Wortvoll – KaffeeHaus Geschichten is a creative‑writing project.
A fresh prompt or writing exercise will be available each month for people to try. In an age when we spend countless hours glued to screens at work and scrolling at home, we’d like to invite you to put your phone down (except when it's essential for accessibility), pick up a pen, take a deep breath, and give yourself the space to create and to write.
What if you haven’t written in a while?
Or worry that your words won’t be ‘good enough’?
Creative writing isn’t about writing a perfect text on the first try. It’s a process of drafting, revising, and rediscovering. A first draft or an exercise doesn’t need to shine—it just needs to exist on paper.
Then comes the rewarding work of searching through the text we have produced and finding the bits with potential: an intriguing word, a surprising sentence, or the spark of an idea. Sometimes the beauty isn’t in the words we have written, but in the act of writing itself—we can get insight into ourselves and the way we see the world.
Where can I get the prompts and how much does it cost?
The prompts will be printed and displayed at Kaffeehaus, Rua Anchieta, Lisboa and are provided for free - the project is kindly being supported by Kaffeehaus. Feel welcome to try an exercise with a coffee and a cake, the true Austrian way, or do them at home.
Which languages are available?
We currently prepare the prompts in Portuguese, English and German. You can write in whichever language you like - and we encourage everyone to try writing in languages they are learning too!
What can I do with the result of my exercise?
To participate in Wortvoll it is not necessary to share your work (unless you want to ^), or write perfectly. It’s simply about putting our phones down, experimenting, challenging ourselves, and—most importantly—having fun. We hope that you will be inspired by the exercises to continue to explore your writing.
A short tip to get the most out of each exercise After finishing the exercise, take a moment to reflect:
- What came easily to you?
- What was challenging?
- Which parts did you enjoy and which didn’t? Why might that be?
- How did the exercise change the way you usually approach writing a text?
- And what is the resulting piece like?
These brief reflections can give you valuable insights into your own habits and preferences that you may not have been aware of before.
So come to Kaffeehaus, put down your phone and get your prompts. Come by yourself to enjoy being alone among other people, or bring some friends and write together!
- ^If there is interest, we are thinking of providing an album and collecting pieces that have resulted from the exercises/prompts that our writers wish to share with others – and that we hope will inspire more people to give writing a try! Send in submissions to wortvoll@proton.me