A softball team is far behind, and one player keeps the dugout cheer going alone. Write who joins in second.Angle: the first voice is brave. The second one makes it a cheer.
One player starts every cheer in the softball dugout. Write the game in which she loses her voice.Angle: someone else has to start. Who, and how does the first try go?
A softball pitcher practices in the backyard every evening, with a parent on an upturned bucket to catch. Write one evening.Angle: the bucket, the fading light, the count out loud. Who wants to stop first?
A full count with two outs: the softball pitcher shakes her head at two signs and throws the rise ball. Write the pitch from the batter's box.First line: It looked like a strike for most of the way, and then it was at my eyes.
A softball runner on third may not leave the bag until the pitch leaves the pitcher's hand. Write her wait with two outs.Angle: her eyes are on the pitcher's hip, where the ball lets go. One breath, then go.
Extra innings in softball can start with a runner placed on second base. Write the tie-breaker as that runner, still standing there with two outs.Angle: she did nothing to get there. What does she owe the team now?
Last inning, two outs, and a yellow softball goes straight up over the dirt infield. Write the four fielders who all call for it.Angle: four voices, one ball. Who backs away, and who should have?
On a two-out ground ball, the softball batter runs for the outer half of the double base at first. Write her last three strides.Angle: the throw and the runner arrive together. Try it as the base tells it.
One run ahead with two outs: write the softball catcher choosing between a rise ball and a drop ball with two fingers nobody else can see.Angle: she faces the whole field. What makes her pick, and does the pitcher agree?
The softball pitcher has thrown nothing but rise balls all inning, and there are two outs. Write the catcher's walk to the circle to change the plan.First line: She put her glove over her mouth, which meant I was about to be told something.
The softball scoreboard says two outs, and the umpire says one. Write the argument that gathers in the pitcher's circle.Angle: three people counting on their fingers. Who was right, and who has to say sorry?
There are two outs, and the softball coach at third base swings one arm around like a windmill pitch. Write the runner who has to decide whether to believe it.Angle: the arm says go. The throw is already on its way. Who is right?
Two outs in a softball game, and the dugout starts its loudest cheer for the smallest batter on the team. Write what she hears at the plate.First line: They were chanting my name in three beats, and it only has two.
Two outs, and a yellow softball is sinking toward the outfield fence. Write the catch as the fielder who did not think she would get there.First line: I ran out of grass and reached anyway.
Two outs, bottom of the seventh, and the softball team's slap hitter steps in on the left side. Write the three steps she runs before she touches the ball.Angle: a slapper is already moving when she hits. Slow the three steps down.
With two outs, strike three gets past the softball catcher and rolls to the backstop. Write the race to first base.Angle: everyone thinks the inning is over except the batter. Start with her.
Write a two-out softball rally made only of slap hits and stolen bases, with no ball leaving the infield dirt.Angle: speed, not power. Tell it as the third baseman who keeps arriving a step late.
Write two outs in softball as a list poem: everything that can still happen before the third.Angle: a slap, a steal, a dropped third strike, a ball lost in the sun. End on the one that does.
In the circle 15
A softball pitcher gives up a home run and has to walk back to the circle and throw the next pitch. Write that walk.Angle: a few steps. What does she fix, and what does she forget on purpose?
A softball pitcher learns the changeup: the same windmill, a slower ball. Write the first batter it fools.Angle: the swing is finished before the ball arrives. Describe both faces.
A softball pitcher practices in the backyard every evening, with a parent on an upturned bucket to catch. Write one evening.Angle: the bucket, the fading light, the count out loud. Who wants to stop first?
A softball pitcher stands in the circle holding the ball, and every runner has to choose a base and stay on it. Write those few seconds.Angle: the whole field waits on one person standing still. What is that like?
The coach walks out to the softball pitcher's circle, and the infield gathers around. Write the visit in dialogue only.Angle: nobody talks about pitching. What do they talk about?
Describe a softball pitcher's windmill in slow motion, from the top of the arm's turn to the snap at the hip.Angle: one full turn of the arm. Give each quarter of it a sentence.
Explain how a softball is pitched underhand to a friend who has only ever thrown overhand.Angle: say it in steps a beginner could picture, and say which part feels strange.
The softball pitcher's back foot drags a groove in the dirt of the circle. Write the game as that groove gets deeper.Angle: by the last inning it is a small trench. What has it recorded?
The softball team's second pitcher warms up behind the dugout, hoping and not hoping to be called into the circle. Write the warm-up.First line: I wanted the ball. I also wanted Maya to strike everybody out.
Write a softball game as the yellow ball, turned over in the pitcher's fingers until the seams sit right.First line: She found the seam she wanted with her eyes shut.
Write the chalk line of the pitcher's circle through one softball game: sharp at the first pitch, scuffed away by the last.Angle: who steps on it, who steps over it and who draws it again for tomorrow.
Write the day a softball pitcher's rise ball rises for the first time.First line: The catcher stood up to get it, and then she laughed.
Write the first time a softball pitcher steps into the chalk circle in a real game.First line: The circle looked much bigger from inside it.
Write the last pitch a softball pitcher throws from the circle this season, and what she does with the ball afterward.Angle: back in the bucket, into her bag, over to the catcher. Say why.
Write the softball pitcher in the circle and the catcher at the plate as a conversation with no words: signs, nods and one shake of the head.Angle: translate each sign into a sentence. End on the pitch they agree on.
Dugout cheers 15
A player at her first softball game does not know the words to any of the dugout cheers. Write her afternoon on the bench.First line: I moved my mouth and clapped half a beat behind everyone.
A softball dugout cheers so loudly that the umpire turns around. Write what the umpire says, and what the bench does next.Angle: quieter, or cleverer? A whispered cheer might be worse.
A softball team is far behind, and one player keeps the dugout cheer going alone. Write who joins in second.Angle: the first voice is brave. The second one makes it a cheer.
Each softball player has her own line in the dugout's roll call cheer. Write the roll call, one line a player.Angle: a nickname and one true thing about each. No line longer than a breath.
One player starts every cheer in the softball dugout. Write the game in which she loses her voice.Angle: someone else has to start. Who, and how does the first try go?
The other softball team's dugout cheer is better than yours, and it is stuck in your head. Write the inning.Angle: someone on your own bench starts humming it. What happens to her?
The season is over, and the softball dugout does every cheer one more time, with nobody at bat. Write it.First line: We did all of them, even the one for foul balls.
The softball dugout has a cheer for everything: a walk, a foul ball, a new pitcher. Invent three, and say when each is used.Angle: the foul ball cheer is the hardest. What is there to celebrate?
The softball team writes a new dugout cheer on the bus to a tournament. Write the argument over the last line.Angle: it has to rhyme with slide. Four ideas, one vote, one sulk.
Write a softball cheer as a poem with the dugout fence in it: fingers through the chain link, cleats stamping on the floor.Angle: use the sounds as the rhythm. Rattle, stamp, clap, shout.
Write a softball dugout cheer for a teammate walking up to bat, with a beat a whole bench can clap.Angle: short lines, a rhyme, her name in it. Read it aloud to test the beat.
Write a softball dugout cheer handed down from the older team to the younger one, and what changed in the handing.Angle: a word nobody understands anymore, a clap that got added. Who taught it?
Write a softball game as a parent in the stands, who can hear the dugout cheers and cannot make out a single word.Angle: guess at the words. Get them wonderfully wrong.
Write the quietest moment in a softball dugout: the cheers stop, and nobody decided to stop them.Angle: count the seconds. Then give the first word that gets said, and who says it.
Write the softball dugout's cheer for its pitcher from inside the circle, where she can hear every word.First line: They were telling me I had this, in rhyme, and I very much did not have this.
An opinion to argue 15
A softball game usually lasts seven innings. Would nine be better, or is seven exactly enough? Argue it.Angle: what would two more innings add: more chances, or only more waiting?
A softball pitcher throws from flat ground inside a circle, not from a mound. Should she get a mound? Argue it.Angle: what would a small hill change about the windmill, and about the batter's view?
The ball in softball is not soft. Should the game have a different name? Propose one and defend it.Angle: name it for the circle, the windmill or the yellow ball. Which is fairest?
Fastpitch or slow-pitch: which kind of softball is more fun to watch from the fence? Argue one.Angle: one is a fast duel with the pitcher. The other is pitched slowly, and people of many ages play it.
Is a whole weekend at a softball tournament better than one game a week? Argue for the long weekend or the single game.Angle: tents, coolers, a long wait between games. Which is the best hour of the day?
Is softball harder than baseball, easier, or only different? Argue one answer.Angle: a bigger ball on a smaller field. What does each change for a fielder?
Is softball's windmill pitch harder to learn than an overhand throw? Take a side and explain it to someone who has tried neither.Angle: describe each motion first. Then say which one your arm argues with.
Is the pitcher the most important player on a softball team? Argue yes, or make the case for the catcher.Angle: one throws every pitch. One sees the whole field and calls it.
The rise ball or the changeup: which softball pitch would you rather be able to throw? Argue for it.Angle: one beats the batter's eyes. One beats the batter's timing.
Should a softball be yellow or white? Argue for one color.Angle: picture the ball against grass, dirt, sky and lights.
Should a softball dugout have to go quiet while the pitcher winds up? Argue for the cheer or for the hush.Angle: ask the batter, the other team's pitcher and the umpire. Do they agree?
Should a softball game end early when one team is far ahead? Argue for or against the run-ahead rule.Angle: kind or insulting? Think of the team that is behind and still wants to bat.
Should softball players wear visors, caps or neither? Persuade your team to pick one.Angle: sun in the eyes, a braid out the back, how the team looks lined up.
Should softball runners be allowed to step off the base before the pitch is thrown? Argue yes or no.Angle: the bases are close together. What would a head start do to the catcher's job?
Would you rather be a softball team's slap hitter or its power hitter? Choose, and give your reasons.Angle: one trades power for a head start. Which would your team miss more?
How it works
These softball writing prompts could not be moved to a baseball list. The pitcher throws underhand from a chalk circle, the ball is yellow, and the bench has a cheer for everything. No team, league or player is named.
Read the full guide
Prompts from the pitcher's circle
Fifteen prompts stand inside the chalk: a windmill in slow motion, the groove a back foot drags in the dirt, the first rise ball that rises, an evening of practice with a parent catching on an upturned bucket.
A dugout cheer is a poem with a job
Fifteen prompts ask for a cheer or for the bench that shouts it. A cheer needs a beat a whole dugout can clap, a rhyme and somebody's name, so it is verse practice in disguise.
Read a cheer aloud and clap it. Where the beat stumbles, cut a word.
Questions and answers
What is a good writing prompt about softball?
Two outs, and strike three rolls to the backstop: write the race to first base. Or write the argument on the bus over the last line of a new cheer, which has to rhyme with slide.
How is softball different from baseball?
The pitcher throws underhand, in fastpitch with a windmill motion, from a circle on level ground. The ball is larger, the field is smaller and a game usually lasts seven innings, Wikipedia's softball article says. Several opinion prompts argue over exactly these.
Are these softball writing prompts for kids?
Yes. They are set at a town field: backyard pitching practice, a bench that loses its loudest voice, a player who does not know the cheers yet. Nobody is hurt in any of them.
What can I argue about in softball?
Should the ball be yellow or white? Should a dugout go quiet while the pitcher winds up? Seven innings or nine? Should the game have a new name, since the ball is not soft?