Perpetual Prompt
Perpetual prompt is a writing exercise fostering self-exploration and reflection on themes like identity and origins through repeated engagement with a single prompt.
By: Atlas of Creative Tools®
Time: 5 minutes
For: Individuals and groups
Perpetual Prompt, part of the Atlas of Creative Tools®, is a reflective writing exercise that helps individuals uncover deeper insights about themselves by continuously responding to a single prompt. The activity has many names and versions that have been used over time. It encourages spontaneous thinking, memory exploration, and deeper engagement with personal themes like identity, origins, and experiences. Paprticipants revisit the same prompt over a set time to push beyond surface-level answers and discover unexpected thoughts, emotions, and connections in their writing.
This exercise can be done individually or in a group setting, where sharing responses fosters deeper understanding and appreciation for diverse perspectives. In a group, hearing others’ interpretations of the same prompt can spark new insights, broaden perspectives, and build connections between participants. Additionally, returning to the same prompt after discussion can lead to richer, more layered writing, making it a powerful tool for reflection, creative thinking, and conversation-starting.Beyond personal reflection, Perpetual Prompt can be used in classrooms, professional development, and community dialogues to help participants explore values, backgrounds, and perspectives in a structured yet open-ended way. This simple yet powerful exercise highlights the creative potential of repeated reflection and continuous writing.
Try Perpetual Prompt, guided by John Borstel
Perpetual prompt is a great way to reflect individually, and it also does more than that. I’ve used it in classrooms and community dialogues to help people explore their values, positionality, and their origins by using a variety of prompts, from simple to evocative. This is a powerful tool that you can use quickly to dig deep and highlight the creative potential of good prompts paired with continuous writing.
Matt Nock, Atlas Practitioner
Working with John
To begin, get a piece of paper and something to write with. We encourage you to try what John suggests, and write by hand rather than using a keyboard. After John describes how to use the tool Perpetual Prompt and shares the prompt with you, there will be a 5 minute on-screen timer, during which you will write your responses to the prompt. When the timer concludes, John shares some final thoughts about what you can do with your writing.
Reflections and variations
As John says, there are lots of things you can do with the writing you generated by using Perpetual Prompt. Sharing in a group not only allows people to get to know each other, but also reveals different ways of interpreting the prompt “I come from…”. I can be very fruitful to first use the tool, share out the responses, and then go back to writing with the same prompt after having heard how others engaged with it. You might also try different prompts, which can be especially helpful when you are looking for a way to begin a discussion around a certain topic by starting from people’s lived experiences.