Thursday 28 November 2024: 30 Writing Prompts for May 2025

1 May every year is International Dawn Chorus Day (Image by Annette Meyer from Pixabay)

Topical & evergreen ideas editors want to see

Every month I do a think/write/submit writing exercise. I usually ‘think’ around 6 months ahead, which means in November, I’m ‘thinking’ May, ‘writing’ April, and ‘submitting’ March.

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 May 2025. I don’t think I’ll 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 May every year is apparently International Dawn Chorus Day (evergreen)
on 2 May 1975, 50 years ago, Apple Records closes down (topical date specific)
on 3 May 2000, 25 years ago, the sport of geocaching begins with the first cache placed and the co-ordinates from a GPS posted on a website (topical date specific)
on 4 May 2000, 25 years ago, Ken Livingstone becomes the first ever mayor of London – not the lord mayor, which is a separate role (topical date specific)
on 5 May 1925, 100 years ago, Dayton teacher John T. Scopes is arrested for teaching evolution in Tennessee (topical date specific)
on 5 May 2000, 25 years ago, conjunction of the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon (topical date specific)
on 6 May 1945, 80 years ago, Axis Sally delivers her last propaganda broadcast to British troops (topical date specific)
on 6 May 2020, 5 years ago, an Irish organisation repays 173-year-old favour, raising more than $2million for US Navajo Nation and Hopi Reservation badly affected by COVID19. In 1847, the Choctaw Nation sent $170 to aid the Irish potato famine (topical date specific)
on 7 May 1945, 80 years ago, on the day Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies at Rheims, SS open fire on crowd in Amsterdam, killing 22 (topical date specific)
8 May every year is apparently World Donkey Day (evergreen)
8 May every year is VE Day, Victory in Europe Day (evergreen, but also topical date specific in 2025)
9 May every year is Liberation Day in the Channel Islands (evergreen, but also topical date specific in 2025)
on 9 May 2005, 20 years ago, The Huffington Post is launched (topical date specific)
on 10 May 1775, 250 years ago, Green Mountain Boys capture Fort Ticonderoga, New York (topical date specific)
on 10 May 1775, 250 years ago, the Second Continental Congress convenes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and issues paper currency for first time (topical date specific)
on 11 May 1985, 40 years ago, 56 die and at least 265 are injured at Bradford City Football Ground in the worst fire in English football history (topical date specific)
on 12 May 2000, 25 years ago, Tate Modern Art Gallery opens in former Bankside Power Station (topical date specific)
on 13 May 2000, 25 years ago, a fireworks factory in Enschede in the Netherlands explodes, kills 22 and wounds 950 (topical date specific)
on 15 May 1955, 70 years ago, first ascent of world’s 5^th largest mountain, Makalu (topical date specific)
17 May every year is the National Day of Norway (evergreen)
on 17 May 1985, 40 years ago, Les Anderson catches record 97lb 4oz chinook salmon off coast of Alaska (topical date specific)
on 17 May 2005, 20 years ago, Kylie Minogue is diagnosed with breast cancer, aged 36 (topical date specific)
on 18 May 1965, 60 years ago, American engineer Ray Dolby founds Dolby Laboratories in London, England (topical date specific)
on 19 May 2020, 5 years ago, a study in Nature Climate Change is published, claiming greenhouse gas emissions dropped 17% worldwide in April 2020 when the world was in lockdown (topical date specific)
20 May every year is apparently World Bee Day (evergreen)
23 May every year is apparently World Turtle Day (evergreen)
25 May every year is apparently World Otter Day (evergreen)
on 26 May this year, it’s the annual Cheese Rolling in Brockworth, Gloucestershire (date specific evergreen)
on 27 May 1975, 50 years ago, brakes fail on a bus full of old women and plunges 17 feet off the road at Dibble’s Bridge, Yorkshire, killing 33 (topical date specific)
29 May every year is Founder’s Day at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea (evergreen)