Thursday 26 September 2024: 28 Writing Prompts For March Stories

Topical & evergreen ideas to write about that editors want to see

Welcome back to an old favourite!

Every month I do a think/write/submit writing exercise. I usually ‘think’ around 6 months ahead and take it from there. So in September I’d normally be ‘thinking’ March, ‘writing’ February and ‘submitting’ January.

Once I’ve done the exercise, I put the file away for a few days and come back to it fresh. Then I choose around 5 ideas to pursue for myself, and I discard the others. I hate for those ideas to go to waste, though, so I ‘throw’ them out there for others to take up if they wish.

Here, then, are my ‘throwaway’ writing suggestions for ideas suitable for publication in March 2025 that can be queried and researched now or soon. I won’t have time to do much with any of these, and those I think I might be able to rustle up have already been put to one side. 

(Remember to double-check the dates yourself as the source I used may have made a mistake.)

• 1 March — 31 March is Women’s History Month the world over (evergreen)
• 1 March every year is apparently National Pig Day (evergreen)
• 1 March 1965, 60 years ago, Australian swimming authorities suspended 3-times Olympic gold medal winner Dawn Fraser for 10 years for misconduct at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics (topical anniversary)
• 2 March 1965, 60 years ago, The Sound of Music premiered (topical anniversary)
• 2 March 1965, 60 years ago, The US Air Force began Operation Rolling Thunder — a 3-year sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam (topical anniversary) 
• 3 March — 9 March is British Pie Week (date-specific evergreen)
• 3 March 1875, 150 years ago, Georges Bizet’s last opera Carmen premiered (topical anniversary)
• 4 March is Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Day (date-specific evergreen)
• 7 March 1875, 150 years ago, French composer Maurice Ravel was born in Ciboure in the Basque Country (topical anniversary)
• 8 March every year is apparently International Women’s Day (evergreen)
• 8 March 1945, 80 years ago, International Women’s Day was first observed (topical anniversary)
• 8 March 1945, 80 years ago, US combat forces arrived in Vietnam, on the beaches at Da Nang (topical anniversary)
• 9 March 1935, 90 years ago, Adolf Hitler announces a new air force, the Luftwaffe (topical anniversary) 
• 10 March every year: (British folklore) If it does not freeze on 10 March, the year will be fertile (evergreen)
• 10 March 1975, 50 years ago, dog spectacles were patented in England (topical anniversary)
• 12 March 1935, 90 years ago, a 30 miles-per-hour (mph) speed limit was introduced to towns and built-up areas in Britain (topical anniversary)
• 13 March 1935, 90 years ago, driving tests were introduced in Britain (topical anniversary)
• 13 March 2020, 5 years ago, African-American Breonna Taylor shot dead by police executing a no-knock warrant in Louisville, Kentucky (topical anniversary)
• 15 March 1945, 80 years ago, Billboard published album record charts for the first time ever in the US; the King Cole Trio were at No. 1 (topical anniversary)
• 16 March 1985, 40 years ago, Associated Press correspondent Terry Anderson was taken hostage in Beirut (topical anniversary)
• 20 March is St Cuthbert’s Day (evergreen)
• 21 March every year (British folklore) is apparently the last day to sow peas (evergreen)
• 23 March 1945, 80 years ago, was the Battle of Okinawa (topical anniversary)
• 23 March 2020, 5 years ago, African-American Daniel Prude dies after being physically restrained by police in Rochester, New York (topical anniversary)
• 26 March 1945, 80 years ago, Allies led by US Marines raise flag on Iwo Jima (topical anniversary)
• 28 March every year is apparently wear a hat day (evergreen)
• 31 March 1945, 80 years ago, a defecting German pilot delivered a Messerschmitt ME262A-1 to Americans (topical anniversary) 
• 31 March 1965, 60 years ago,  a car bomb exploded in front of the US Embassy in Saigon, killing 22 and wounding 183 (topical anniversary)

There you go, 28 ideas to get you writing. And if you’re still stuck for an idea, tune in next week for ‘Take One Idea’, where I’ll show you how just one of these ideas can yield many different treatments.

Don’t forget to let me know if any of the above were useful and what you did with them!