the way? What does the mountain know about them?
Prompt: Your character writes a letter while sitting on a porch overlooking a valley at dusk. The letter is to someone they lost either through distance, death, or time. The mountains hold memories they cannot say out loud. Write the letter in full.
*Theme—the tension between staying rooted and being pulled away. This is a classic theme in Appalachian literature.
Share your prompts with the guild. We would love to share a few of them here online.
Long before we ever put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboards), these ridges and hollers carried voices across time. Family stories were passed across kitchen tables, songs rising from front porches echoed, and memories were stitched into the land itself. To write about Appalachia is not only to describe a place. It is to listen to it.
Appalachian writer Silas House has often spoken about how place is inseparable from identity. That the land shapes the people and the people shape the stories. That very relationship is a gift to writers. The mountains give us endless starting points such as mystery, endurance, beauty, isolation, humor, and fierce love of home.
If you’re looking for a way into a new piece of writing, let the landscape guide you. Below are a few writing prompts inspired by Appalachian terrain and spirit. There are no rules here — just doorways. Walk through whichever one calls to you.
Prompt: A thick mountain fog rolls in so fast and unexpected that erases the road ahead. While walking through it your character hears a voice calling their name. It’s a voice that they recognize from a long time ago. Who is calling? And why now? Let the fog blur the line between the past and the present.
Prompt: There’s an old house sitting where the forest begins. No one in town can agree on who built it or why is was left abandoned. One evening a light appears in the upstairs window. Who lit it and what do they want? Write from the perspective of someone who has lived close by for their entire life.
*Place is memory and place is story. This is often echoed in the work of Appalachian writers who understand that the land hold history and keeps score.
Prompt: I remember the last Five and Dime in Virginia. It was owned by my friend’s grandfather. For this prompt, the final (pick a unique store to your town) store in a small mountain town is closing after 100 years. On the last day people come not just to shop, but to remember. Write a series of scenes that take place inside the store over the course of that final day. Focus on familiar objects, smell, overheard conversations.
*Ron Rash has written about Appalachia with a deep sense of time layered over the place. The feeling that every location contains the lives that passed through it.
Prompt: Your character has always been told not to climb a certain peak near where he lives. The old folks say the mountain is alive. Not in a metaphorical way, but in a literal one. It is aware. One day your character(s) decides to go anyway. Describe the climb. What changes along the way? What does the mountain know about them?
Prompt: Your character writes a letter while sitting on a porch overlooking a valley at dusk. The letter is to someone they lost either through distance, death, or time. The mountains hold memories they cannot say out loud. Write the letter in full.
*Theme—the tension between staying rooted and being pulled away. This is a classic theme in Appalachian literature.
Share your prompts with the guild. We would love to share a few of them here online.
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