From prompts in 642 Things to Write About, a book distributed to seniors at Hudson High School in Hudson, Ohio. In September, after parents complained that the book asked students to write about sex and beer, the mayor called for the city’s school board members to resign.

You are a peasant in 1890s Russia. There is no food. Revolution is in the air. The tsarists offer meals for your allegiance. What do you do?

You are the grim reaper. Write three different opening paragraphs for your autobiography, trying out different styles.

You are the pilot of a jumbo jet, just realizing the plane may crash. What will you tell the crew and the passengers?

Only ten people will fit in the life raft. Persuade the captain that you should be one of them.

Pick a dictator and write about an imaginary morning or day in his life.

Describe a moment when you were in physical pain.

Write about what you’ll be worrying about five years from now. Ten years from now. Thirty years from now.

You wake up with a nameless feeling of dread in your gut, but you can’t figure out what it is. Write down everything that could possibly happen during the day that could be something for you to dread.

Choose how you will die.