At high tide the path to your island goes under the sea. Stand at the end of it and write what you see until it comes back.Angle: first the puddles join, then the stones go, then there is no path at all.
You stand on a playa, a desert lake bed that is dry today and as flat as land gets. Write what you see, and what tricks your eyes play.Fact: playas, shallow short-lived desert lakes, are among the flattest landforms in the world.
Stand in the middle of a field on a plain and turn slowly. Write the one thing that breaks the flat line of the horizon.Angle: a barn, a row of poles, a bump that might be a hill.
A cloud arrives while you stand on a mountain top and the view disappears. Write what you can still see, hear and feel.Angle: three steps of trail, somebody's zipper, cold on your eyelashes.
At night on a mountain, the lights of towns show below. Write what you see, and guess what each cluster of lights is doing.Angle: one is a ball field, one is a late shift, one is a single porch.
From a mountain top you can see a whole range of peaks. Describe them as a crowd of people standing in rows.Fact: a few mountains are isolated summits, but most occur in mountain ranges.
From a mountain top, pick the one thing in view that is farthest away. Write how you can tell it is far.Angle: color, haze, size, how long it would take to walk there.
From a mountain you watch rain cross the land below. Write the view of weather you are looking down on for once.Angle: you can see where the gray curtain starts and where it stops.
Halfway up a mountain you stop and look back. Write the view down the way you came.First line: The car was a dot, and the dot was not moving.
Look down from a mountain at the road you came up. Write its bends as if they were handwriting.Angle: what word is the road trying to spell?
Stand at the foot of a mountain and look up. Write what you can see of the top, and what the mountain hides.Angle: clouds, a shoulder of rock, a trail that goes behind something.
Stand on a mountain ridge where rain on one side runs to one river and rain on the other side to another. Write both views.Fact: a divide is a high point where water flows in different directions on either side.
You are on a mountain in summer and there is still snow by your feet. Write what you see, and why you packed a coat.Fact: high elevations on mountains have colder climates than at sea level.
You are standing on the side of a volcano that has been quiet for ages. Write what you see that tells you what this mountain is.Fact: mountains are formed through tectonic forces, erosion or volcanism.
You are standing on top of a mountain at sunrise. Write what you can see in each direction as the light reaches it.Angle: start with the farthest thing and end with your own boots.
You stand above the line on a mountain where the trees stop. Write what grows, moves and sounds different up here.Fact: different elevations of a mountain have different plants and animals.
You stand on a hill that the locals call a mountain. Write the view, and settle the argument your own way.Fact: no definition is agreed; a mountain is usually considered higher than a hill.
You stand on a mountain beside someone who has never seen one. Write what they notice first, and what you had stopped noticing.Angle: the quiet, the wind, how small the trees below look.
A valley 15
Fog fills a valley and you are standing in it. Write what you can see, then climb out and write the view from above.Angle: a white lake with treetops for islands.
From a valley floor, the hilltops are the edge of your world. Write what you see, and what you imagine is behind them.Angle: a road goes over the top at one place. Follow it with your eyes.
It is the first snow in a valley: the tops are white and the floor is still green. Write the view from the green part.Angle: the snow line is like a tide coming in from above.
Morning comes late to the bottom of a valley. Write what you see as the sunlight climbs down the slope toward you.Angle: the top of the far side is gold while your feet are still cold.
Stand in a valley and shout. Write what you see while you wait for your voice to come back.Angle: the far wall, a bird that took off, the time it takes.
Stand in a valley beside the stream that runs through it. Look upstream, then downstream, and write both views.Fact: a valley typically has a river or stream running from one end to the other.
Stand on a bridge in the middle of a valley town. Write what you see along the river and up each slope.Angle: streets run flat one way and steep the other.
Where a mountain stream runs out into a flat valley, it has spread a fan of stones. Stand on the fan and write what you see.Fact: an alluvial fan forms where a fast mountain stream enters a fairly flat valley.
You are in a dry valley in a desert. Write what you see that shows water was here once, or will be again.Fact: in desert areas a valley may be entirely dry or carry water only rarely.
You are in a narrow valley shaped like a V, with barely room for the stream and the path. Write what you see on the walk.Fact: river valleys tend to have a V-shaped profile.
You are in a valley shaped like the letter U, with steep sides and a wide floor. Write what you see, and guess what made it.Fact: valleys eroded by glaciers typically have a U-shaped profile.
You stand in a valley at dusk as lights come on in the farmhouses up the slopes. Write the view one light at a time.Angle: the lowest house first, the highest last.
You stand in a valley beside a stream that looks too small to have made it. Write the view, and what you would ask the stream.Fact: most valleys were made by rivers or streams wearing the land away over a very long period.
You stand on the floor of a valley with a wall of hills on each side. Write what you can see, and how much sky you get.Fact: a valley is a long low area, often running between hills or mountains.
You stand where a small valley opens into a bigger one. Write the view ahead and the view behind.Fact: small valleys with streams feed into larger valleys, and those into larger ones again.
An island 15
A rock stands out of the sea at low tide and vanishes at high tide. Stand on it at low tide and decide if you are on an island.Fact: land that is not above the surface at high tide is generally not considered an island.
At high tide the path to your island goes under the sea. Stand at the end of it and write what you see until it comes back.Angle: first the puddles join, then the stones go, then there is no path at all.
From your island you can see one other island, and nobody you know has been there. Write what you can tell about it from here.Angle: its shape, its color, one thing that might be a roof.
It is your first morning on an island. Write the first five things you see that tell you this is not the mainland.Angle: boats where cars would be; a horizon in every gap between houses.
Stand on an island at night. Write what you can see: a lighthouse beam, the stars, the dark where the water is.Angle: the mainland is a low string of lights, or nothing.
Stand on an island beach and look at the mainland across the water. Write what you can make out, and what you miss.Angle: a water tower, a line of trees, the place the ferry leaves from.
You are on a long, thin island of sand just off the coast. Write the view of the ocean side, then the quiet side.Fact: barrier islands form from sediment along shorelines.
You are on a ring-shaped island of coral with a calm lagoon in the middle. Write the view inward and the view outward.Fact: some oceanic islands grow into atolls from coral reefs.
You are on an island in the middle of a lake. Write what you see that an island in the sea would not have.Fact: islands can occur in any body of water, including lakes, rivers and seas.
You are on an island so small you can walk around it before lunch. Write the walk, and what you see on each side.Angle: the side facing the wind and the side facing away are two different places.
You are standing on a river island with water sliding past on both sides. Write what you see floating by.Fact: river islands can form from sediment and debris in rivers.
You stand on an island and try to see the whole of it at once. Climb something and write whether it worked.Angle: a dune, a tree, a rock, a roof. What stayed hidden?
You stand on an island dock as the last ferry of the day leaves. Write what you see as it gets smaller.First line: After the ferry goes, the island is exactly as big as it is.
You stand on an island made by a volcano. Write what the ground under your feet looks like, and the shape of the land behind you.Fact: oceanic islands can be formed from volcanic activity.
You stand on the highest point of a small island. Turn all the way around and write what you see.Fact: an island is a piece of land completely surrounded by water.
A place that is flat for miles 15
On a plain you can see a water tower or a single tree from miles away. Write the walk toward it.Angle: for a long time it does not get closer; then suddenly it is huge.
On a plain, sunset takes up the whole west. Write what you see in the last light, including your own long shadow.Angle: your shadow reaches the next field before you do.
On land this flat, the sky is most of the view. Stand on a plain and write the sky from one edge to the other.Angle: give the clouds their shadows, sliding over the fields.
Plains cover more of the world's land than you might guess. Stand on one and write the postcard nobody thought to print.Fact: plains are present on all continents and cover more than one-third of the world's land.
Someone from the mountains visits a plain and says there is nothing to see. Write your reply as a list of what you see.Angle: start with the wind moving through the grass like a wave.
Stand beside a road on a plain that runs straight until it vanishes. Write the view both ways.Angle: a truck appears as a glint long before it is a truck.
Stand in the middle of a field on a plain and turn slowly. Write the one thing that breaks the flat line of the horizon.Angle: a barn, a row of poles, a bump that might be a hill.
Stand on a plain planted with crops in rows. Write what you see when you look along the rows, then across them.Fact: plains in many areas are important for agriculture.
You are on a coastal plain where flat land meets flat sea. Write what you see, and where one ends and the other begins.Fact: plains occur as lowlands along valleys, as coastal plains and as high plateaus.
You are on flat land beside a river that floods it some springs. Write what you see that the river left behind.Fact: a floodplain is the fairly flat surface beside a river, where floods drop sediment.
You are standing on a plain, and a thunderstorm is in plain sight a long way off. Write watching weather arrive on flat land.Angle: you can see where the rain starts and where it stops.
You stand on a flat-topped mesa, level as a table, and look over its edge. Write the flat part, then the drop.Fact: mesas are broad flat-topped mountains with at least one steep side.
You stand on a plain that is flat for miles. Write what you see between your feet and the horizon.Fact: a plain is a flat expanse of land with few rapid or steep changes in elevation.
You stand on a playa, a desert lake bed that is dry today and as flat as land gets. Write what you see, and what tricks your eyes play.Fact: playas, shallow short-lived desert lakes, are among the flattest landforms in the world.
You stand on a snow-covered plain where white ground meets white sky. Write how you find the horizon.Angle: a fence line, a far tree, the place where the white changes.
How it works
Each landform writing prompt here puts the writer in one spot and asks a single question: what can you see from there? A peak shows everything; a valley floor shows two walls and a strip of sky.
Read the full guide
Writing prompts on landforms you have never stood on
No trip is needed. The line under a prompt gives a fact about the landform from the National Park Service or Wikipedia, or a detail to look for: the line where the trees stop, the fan of stones at a valley's mouth, the quiet side of a sand island.
A place that is flat for miles
Fifteen prompts take the landform people say has no view. On a plain the sky is most of the picture, rain can be watched long before it arrives, and one tree is a landmark. A dry desert lake bed and the level top of a mesa are here too.
Name a direction in every paragraph: ahead, behind, below, to the left.
Write what blocks the view as well. In a valley, that is half the description.
Questions and answers
What is a good landform writing prompt?
You stand above the line on a mountain where the trees stop: write what grows, moves and sounds different up here. Or stand on a rock the sea covers at high tide and decide whether you are on an island.
What is a landform?
A land feature on the solid surface of the Earth. Hills, mountains, plains and plateaus are the four major types; canyons, valleys and buttes are smaller ones. Water, wind, ice, gravity and movements of the crust shape them over vast periods of time.
What is the difference between a mountain and a hill?
There is no agreed line. A mountain is usually considered higher than a hill, generally with steep sides and exposed rock, and what a landform is called can depend on local usage.