If you are a poet looking for fresh prompts go straight to the archive of Poets Online. Poets Online only accept responses to their prompts but there is plenty of stimulus here.

Note that the Daily Grind here at Soul Food has been redesigned and now provides direct links to exciting tools that will help massage your imagination. New links include Angel Cards, Goddess Tarot and Tealeaves. Frame your question and use the response to begin your writing

William Zinnser said, " Don't hedge your prose with little timidities. Good writing is lean and confident... Every little qualifier whittles away some fraction of trust on the part of the reader. Readers want a writer who believes in himself and what he is saying. Don't diminish that belief. Don't be kind of bold. Be bold."

Modifiers often spell trouble for writers. We strew them across the landscape of our writing without first determining if they are necessary. Or we use them to take the place of specific nouns and strong verbs. One of our first tasks of editing is stripping our sentences to their cleanest components. Examine every adjective and adverb and make certain that it has a job to do in the sentence.

Here is a list of modifiers & phrases that you can often eliminate-
look for these red flags in your own writing today:

absolutely
active
actively
actual
actually
alleged
any
arguably
available
basically
both
careful
carefully
certain
certainly
comparative
comparatively
considerably
consistently
decidedly
definite
definitely
effective
eminent
eminently
eventually
exactly
existing
fortunately
generally
herself
himself
hopefully
ideally
in fact
in general
in particular
in the future
in the past
indeed
inherently
inevitably
itself
meaningful
meaningfully
namely
necessarily
needless to say
now
over time
overall
particular
particularly
per se
pretty
quite
rather
real
really
related
relatively
reportedly
respectively
so
so-called
somewhat
specific
themselves
total
unfortunately
very
whatever
especially
totally
utterly
truly
madly
deeply

Fresh Writing Exercises to Get Your Creativity Flowing

Five Steps to Get You Writing Right Now
A New Point of View: A Fifteen-Minute Exercise
Become Inspired: Writing Exercise
Better Dialogue: Writing Exercise
Borrow a Beginning: A Fifteen-Minute Exercise
Building Better Characters: Writing Exercise
Describing Emotion Effectively
Find Time for Creativity: Writing Exercise
Free Yourself from Three Big Writing Don'ts
Getting Started: Writing Exercise
How to Be More Creative: Writing Exercise
How to Give Your Story a Strong Hook
How to Impress an Editor: Writing Exercise
How to Start a Journal
Improving Your Use of Voice: Writing Exercise
Keys to Writing Great Dialogue: Writing Exercise
Let Go of Your Doubts: Writing Exercise
Make Your Characters Larger Than Life (but Believable)
No More Excuses: Writing Exercise
Setting and Character: A Fifteen-Minute Exercise
Show, Don't Tell: Writing Class Exercise
The Doctor Is In (Writing Exercise)
The Story on Storytelling: Writing Exercise
The Ten Commandments of Fiction: Writing Exercise
Time Out! Staying a Writer by Not Writing
Using Your Senses and the Environment: Writing Exercise
Writing About Simple Pleasures: A Fifteen-Minute Exercise
Writing Within the Genre
Writing from Your Life (Exercise)

Have fun with these exercises. Flex your writing muscles and just be alive to how good it feels to create.
Take a few moments today just to play with words.

Never one to feel the need to reinvent the wheel or come up with material all on my own I am only too glad to direct you to useful exercises that actually stimulate writing. Try John Suler's Imagined House exercise and consider adding what you write to Soul Food's guided imagery forum. You will find access to this forum in the Cafe Post Box.