unique creative writing prompts

25 Creative Writing Prompts to Ignite Your Creativity

Creative writing is a vast and dynamic field that offers a platform for individuals to express their ideas, emotions, and stories in an imaginative and original way.

It plays a crucial role in enhancing communication skills, fostering empathy, and also promoting a deep understanding of the human experience. If you’re not sure how to get started, consider these helpful writing prompts – let’s get creative!

The Importance of Creative Writing

In the realm of literature and beyond, creative writing holds a pivotal role. It not only allows for personal expression but also:

• fosters critical thinking
• enhances vocabulary
• improves writing skills
• conveys complex ideas and emotions
• serves as a therapeutic medium
• enhances empathy

From short stories and poetry to novels and screenplays, creative writing spans a wide array of genres and styles, and offers endless opportunities for exploration and expression.

In the professional realm, creative writing skills are highly valued. They can lead to various creative writing jobs in fields like publishing, advertising, journalism, and content creation. For those interested in pursuing higher education in this field, you might want to explore whether a degree in creative writing is worth it .

Understanding Creative Writing Prompts

When it comes to igniting creativity and fostering unique ideas, creative writing prompts play an invaluable role. They provide a starting point, a spark that can lead to a flame of inspiration for writers.

How Prompts Can Ignite Creativity

While creative writing is an exciting field, it can sometimes be challenging to kickstart the creative process. This is where creative writing prompts come into play. These prompts are designed to ignite the imagination and inspire writers to create original and compelling pieces.

They help to overcome writer’s block , encourage experimentation with different styles and genres. So, whether you’re a seasoned writer or a beginner, creative writing prompts can be an invaluable tool to spark creativity and enhance your writing skills.

What are Creative Writing Prompts?

Creative writing prompts are essentially ideas, questions, or topics that are designed to inspire and stimulate the creative writing process. They serve as a catalyst, helping to ignite the writer’s imagination and encourage them to explore new themes, concepts, or perspectives.

These prompts can take a myriad of forms. They might be a single word, a phrase, a sentence, or even an image. Remember, regardless of the format, the goal of a creative writing prompt is to trigger thought and also encourage writers to delve deeper into their creative psyche, producing unique and compelling pieces of writing.

For more understanding of what creative writing entails, read our article on what is creative writing .

Types of Creative Writing Prompts

There are various types of creative writing prompts, each tailored to stimulate different forms of writing, cater to various genres, or inspire certain ideas. For example, you might encounter:

• Fiction Writing Prompts : These prompts are designed to inspire stories. They might provide a setting, a character, a conflict, or a plot point to kick-start the writer’s imagination.
• Non-Fiction Writing Prompts : These prompts are geared towards non-fiction writing, such as essays, memoirs, or journalistic pieces. They might pose a question, present a topic, or propose a perspective for the writer to explore.
• Poetry Writing Prompts : These prompts are tailored for writing poetry. They could suggest a theme, a form, a line, or a poetic device to be used in the poem.
• Dialogue Writing Prompts : These prompts focus on conversations and are designed to inspire dialogue-driven pieces. They generally provide a line or a snippet of conversation to act as a starting point.
• Story Starter Writing Prompts : These prompts serve as the opening line or the first paragraph of a story. The writer’s task is to continue the narrative from there.

Understanding the different types of creative writing prompts is essential to making the most of them. For example, when you choose the right type of prompt, you target specific writing skills , push boundaries of creativity, and provide the necessary spark to bring your ideas to life.

25 Creative Writing Prompts

Using creative writing prompts is a great way to jumpstart your creativity and get the ideas flowing. Whether you’re a seasoned writer or a beginner, these prompts can help inspire your next piece. Here, we’ve broken down 25 prompts into five categories: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, dialogue, and story starters.

Fiction Writing Prompts

Fiction allows writers to flex their imaginative muscles. The following prompts can help to stir up new ideas for a unique storyline:

• Write a story where the main character finds an old, mysterious letter in the attic.
• Imagine a world where animals can talk.
• Create a tale where a character discovers they have a superpower.
• Write about a character who wakes up in a different era.
• Write a story set in a world where money doesn’t exist.

Non-Fiction Writing Prompts

Non-fiction writing can help you explore real-life experiences and lessons. Here are some prompts to get you started:

• Write about a time when you faced a significant challenge and how you overcame it.
• Describe the most influential person in your life.
• Share a moment when you learned a valuable lesson.
• Write about an unforgettable trip.
• Discuss a current event that has impacted you personally.

Poetry Writing Prompts

Poetry allows for artistic expression through words. These prompts can inspire new verses:

• Write a poem about a dream you can’t forget.
• Create a sonnet about the changing seasons.
• Write about an emotion without naming it directly.
• Craft a poem inspired by a piece of art.
• Pen a haiku about nature’s power.

Dialogue Writing Prompts

Dialogue writing can help you improve your dialogue creation skills. Try these prompts:

• Write a conversation between two people stuck in an elevator.
• Describe a heated argument between a character and their best friend.
• Create a dialogue where a character reveals a deep secret.
• Write an exchange between a detective and a suspect.
• Craft a conversation between two people who speak different languages.

Story Starter Writing Prompts

Story starters are great for sparking an idea for a story. Here are some to try:

• “When she opened the door, she couldn’t believe her eyes…”
• “He’d waited his whole life for this moment, and now…”
• “It was a town like no other, because…”
• “She was the last person on earth, or so she thought…”
• “The letter arrived, marked with a seal she didn’t recognize…”

These creative writing prompts are designed to challenge you and spark your creativity. Remember, the goal is not to create a perfect piece of writing but to ignite your imagination and hone your writing skills. Also, don’t forget, you can always revise and refine your work later .

For more on the art of writing, check out our article on what is creative writing .

Making the Most of Your Creative Writing Prompts

Now that you have a list of creative writing prompts at your disposal, it’s important to understand how to utilize them effectively. The value of a prompt lies not just in the initial idea it provides, but also in how it can be expanded and developed into a full-blown piece of writing.

How to Use Creative Writing Prompts Effectively

Using creative writing prompts effectively requires an open mind and a willingness to explore. Here are some strategies to make the most of your prompts:

• Brainstorming: Allow yourself to brainstorm ideas after reading the prompt. Jot down whatever comes to mind without self-judgment or censorship.
• Freedom: Give yourself the freedom to interpret the prompt in your own way. Remember, prompts are starting points, not rigid guidelines.
• Experimentation: Experiment with different genres, perspectives, and writing styles. A prompt can be turned into a poem, a short story, or even a script for a play.
• Consistency: Try to write regularly. Whether you choose to do this daily, weekly, or bi-weekly, consistency can help develop your writing skills.
• Reflection: Finally, reflect on the prompt and your writing. Consider what worked, what didn’t, and also what you would like to improve in your next piece.

In addition to this, check out our article on what is creative writing .

Tips to Expand on a Prompt

Expanding on a prompt involves transforming a simple idea into a fully developed narrative. Here are a few tips:

• Character Development: Flesh out your characters. Give them backgrounds, motivations, and flaws to make them more relatable and interesting.
• Plot Building: Develop a coherent plot. Consider the key events, conflicts, and resolutions that will drive your story forward.
• Show, Don’t Tell: Show the reader what’s happening through vivid descriptions and actions rather than simply telling them.
• Dialogue: Use dialogue to reveal character traits and advance the plot. Make sure it’s natural and adds value to your story.
• Editing: Finally review and revise your work. Look for areas where you can improve clarity, tighten your prose, and also eliminate any inconsistencies or errors.

Editor’s Note : Don’t get rid of old ideas or unfinished works – you never know when looking back over these might spark inspiration or two ideas might mesh to form something cohesive and new!

The Right Prompts Grow Your Skills

By using these strategies, you can take full advantage of creative writing prompts and improve your writing skills. So, whether you’re pursuing a career in creative writing or just looking for a new hobby, these tips can help you unlock your full creative potential.

For more insights on creative writing, check out our articles on creative writing jobs and what you can do with a creative writing degree and how to teach creative writing .

Also, don’t miss our master list of more than 250 journal prompts .

Brooks Manley

Creative Primer  is a resource on all things journaling, creativity, and productivity. We’ll help you produce better ideas, get more done, and live a more effective life.

My name is Brooks. I do a ton of journaling, like to think I’m a creative (jury’s out), and spend a lot of time thinking about productivity. I hope these resources and product recommendations serve you well. Reach out if you ever want to chat or let me know about a journal I need to check out!

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365 Creative Writing Prompts

Here are 365 Creative Writing Prompts to help inspire you to write every single day! Use them for journaling, story starters, poetry, and more!

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If you want to become a better writer, the best thing you can do is practice writing every single day. Writing prompts are useful because we know sometimes it can be hard to think of what to write about!

To help you brainstorm, we put together this list of 365 creative writing prompts to give you something to write about daily.

Want to Download these prompts?  I am super excited to announce due to popular demand we now have an ad-free printable version of this list of writing prompts available for just $5. The  printable version  includes a PDF as a list AND print-ready prompt cards. {And all the design source files you could ever need to customize any way you would like!}

Here are 365 Creative Writing Prompts to Inspire:

Whether you write short stories, poems, or like to keep a journal – these will stretch your imagination and give you some ideas for topics to write about!

1. Outside the Window : What’s the weather outside your window doing right now? If that’s not inspiring, what’s the weather like somewhere you wish you could be?

2. The Unrequited love poem: How do you feel when you love someone who does not love you back?

3. The Vessel: Write about a ship or other vehicle that can take you somewhere different from where you are now.

4. Dancing: Who’s dancing and why are they tapping those toes?

5. Food: What’s for breakfast? Dinner? Lunch? Or maybe you could write a poem about that time you met a friend at a cafe.

6. Eye Contact: Write about two people seeing each other for the first time.

7. The Rocket-ship: Write about a rocket-ship on its way to the moon or a distant galaxy far, far, away.

8. Dream-catcher : Write something inspired by a recent dream you had.

9. Animals: Choose an animal. Write about it!

10. Friendship: Write about being friends with someone.

11. Dragon : Envision a dragon. Do you battle him? Or is the dragon friendly? Use descriptive language.

12. Greeting : Write a story or poem that starts with the word “hello” or another greeting.

13. The Letter: Write a poem or story using words from a famous letter or inspired by a letter someone sent you.

14. The Found Poem : Read a book and circle some words on a page. Use those words to craft a poem. Alternatively, you can cut out words and phrases from magazines.

15. Eavesdropper : Create a poem, short story, or journal entry about a conversation you’ve overheard.

16. Addict: Everyone’s addicted to something in some shape or form. What are things you can’t go without?

17. Dictionary Definition : Open up a dictionary to a random word. Define what that word means to you.

18. Cleaning: Hey, even writers and creative artists have to do housework sometimes. Write about doing laundry, dishes, and other cleaning activities.

19. Great Minds: Write  about someone you admire and you thought to have had a beautiful mind.

20. Missed Connections: If you go to Craigslist, there is a “Missed Connections” section where you can find some interesting storylines to inspire your writing.

21. Foreclosure : Write a poem or short story about someone who has lost or is about to lose their home.

22. Smoke, Fog, and Haze: Write about not being able to see ahead of you.

23. Sugar: Write something so sweet, it makes your teeth hurt.

24. Numbers:  Write a poem or journal entry about numbers that have special meaning to you.

25. Dread: Write about doing something you don’t want to do.

26. Fear: What scares you a little? What do you feel when scared? How do you react?

27. Closed Doors: What’s behind the door? Why is it closed?

28. Shadow: Imagine you are someone’s shadow for a day.

29. Good Vibes: What makes you smile? What makes you happy?

30. Shopping:  Write about your shopping wishlist and how you like to spend money.

31. The Professor: Write about a teacher that has influenced you.

32. Rewrite : Take any poem or short story you enjoy. Rewrite it in your own words.

33. Jewelry: Write about a piece of jewelry. Who does it belong to?

34. Sounds : Sit outside for about an hour. Write down the sounds you hear.

35. War and Peace: Write about a recent conflict that you dealt with in your life.

36. Frame It: Write a poem or some phrases that would make for good wall art in your home.

37. Puzzle: Write about putting together the pieces of puzzles.

38. Fire-starters: Write about building a fire.

39. Coffee & Tea: Surely you drink one or the other or know someone who does- write about it!

40. Car Keys: Write about someone getting their driver’s license for the first time.

41. What You Don’t Know: Write about a secret you’ve kept from someone else or how you feel when you know someone is keeping a secret from you.

42. Warehouse : Write about being inside an old abandoned warehouse.

43. The Sound of Silence: Write about staying quiet when you feel like shouting.

44. Insult: Write about being insulted. How do you feel? Why do you think the other person insulted you?

45. Mirror, Mirror: What if you mirror started talking to you? What might the mirror say?

46. Dirty: Write a poem about getting covered in mud.

47. Light Switch : Write about coming out of the dark and seeing the light.

48. The Stars : Take inspiration from a night sky. Or, write about a time when “the stars aligned” in your horoscope.

49. Joke Poem : What did the wall say to the other wall? Meet you at the corner! Write something inspired by a favorite joke.

50. Just Say No : Write about the power you felt when you told someone no.

51: Sunrise/Sunset : The sun comes up, the sun goes down. It goes round and round. Write something inspiring about the sunrise or sunset.

52. Memory Lane : What does Memory Lane look like? How do you get there?

53. Tear-Jerker : Watch a movie that makes you cry. Write about that scene in the movie.

54. Dear Diary: Write a poem or short story about a diary entry you’ve read or imagined.

55. Holding Hands : The first time you held someone’s hand.

56. Photograph : Write a story or journal entry influenced by a photograph you see online or in a magazine.

57. Alarm Clock: Write about waking up.

58. Darkness: Write a poem or journal entry inspired by what you can’t see.

59. Refreshed: Write a poem about a time you really felt refreshed and renewed. Maybe it was a dip into a pool on a hot summer day, a drink of lemonade, or other situation that helped you relax and start again.

60. Handle With Care : Write about a very fragile or delicate object.

61. Drama: Write about a time when you got stuck in between two parties fighting with each other.

62. Slip Up: Write about making mistakes.

63. Spice: Write about flavors and tastes or a favorite spice of yours.

64. Sing a New Song: Take a popular song off the radio and rewrite it as a poem in your own words.

65. Telephone: Write about a phone call you recently received.

66. Name: Write a poem or short story using your name in some way or form.

67. Dollhouse: Write a poem or short story from the viewpoint of someone living in a doll house.

68. Random Wikipedia Article : Go to Wikipedia and click on Random Article . Write about whatever the page you get.

69. Silly Sports: Write about an extreme or silly sport. If none inspire you, make up the rules for your own game.

70. Recipe : Write about a recipe for something abstract, such as a feeling.

71. Famous Artwork: Choose a famous painting and write about it.

72. Where That Place Used to Be : Think of a place you went to when you were younger but it now no longer there or is something else. Capture your feelings about this in your writing.

73. Last Person You Talked to: Write a quick little poem or story about the last person you spoke with.

74. Caught Red-Handed: Write about being caught doing something embarrassing.

75. Interview: Write a list of questions you have for someone you would like to interview, real or fictional.

76. Missing You: Write about someone you miss dearly.

77. Geography: Pick a state or country you’ve never visited. Write about why you would or would not like to visit that place.

78. Random Song: Turn on the radio, use the shuffle feature on your music collection or your favorite streaming music service. Write something inspired by the first song you hear.

79. Hero: Write a tribute to someone you regard as a hero.

80. Ode to Strangers: Go people watching and write an ode to a stranger you see on the street.

81. Advertisement: Advertisements are everywhere, aren’t they? Write using the slogan or line from an ad.

82. Book Inspired: Think of your favorite book. Now write a poem that sums up the entire story in 10 lines.

83. Magic : Imagine you have a touch of magic, and can make impossible things happen. What would you do?

84. Fanciest Pen: Get out your favorite pen, pencils, or even colored markers and write using them!

85. A Day in the Life: Write about your daily habits and routine.

86. Your Muse: Write about your muse – what do they look like? What does your muse do to inspire you?

87. Convenience Store : Write about an experience you’ve had at a gas station or convenience store.

88. Natural Wonders of the World: Choose one of the natural wonders of the world. Write about it.

89. Status Update: Write a poem using the words from your latest status update or a friend’s status update. If you don’t use sites like Facebook or Twitter, you can often search online for some funny ones to use as inspiration.

90. Green Thumb: Write about growing something.

91. Family Heirloom: Write about an object that’s been passed through the generations in your family.

92. Bug Catcher: Write about insects.

93. Potion: Write about a magic potion. What is it made of? What does it do? What is the antidote?

94. Swinging & Sliding: Write something inspired by a playground or treehouse.

95. Adjectives: Make a list of the first 5 adjectives that pop into your head. Use these 5 words in your story, poem, or journal entry.

96. Fairy Tales: Rewrite a fairy tale. Give it a new ending or make it modern or write as a poem.

97. Whispers: Write about someone who has to whisper a secret to someone else.

98. Smile: Write a poem about the things that make you smile.

99. Seasonal: Write about your favorite season.

100.  Normal: What does normal mean to you? Is it good or bad to be normal?

101. Recycle : Take something you’ve written in the past and rewrite it into a completely different piece.

102. Wardrobe: Write about a fashion model or what’s currently in your closet or drawers.

103. Secret Message : Write something with a secret message hidden in between the words. For example, you could make an acrostic poem using the last letters of the word or use secret code words in the poem.

104. Vacation: Write about a vacation you took.

105. Heat: Write about being overheated and sweltering.

106. Spellbinding: Write a magic spell.

107. Collection : Write about collecting something, such as salt shakers, sea shells, or stamps.

108. Taking Chances: Everyone takes a risk at some point in their life. Write about a time when you took a chance and what the result was.

109. Carnival: Write a poem or story or journal entry inspired by a carnival or street fair.

110. Country Mouse: Write about someone who grew up in the country visiting the city for the first time.

111: Questions: Write about questions you have for the universe. Optional: include an answer key.

112. Rushing: Write about moving quickly and doing things fast.

113. Staircase : Use a photo of a staircase or the stairs in your home or a building you love to inspire you.

114. Neighbors: Make up a story or poem about your next door neighbor.

115. Black and Blue: Write about a time you’ve been physically hurt.

116. All Saints: Choose a saint and create a poem about his or her life.

117. Beach Inspired: What’s not to write about the beach?

118. Shoes: What kind of shoes do you wear? Where do they lead your feet?

119. The Ex: Write a poem to someone who is estranged from you.

120. My Point of View: Write in the first person point of view.

121. Stray Animal: Think of the life of a stray cat or dog and write about that.

122. Stop and Stare : Create a poem or story about something you could watch forever.

123. Your Bed: Describe where you sleep each night.

124. Fireworks : Do they inspire you or do you not like the noise and commotion? Write about it.

125. Frozen: Write about a moment in your life you wish you could freeze and preserve.

126. Alone : Do you like to be alone or do you like having company?

127. Know-it-all: Write about something you are very knowledgeable about, for example a favorite hobby or passion of yours.

128. The Promise: Write about a promise you’ve made to someone. Did you keep that promise?

129. Commotion: Write about being overstimulated by a lot of chaos.

130. Read the News Today : Construct a poem or story using a news headline for your first line.

131. Macro: Write a description of an object close-up.

132. Transportation : Write about taking your favorite (or least-favorite) form of transportation.

133. Gadgets: If you could invent a gadget, what would it do? Are there any gadgets that make your life easier?

134: Bring on the Cheese: Write a tacky love poem that is so cheesy, it belongs on top of a pizza.

135. Ladders: Write a story or poem that uses ladders as a symbol.

136. Bizarre Holiday : There is a bizarre holiday for any date! Look up a holiday for today’s date and create a poem in greeting card fashion or write a short story about the holiday to celebrate.

137. Blog-o-sphere : Visit your favorite blog or your feedreader and craft a story, journal entry, or poem based on the latest blog post you read.

138. Mailbox: Create a poem, short story, or journal entry based on a recent item of mail you’ve received.

139. Sharing : Write about sharing something with someone else.

140. Cactus: Write from the viewpoint of a cactus. What’s it like to live in the desert or have a prickly personality?

141. It’s a Sign : Have you seen any interesting road signs lately?

142. Furniture: Write about a piece of furniture in your home.

143. Failure: Write about a time you failed at something. Did you try again or give up completely?

144. Mystical Creatures: Angels or other mystical creatures – use them as inspiration.

145. Flying: Write about having wings and what you would do.

146. Clear and Transparent: Write a poem about being able to see-through something.

147. Break the Silence : Record yourself speaking, then write down what you spoke and revise into a short story or poem.

148. Beat: Listen to music with a strong rhythm or listen to drum loops. Write something that goes along with the beat you feel and hear.

149. Color Palette: Search online for color palettes and be inspired to write by one you resonate with.

150. Magazine: Randomly flip to a page in a magazine and write using the first few words you see as an opening line.

151. The Grass is Greener : Write about switching the place with someone or going to where it seems the “grass is greener”.

152. Mind & Body: Write something that would motivate others to workout and exercise.

153. Shaping Up : Write something that makes a shape on the page…ie: a circle, a heart, a square, etc.

154. Twenty-One: Write about your 21st birthday.

155. Aromatherapy: Write about scents you just absolutely love.

156. Swish, Buzz, Pop : Create a poem that uses Onomatopoeia .

157. What Time is It? Write about the time of day it is right now. What are people doing? What do you usually do at this time each day?

158. Party Animal: Have you ever gone to a party you didn’t want to leave? Or do you hate parties? Write about it!

159: Miss Manners : Use the words “please” and “thank you” in your writing.

160. Cliche: Choose a common cliche, then write something that says the same thing but without using the catch phrase.

161. Eco-friendly : Write about going green or an environmental concern you have.

162. Missing You: Write about someone you miss.

163. Set it Free: Think of a time when you had to let someone or something go to be free…did they come back?

164: Left Out : Write about a time when you’ve felt left out or you’ve noticed someone else feeling as if they didn’t belong.

165. Suitcase: Write about packing for a trip or unpacking from when you arrive home.

166. Fantasy : Write about fairies, gnomes, elves, or other mythical creatures.

167. Give and Receive : Write about giving and receiving.

168. Baker’s Dozen: Imagine the scents and sights of a bakery and write.

169. Treehouse: Write about your own secret treehouse hideaway.

170.  Risk: Write about taking a gamble on something.

171. Acrostic : Choose a word and write an acrostic poem where every line starts with a letter from the word.

172. Crossword Puzzle: Open up the newspaper or find a crossword puzzle online and choose one of the clues to use as inspiration for your writing.

173. Silver Lining : Write about the good that happens in a bad situation.

174. Gloves: Write about a pair of gloves – what kind of gloves are they? Who wears them and why?

175. All that Glitters: Write about a shiny object.

176. Jealousy: Write with a theme of envy and jealousy.

Want to Download these prompts?  I am super excited to announce due to popular demand we now have an ad-free printable version of this list of writing prompts available for just $5. The  printable version  includes a PDF as a list AND print-ready prompt cards. {And all the design source files you could ever need to customize any way you would like!}

177. How Does Your Garden Grow? Write about a flower that grows in an unusual place.

178. Jury Duty : Write a short story or poem that takes place in a courtroom.

179. Gifts: Write about a gift you have given or received.

180. Running: Write about running away from someone or something.

181. Discovery: Think of something you’ve recently discovered and use it as inspiration.

182. Complain:  Write about your complaints about something.

183. Gratitude: Write a poem or journal entry that is all about things you are thankful for.

184. Chemistry: Choose an element and write a poem or story that uses that word in one of the lines.

185. Applause: Write about giving someone a standing ovation.

186. Old Endings Into New Beginnings:  Take an old poem, story, or journal entry of yours and use the last line and make it the first line of your writing today.

187. Longing: Write  about something you very much want to do.

188. I Am: Write a motivational poem or journal entry about positive traits that make you who you are.

189. Rainbow : What is at the end of a rainbow? Or, take a cue from Kermit the Frog, and ask yourself, why are there so many songs about rainbows?

190. Museum: Take some time to visit a nearby museum with your journal. Write about one of the pieces that speaks to you.

191. Cartoon: Think of your favorite cartoon or comic. Write a poem or story that takes place in that setting.

192. Copycat: Borrow a line from a famous public domain poem to craft your own.

193. From the Roof-tops:  Imagine you could stand on a rooftop and broadcast a message to everyone below – what would you say?

194. Time Travel: If there was a time period you could visit for a day, where would you go? Write about traveling back in time to that day.

195. Changing Places: Imagine living the day as someone else.

196. Neighborhood: Write about your favorite place in your neighborhood to visit and hang out at.

197. Pirates: Write about a pirate ship.

198. Interview : Write based on a recent interview you’ve read or seen on TV or heard on the radio.

199.  Hiding Spaces : Write about places you like to hide things at. What was a favorite hiding spot for you as a child playing hide-and-seek?

200. Extreme Makeover: Imagine how life might be different if you could change your hair color or clothing into something completely opposite from your current style.

201. Empathy: Write about your feelings of empathy or compassion for another person.

202. Opposites: Write a poem or story that ties in together two opposites.

203. Boredom: Write about being bored or make a list of different ways to entertain yourself.

204. Strength : Think of a time when you’ve been physically or emotionally strong and use that as inspiration.

205. Hunger: Write from the perspective of someone with no money to buy food.

206. Greed: Write about someone who always wants more – whether it be money, power, etc. etc.

207. Volcano: Write about an eruption of a volcano.

208. Video Inspiration : Go to Vimeo.com or YouTube.com and watch one of the videos featured on the homepage. Write something based on what you watch.

209. Sneeze: Write about things that make you sneeze.

210. Footsteps on the Moon:  Write about the possibility of life in outer-space.

211: Star-crossed: Write a short modern version of the story of Romeo and Juliet or think of real-life examples of lovers who are not allowed to be together to use as inspiration for your writing.

212. Font-tastic: Choose a unique font and type out a poem, story or journal entry using that font.

213. Schedule: Take a look at your calendar and use the schedule for inspiration in writing.

214. Grandparents: Write about a moment in your grandparent’s life.

215. Collage: Go through a magazine and cut out words that grab your attention. Use these words to construct a poem or as a story starter or inspiration for your journal.

216. Oh so Lonely: Write a poem about what you do when you are alone – do you feel lonely or do you enjoy your own company?

217. Waterfall: Think of a waterfall you’ve seen in person or spend some time browsing photos of waterfalls online. Write about the movement, flow, and energy.

218. First Kiss: Write about your first kiss.

219. So Ironic: Write about an ironic situation you’ve been in throughout your life.

220. Limerick: Write a limerick today.

221. Grocery Shopping: Write about an experience at the grocery store.

222. Fashion : Go through a fashion magazine or browse fashion websites online and write about a style you love.

223. So Close: Write about coming close to reaching a goal.

224. Drinks on Me: Write a poem or short story that takes place at a bar.

225. Online Friends: Write an ode to someone online you’ve met and become friends with.

226. Admiration: Is there someone you admire? Write about those feelings.

227. Trash Day: Write from the perspective of a garbage collector.

228. Mailbox: Open your mailbox and write something inspired by one of the pieces of mail you received.

229. Fresh & Clean: Write about how you feel after you take a shower.

230. Energized: Write about how you feel when you’re either at a high or low energy level for the day.

231. Rhyme & No Reason: Make up a silly rhyming poem using made up words.

232. Tech Support: Use computers or a conversation with tech support you’ve had as inspiration.

233. Hotel: Write from the perspective of someone who works at a hotel or staying at a hotel.

234. Underwater: Write about sea creatures and under water life. What’s under the surface of the ocean? What adventures might be waiting?

235. Breathing: Take a few minutes to do some deep breathing relaxation techniques. Once your mind is clear, just write the first few things that you think of.

236. Liar, Liar: Make up a poem or story of complete lies about yourself or someone else.

237. Obituaries: Look at the recent obituaries online or in the newspaper and imagine the life of someone and write about that person.

238. Pocket: Rummage through your pockets and write about what you keep or find in your pockets.

239. Cinquain: Write a cinquain poem, which consists of 5 lines that do not rhyme.

240. Alphabetical: Write a poem that has every letter of the alphabet in it.

241.  Comedy Club: Write something inspired by a comedian.

242. Cheater: Write about someone who is unfaithful.

243. Sestina: Give a try to writing a sestina poem.

244. Fight: Write about witnessing two people get in an argument with each other.

245. Social Network : Visit your favorite Social Networking website (ie: Facebook, Pinterest, Google, Twitter, etc.) and write a about a post you see there.

246. Peaceful: Write about something peaceful and serene.

247. In the Clouds: Go cloud watching for the day and write about what you imagine in the clouds.

248. At the Park: Take some time to sit on a park bench and write about the sights, scenes, and senses and emotions you experience.

249. Sonnet: Write a sonnet today.

250. Should, Would, And Could: Write a poem or story using the words should, would, and could.

251. How to: Write directions on how to do something.

252. Alliteration: Use alliteration in your poem or in a sentence in a story.

253. Poker Face: Write about playing a card game.

254. Timer: Set a timer for 5 minutes and just write. Don’t worry about it making sense or being perfect.

255. Dance: Write about a dancer or a time you remember dancing.

256. Write for a Cause: Write a poem or essay that raises awareness for a cause you support.

257. Magic : Write about a magician or magic trick.

258. Out of the Box: Imagine finding a box. Write about opening it and what’s inside.

259. Under the Influence: What is something has impacted you positively in your life?

260. Forgotten Toy : Write from the perspective a forgotten or lost toy.

261. Rocks and Gems: Write about a rock or gemstone meaning.

262. Remote Control: Imagine you can fast forward and rewind your life with a remote control.

263. Symbolism: Think of objects, animals, etc. that have symbolic meaning to you. Write about it.

264. Light at the End of the Tunnel: Write about a time when you saw hope when it seemed like a hopeless situation.

265. Smoke and Fire : “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” Use this saying as inspiration to write!

266. Railroad: Write about a train and its cargo or passengers.

267. Clipboard: Write about words you imagine on an office clipboard.

268. Shipwrecked: Write about being stranded somewhere – an island, a bus stop, etc.

269. Quotable: Use a popular quote from a speaker and use it as inspiration for your writing.

270. Mind   Map it Out: Create a mind map of words, phrases, and ideas that pop into your head or spend some time browsing the many mind maps online. Write a poem, story, or journal entry inspired by the mind map.

271. Patterns : Write about repeating patterns that occur in life.

272. Scrapbook : Write about finding a scrapbook and the memories it contains.

273. Cure: Write about finding a cure for an illness.

274. Email Subject Lines: Read your email today and look for subject lines that may be good starters for writing inspiration.

275. Wishful Thinking: Write about a wish you have.

276. Doodle : Spend some time today doodling for about 5-10 minutes. Write about the thoughts you had while doodling or create something inspired by your finished doodle.

277. Chalkboard: Imagine you are in a classroom. What does it say on the chalkboard?

278. Sticky: Imagine a situation that’s very sticky, maybe even covered in maple syrup, tape or glue. Write about it!

279. Flashlight : Imagine going somewhere very dark with only a flashlight to guide you.

280. A Far Away Place : Envision yourself traveling to a fictional place, what do you experience in your imaginary journey?

281. On the Farm : Write about being in a country or rural setting.

282. Promise to Yourself: Write about a promise you want to make to yourself and keep.

283. Brick Wall : Write a poem that is about a brick wall – whether literal or figurative.

284. Making a Choice: Write about a time when you had to make a difficult choice.

285.  Repeat: Write about a time when you’ve had to repeat yourself or a time when it felt like no one was listening.

286. Outcast : Write about someone who is not accepted by their peers. (for example, the Ugly Ducking)

287. Scary Monsters: Write about a scary (or not-so-scary) monster in your closet or under the bed.

288. Sacrifice: Write about something you’ve sacrificed doing to do something else or help another person.

289. Imperfection: Create a poem that highlights the beauty in being flawed.

290. Birthday Poem: Write a poem inspired by birthdays.

291. Title First : Make a list of potential poem or story titles and choose one to write from.

292. Job Interview : Write about going on a job interview.

293. Get Well : Write a poem that will help someone who is sick feel better quick!

294. Lost in the Crowd: Write about feeling lost in the crowd.

295. Apple a Day: Write about a health topic that interests you.

296. Cravings: Write about craving something.

297. Phobia: Research some common phobias, choose one, and write about it.

298. In the Moment: Write about living in the present moment.

299. Concrete : Write about walking down a sidewalk and what you see and experience.

300. Battle: Write about an epic battle, whether real, fictional or figurative.

301. This Old House : Write about an old house that is abandoned or being renovated.

302. Clutter: Is there a cluttered spot in your home? Go through some of that clutter today and write about what you find or the process of organizing.

303. Go Fly a Kite: Write about flying a kite.

304. On the TV: Flip to a random TV channel and write about the first thing that comes on – even if it is an infomercial!

305. Fruit: Write an ode to your favorite fruit.

306. Long Distance Love: Write about a couple that is separated by distance.

307. Glasses: Write about a pair of eyeglasses or someone wearing glasses.

308. Robotic : Write about a robot.

309. Cute as a Button: Write about something you think is just adorable.

310. Movie Conversation: Use a memorable conversation from a favorite movie to inspire your writing.

311. Easy-Peasy : Write  about doing something effortlessly.

312. Idiom: Choose from a list of idioms one that speaks to you and create a poem around that saying or phrase. (Ie: It is raining cats and dogs)

313. Playground: Whether it is the swings or the sandbox or the sliding boards, write about your memories of being on a playground.

314. Romance: Write about romantic things partners can do for each other.

315. Rock Star: Imagine you are a famous rock star. Write about the experience.

316. Come to Life: Imagine ordinary objects have come to life. Write about what they do and say.

317. Airplane: Write about meeting someone on an airplane and a conversation you might have.

318. Health & Beauty: Take some time to peruse your medicine cabinet or the health and beauty aisles at a local store. Write a poem, short story, or journal entry inspired by a product label.

319. Determination: Write about not giving up.

320. Instrumental Inspiration: Listen to some instrumental music and write a poem that matches the mood, beat, and style of the music.

321. Wait Your Turn: Write about having to wait in line.

322. Personality Type : Do you know your personality type? (There are many free quizzes online) – write about what type of personality traits you have.

323. Decade: Choose a favorite decade and write about it. (IE: 1980’s or 1950’s for example)

324. I Believe: Write your personal credo of things you believe in.

325. Lost and Found: Write about a lost object.

326. Say it: Write a poem or story that uses dialogue between two people.

327. The Unsent Letter: Write about a letter that never made it to its recipient.

328. The Windows of the Soul: Write a poem about the story that is told through someone’s eyes.

329. Trial and Error: Write about something you learned the hard way.

330. Escape : Write about where you like to go to escape from it all.

331. What’s Cooking: Write something inspired a favorite food or recipe.

332. Records : Go through your file box and pull out old receipts or records…write something inspired by what you find!

333. Banking: Write about visiting the bank.

334. Sweet Talk: Write about trying to convince someone of something.

335. Serendipity: Write about something that happened by chance in a positive way.

336. Distractions: Write about how it feels when you can’t focus.

337. Corporation: Write about big business.

338. Word of the Day: Go to a dictionary website that has a word of the day and use it in a poem, story or journal entry you write.

339. Pick Me Up:  What do you do when you need a pick me up?

340. Unfinished: Write about a project you started but never completed.

341. Forgiveness: Write about a time when someone forgave you or you forgave someone.

342. Weakness: Write about your greatest weakness.

343. Starting: Write about starting a project.

344. Mechanical: Think of gears, moving parts, machines.

345. Random Act of Kindness : Write about a random act of kindness you’ve done for someone or someone has done for you, no matter how small or insignificant it may have seemed.

346. Underground: Imagine living in a home underground and use that as inspiration for writing.

347. Classic Rock: Pick a classic rock love ballad and rewrite it into a story or poem with a similar theme.

348. Night Owl : Write about staying up late at night.

349. Magnetic : Write about attraction to something or someone.

350. Teamwork: Write about working with a team towards a common goal.

351. Roller-coaster : Write about the ups and downs in life.

352. Motivational Poster: Look at some motivational posters online and write a poem or journal entry inspired by your favorite one.

353. Games: Write about the games people play – figuratively or literally.

354. Turning Point: Write about a point in life where things turned for the better or worse.

355. Spellbound: Write about a witch’s spell.

356. Anniversary: Write about the anniversary of a special date.

357. Gamble:  Be inspired by a casino or lottery ticket.

358. Picnic: Write about going on a picnic.

359. Garage: Write about some random item you might find in a garage.

360. Review: Review your week, month, or year in a journal entry or poem format.

361. Detective: Write about a detective searching for clues or solving a mystery.

362. Camera: Take your camera for a walk and write based on one of the photographs you take.

363. Visiting : Write about visiting a family member or friend.

364. Trust: Write about putting trust in someone.

365. Congratulations : Did you write a poem, short story, or journal entry every day for a whole year? Write about what you’ve learned and celebrate your achievement!

We hope you enjoy these creative writing prompts! And of course, if you write anything using these prompts, we’d love to know about it! Tell us how you’ll use these everyday creative writing prompts in the comments section below!

And of course, if you’d like the printable ad-free version of these prompts to reference again and again or to use in your classroom, you can find them at our Etsy shop !

Chelle Stein wrote her first embarrassingly bad novel at the age of 14 and hasn't stopped writing since. As the founder of ThinkWritten, she enjoys encouraging writers and creatives of all types.

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Author : Caroline Chartrand

22nd Feb 2024

Creative Writing Prompts for Writers: 80 Ideas Will Inspire You

Don’t Have Time to Read? Listen to this Article Instead!

Key Takeaways: Creative Writing Prompts

• Writing prompts are designed to spark creativity and help overcome writer’s block. They serve as a starting point for storytelling by providing a scenario, question, as well as theme to explore.
• Prompts can vary widely, from single words or phrases to sentences, questions, or even images. They are versatile tools that can be tailored to any genre, theme, or writing style.
• Effective prompts should balance specificity and openness, spark curiosity, encourage imagination, evoke an emotional response, and sometimes utilize visual stimuli to inspire creativity.
• The guide provides examples of prompts for various genres, including mystery and thriller, romance, science fiction, fantasy and paranormal, general fiction, travel and adventure, horror, and young adult.
• Beyond the initial prompt, developing a story involves character development, setting the scene, as well as creating conflict and plot twists to drive the narrative forward.
• Regular writing practice using prompts can boost creativity, improve discipline, and enhance one’s writing skills over time.
• Books, online communities, and daily prompt apps are valuable resources for finding new writing prompts and engaging with a community of writers for feedback and inspiration.

Craft Your Book Using Writing Prompts

Write your next ebook with us. Authors Breeze use creative writing prompts to create compelling narratives that captivate your readers.

Introduction to Creative Writing Prompts

Ever found yourself staring at a blank page, blinking your eyes as you try to summon words that seem to have taken a vacation? You’re not alone. Every writer, at some point, faces writer’s block. But fear not! Creative writing prompts and writing ideas are here to rescue you from the lack of creativity. In this comprehensive guide, we will explore creative writing prompts. They can ignite your imagination, help you weave compelling stories, and significantly improve your writing craft.

Feeling stuck when you want to write is something many of us experience. It can be really tough to come up with ideas or even know where to start. This challenge is something even professional writers face, especially before their work reaches bookshelves or sells books on Amazon . But there’s a helpful solution for when you feel like you’re hitting a dead end: writing prompts. So, these prompts can kickstart your creativity and help you get your writing and publishing going.

What is a Writing Prompt?

At its core, a writing prompt is a starting point to get your creativity flowing. But what does prompt mean in writing? A prompt is 1 to 3 sentences that raise an issue or ask a question that fuels your writing ideas.

No matter if it is a single word, a phrase, a sentence, or even a picture, a writing prompt can open doors to untold stories waiting to be told. So, if you learn how to write a prompt, you can enhance its effectiveness in sparking creativity.

However, what makes prompts for writing so magical? Well, they come with built-in writing challenges: to conjure up a unique story based on a predefined starting point. This constraint, surprisingly, liberates rather than confines creativity. It is a paradox of the creative process. Boundaries often lead to the most boundless imagination.

How to Write a Writing Prompt?

Crafting effective writer prompts is an art in itself. Your goal should be to strike a delicate balance between specificity and openness. In addition, you need to provide just enough detail to guide the writer, but not so much that it stifles their creativity. Here are some tips to consider:

Spark Curiosity

An excellent prompt should pique interest. It could be something as simple as:

“The clock struck thirteen,” prompting the question, “Why thirteen?”

This could serve as a fantastic mystery and thriller writing prompt.

Encourage Imagination

Allow room for interpretation. A prompt like the following opens up endless narrative possibilities:

“In a world where dreams are currency.”

It is perfect for science fiction writing prompts or even dystopian writing prompts.

Emotional Connect

Try to evoke an emotional response. Prompts that relate to universal feelings, love, fear, and joy, can be particularly compelling.

Visual Stimulus

Sometimes, a picture can be worth a thousand words. For example, a mysterious photograph or a bizarre painting. It can serve as a powerful prompt.

The beauty of writing prompts lies in their versatility. You can tailor them for any genre, theme, or writing style . It makes them invaluable tools for writers of all stripes.

Pro Writing Tip: Incorporate direct quotations, summaries, and rephrased content from the provided material to bolster your opinions and insights. It’s crucial to demonstrate to your audience that you are actively interacting with the author’s ideas and the content they’ve shared. For instance, if you find yourself at odds with a recommendation in the material, refer to a specific section and articulate your reasons for disagreement. This approach will aid in convincing others to understand and possibly align with your perspective.

How to Start a Writing Prompt?

Staring down a prompt can be as intimidating as the blank page itself. Here’s how to leap over that initial hurdle:

Allow yourself to write without judgment or editing . Let the prompt lead you wherever it may, even if it initially seems nonsensical.

Ask Questions

Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? These questions can help you unpack the prompt and start weaving a narrative web.

Play with Perspectives

If the prompt is a sentence, try writing from the perspective of different characters or objects within that scenario.

Mix and Match

Combine the prompt with another idea you’ve been toying with. The intersection of two ideas can often be where the magic happens.

Genre-Specific Creative Writing Book Prompts

Let’s look at some writing prompt examples that will help you with more writing prompt ideas:

Mystery and Thriller Writing Prompts

Everyone loves a good mystery or a heart-pounding thriller. These genres keep readers on the edge, eager to turn the page. So, here are a few prompts for mysterious writings:

• While renovating your grandmother’s attic, you discover a diary belonging to a relative you never knew existed. The entries hint at a family secret buried for decades.
• You receive a series of anonymous letters, each with a clue that leads you closer to uncovering the identity of a person who claims to have changed your life forever.
• A renowned magician disappears during a live performance. However, this time, it is not part of the act.
• A detective receives a series of cryptic letters. They seem to be linked to unsolved cases from decades ago.
• You witness a crime that hasn’t happened yet. Can you be able to prevent it, or will you become part of it?
• A journalist stumbles upon a conspiracy tied to a secret society that has influenced historical events.
• An ordinary book contains a secret message. It leads to a dangerous treasure hunt across the city.
• A family heirloom is stolen on the eve of a meaningful ceremony. It reveals long-buried family secrets.
• Someone is following you, always a step behind. However, when you turn around, there’s never anyone there.
• A small town is gripped by fear as residents receive anonymous threats predicting their deaths.

Pro Writing Tip: Always start with a relatable scenario but add a twist that invites curiosity. For example , instead of presenting a generic setting like “ walking in a park, ” twist it into something unexpected like “ walking in a park where every bench tells a story of a lost civilization. ” This approach not only grabs the reader’s attention but also provides a fertile ground for their imagination to take off. It encourages them to think beyond the ordinary and dive into the creative process with enthusiasm.

Romance Writing Prompts

Love fuels countless stories, from the tragic to the transcendent. Therefore, with the help of romantic writing prompts, you can explore the complexities of relationships and the human heart. In addition, you can try these creative writing prompts for romance novels :

• Two former lovers unexpectedly reunite in a small coffee shop after years apart. What led to their separation? Moreover, what secrets have they held onto?
• A love letter meant for someone else lands in your hands. It leads you on a quest to find the intended recipient and, perhaps, a love of your own.
• Messages in bottles wash up on the shore. They are penned by a lovelorn sailor from the past.
• A scientist discovers a way to time travel, only to fall in love with someone from a different era.
• Two rival dance champions are forced to partner up, finding love in their quest for the title.
• An astronomer and a poet, sharing a love for the stars, find their paths intertwined under a celestial event.
• Two strangers exchange notes daily in a coffee shop’s suggestion box, leading to an unexpected romance.
• A musician rediscovers a love song written by their late partner. It leads them to a new beginning.
• Two people meet on a cross-country train ride. They form a connection that challenges their destinations.
• Longtime friends make a pact to marry if they’re both single at 30. Then, as the deadline approaches, real feelings emerge.

Science Fiction Writing Prompts

The future is a playground for the imagination. It offers endless possibilities for exploration. Moreover, science fiction writing prompts can take you on journeys through time, space, and the depths of the human mind. Here are some short fiction ideas:

• You discover the last remaining library in the future where all books are banned. What will you do to protect it?
• In a world where memories can be bought and sold, you wake up one day with no recollection of your past. The quest for your identity leads you to dark and unexpected places.
• Earth’s sun is dying. Humanity’s last hope rests on a crew sent to reignite it with untested technology.
• A new technology allows people to swap consciousnesses. However, one person discovers they can’t switch back.
• An ancient alien artifact is unearthed. It holds the key to unlimited energy and the potential for interstellar war.
• A scientist accidentally opens a portal to a parallel dimension where history turns dark.
• There is a world where memoirs can be engineered. One person uncovers a conspiracy to manipulate the human race.
• AI servants start to develop consciousness. It leads to a society-wide debate on rights and existence.
• On a distant space colony, sabotage reveals deep-seated corruption and a fight for survival.
• A time capsule meant to be opened in a thousand years is accidentally triggered early. It reveals the unforeseen future of humanity.

Fantasy and Paranormal Writing Prompts

Get into worlds where magic is real and the paranormal is just another part of life. These prompts invite you to explore good story starters:

• You stumble upon a forest that everyone in your village avoids. Inside, you find a world that is teemed with creatures and magic you never believed possible.
• A ghost bound to an ancient mansion seeks your help to solve the mystery of their death. They reveal secrets that will change the history of the place.
• A librarian discovers their library is alive, with books that can transport readers into their stories.
• There is a discovery of the last dragon egg. It threatens to ignite a war between humans and dragonkin.
• A person makes a deal with a ghost to solve their unfinished business, entangling their fates.
• A royal heir finds their destiny intertwined with a crown that grants immense power and a deadly curse.
• Magic is banned in a world where a young mage discovers a hidden truth about their power.
• A keeper of magical portals between worlds faces a dilemma when a forbidden love crosses boundaries.
• An unlikely hero is chosen as the apprentice to the last witch in the world, tasked with saving magic.
• A mysterious carnival appears in town overnight, offering fantastical wonders and hidden dangers.

Pro Writing Tip : When crafting a fantasy or paranormal novel, the key to captivating your audience is to blend the familiar with the extraordinary. Simple Writing Prompt : Imagine a world where everyone has a magical talent that manifests on their 16th birthday. Your protagonist, however, wakes up on their 16th birthday to discover they have no talent. Explore their journey as they navigate a world where they feel out of place, only to uncover a hidden power within themselves that transcends the known talents. Creative Writing Prompt : In a city where the night brings out not just stars but also portals to other dimensions, your main character is a night courier, delivering packages to these alternate realms. One night, they receive a mysterious package that is not to be delivered to another dimension, but to a being that hasn’t been seen in centuries. This delivery leads them on an adventure through various dimensions, uncovering secrets about the city, its night-time wonders, and themselves.

General Fiction Writing Prompts

Sometimes, the most compelling stories to write are those that reflect our own world, warts and all. General fiction story ideas and prompts offer a canvas for the human condition:

• You find a phone with one unread message that changes your perspective on life.
• At a pivotal moment in your life, you meet a stranger. He offers you advice that could change everything.
• Once a year, a lottery gives one person the chance to change their life completely—but at what cost?
• An artist discovers they can paint pictures that make others relive memories. It alters their perception of the past.
• A café sits at the crossroads of reality. The customers of the café find themselves confronted with life-changing decisions.
• A box of unsent letters was found in an attic. They tell the story of a family’s hidden history.
• The last bookstore in a world dominated by digital media. It becomes the center of a community’s struggle to remember its humanity.
• A watchmaker creates a watch that can stop time for everyone but the wearer, exploring the consequences of isolation.
• A series of balcony gardens across a city weaves together the lives of its residents in unexpected ways.
• Two childhood friends make a promise to achieve their dreams. However, life takes them on very different paths.

Travel and Adventure Writing Prompts

For the wanderlust-driven soul, travel and adventure prompts whisk you away to far-off lands and thrilling escapades:

• You get an old map that leads to a place not found on any modern map. What do you discover at the end of the journey?
• After a storm at sea, you wash up on the shores of an island. It hides a civilization untouched by the outside world.
• A map is marked with unknown names. It leads to a journey uncovering hidden histories and forgotten places.
• In the heart of the desert, a mirage reveals a hidden oasis with secrets of its own.
• An expedition to an uncharted island reveals a civilization thought to be a myth.
• A trip to see the Northern Lights uncovers a phenomenon more magical. But it is more dangerous than ever expected.
• A hidden path in an ancient forest leads to a world untouched by time.
• An urban explorer discovers an underground city beneath the streets of a bustling metropolis.
• A mysterious castle appears in the sky. It is accessible only to those who dare to find a way up.
• A traveller returns from an otherworldly journey with tales. They challenge the limits of belief.

Horror Writing Prompts

Horror writing prompts are a great resource for vampire romance books and other horror-related genres. So, tap into the depths of fear with horror story prompts that are sure to send shivers down your spine:

• A painting you acquire at an estate sale changes each time you look at it. Eventually, it reveals something horrifying.
• A person discovers their reflection. It has a mind of its own. In addition, it reveals dark truths.
• The woods near your house are said to be haunted. One night, you hear your name whispered among the trees.
• You hear about a melody that haunts a town. It drives its listeners to madness and reveals a sinister history.
• A house filled with lifelike dolls that seem to watch your every move. It hides a grim secret.
• A fog rolls into a small town, and with it comes whispers that drive people to do unspeakable things.
• You see a door in the basement that was never there before. It leads to a dark and forgotten place.
• Residents of a small town are visited by a figure in the night, who watches from afar, never approaching until.
• A grave that doesn’t appear on any map is found to hold the key to a century-old curse.
• A rare lunar eclipse reveals a horrifying figure walking across the moon’s surface. It signals a dark event.

Young Adult Writing Prompts

Young adult fiction often tackles the tumultuous journey of growing up. The following prompts focus on the challenges and triumphs of youth:

• At your new school, you’re invited to join a secret society. It promises adventure but hides a dark secret.
• On your sixteenth birthday, you discover you have a power. It could change the world or destroy it.
• A group of friends discovers a hidden bunker during summer break. It leads to a mystery that tests their friendship.
• A secret society meets at midnight to share stories. However, their tales start to come true.
• A teen discovers their ancestry is linked to an ancient legend. It thrusts them into a world of magic and danger.
• Teens have the power to enter dreams. They must save one of their own from a nightmare that could trap them forever.
• A high school talent show reveals a student’s unique ability. It attracts unwanted attention.
• There is a society where books are banned. A group of teens starts an underground library and fights for the right to read.
• A teen discovers a parallel world where their every decision creates ripples. It affects both worlds in unexpected ways.
• At a summer camp set to close, campers encounter a mystery that ties the camp’s history to their own lives.

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Beyond the Prompt: Develop Your Story with Creative Writing Prompts

You now have ideas for writing prompts. Then, it is time to transition from story writing prompts to a fully realized story. Writing prompts serve as the initial stage. However, the journey from prompt to page is where the real magic happens. Let’s look at how you can develop writing prompts into captivating narratives.

Character Development

Start with questions.

Who is your protagonist? What do they want more than anything? What’s stopping them? Characters drive stories, such as:

• Foil Characters
• Morally Grey Characters
• Round Characters

Therefore, you need to understand the motivations, fears, and strengths of your characters.

Give Them Flaws

Perfect characters are boring. Flaws make characters relatable and their journeys compelling. So, think about how the weaknesses of your character might impact their decisions and the outcome of the story.

Set the Scene

World-building.

World-building is especially important in genres such as fantasy and science fiction. However, every story needs a setting. Look at how the environment affects the story. Is it a dystopian future that challenges the characters at every turn, or a buzzing city filled with opportunities and threats?

Sensory Details

Bring your world to life with sensory details. What does it smell like in the haunted mansion or on the alien planet? In addition, what sounds fill the air in the bustling marketplace or the quiet village?

Plot Twists and Turns

Outline the journey.

Even if you’re not an outliner by nature, you should have a rough idea of where your story is headed. As a result, it can help keep you on track. So, think of it as a map with room for detours.

Conflict is Key

Conflict is one of the top elements of fiction . No conflict, no story. So, your characters should face challenges, make decisions, and deal with the consequences. In addition, these conflicts can be external (a villain, a natural disaster) or internal (fear of failure, struggling with identity).

Bring Your Story to Life

Our ghostwriters transform your ideas into mesmerizing stories using creative writing prompts to ensure your voice shines through.

The Value of Practice

Keep in mind that the goal is not to write a book on your first try. The goal is to write. Each story you write and each prompt you explore help hone your skills and deepen your learning of the craft. So, practice regularly with writing prompts. As a result, it will:

Boost Creativity

The more you write, the easier it becomes to develop new ideas for writing a book and solve narrative problems.

Improve Discipline

Set a writing routine, even if it’s just a few minutes a day. It can help turn writing from a hobby into a habit.

Resources and Ideas for Creative Writing Prompts

Find new and exciting prompts. It doesn’t have to be a chore. Here are some resources to keep your prompt well full:

Books and Journals

Many books are dedicated to providing writers with prompts. Similarly, literary journals sometimes offer prompt-based contests.

Online Communities

Websites like Reddit have communities dedicated to writing prompts. Participating can also provide you with feedback from fellow writers. Such platforms are excellent sources of free writing prompts, daily writing prompts as well as random writing prompts.

Daily Prompt Apps

There are several apps available that deliver a new writing prompt to you each day. In addition, they ensure you always have a source of inspiration at your fingertips.

Captivate Your Audience with Unique Articles

Infuse your articles with creativity and depth. Our article writers leverage unique prompts to craft articles that stand out.

Additional Resources:

Books on Writing Craft: “ On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft” by Stephen King “ Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life” by Anne Lamott “The Elements of Style” by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White “Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within” by Natalie Goldberg “The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles” by Steven Pressfield Online Writing Communities: Reddit ‘s r/Writing and r/WritingPrompts Wattpad : A platform for writers to share their work and connect with readers Scribophile : A writing group and online writing workshop where writers can critique each other’s work NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month): An annual event that encourages writers to complete a novel in a month, held every November Writing Software and Tools: Scrivener : A powerful content-generation tool for long documents Grammarly : A writing assistant that helps with grammar, punctuation, and style Hemingway Editor : A tool that highlights complex sentences and common errors to improve readability Evernote : A note-taking app that can be useful for organizing research and ideas Creative Writing Courses and Workshops: Local community colleges or universities often offer creative writing courses Online platforms like Coursera , Udemy , and Skillshare offer a variety of writing courses taught by experienced authors Writing retreats and workshops, such as those offered by The Highlights Foundation or The Loft Literary Center

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some cool prompts.

Here are a few writing prompts to get you started:

• Write about a song that evokes a strong emotion in you.
• Narrate a childhood memory from the perspective of someone else who was there.
• Describe an object that isn’t valuable but means a lot to you.
• Today’s color: What color do you feel like today and why?

What are 500 writing prompts?

The “500 Writing Prompts” journal is a treasure trove for writers. It offers a wide range of prompts across genres and themes. Moreover, it is designed to spark your creativity and help you explore the depths of your imagination, one prompt at a time.

What are 5-minute writing prompts?

These quick prompts are perfect for daily journaling or warming up your writing muscles. They include gratitudes, aspirations, affirmations, reflections on the day, and thoughts on improvement.

What are some good writing questions?

Here are a few journal prompts to ponder:

• What do you aspire to be?
• List five adventures you want to have before you turn 20.
• What’s your dream job?
• Imagine your life at 30. What does it look like?
• What are the three most impactful jobs in the world, in your opinion?
• Would you ever want to be president?

Writing prompts are not just a cure for writer’s block. They’re an excellent tool that can help your growth as a writer. In addition, they make your way to explore new genres and a method for honing your craft. Every word you write brings you one step closer to the writer you aspire to be. So, grab some good writing prompts from the many creative writing topics we have discussed. Then, see where it leads you. In addition, if you face any problems, you can always come to Authors Breeze .

Enhance Your Blog with Writing Prompts

Our blog writers use innovative writing prompts to produce posts that engage, inform, and delight your audience.

Caroline Chartrand

As a writing expert, Caroline R Chartrand has written numerous books across various genres, from memoirs to self-help guides. With a passion for history and literature, she has delved into the lives of some of the fascinating figures in history, uncovering hidden stories and surprising facts.

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, 105 creative writing prompts to try out.

General Education

The most common advice out there for being a writer is, "if you want to write, write." While this is true (and good advice), it's not always that easy, particularly if you're not writing regularly.

Whether you're looking for help getting started on your next project, or just want to spend 20 minutes being creative, writing prompts are great ways to rev up your imagination. Read on for our list of over 100 creative writing prompts!

feature image credit: r. nial bradshaw /Flickr

10 Short Writing Prompts

If you're looking for a quick boost to get yourself going, these 10 short writing prompts will do the trick.

#1 : Write a scene starting with a regular family ritual that goes awry.

#2 : Describe exactly what you see/smell/hear/etc, right now. Include objects, people, and anything else in your immediate environment.

#3 : Suggest eight possible ways to get a ping pong ball out of a vertical pipe.

#4 : A shoe falls out of the sky. Justify why.

#5 : If your brain were a tangible, physical place, what would it be like?

#6 : Begin your writing with the phrase, "The stage was set."

#7 : You have been asked to write a history of "The Summer of [this past year]." Your publisher wants a table of contents. What events will you submit?

#8 : Write a sympathetic story from the point of view of the "bad guy." (Think fractured fairy tales like Wicked or The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! , although the story doesn't have to be a fairy tale.)

#9 : Look at everyday objects in a new way and write about the stories one of these objects contains.

#10 : One person meets a stranger on a mode of transportation. Write the story that ensues.

11 Writing Prompts for Kids

Any of these prompts can be used by writers of any age, but we chose the following 11 prompts as ones that would be particularly fun for kids to write about. (Most of them I used myself as a young writer, so I can vouch for their working!)

#1 : Include something falling in your writing.

#2 : Write a short poem (or story) with the title, "We don't know when it will be fixed."

#3 : Write from the perspective of someone of a different gender than you.

#4 : Write a dumb internet quiz.

#5 : Finish this thought: "A perfect day in my imagination begins like this:"

#6 : Write a character's inner monologue (what they are thinking as they go about their day).

#7 : Think of a character. Write a paragraph each about:

• An important childhood experience that character had.
• The character's living situation.
• Two hobbies or things the character likes to do.
• The room where the character sleeps.
• An ambition of the character.
• Two physical characteristics of the character.
• What happens when a second person and this character meet.
• Two important defining personal traits of this character.

#8 : Start a story with a quote from a song.

#9 : Begin a story with, "It was the summer of ______ when ______"

#10 : Pretend everyday objects have no names. Think about what you would name them based on what they do, what you can use them for, and what they look like.

#11 : Start a story with the phrases "My grandparents are/were," "My parents are/were," or "My mother/father/parent is/was."

15 Cool Writing Prompts

#1 : List five issues that you're passionate about. Write about them from the opposite point of view (or from the perspective of a character with the opposite point of view).

#2 : Walk around and write down a phrase you hear (or read). Make a story out of it.

#3 : Write using no adjectives or adverbs.

#4 : Write a character's inner dialogue between different aspects of a character's self (rather than an inner monologue).

#5 : Write a true story from your past that involves light or darkness in some way.

#6 : "Saying goodbye awakens us to the true nature of things." Write something in which someone has to say goodbye and has a realization.

#7 : Begin by writing the end of the story.

#8 : Write a recipe for an intangible thing.

#9 : Write a horror story about an ordinary situation (e.g., buying groceries, going to the bank, listening to music).

#10 : Write a story from within a bubble.

#11 : Write down 2-3 short character descriptions and then write the characters in conversation with one another.

#12 : Write a story in second person.

#13 : Write a story that keeps contradicting itself.

#14 : Write about a character with at least three big problems.

#15 : Write something that takes place on a Friday, the 13th (of any month).

15 Funny Writing Prompts

#1 : Write a story which starts with someone eating a pickle and potato sandwich.

#2 : Write a short script where the plot has to do with evil dolls trying to take over something.

#3 : Write about writers' block.

#4 : List five election issues that would be ridiculous to includes as part of your election platform (e.g. outlawing mechanical pencils and clicky pens, mandating every person over the age of 30 must own an emergency last rites kit). Choose one of the ridiculous issues and write a speech in favor of it.

#5 : Write a children's story that is insanely inappropriate but can't use graphic language, curses, or violence.

#6 : List five careers. Write about someone with one of those careers who wants to quit it.

#7 : Write down a list of murder methods. Choose one at random from the list to use in a story.

#8 : Write a romance story in which the hero must have a last name corresponding with a physical characteristic (e.g. Jacques Hairyback or Flora Dimple).

#9 : Come up with 10 different ways to:

• order a pizza
• congratulate someone on a job well done
• return to the store something that's broken

#10 : Search for "random Renaissance painting" (or any other inspirational image search text you can think of) on any online internet image search engine. Picking one image, write half a page each of:

• Statements about this image (e.g. "I meant bring me the BREAD of John the Baptist").
• Questions about this image (e.g. "How many of those cherubs look like their necks are broken?").
• Explanations of this image (e.g. "The painter ran out of blue paint halfway through and had to improvise for the color of the sky").
• Commands said by people in this image or about this image (e.g. "Stop telling me to smile!" or "Bring me some gasoline!").

#11 : Write starting with a word that sounds like "chute" (e.g. "chute," "shoot," "shooed").

#12 : Write about a character named X "The [article of clothing]" Y (e.g. Julie "The Yellow Darted Skirt" Whyte) or simply referred to by their clothing (e.g. "the man in the brown suit" or "the woman in black").

#13 : Write down a paragraph each describing two wildly different settings. Write a story involving both settings.

#14 : Think of a fictional holiday based around some natural event (e.g. the Earth being at its farthest point from the sun, in memory of a volcanic eruption, that time a cloud looked like a rabbit riding a bicycle). Write about how this holiday is celebrated.

#15 : Write a "Just-So" type story about a fictional creature (e.g. "how the dragon got its firebreath" or "how the mudkip got its cheek gills").

54 Other Writing Prompt Ideas

#1 : Borrow a character from some other form of media (or create your own). Write from that character's perspective.

#2 : Write for and against a non-consequential controversy (e.g., salt vs. pepper, Mac vs. PC, best kind of door).

#3 : Choose an ancestor or a person from the past to write about or to.

#4 : Write a pirate story with a twist.

#5 : Have a character talk about another character and their feelings about that other character.

#6 : Pick a season and think about an event in your life that occurred in that season. Write a creative nonfiction piece about that event and that season.

#7 : Think of something very complicated and long. Write a page about it using short sentences.

#8 : Write a story as a dream.

#9 : Describe around a food without ever directly naming it.

#10 : Write a monologue (one character, talking to the audience/reader) (*not* an inner monologue).

#11 : Begin a story with the phrase, "It only took five seconds to..."

#12 : List five strong emotions. Choosing one, write about a character experiencing that emotion, but only use the character's actions to convey how they are feeling (no outright statements).

#13 : Write a chapter of the memoir of your life.

#14 : Look through the (physical) things you're currently carrying with you or wearing. Write about the memories or emotions tied with each of them.

#15 : Go be in nature. Write drawing your story from your surroundings (both physical, social, and mental/emotional).

#16 : Write from the perspective of a bubble (or bubble-like creature).

#17 : A person is jogging along an asphalt road. Write a story.

#18 : Title your story (or poem, or play, etc) "Anti-_____". Fill in the blank and write the story.

#19 : Write something that must include an animal, a mineral, and a vegetable.

#20 : Begin your writing with the phrase, "6 weeks later..."

#21 : List 5-10 office jobs. Pick one of them and describe a person working in that job as if you were a commentator on an Olympic sporting event.

#22 : Practice your poetic imagery: overwrite a description of a character's breakfast routine.

#23 : Write about a character (or group of characters) trying to convince another character to try something they're scared of.

#24 : Keep an eye out in your environment for examples of greengrocer's apostrophes and rogue quotation marks. Pick an example and write about what the misplaced punctuation implies (e.g., we have the "best" meat or we have the best "meat" ).

#25 : Fill in the blank with the first word that comes to mind: "_______ Riot!" Write a newspaper-style article describing the events that that took place.

#26 : Write from the point of view of your most-loved possession. What does it think of you?

#27 : Think of five common sayings (e.g., "An apple a day keeps the doctor away"). Write a horror story whose plot is one of those common sayings.

#28 : Write a scene in which two characters are finally hashing out a long-standing misunderstanding or disagreement.

#29 : You start receiving text messages from an unknown number. Tell the story of what happens next.

#30 : Write one character bragging to another about the story behind their new tattoo.

#31 : Superheroes save the world...but they also leave a lot of destruction in their wake. Write about a normal person in a superhero's world.

#32 : Sometimes, family is who we are related to; sometimes, family is a group of people we gather around ourselves. Write a story about (some of) a character's found family and relatives meeting for the first time.

#33 : Write a story that begins in the middle of the plot's action ( en media res ).

#34 : Everyone says you can never have too much of a good thing. Write a story where that isn't true.

#35 : What do ghosts do when they're not creating mischief? Write about the secret lives of ghosts.

#36 : Every year, you dread the last week of April. Write a story about why.

#37 : Write a story about what it would be like to have an animal sidekick in real life.

#38 : Heists don't just have to be black-clad thieves stealing into vaults to steal rare art or money. Write about a group of people (adults or children) who commit a heist for something of seemingly little monetary value.

#39 : "Life is like a chooseable-path adventure, except you don't get to see what would have happened if you chose differently." Think of a choice you've made and write about a world where you made a different choice.

#40 : Write a story about a secret room.

#41 : You find a message in a bottle with very specific directions. Write a story about the adventure you embark upon.

#42 : "You'll always be okay as long as you know where your _______ is." Fill in the blank and write a story (either fictional or from your life) illustrating this statement.

#43 : Forcing people into prolonged proximity can change and deepen relationships. Write about characters on a road trip together.

#44 : In music, sonata form includes three main parts: exposition, development, and recapitulation. Write a short story that follows this format.

#45 : Begin writing with a character saying, "I'm afraid this simply can't wait."

#46 : Write a story with a happy ending (either happily-ever-after or happy-for-now).

#47 : Write about a character before and after a tragedy in that character's life.

#48 : Choose an object or concept you encounter in everyday life (e.g. tables, the feeling of hot or cold, oxygen) and write an infomercial about it.

#49 : "Life is a series of quests, whether important or mundane." Write about a quest you've gone on (or would like to go on, or will have to go on).

#50 : List 10 different ways to learn. Choose one (or more) and write a story where a character learns something using that one (or more) method.

#51 : You've been called to the principal's office for bad behavior. You know what you did. Explain and justify yourself.

#52 : A character discovers their sibling owns a cursed object. Write about what happens next.

#53 : Write a character description by writing a list of items that would be on a scavenger hunt about them.

#54 : The slogan for a product or service you're advertising is, "Kid-tested, _____." Fill in the blank and write the copy for a radio or podcast advertisement for your product.

How to Use Creative Writing Prompts

There's no wrong way to use a creative writing prompt (unless it's to harass and hurt someone)—the point of them is to get you writing and your imagination flowing.

To help you get the most out of these writing prompts, however, we've come up with the six tips below. Try them out!

#1: DON'T Limit Yourself to Prose

Unless you're writing for a particular assignment, there's no reason everything you write in response to a writing prompt has to be prose fiction . Instead of writing your response to a prompt as a story, try writing a poem, nonfiction essay, play, screenplay, or some other format entirely.

#2: DON'T Edit as You Write

The purposes of writing prompts is to get you writing, typos and weird grammar and all. Editing comes later, once you've finished writing and have some space from it to come back to what you wrote.

It's OK to fix things that will make it difficult to read what you've written (e.g., a weird autocorrect that changes the meaning of a sentence), but don't worry too much about typos or perfect grammar when you're writing; those are easy enough to fix in edits . You also can always insert asterisks or a short note as you're writing to remind yourself to go back to fix something (for instance, if as you're writing it seems like you want to move around the order of your paragraphs or insert something earlier).

#3: DO Interpret the Prompt Broadly

The point of using a writing prompt is not to write something that best exemplifies the prompt, but something that sparks your own creativity. Again, unless you're writing in response to an assignment with specific directions, feel free to interpret writing prompts as broadly or as narrowly as you want.

For instance, if your prompt is to write a story that begins with "The stage was set," you could write about anything from someone preparing to put a plan into motion to a literal theatre stage constructed out of pieces of old sets (or something else entirely).

If you're using a writing prompt, it doesn't have to be the first sentence of your story or poem, either; you can also use the prompt as a goal to work towards in your writing.

#4: DO Try Switching Up Your Writing Methods

If it's a possibility for you, see if you write differently in different media. Do you write the same kind of stories by hand as you would typing at a computer? What about if you dictate a story and then transcribe it? Or text it to a friend? Varying the method you use to write can affect the stories you're able to tell.

For example, you may find that it's easier for you to tell stories about your life to a voice recorder than to try to write out a personal essay. Or maybe you have trouble writing poetry, but can easily text yourself or a friend a poem. You might even find you like a writing method you've not tried before better than what you've been doing!

#5: DO Mix and Match Prompt Ideas

If you need more inspiration, feel free to combine multiple prompts (but don't overwhelm yourself with too much to write about).

You can also try switching genres from what might be suggested in the prompt. For instance, try writing a prompt that seems funny in a serious and sad way, or finding the humor in something that otherwise seems humorless. The categories we've organized the prompts into are by no means limiters on what you're allowed to write about.

#6: DO Try to Write Regularly

The more regularly you write, the easier it will be to write (with or without writing prompts).

For some people, this means writing daily; for others, it means setting aside time to write each weekend or each month. Set yourself an achievable goal (write 2x a week, write 1000 words a month) and stick to it. You can always start small and then ramp your wordcount or frequency up.

If you do better when you have something outside yourself prompting to write, you may also want to try something like morning pages , which encourages you to write at least 750 words every day, in any format (story, diary entry, social media postings, etc).

What's Next?

Thinking about attending college or grad school for creative writing? Our articles on whether or not you should major in creative writing and the best creative writing programs are there for you! Plus, if you're a high schooler, you should check out these top writing contests .

Creative writing doesn't necessarily have to be fiction. Check out these three examples of narrative writing and our tips for how to write your own narrative stories and essays .

Just as writing prompts can help give form to amorphous creative energy, using specific writing structures or devices can be great starting points for your next story. Read through our discussion of the top 20 poetic devices to know and see if you can work at least one new one into your next writing session.

Still looking for more writing ideas? Try repurposing our 100+ easy drawing ideas for characters, settings, or plot points in your writing.

Laura graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College with a BA in Music and Psychology, and earned a Master's degree in Composition from the Longy School of Music of Bard College. She scored 99 percentile scores on the SAT and GRE and loves advising students on how to excel in high school.

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Your teacher tasks you with writing a story based on an eavesdropped conversation. When the story is published, your subject isn’t happy.

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300 Creative Writing Prompts to Spur Your Creativity

Every good story begins with a spark—an idea that engages, intrigues, and inspires. But what happens when you're facing the dreaded blank page without a flicker of inspiration? The solution lies in writing prompts—effective tools that ignite your creativity and kickstart your storytelling journey. Here are 300 writing prompts that can steer you toward fresh narratives and unexplored themes.

These prompts focus on the personal. They lead you to introspect and narrate your experiences. Prompts like "The most challenging decision I've ever made...", or "The time I faced my worst fear…" encourage self-reflection.

This batch involves prompts that revolve around hypothetical situations. For example - "If I were the last person on Earth...", or "The day I woke up as a millionaire...". These prompts provoke your imagination, pulling your story into unexpected territories.

101 to 150:

Geared toward exploring new perspectives, these prompts offer characters, settings, or situations for you to develop. Imagine prompts like "A day in the life of a time-traveler..." or "Persuade someone to move to Mars...". They challenge you to step into other people's shoes and invent new worlds.

151 to 200:

These prompts dip into genres. Whether it's "Write a ghost story set in an ice cream shop..." or "Your protagonist can read minds, but...". Here, you can explore and experiment with different storytelling styles and themes.

201 to 250:

Taking a poetic turn, these prompts suggest themes for verses. Prompts like "A sonnet about a sunset..." or "a haiku about the four seasons..." provide an opportunity to practice and perfect your rhythm and rhyme.

251 to 300:

Lastly, these prompts focus on the macro, inviting big-picture ideas like "The future of humanity in a technology-dominated world...". They can be deeply thought-provoking, encouraging you to develop intricate plots and complex characters.

So, next time you're stuck or need a writing warm-up, delve into these prompts. You'll find that they not only inspire fresh ideas but also encourage you to write outside your comfort zone. Each prompt is a new adventure in your writing journey, pushing you to explore different characters, situations, and styles, ultimately helping you grow as a writer.

Remember, these are only starting points—the magic happens when you let your creativity take over. Let the prompts guide you, but don't be afraid to deviate and follow where your creativity leads you. And don't forget to make use of Chapterly's AI-assisted content creation to enhance your creative process. Discover new words, narrative styles, and storytelling elements with the help of our intuitive authoring platform.

Personal Introspection Prompts:

1. "The moment I felt most alive..." 2. "The time I had to stand up for what I believed in..." 3. "My greatest achievement and how it changed me..." 4. "A lesson I've learned the hard way..." 5. "How my biggest failure shaped me..." 6. "A chance encounter that affected me deeply..." 7. "A choice I made that defined my life..." 8. "The person who has had the most influence over me..." 9. "A dream that had a profound impact on my waking life..." 10. "What I missed the most during quarantine..." These exciting prompts invite you to harness your emotions, recall your memories, and reflect on life's pivotal moments. This in-depth self-exploration can lead to profound insights and beautiful stories that genuinely resonate with readers. Remember, the magic lies not only in the exercise of writing but also in the journey of self-discovery it sparks. Enjoy this special kind of magic and watch how your writing transforms as you evolve.

11. "The most unique place I've ever visited..." 12. "How the pandemic changed my lifestyle..." 13. "An act of kindness that changed my perspective..." 14. "My perspective on body positivity..." 15. "The most daring thing I've ever done..." 16. "How a hobby can transform into a passion..." 17. "An event that shaped my cultural perspective..." 18. "My journey to self-love and acceptance..." 19. "An unexpected friendship that changed my life..." 20. "What I wish I knew as a teenager..."

These personal introspection prompts can lead to self-discovery while also enabling you to craft relatable narratives that strike a chord with your readers. Remember, writing prompts not only draw out stories, but they allow us to explore parts of ourselves and gain clarity about who we are. So, take these prompts as an invitation to look within, and simultaneously, to step out of your comfort zone and into uncharted territories in your writing process.

21. "A defining cultural experience from my travels..." 22. "How a particular book or film significantly influenced my perspective..." 23. "The role of nature in my personal wellbeing..." 24. "An experience in my childhood that defines who I am today..." 25. "A moment when I felt completely helpless..." 26. "The role spirituality plays in my life..." 27. "The hardest lesson I’ve learned from a past relationship..." 28. "An episode in my life when I had to take a leap of faith..." 29. "A special tradition in my family..." 30. "Recovering from a personal trauma..."

These prompts act as mirrors, providing you opportunity to reflect on your life experiences and weave them into captivating tales. Writing from personal experience not only enhances relatability but also authenticity in your narrative. Ultimately, the journey with these prompts can deepen your understanding of yourself and your craft, enriching the stories you tell and how you tell them. 31. "When I challenged a belief that I grew up with..." 32. "A moment when I truly appreciated solitude..." 33. "How I overcame the greatest obstacle in my life..." 34. "A relationship that taught me tolerance and understanding..." 35. "A time when I stood against the majority..." 36. "When I realized the value of a simple life..." 37. "A situation when I chose to be a leader rather than a follower..." 38. "When I chose family over a life ambition..." 39. "My encounter with a stranger that left a lasting impression..." 40. "The role of failure in sculpting my current success..."

These prompts help you illuminate the corners of your own life experiences, allowing you to tap into the reservoir of your personal growth. Writing about these instances not only provides therapeutic value but also creates an emotional connection with your readers. So, don't shy away from baring your soul, for it's these raw and authentic narratives that truly touch people's hearts.

41. "A hobby that impacted my professional career..." 42. "A moment when I had to confront my own bias..." 43. "When I chose to forgive someone who deeply hurt me..." 44. "The impact of a major public event on my personal life..." 45. "How I rebuilt my life after a major setback..." 46. "A moment of genuine bonding with a person from a different culture..." 47. "The time I had to give up something I loved for greater good..." 48. "An encounter with a mentor that altered my life course..." 49. "The time when I chose silence over reaction..." 50. "A surprising coincidence that changed my life..."

These prompts invite you to explore your past, reflect on your experiences, and articulate them into evocative narratives. Real-life episodes resonate with readers as they often find common ground or learn lessons from your experiences. So, take a deep dive into these prompts and use them as a compass to navigate the contours of your life and creativity.

The Hypothetical "What If" Prompts:

51. "If I could switch lives with anyone for a day..." 52. "If I were to write a letter to my future self..." 53. "If I could master any skill instantly..." 54. "The day I found a door to a parallel universe..." 55. "If I were granted three wishes..." 56. "If I could change one historical event..." 57. "The day I realized everyone can hear my thoughts..." 58. "If I could go back in time and meet any historical figure..." 59. "If I woke up one day and discovered I was famous..." 60. "The day I realized the world I was living in was just a simulation..."

These hypothetical prompts propel you beyond the parameters of reality, setting your imagination free to wander and invent new narratives. They challenge you, stretching your thinking and creativity—an excellent opportunity to flex your writing muscles and build unique and engaging stories.

61. "If I could choose any era to live in..." 62. "The day I woke up ten years into the future..." 63. "If I could communicate with animals..." 64. "If I found a magic lamp in my attic..." 65. "The day I first discovered my superpower..." 66. "If I could revisit any moment in my past..." 67. "The day the world lost the concept of time..." 68. "If I were stranded on an island..." 69. "If I were to wake up as my favorite book's character..." 70. "The day I discovered the secret to eternal youth..."

These 'What If' prompts push your creative boundaries, inviting your imagination to roam across limitless possibilities. Harness these prompts to construct uniquely compelling narratives that breathe life into your ideas. Remember, stretching your creativity injects depth and dynamism into your writing, making your stories mesmerizing and distinct.

71. "If I were to become an overnight billionaire..." 72. "The day my favorite fictional world became real..." 73. "If I could turn any dream or nightmare into reality..." 74. "The day I got the ability to time travel..." 75. "If I could eradicate any one vice from the world..." 76. "The day the Internet disappeared..." 77. "If I had the power to make people read my mind..." 78. "If I were given the chance to colonize a new planet..." 79. "The day I got a front-row seat to an alien encounter..." 80. "If my life was a movie, which actor would play me..."

These hypothetical scenarios can be a fun way to stretch your creative muscles and imagine life from vastly different perspectives. So, prepare to let your imagination run wild and pen down narratives that are nothing short of fantastic. Trust the process and let the scenarios you conjure invoke emotions, provoke thoughts, and inspire your storytelling prowess.

81. "If I became the leader of a new country..." 82. "The day machines gained consciousness..." 83. "If I suddenly got the ability to teleport to any place in an instant..." 84. "The day I realized I could speak every language..." 85. "The day I woke up in my favorite video game..." 86. "If I could instantly solve one world problem..." 87. "The day everyone in the world went mute..." 88. "If I got the chance to script my life's ending..." 89. "The day humans acquired the ability to fly..." 90. "If I were to wake up in a world without color..."

These prompts challenge you to imagine wildly different realities and scenarios. Use them as a launchpad to push your creativity and shape extraordinary narratives that defy the conventional bounds of reality. Remember, it's in these unexplored realms that you can truly unleash the full potential of your imagination, leading to stories that captivate and thrill in equal measure.

91. "If I were to wake up as a character in a painting..." 92. "The day humanity discovered it was not alone in the universe..." 93. "If I suddenly became invisible for a day..." 94. "The day gravity ceased to exist..." 95. "If I could bring a fictional character to life..." 96. "The day everyone's dreams began to come true..." 97. "If I could erase any species of animal from existence..." 98. "The day humans gained the ability to breathe underwater..." 99. "If I could see the outcome of every choice I make..." 100. "The day science found a way to reverse aging..."

These hypothetical prompts invite you to brainstorm innovative scenarios, testing your abilities to craft enticing narratives that stretch the reader's imagination. So dive into these prompts and let them propel you into other worldly scenarios and far-flung possibilities. Remember, your writing journey relies not only on realistic stories but also on your ability to imagine the unimaginable, creating narratives that thrill, inspire, and captivate.

Exploring New Perspectives:

101. "My first day as a Martian settler..." 102. "Life through the eyes of a butterfly..." 103. "A day in the life of a World War II soldier..." 104. "Experiencing the world as a person of the opposite gender..." 105. "My life as a nomadic traveller in the Sahara Desert..." 106. "Perspective of a discarded toy in a thrift store..." 107. "A conversation between the sun and the moon..." 108. "Life as a lone tree in an urban cityscape..." 109. "Imagine being the only human left in a world of AI..." 110. "The mindset of an astronaut embarking on a one-way mission to Pluto..."

These prompts open the door to new worlds and unique viewpoints. They allow you to perceive life from different angles, encouraging empathy and fostering creativity. By adopting unusual perspectives and diving into uncharted territories, you can generate compelling narratives full of depth and insight.

111. "The world as seen from the eyes of a bee..." 112. "Struggles of a child prodigy..." 113. "Walking a mile in the shoes of a homeless individual..." 114. "A day in the shoes of an elderly person experiencing life in a new era..." 115. "Seeing the world through the eyes of a rescue dog..." 116. "The contemplations of a lone lighthouse keeper..." 117. "Chronicles of a soldier returning home after years of service..." 118. "The exhilarating first flight of a baby bird..." 119. "The world from the perspective of an AI robot..." 120. "The daily life of a centuries-old vampire coping with the modern world..."

These prompts invite you to step outside your typical frame of reference and explore diverse perspectives. This endeavours not only enrich the depth and scope of your stories, but also nurture empathy and open-mindedness in your writing. By challenging yourself to depict varying viewpoints, you also enhance your creative versatility - an invaluable asset in the world of storytelling.

121. "A day in the life of the President..." 122. "The struggles of being invisible, from an invisible person's point of view..." 123. "Guiding the lost as a self-aware GPS system..." 124. "Survival insights from a polar bear in a melting Arctic..." 125. "Witnessing a volcanic eruption as a local bird..." 126. "Turmoil of a book as it sees its own pages being torn out..." 127. "Adventures from the perspective of an ancient explorer's map..." 128. "Observations of a guardian angel assigned to a reckless teenager..." 129. "First impressions of Earth, as detailed by a curious alien visitor..." 130. "Self-reflections of a mirror in a busy hat shop..."

These prompts should encourage you to delve deep into perspectives you typically wouldn't imagine. There's an astounding amount of narrative potential in telling a story from a fresh viewpoint. Embrace the challenge to write from an unfamiliar standpoint—it's a fabulous way to stretch your creativity and produce truly original content.

131. "Experiencing the ocean depths as a deep-sea diver..." 132. "Profiling a city from the perspective of a local street artist..." 133. "Living life at a snail's pace, as a snail..." 134. "Journaling the journey of a package from an online store..." 135. "The thoughts and experiences of a cloud on a windy day..." 136. "A year in life of a football from a Premier League club..." 137. "Roman Colosseum: Revisiting historical spectacles from the view of a stone seat..." 138. "Experiencing a volcanic eruption as a native plant..." 139. "A day in life in an alien civilization from the point of view of an Earth visitor..." 140. "Environmental abuse from the perspective of mother nature..."

By exploring perspectives outside your own, not only do you broaden your narrative horizons, but also gain a richer understanding of the world. So the next time you're in search of fresh material, try out these role-reversal prompts and see where your creativity takes you. This paradigm shift might just lead to your most exciting story yet.

141. "The secrets held by a forgotten diary in an attic..." 142. "The journey of a coin from mint to being lost in a sofa..." 143. "The perceptive shift of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly..." 144. "Witnessing human evolution as a timeless ancient tree..." 145. "The shifting world of a chameleon..." 146. "The evolution of music as seen by a Stradivarius Violin..." 147. "Experiencing history from the perspective of a museum artifact..." 148. "Experiencing a snowfall for the first time as an African elephant in a zoo..." 149. "The journey of a mail carrier in a rural mountain town..." 150. "A day in the life of your favourite fictional character if they lived in our world..."

These prompts push your creativity and empathy to the limits as they require you to think and feel from perspectives that drastically differ from your own. Remember, every new perspective is a chance to create an unexpected narrative. So go ahead, step into someone else's shoes (or paws, or roots, or wings), and discover an entirely new story waiting to unfold.

Diving into Different Genres:

151. "Write a spine-chilling horror story set in an abandoned amusement park..." 152. "Craft a romantic plot that starts with people stuck in an elevator..." 153. "A gripping mystery about a death in a family reunion..." 154. "Narrate a thrilling chase between a master thief and a determined detective..." 155. "Write a Sci-Fi story about an AI taking the Presidential office..." 156. "Create an epic fantasy tale about a magical kingdom underneath the ocean..." 157. "Conjure a time-travel mishap filled with hilarious consequences..." 158. "A dystopian world, where reading has been outlawed..." 159. "Portrait a compelling romance between two superheroes..." 160. "Weave a chilling ghost story set within an old, desolate library..."

These genre-based prompts introduce you to different styles of narrative storytelling. By experimenting with various genres, you’ll not only diversify your writing capabilities but will also discover what style resonates with you the most. Remember, trying different genres is not about fitting into a particular box, but about expanding your toolbox as a writer.

161. "Construct an adventure tale of a treasure hunt in a haunted jungle..." 162. "Narrate a powerful human drama set in the backdrop of a civil war..." 163. "Spin a humour-filled tale about a day when pets switched roles with their owners..." 164. "Craft a suspense-thriller about a journalist uncovering corporate wrongdoings..." 165. "Pen a Sci-Fi narrative about humans existing as digital entities..." 166. "Write a historical fiction piece based around the first moon landing..." 167. "Unravel a tale of romance blooming in an old-age home..." 168. "Create a hilarious story set in an office where every day is opposite day..." 169. "Weave a tale of supernatural events occurring in a quiet suburban neighbourhood..." 170. "Write an engaging fantasy tale about a knight who is afraid of the dark..."

Whether it's sparking intrigue with a suspense thriller, captivating hearts with a romance narrative, or tickling funny bones with a humor-filled tale, genre-specific prompts can elevate your storytelling skills. Exploring a variety of genres can also offer a refreshing break, fuelling your creativity further. Remember, these prompts are to not only help diversify your writing but also to explore which genre best complements your storytelling style!

171. "Envision a futuristic world where emotions can be bought and sold..." 172. "Develop an engaging Western about a lawman who can't use a gun..." 173. "A humorous misadventure of a clumsy time-traveller..." 174. "Write a heartbreaking tale of a World War II separated love affair rekindling in the 21st century..." 175. "Spin a paranormal story of a psychic detective solving a murder..." 176. "Write a cyberpunk tale set in a post-apocalyptic city..." 177. "A romance blossoming between two rival chefs in a cooking reality show..." 178. "Craft an adventure story of a pirate with a phobia of water..." 179. "A Gothic horror narrative set in a centuries-old castle..." 180. "Weave a dramatic tale about a rockstar's downfall and eventual redemption..."

Experimenting with different genres not only challenges your writing skills but broadens your understanding of diverse narrative styles. Genre-based prompts help you explore a wide range of themes and settings —from suspenseful mysteries to heartwarming romance— while encouraging creativity within these contexts. So, embrace the challenge, step out from your comfort zone, and see where your writing prowess leads you!

181. "Pen a suspenseful whodunit set in an underwater research facility..." 182. "Write a post-apocalyptic narrative about a group of children trying to rebuild society..." 183. "Craft a magical realism story of a small town where everyone has the same dream every night..." 184. "Weave a romantic comedy set amidst the ruins of an alien invasion..." 185. "A war drama from the perspective of a war correspondent..." 186. "Craft a noir tale set in a city where every person has a clone..." 187. "Narrate an epic fantasy about a reluctant prince saving a cursed kingdom..." 188. "A steamy romance that sparks in the cold corridors of a space station..." 189. "Spin a historical fiction about a secret society in Victorian England..." 190. "A Sci-Fi murder mystery on a ship traveling beyond the solar system..."

Engaging with different genres allows you to explore distinct narrative styles, settings, and tropes, enhancing your storytelling arsenal. From the grim streets of noir tales to the spectral spookiness of ghost stories, each genre lends its unique flavor to your narratives. Remember, as a writer, versatility is a strength, and exploring different genres helps in expanding your narrative range.

191. "Write an espionage thriller set in Cold War era Berlin..." 192. "Craft a romantic tragedy between a human and an alien being..." 193. "Create a dystopian tale about a world where asking questions is forbidden..." 194. "Weave a psychological thriller about a man who sees people's darkness..." 195. "Write a Gothic horror story centered around an antique mirror with a sinister past..." 196. "Narrate a soulful romance blooming amidst the competitive world of ballet dancers..." 197. "Pen an action-packed adventure about a historian tracking down a lost civilization..." 198. "Develop a chilling horror narrative about a haunted toy factory..." 199. "Write a gripping detective story about a series of art heists..." 200. "Weave a stirring drama about a family living in a lighthouse on a deserted island..."

Venturing into different genres of storytelling is a fantastic way to challenge your creative boundaries and expand your narrative prowess. From suspense and horror to romance and fantasy, each genre introduces unique elements that help in crafting engaging narratives and developing diverse storytelling skills. Remember, creative growth lies in exploring new territories and pushing your comfort zone. Happy genre-hopping!

Getting Poetic:

201. "A sonnet expressing love for the simple pleasures of life..." 202. "Write an ode to a moment that changed your life forever..." 203. "A free verse detailing a poignant encounter with a stranger..." 204. "Craft a quatrain exploring the whims of the weather..." 205. "A haiku to capture the serenity of a silent snowfall..." 206. "Pen a concrete poem in the shape of a key, narrating the unlocking of a secret..." 207. "Compose a ballad telling the story of an unsung hero..." 208. "Write a limerick about an unusual journey..." 209. "A poem capturing the essence of a city that never sleeps..." 210. "A triolet exploring the cyclical nature of life..."

Poetry prompts open the floodgates of expression. Poems can distill powerful emotions and vivid imagery into just a few lines, crafting narratives that hook readers at a visceral level. Whether you're already an experienced poet or you're just getting your feet wet, these prompts can lead to a deeper understanding of this profound art form.

211. "Free verse inspired by a whirlwind romance..." 212. "Compose a sonnet about a spectacular sunrise..." 213. "A haiku about the loneliness of the moon..." 214. "Craft an elegy for a crumbling historical monument..." 215. "Skinny poem interpreting the flight of a bird..." 216. "Tanka about the anticipation of a long-awaited reunion..." 217. "A triolet celebrating the beauty of a summer's day..." 218. "Write a ghazal about an unrequited love..." 219. "A concrete poem in the shape of a mountain depicting a daunting challenge..." 220. "Compose a cinquain describing the fleeting beauty of autumn..."

Poetry lets you experiment with rhythm, rhyme, and form, allowing you to beautifully articulate emotions, ideas, and narratives. Whether you're a novice poet or an experienced lyricist, these prompts are designed to inspire and facilitate your poetical efforts. Remember to relax, enjoy, and let your pen dance to the rhythm of your thoughts.

221. "A dazzling ode to the night sky..." 222. "Write an acrostic poem using the word "serenity"..." 223. "Compose a ballad recounting a myth from ancient Greece..." 224. "A sonnet that captures the wonder of a rainbow after a storm..." 225. "A limerick inspired by the antics of a house cat..." 226. "Create a haiku that captures the spirit of a bustling marketplace..." 227. "A blank verse about the quiet beauty of an underwater kingdom..." 228. "A rhymed quatrain exploring the mystery of dreams..." 229. "Compose a pantoum about the changing of seasons..." 230. "Write a lyric poem about falling in love at first sight..."

While poetry often concisely conveys stories, it has a unique ability to emotionally resonate with readers. These poetic prompts encourage you to showcase your creativity, using a rich array of language and an exploration of intricate emotions and nuanced subtleties. Regardless of your familiarity with verse, delving into poetry can enhance your narrative skills and evoke a deep sense of personal reflection.

231. "Craft an English sonnet about a battle between good and evil..." 232. "A free verse on the duality of human nature..." 233. "Explore the serenity of a forest at dawn through a haiku..." 234. "Create a sestina about the complexities of a writer's mind..." 235. "Write a pantoum centered on the theme of reincarnation..." 236. "A villanelle about the beauty and pain of growing old..." 237. "An epigram summarizing the essence of childhood innocence..." 238. "A sonnet expressing one's turmoil amidst societal expectations..." 239. "Craft a ghazal that encapsulates the magic of falling in love..." 240. "A narrative poem telling the tale of an orphan who becomes a hero..."

These poetry prompts allow you to tap into a wide array of emotions, observations, and experiences- turning them into a rhythmic medley of words. Poetry writing can be a deeply rewarding practice, enabling you to play with language and form while conveying profound sentiments. Remember, writing poetry is a beautiful expression of the soul; the more you pour into it, the more rewarding it becomes.

241. "A ghazal that paints the paradox of love and loss..." 242. "Write a concrete poem in the shape of a heart, describing an intense love affair..." 243. "A limerick about a playful encounter with the wind..." 244. "Compose a haiku that captures the essence of a quiet winter morning..." 245. "An ode celebrating the free spirit of a bird in flight..." 246. "Craft an Italian sonnet about the struggle and triumph of a musician..." 247. "A pantoum poem mirroring the relentless ebb and flow of the sea..." 248. "A dramatic monologue poem voiced by a lighthouse keeper witnessing a shipwreck..." 249. "Write a ballad about a ghost haunting an old castle..." 250. "Create a lyric poem inspired by the melody of a lullaby..."

For many writers, poetry is an exercise in vulnerability, authenticity, and striking language use. These prompts encourage you to take a deep dive into a myriad of feelings and situations, spinning them into verses that resonate with readers. Whether you're looking to bare your soul or simply paint a vivid picture with eloquent words, embrace the beauty and catharsis that poetry writing brings.

Exploring Big Picture Ideas: 251. "The future of humanity in a technology-dominated world..." 252. "A world where money doesn’t exist – how would that change society?" 253. "The impact of climate change on future generations..." 254. "Imagine if humans could instantly teleport anywhere - what would be the implications?" 255. "The prospect of humans living forever: is it a utopia or dystopia?" 256. "The consequences of a world where everyone has superpowers..." 257. "If animals could talk, how would society change?" 258. "The ramifications of making contact with an alien civilization..." 259. "How would society evolve if memories could be traded like commodities?" 260. "An essay on education in a world where everyone has access to all of human knowledge..."

These macro-themes compel you to consider bigger picture issues and reflect on their implications. Such prompts help you to think critically and philosophically. Remember, exploring these large-scale themes is not only about surfacing problems but also about imagining solutions—or even questioning whether solutions we take for granted are comprehensive or effective.

261. "The evolution of language in an increasingly digital world..." 262. "A world without the concept of countries, what would that entail..." 263. "The moral implications of genetically modifying human DNA..." 264. "Gender roles in a world where gender doesn't exist..." 265. "How different would society be if there was no concept of race?" 266. "The impacts and influences of artificial intelligence on human relationships..." 267. "Predictions for religion in a world where definitive proof of extraterrestrial life exists..." 268. "The consequences of immortality on human relations and societal structure..." 269. "How would society change if animals held equal rights with humans?" 270. "An exploration of the future of work in a post-automation society..."

These prompts tackle larger narratives about society, technology, and human nature. The goal here is less about predicting the future, and more about thinking from an alternative perspective. Developing your thoughts on such wide-ranging topics helps not only to improve your writing skills but also to refine your critical thinking abilities. It's an opportunity to contemplate, hypothesize, reason, and imagine. So, let your thoughts flow and see where they take you.

271. "How would a world function if everything was shared equally?" 272. "Imagination into a future where every lifestyle choice is environmentally sustainable..." 273. "Ambitions for humanity in a world where no one ages..." 274. "The impact on society if all diseases were cured..." 275. "Prospects of crime in a world where mind reading is achievable..." 276. "The foreseeable effects of time travel on world history..." 277. "The societal implications of a world without scarcity..." 278. "Emotions in a world where humans can control their feelings at will..." 279. "Phenomenal love in a world devoid of physical appearances..." 280. "Gender dynamics in a world where everyone can change their gender at will..."

These prompts open broader perspectives on some of society's most pressing issues or open the gateway into the world beyond our imagination. Interrogating significant, macro-level themes pushes your boundaries of thought and creativity, compelling you to scrutinize intricate, layered aspects of human existence. Use this exercise to mold and refine your perspective and elevate the quality of your writing.

281. "Privacy in an age where every thought gets uploaded on the internet..." 282. "Leisure in a future where robots have taken all the jobs..." 283. "What would a world look like where physical money is redundant?" 284. "The role of governments in a world where population size can be controlled..." 285. "Music in a future where we can taste sounds..." 286. "The prospect of justice in a world where crimes can be predicted before they happen..." 287. "Rethinking reproduction in a world where humans are immortal..." 288. "Exploring human behavior and society in a world without the concept of lying..." 289. "The future of food in a world with no animals..." 290. "The impact on communication if telepathy was possible..."

These high-concept prompts invite you to stretch your creativity, challenge your assumptions and think deeply about various aspects of human life. Such speculation offers an exciting opportunity to dream, to question, and to envision radically different possibilities for the future. Each topic can generate countless exciting narratives, giving you a vast playground to explore theories, possibilities and their implications.

291. "The future of space exploration and the possibility of colonizing other planets..." 292. "The prospect of peace in a world without borders and nations..." 293. "The future of humanity in a world where physical human form is replaced by digital avatars..." 294. "Potential of human adaptability in a world under constant ecological shifts..." 295. "The possibility of equality in a world where social hierarchies are determined by knowledge instead of wealth..." 296. "Creativity in a futuristic world dominated by artificial intelligence..." 297. "Tackling depression in a world where everyone's life is perfect..." 298. "The interplay of truth and propaganda in a world where everyone can read minds..." 299. "The future of sports in a world where humans have gained superhuman abilities..." 300. "The evolution of human relationships in a technically advanced alien society..."

The beauty of macro-based prompts is that they enable you to think beyond the immediate. They challenge you to widen your vision, explore different contexts, and delve into the heart of complex themes. In exploring these big picture ideas, you not only refine your analytical abilities but also expand your narrative horizons. The exercise could lead to interesting revelations about your worldview, enabling you to craft narratives that resonate on a deeper level.

So, next time you find yourself struggling for inspiration, dig into these prompts. Let them be the springboard that catapults you into new dimensions of creativity. From personal introspection to exploring other perspectives, dipping into genres, getting poetic, or wrestling with big-picture ideas, there's a world of imagination waiting to be discovered.

Remember, these writing prompts are only the starting point. They're intended to ignite the spark of your creativity. Use them as they are, twist them, or simply let them inspire your unique ideas. And remember, the most crucial part of storytelling is not merely coming up with an idea. It's what you do with that idea that counts!

Enjoy the creative process and see the magic that happens when you let your creativity run wild. Use this as an opportunity to grow and evolve, both as a writer and as an individual. Let the process inspire you, motivate you, and ultimately, lead you to find your unique storytelling voice.

Get Inspired: 101 Creative Writing Prompts You Can’t Ignore

By: Author Paul Jenkins

Posted on September 3, 2023

Categories Writing , Creative Writing

You’re staring at a blank page, ideas just out of reach. Don’t fret! Creative writing prompts are your golden ticket to inspiration. They’ll ignite your imagination, help you conquer writer’s block and even refine your writing style.

Whether it’s poetry or prose, there’s a prompt for you. So let’s dive into the world of creative writing prompts; who knows what stories you’ll uncover?

Key Takeaways

• Writing prompts ignite imagination and help overcome writer’s block.
• Prompts can lead to undiscovered terrains or provide a fresh perspective on familiar grounds.
• Using prompts helps overcome writer’s block and boosts motivation.
• Unconventional prompts stimulate innovative thinking.

101 Creative Writing Prompts

Here are 101 creative writing prompts to get your imaginative juices flowing:

• Write about your earliest memory.
• Imagine you woke up one day with a superpower. What would it be and how would you use it?
• You’re home alone and hear a noise coming from upstairs. What happens next?
• Describe a typical day in your life 20 years from now. What does your future look like?
• Pick two random objects and write a story involving them.
• You find a mysterious box on your doorstep. What’s inside and how does it change your life?
• Rewrite a fairy tale from the antagonist’s perspective.
• A giant sinkhole suddenly appears in your backyard. Where does it lead?
• You’re an astronaut on the first mission to Mars. Describe your experience.
• Write a poem about your favorite season.
• You find an old lamp and give it a rub. A genie appears and grants you three wishes. What do you wish for?
• You wake up one day and can understand what animals are saying. What conversations do you overhear?
• Describe a memorable experience you had with one of your grandparents or other older relative.
• Write a story featuring a character who discovers something extraordinary in an ordinary setting.
• Pick an object close by and write a story about its origins.
• You find a wallet on the sidewalk containing $1000 and the ID of its owner. What do you do?
• Write a poem from the perspective of an insect.
• Describe your perfect weekend. Where are you, who are you with, and what are you doing?
• Write a letter to your future self offering advice about life.
• Imagine you switched places with your pet for a day. What would happen?
• Pick two celebrities and write a story about them meeting for the first time.
• Write a scene featuring a character who panics in a humorous way.
• Describe a pleasant early morning in the city from the point of view of a pigeon.
• Pick a color and describe how it makes you feel.
• Rewrite a scene from a book or movie from a minor character’s perspective.
• You find an old faded photograph with a mysterious figure in the background. Write a story about who it is.
• Describe a memorable experience you had involving music.
• Write a poem using nature imagery to describe a strong emotion.
• Imagine you could live in any fictional world. Which would you choose and why?
• You’re house-sitting for relatives and think you hear an intruder late at night. What happens?
• Pick two famous people from different time periods and write about them meeting.
• Describe a memorable teacher who had an impact on your life.
• Imagine you could teleport anywhere in the universe. Where would you go? What would you do there?
• You find a door to an alternate universe in your attic. What’s on the other side?
• Write a poem about someone or something that inspires you.
• Describe a moment when you felt completely at peace.
• Imagine you could talk to animals. Write a conversation between you and your pet.
• Describe a vibrant outdoor market using all five senses.
• Pick an occupation and describe a “day in the life” from that perspective.
• You accidentally travel 100 years into the future. How is life different?
• Tell the story of your first kiss.
• Write a scene featuring a character who loses something important.
• Pick two mythical creatures and imagine them meeting for the first time.
• Describe a memorable experience you had with a grandparent or older friend.
• Imagine you’re the first person selected to live on Mars. What is your experience like?
• Describe your perfect summer day.
• Rewrite a scene from a well-known story from the perspective of a side character.
• Write about a risk that paid off for you.
• Imagine you can spend the day with any person from history. Who would you choose and why?
• Write a story that begins with this line: “It was the day that changed everything.”
• Describe your neighborhood on a lively summer evening using all five senses.
• You find a magic wand that allows you to change one thing about yourself. What do you change and why?
• Write about a teacher who had a meaningful impact on you.
• Imagine you wake up one morning with the ability to fly. What do you do?
• Someone close to you is keeping an important secret. Write the reveal scene.
• Describe a place from your childhood that was very special to you. What made it so memorable?
• Pick two of your favorite fictional characters from different stories and imagine them meeting for the first time.
• You’re house-sitting in a remote cabin and strange things start happening late at night. What happens next?
• Rewrite a classic fairy tale in a modern setting.
• Write a story featuring a character who uncovers a family secret. What’s the secret and how is it revealed?
• Describe the view out your window right now using poetic imagery.
• Pick a common object and write a short horror story about it.
• Imagine you could travel back in time. What year would you visit and why? What would you do there?
• Write a scene featuring two characters meeting for the first time and getting off on the wrong foot.
• Describe a memorable experience you had involving the ocean.
• Rewrite a pivotal scene from a book or movie from the perspective of a background character.
• Pick two exotic locations and describe someone traveling from one to the other.
• Write a story featuring a character who discovers something they shouldn’t have.
• Write about a risk that didn’t pay off for you. What lesson did you learn?
• Imagine you switch places with someone close to you for a day. What do you learn from the experience?
• Describe a memorable act of kindness you performed or received.
• Pick an animal and imagine you can spend the day seeing through its eyes. What do you experience?
• Write a scene featuring a character who loses their temper in a spectacular fashion.
• Describe your perfect day ten years from now. Where are you, what are you doing, and who is with you?
• Write a poem describing a vivid childhood memory.
• Imagine you dig up a time capsule from your childhood. What’s inside and what memories does it spark?
• Write about a place you visited that made you exceptionally happy. What was special about it?
• Describe the best and worst parts of your morning routine.
• Pick two musicians from different eras and imagine them collaborating on a song. How does their style mesh?
• Write a story that begins: “I never would have discovered the secret if it weren’t for…”
• Describe a misadventure you had while traveling. What happened and what did you learn?
• Imagine you can inhabit the body of someone else for a day. Whose body and life do you experience?
• Write a poem inspired by a piece of art or music.
• Imagine you find an abandoned campsite deep in the woods. What do you discover there?
• Pick two characters from different children’s books and imagine them meeting for an adventure.
• Describe the scariest place you have ever visited. What made it so frightening?
• Write about a time you felt caught in the middle of two sides of an argument. How did you handle it?
• Imagine you discover a hidden room in your home. What’s inside and how does it get there?
• Describe how it feels to come in first place in a competition.
• Pick two favorite TV or movie characters from when you were a child and imagine them meeting.
• Write a story about someone who wakes up to find the world is deserted.
• Imagine you could become invisible for a day. What would you do?
• Describe your zaniest friend. Include what makes them fun to be around.
• Pick two movies, books or TV shows in different genres and imagine a character from each meeting for the first time.
• Rewrite a scene from your favorite book from a minor character’s perspective.
• Describe a holiday celebration from your childhood and what made it memorable.
• Imagine you discover objects from another dimension popping up around your home. Describe them.
• Write a story featuring a character who gets lost in the woods.
• Imagine you can switch two movie characters. How would the plot change?
• Describe an ordinary object in an extraordinary way.
• Free write for 15 minutes without stopping. Afterward, review what you wrote and mine it for story ideas.

Exploring the Concept of Creative Writing Prompts

You’re about to delve into the concept of creative writing prompts.

Picture this. You’re standing at a gateway to countless worlds, each shaped by your imagination. The key to this gateway? Writing prompts.

Prompt selection criteria is vital here. It’s not just about picking any random prompt; it’s about selecting one that resonates with you, sparks your creativity and propels your story forward.

Some might steer you towards undiscovered terrains while others could guide you back to familiar grounds with a fresh perspective.

Now comes the art of prompt adaptation methods – twisting, turning and tweaking these prompts until they fit snugly into your narrative. They’re not rigid commands but flexible suggestions waiting for you to mold them into your unique masterpiece.

The Importance of Using Writing Prompts

Imagine you’re standing on the edge of a vast ocean of words, ready to dive in but not sure where to start. That’s where writing prompts come in – they’re your diving board, pushing you into the depths of creativity and helping boost your writing skills.

With their aid, you’ll unlock new levels of imaginative thinking and overcome that pesky writer’s block that’s been holding you back.

Enhancing Writing Skills

Don’t underestimate the importance of enhancing your writing skills; it’s a crucial aspect of effective communication. Dive into the sea of grammar enhancement, let every wave refine your punctuation and syntax.

Feel the transformation as you evolve from choppy sentences to flowing prose, replacing dull words with vibrant ones through vocabulary expansion.

Imagine yourself in a bustling marketplace of words, picking up exotic verbs and adjectives like rare spices.

You’re not merely expanding your vocabulary; you’re creating a palette for painting images with language that will captivate readers’ minds.

Prompting Creative Thinking

Let’s delve into strategies that stimulate innovative thinking, offering a fresh perspective to approach tasks and problem-solving. Unconventional prompts can be your secret weapon here.

Imagine you’re asked to write a story about an alien invasion but the aliens are invisible. Suddenly, the familiar trope is flipped on its head, pushing you beyond prompt limitations and sparking creativity.

Think of it as navigating through an exciting labyrinth of endless possibilities where each twist and turn unlocks new ideas.

Prompt limitations aren’t shackles; they’re stepping stones guiding you towards uncharted territories of imagination.

With unconventional prompts, you’re not just writing – you’re pioneering through a jungle of creativity, hacking through overgrown cliches with the machete of originality. Give it a shot – let unpredictability fuel your creative fires.

Overcoming Writer’s Block

How about if you hit a wall with your story?

The once vibrant world in your mind’s eye now feels as barren as a desert. But don’t sweat it. Overcoming writer’s block is not some arcane art. It just needs the right mix of motivational techniques and mental exercises.

Try visualizing your plot like an intricate puzzle; each word, sentence, and paragraph fitting together to form a grand design.

See yourself standing victorious on top of that daunting wall, manuscript in hand! This visualization exercise can fuel your motivation.

How about playing word games or free writing for ten minutes? These mental exercises stimulate creativity and can reignite the spark in you.

Remember, every great author has faced this challenge. You’re not alone in this battle against the blank page.

Techniques to Generate Creative Writing Ideas

Dive headfirst into the whirlwind of creative possibilities with effective brainstorming session techniques. Unlock a treasure trove of ideas that might’ve remained hidden.

You’re about to harness the power of visual stimuli, transforming ordinary images into extraordinary stories that leap off the page.

And remember – your personal experiences aren’t just memories, they’re fuel for your imagination’s fire. Ready to be leveraged into captivating tales only you can tell.

Brainstorming Session Techniques

There’s a variety of techniques that can make your brainstorming sessions more effective and productive.

Imagine yourself at the helm of innovation, navigating prompt limitations while embracing prompt flexibility. This dance between constraint and freedom fuels creativity.

Limitations shape the challenge, providing a frame within which your ideas bounce around like lively pinballs, lighting up possibilities with every hit.

Flexibility, on the other hand, is an open window inviting fresh perspectives; it’s the permission to explore beyond borders.

Pair these concepts in your brainstorming session – let the prompts’ limitations guide you but don’t be afraid to flex those creative muscles! Embrace this dynamic interplay for it holds the key to unlock endless streams of ideas, turning your session into an exciting expedition of discovery.

Utilizing Visual Stimuli

Incorporating visual stimuli into your brainstorming process can spark new ideas and expand your thinking outside the box. Visual inspiration isn’t just about looking at art or beautiful landscapes; it’s about seeing things differently, allowing image interpretation to fuel your creativity.

Here’s how you can utilize visual stimuli:

• Explore different forms of art – paintings, sculptures, graphic designs.
• Take a walk in nature and absorb its beauty.
• Flip through magazines or books with vibrant images.
• Watch stimulating videos or movies.
• Try visualizing abstract concepts in physical form.

Remember, it’s not about what you see but rather how you interpret what you see.

It’s time to push the boundaries of your imagination and let visuals trigger innovative thoughts.

Leveraging Personal Experiences

Leveraging personal experiences can significantly enhance your brainstorming process, as they’re a rich source of unique and original ideas. Imagine each memory as a colorful thread in the tapestry of your life; these threads don’t merely exist to decorate but also inspire.

Your personal narratives become vibrant brushes that paint strokes onto an empty canvas, bringing it to life with hues only you possess.

These experiential reflections are more than just recollections; they’re catalysts that trigger cascades of creativity. They form bridges connecting the real world to the realm of imagination, allowing you to explore uncharted territories within your own mind.

Diverse Types of Creative Writing Prompts

You’ll find a wide variety of creative writing prompts, each designed to spark different ideas and encourage unique storytelling.

These ‘Prompt Varieties’ are key in ‘Evolving Creativity’. They are the secret sauce that boosts your imagination, enhancing your ability to weave tales out of thin air.

• Picture Prompts: A single image can inspire a thousand words.
• Word Play Prompts: Challenge yourself with homophones or synonyms.
• Dialogue Prompts: A snippet of conversation that ignites a narrative.
• Music-Inspired Prompts: Let rhythm and lyrics move your creativity.
• Thematic Prompts: Get lost in specific genres or settings.

How to Use Prompts for Poetry Writing

Dive headfirst into the realm of poetry, where your task is choosing an ideal prompt to ignite your imagination.

You’re on a quest, not just for any prompt but one that resonates with you, one that tickles your creative instincts and sets them aflame.

Let’s unravel together how this careful selection can be a beacon, guiding your poetic journey towards fresh inspiration, new perspectives, and uncharted emotional depths.

Choosing Appropriate Prompts

It’s important to consider your audience when picking a suitable creative writing prompt. Your Prompt Selection process should involve understanding what resonates with them, ensuring the Prompt Suitability for their taste and level of understanding.

Take into account these elements:

• Their age: Young readers might prefer adventurous tales, while an older audience may appreciate complex narratives.
• Cultural background: Stories that reflect or respect their traditions could engage them more effectively.
• Personal interests: Tailor your prompts around hobbies or passions they have.
• Reading levels: Ensure the complexity aligns with their comprehension abilities.
• Emotional connection: Themes they can emotionally connect with may spark better responses.

Inspiration Through Prompts

Drawing inspiration from cues can often spark an exceptional storyline, stirring a reader’s imagination and emotional connection. In the world of creative writing, this is where ‘Prompt Selection’ steps in.

Picture yourself scouring through a myriad of prompts, each one whispering its own unique challenge to your creativity.

The journey doesn’t end at selection; it merely evolves into ‘Prompt Evolution’. You’re not just choosing a prompt; you’re nurturing it, letting it grow within your mind until it blossoms into an intricate web of thoughts and ideas.

As you explore various interpretations, the initial prompt transcends its original form, morphing into something utterly personal and distinctive.

The ultimate goal? Crafting a narrative so engaging that every word captivates your readers, leaving them yearning for more.

Enhancing Fiction Writing With Creative Prompts

You’ll find that using creative prompts can significantly enhance your fiction writing skills. These tools are perfect for sharpening your mind, sparking new ideas, and injecting life into your narratives. Creative prompts help stimulate ‘Prompted Imagery’ allowing you to paint vivid pictures in the minds of your readers.

They also aid in ‘Fictional Worldbuilding’, helping you craft immersive universes with depth and detail.

Consider these benefits:

• Prompts ignite the spark of inspiration.
• They foster creativity and originality.
• Prompts assist in developing dynamic characters.
• They guide robust plot development.
• Prompts catalyze innovative world building.

Understanding Prompts for Non-fiction Writing

Imagine yourself standing at the edge of a vast landscape of reality, armed only with your words.

You’re about to dive into the world of non-fiction prompts, where you’ll learn not only how to define these nuggets of inspiration but also how to wield them effectively in your writing.

It’s more than just jotting down facts; it’s painting a vivid picture of life as we know it, using prompts as your guideposts along this journey.

Defining Non-fiction Prompts

Non-fiction prompts can be a great tool for you, particularly when you’re struggling to come up with ideas for your next writing project. They lend themselves perfectly to real-life narratives and autobiographical prompts, helping you dig into your experiences and viewpoints.

For instance, a prompt like ‘Describe a time when you faced a significant challenge’ could kickstart an engaging tale of adversity. Or ‘Write about someone who’s influenced your life’ might ignite the spark for an inspiring tribute.

The command to depict ‘Your most memorable journey’ may evoke vivid travel memories, while an invitation to explore ‘The best decision you’ve ever made’ provides room for introspection. Finally, crafting an answer to ‘What does home mean to you?’ can create an intensely personal piece.

Such prompts stimulate thought-provoking narratives that are rooted in reality yet utterly unique – just like your life story!

Utilizing Prompts Effectively

To make the most out of these thought-starters, it’s vital that you’re not just answering them superficially but really delving deep into your experiences and emotions.

The dance of prompt selection is like sifting through a treasure chest, each gem sparking a different story in your mind. Yet, it’s how you adapt to these prompts that truly defines their worth.

Think of prompt adaptation as painting with words; each stroke adds depth to your canvas. The slight change in perspective, the twist in interpretation, allows for a creative explosion. Don’t shy away from pushing boundaries or coloring outside the lines.

You’re an artist wielding language as your brush – let it flow freely and watch as the mundane turns magical.

Using Prompts for Character Development

You’ll find that prompts can be a powerful tool for developing your characters in a story. They help you delve deep into the Character Backgrounds and Motivational Aspects of your personas, thus making them more relatable and real to your readers.

Consider these innovative ways to use prompts:

• Use them as interview questions, asking your characters about their past, dreams, fears.
• Incorporate them in scenarios to explore how they would react under different circumstances.
• Apply them to reveal secrets or hidden aspects of their personalities.
• Utilize them as tools to create conflict or tension between characters.
• Engage with them as means to develop a character’s moral compass.

The Role of Prompts in Plot Creation

When it comes to plot creation, using these tools can help you construct a compelling narrative with gripping twists and turns. The role of prompts here is paramount. However, be mindful of prompt limitations that might stifle your creative juices; you must learn to navigate them skillfully.

Your imagination could take flight when met with unconventional prompts. They’re not your typical ‘write about a summer day’; no, they push you into uncharted territories, sparking innovative ideas.

Picture this: ‘Write from the perspective of a wilting flower.’ Unusual? Yes. But doesn’t it stir intrigue? It’s through such provocation that you weave intricate plots, ones that captivate and engage readers in unexpected ways.

Boosting Descriptive Skills Through Writing Prompts

Expanding your vocabulary and exploring new ways to describe scenes can greatly enhance your storytelling abilities. Writing prompts not only push you out of comfort zones, but also allow you to experiment with the power of metaphors and sensory descriptions.

With every penned word, feel the sentences come alive as the sun doesn’t just set, it melts into the horizon like a dollop of fiery orange sorbet. Rain isn’t simply falling; it’s a symphony on rooftops creating an orchestra of droplets. A meadow isn’t green; it’s brushed with strokes of emerald splendor.

Imagine tasting colors or hearing fragrances. Let these prompts unlock your mind’s eye. Your readers aren’t just reading; they’re stepping into another world – yours!

Using Prompts for Writing Dialogue

Dialogue isn’t just about conveying information; it’s a tool for character development and plot progression. When you’re using prompts for writing dialogue, focus on ‘dialogue realism’ and the ‘character’s voice’.

Imagine yourself in their shoes. Would they use big words or stick to simple slang? Do they have an accent that you can hint at through spelling and sentence structure?

Remember, every spoken word builds your character’s identity. It’s not just what they say, but how they say it that reveals their personality. The goal is to create engaging conversations that feel real to your readers as if they are eavesdropping on a private chat.

The Impact of Prompts on Writing Style

Stepping away from the chatter of dialogue prompts, let’s dive into the deep waters of how prompts can shape your writing style. Yes, you’ve got it—we’re exploring ‘Prompt Dependencies and Evolving Styles’.

Prompts aren’t just creative sparks; they could subtly influence how you spin a tale. Here’s why:

• You adapt to different Prompt Dependencies , sharpening diverse aspects of your craft.
• Prompts challenge you to write outside your comfort zone, evolving your style.
• They help highlight strengths and expose weaknesses in your technique.
• The constraints imposed by prompts often fuel creativity, enhancing storytelling abilities.
• Experimenting with various prompts refines versatility, embracing an eclectic mix of styles.

The Connection Between Prompts and Emotional Engagement

You might not realize it, but those intriguing cues you engage with can significantly heighten the emotional engagement in your narratives. They’re not just prompts, they’re sparks that ignite a bonfire of emotion within your storytelling.

Emotional resonance isn’t about crafting a plot; it’s about creating an atmosphere so palpable, your readers can taste the tension or joy in every word.

The magic lies in imbuing each character and scene with emotional authenticity. That’s where prompts come into play. You see, they challenge you to explore uncharted emotional territories and weave them seamlessly into your narrative fabric. They nudge you towards nuances that’d otherwise remain hidden, making for richer storytelling.

Overcoming Writer’s Block With Creative Prompts

When it’s like pulling teeth to get the words flowing, turning to imaginative cues can be your salvation from the dreaded writer’s block. Prompt selection and prompt evolution become your saviors in this bleak landscape of stalled creativity.

Consider these strategies:

• Use prompt selection to choose a theme or situation that sparks your interest.
• Allow for prompt evolution , letting one idea lead naturally to another.
• Delve into character development prompts; they can reveal surprising paths for your story.
• Don’t discount non-fiction prompts. Real-life situations often inspire compelling narratives.
• Experiment with genre-specific prompts. They may open up new storytelling territories you’ve never explored before.

Tips to Create Your Own Writing Prompts

Let’s dive into some handy tips for crafting your own engaging cues to inspire your storytelling.

Begin with prompt personalization; it’s about making the prompt uniquely yours. Think of experiences, thoughts, or ideas that only you can explore and weave them into your prompts.

Next, consider prompt categorization. This involves grouping prompts based on themes or genres. It’s not just a way to organize but also stimulates creative thinking by setting boundaries within which to play and innovate.

Lastly, ensure versatility in your prompts. They should be capable of inspiring different types of writing – from poetry to prose, fiction to memoirs.

Creating prompts isn’t just about overcoming writer’s block; it’s an exercise in creativity itself. So go ahead, make it fun!

So, you’ve dived deep into the world of creative writing prompts. Now you’re armed with techniques to generate ideas and strategies to conquer writer’s block.

Remember, these prompts are meant to spur your creativity and evoke emotion. Don’t shy away from crafting your own! They can drastically refine your style and keep your pen moving.

Embrace this exciting tool in your writing journey – let’s see where it takes you!

• 85 Creative Writing Prompts

"If you want to write and you want to get ideas, you have to be alert and open to everything.  Everything you read. Everything you listen to. You have to allow these things to inspire you."

Fun creative writing prompts to inspire and educate

These 79 creative writing prompts for adults and teens are designed as story starters to inspire you. They will also help you write on specific topics and develop important skills you need as an author.

A good writing prompt will jump-start your creativity, help you come up with new ideas and may even give you the inspiration you need to write a full story. Feel free to dive straight in without too much thought. Simply choose the topic that appeals to you, pick one at random and start writing.

If you have a novel, screenplay, or other large project you're working on, I recommend using a prompt for 10 minutes before moving onto your main project. This will help get your creative juices flowing. If you don't have an existing project, spend as long as you want on a single prompt, or try a few different ones. Have fun, be free, and trust yourself.

The following prompts also include some for business, if you're looking for writing ideas to help with your content marketing or creating a blog.

Most of these prompts are written about 'you'. If you'd prefer to write them in third person, choose a name, and write them about a fictional character instead.

If you're looking to use these prompts as part of a class, or for a writing group, you might prefer to check out the  Creative Writing Exercises for Adults and Teens  instead. These include 43 group and solo exercises that are 10-15 minutes each, with more detailed instructions. We also have 42 science fiction and fantasy prompts  for those looking for good story ideas with a touch of magic (or technology).

Choose the topic that fires your imagination

So you can plunge straight into the topic that most interests you, these writing prompts are split into the following categories:

Overcoming writer's block

• Creative writing prompts for a young adult audience
• Creative writing prompts for adults

Expressing emotion

Fantasy and sci-fi prompts

• Visual prompts for world building
• Ideas to develop your online business writing

If you feel blocked, I recommend using one of the following prompts and writing for ten minutes in a stream of consciousness. In The Artist's Way, Julia Cameron recommends you write 3 pages every morning as your 'morning pages'. She calls this, " The bedrock tool of a creative recovery. " 

To write in a stream of consciousness while using a creative writing prompt, simply start writing and don't stop! If you don't know what will happen next, write, "I don't know what will happen next!"  Then write what the options are, why one option might be better than another, etc. This kind of spontaneous creativity is an incredible tool to help move your book or short story forward and to overcome writer's block. If you read back over your stream of consciousness after just ten minutes, you'll find some nuggets of gold in your writing and may have resolved a difficult decision about a particular piece of text.

All authors face a challenge in getting in touch with their creativity from time to time, so don't feel that you're alone.  

Here are the first set of prompts:

• You're on holiday in a new city and you were walking along talking to a friend, when you suddenly realise they're no longer with you. What happens next?  
• You have invented a time machine and set off to the time you would most love to visit.  
• Think of three conflicts - an internal conflict where the protagonist has doubts, an interpersonal conflict with another character, and an external conflict like a natural disaster, physical barrier, or bad weather. Now write a scene that encompasses all three.  
• You are sitting, reading a list of story writing prompts when a character from your favourite book opens the door and looks at you. They say, "I've been looking for you."  
• You are a security guard at a secret lair. It's a cold winter's night and there's a foot of snow. You notice a set of footprints leading straight to you, but you could have sworn that they weren't there a moment ago.  
• What's a flaw that one of your friends has? Imagine if that flaw was exaggerated and create a character around that flaw.  
• You get a newspaper delivered to your door every morning, then one day it's tomorrow's paper, telling you what will happen today.  
• Think about a favourite book or movie. What was the character's main goal? Now give that character a different backstory that explains his/her goal.  
• You are about to fly on a dragon for the very first time.  
• Everyone has a superpower based on the topography of where they were born (i.e. mountains, deserts, etc.). You are the first person to be born in space. (This prompt, copied from  Reddit , was the inspiration for a novel, that then became the first in a successful book series).

Prompts to help you write for a young adult audience

These story prompts are ideal for teen authors and for those looking to write for a Young Adult audience.

• You're at the best party you've ever been to, when your worst enemy walks through the door and heads straight towards you.  
• One morning you wake up and you can see people's feelings as halos of colour around them. You discover that a friend has been hiding how they feel.  
• You're playing with a toy car when it comes alive and starts driving around by itself. It can only make car sounds, but you have a feeling it wants you to follow it.  
• Think of 3 animals. A creature has just entered your room that is a magical combination of these 3 animals.  
• What's the most exotic place you've ever visited? Your adventure starts there.  
• A genie grants you three wishes. You wish for an unlimited supply of your favourite food, then for an unlimited supply of your favourite toys. Instead of appearing next to you, they start falling out of the sky. You have one wish left.  
• Imagine an ant is looking up at you. What would they see?  
• You're dreaming of flying and when you wake up, you're hovering above your bed.  
• The internet and all the mobile phones in the world stop working. Choose a character and give them a goal. What happens?  
• Write about a time when you saw a dark aspect of humanity. How it feel and how did your behaviour change as a result of it?

Writing prompts for adults

• You turn up for a job interview, but instead of being offered a job, you are invited to join an illegal activist group who are fighting to right the wrongs in the government.  
• You have had a crush on Rowan for ages. One night your car breaks down. Cursing that your phone is out of charge, you hitch-hike home and a car pulls over to pick you up. Rowan's driving it and is alone. You get in feeling relieved and delighted, only to discover that Rowan isn't the person you thought.  
• Write the names of 3 friends or family members who don't know each other. Now describe a scene where the 3 of them meet.  
• You are a tree and are scared of losing all your leaves. Autumn is fast approaching.  
• A rhinoceros is charging down a crowded city street.  
• You have studied hard to be an opera singer. You are opening the show and forget your lines. In desperation, you sing the song to a different opera. The orchestra know it and play along with you. What happens next?  
• Look at different clues for a murder mystery , then write a unique clue that could be the first hint to set your detective on the trail.  
• Write a list of seven exotic or dynamic sounding verbs and number them 1 to 7. Now write a list of seven nouns. Now connect them together by joining the first verb with the first noun, the second verb with the second noun, etc. Choose one of the seven verb-noun pairs to create a piece of fiction.  
• Choose a sport you love and write a scene about a character starting where they are preparing to perform in the Olympics, or another major competition.  
• Your character discovers that their best friend is a murderer but chooses to keep it a secret. Create a back story that explains why. What happens next?

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart”

Hellen Keller

• Describe the emotion the woman in the above image is feeling.  
• You are tired and arguing with your best friend over whose turn it is to wash the dishes. It gets out of hand.  
• You receive a letter saying, "We would like to publish your novel." How do you react?  
• What was the last strong emotion you felt? If this emotion was a type of weather, what weather would that be? Now place a character feeling the  opposite  emotion in those weather conditions.  
• Your teenage daughter gets on the train to go to uni, you wave her off, then stand on the platform as the train pulls away.  
• Think of an emotion. Now describe how your protagonist's body reacts when they feel this emotion.  
• Your white friends have just left the supermarket and the security guard ignored them. You're black and as you leave, he demands to see your receipt.  
• A beautiful rainbow shines in the distance, but the storm is headed your way and you're miles from cover.  
• Your character takes a drug (medicinal or recreational, you choose) that changes their personality radically, making them feel happy but uncaring. While on it, they decide to end a friendship in a dramatic fashion. Afterwards, they try to rebuild that friendship. Write the conversation that follows.  
• Three friends arrive at a crossroads. All three want to go in different directions. Create a scene where they argue about where to go. Now rewrite the scene from different points of view. See if you can show different motivations and personalities as you write.

Love Stories

Love comes in many forms and is written about in every genre. It goes beyond romantic love, though romance books are the best-selling genre. As so many people have written about love, it can be a challenge to describe love without sounding cliched. 

Before we get to the prompts, here are some quotes about love to inspire you:

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” ― Lao Tzu

“One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.” ― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.” ― William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream

Now the prompts themselves from 10 different genres.  Choose whichever you feel inspired by! Many of the following say 'poem', but feel free to write a short story or letter if you'd prefer.

• COMEDY - Choose 2 objects in your house. Write a love poem from one to the other.  
• ROMANCE - Write a love poem to someone you love.  
• LGBT+  - Write a scene from the perspective of a transgender teenager about everyday life at high school. Remember that in the modern world, depending on the country, they will encounter both people who support them completely and those who don't, so keep that balance in mind.  
• SELF-REFLECTION - Write a poem to yourself when you were a child.  
• SCI-FI - Write a poem from yourself 10 years from now to yourself today.  
• LEGEND  - Write a poem from the Loch Ness Monster to Nessie, the female monster who also lives in Loch Ness.  
• HISTORICAL FICTION  - Choose a famous character from history and research if they were married. Write a scene where they disagreed with their partner on a major decision.  
• ADVENTURE - Write a poem about an amazing adventure in a place you, or your character, loves.  
• MURDER MYSTERY  - Someone is poisoned in a coffee shop. Write the scene when the detective first arrives.  
• THRILLER  - Your character wakes to find they are trapped in a dungeon after a first date. Their partner is with them. How do they escape?

Many great story ideas are based on a what if question. What if we're living in a virtual world? What if you gained a spider's abilities when one bit you? What if toys came to life when no-one's there?

Here are some prompts in the form of what if questions. Enjoy!

• What if plants robustly expressed their opinions?  
• What if women ruled the world?  
• What if money became meaningless overnight?  
• What if you and your friends murdered someone?  
• What if a news channel gave a fictional story that became reality 24 hours later?  
• What if you were an alien and had been adopted by humans?  
• What if food was replaced by 'nutrition pills' to help stop global warming?  
• What if sound manifested as physical beings?  
• What if you had a recurring dream about someone, then you met them in real life?  
• What if characters from history started to appear alive and well in a small town?

• Bored with your immortal existence, you are gathered with your godly friends to create the ultimate virtual reality game ever. A game you have called 'Earth', but just as your first friend enters the game you realise that the game has a terrible flaw.  
• You are an orc who wants to do good. You have fled your hometown and arrive at a human village wondering whether you will be welcome.  
• You character is approaching a castle. What unusual reason do they have to be there? What do they say to the two guards standing outside it?  
• Evil narcists rule the world, but a wizard is determined to stop them by wiping their memory and the memory of everyone who knew them. This allows them to safely re-enter society. You have just found one of your old diaries and discovered that you were once a warlord who commit terrible evil.  
• A war between the vampires and werewolves has been going on for centuries in ancient Europe, but you have just found a way to turn the battle. If a werewolf eats garlic, they remain human. You're about to spread a false rumour that will change history and give vampires the advantage forever.  
• You are an alien visiting Earth and chose to assume an anonymous form as a dog. Now someone wants to adopt you.  
• Gravity has just reversed itself.  
• A wish generator fulfils a wish every time you touch it, but the wish it fulfils isn't your own.  
• Look around you and imagine that an object, plant or piece of furniture you can see is enormous. Decide what this object means to a character. Your character is walking towards it.  
• Imagine a fantasy world where there is one type of magic. What knock on repercussions does this have on daily life? Write a scene showing this.

If you enjoy this genre, then you can discover more sci-fi and fantasy creative writing prompts . These focus on world building, creating exotic characters and developing plots with an out of this world element.

Visual writing prompts for world building

Sometimes an image can be more of a prompt than words. As it's a different medium, it allows you complete freedom to choose how to write about it. Here are 4 visual writing prompts to help with your world building, along with a suggestion of how to use them for each.

• You've entered this room for the first time. Decide what your purpose was in entering it, then start writing.

• Imagine a conversation is occurring here between people who work here all the time. Write the conversation, setting the room as the background.

• I find the following image so evocative, it shouldn't need a prompt to go with it!

• Who lives here? Write their story.

As well as visual writing prompts, you can come up with good story ideas using musical writing prompts. Simply take the name of any song below and write a story from it. Focus on sounds in your writing.

Ideas to develop your online business writing

• Mix work and pleasure! Write about something you love to do as a hobby in the style of writing that you do for your work. A sales pitch about your favourite holiday destination, or an analysis of the last board game you played, for example.  
• Choose a product you recently bought from the supermarket and see if you can sell it in 160 characters or less. This is useful if you're writing Meta Descriptions for a web page.  
• If you had to choose a single issue that determined how you would vote in every future election, what issue would it be? Why?  
• Write a short review of your favourite movie and a movie you hated.  
• Write a short autobiography of your life in the form of an interview, where paragraphs alternate between question and answer.  
• Choose a random article on Wikipedia and write a press release to promote it.  

• What is your favourite book set in a fictional universe? Write a tourist's guide to one area of that universe.  
• What was a favourite toy you had as a child? What appealed to you about it? Write a sales blurb for that product with you as the target audience.  
• Find a page selling a toy you loved as a kid. Now rewrite that page as if it was a product designed for adults.

To discover more creative writing prompts, please click the image below.

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Home » Blog » 140 Creative Writing Prompts For Adults

140 Creative Writing Prompts For Adults

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Learning how to become a better writer includes knowing how to come up with a solid idea. With so many elements to consider when starting your novel, the plot itself may begin to slip away from you. Use these creative writing prompts for adults to get you started on the right path to a successful story and suffer from writer’s block for the last time. .

This list of writing prompts for adults can be taken and used in any way you want. Details can be changed and characters can be added or removed.

They are meant to be a fun way to get your creativity flowing and your next story developing. For even more writing ideas, check out the  writing prompt generator . Here, you will find 500+ prompts of all kinds that will give you some ideas.  Take control of that blank page and create something awesome. 

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Dramatic Writing Prompts for Adults

Nothing beats some good old-fashioned drama once in a while. You can turn these writing prompts into a dramatic love story , an exciting short story, or morph them into a different genre. How you use them is up to you.

For a novel that is specifically romance, we have created an exclusive list of exciting and genre-bending romance writing prompts .

• A young boy discovers that he is the only adopted child among his four siblings. Feeling confused and betrayed, he runs away to find his birth parents. After two months on the road, he runs out of money and still hasn’t found them. Does he go home? Or does he continue his quest?
• Two couples are fueding and haven’t spoken in years. It is discovered that their two children have become best friends at school, and they want a playdate. Will this increase tension between them or lead to reconciliation?
• Identical twins are attending the same college. They switch places and take each other’s classes depending on strengths and weaknesses. They’ve gotten away with it for two years until their observant professor of a father is transferred to the school they attend.
• Two childhood best friends stopped talking after a huge fight in high school. Five years later, they find themselves sitting next to each other on the same 16-hour international flight.
• Write about a passionate romance that crosses religions.
• He’s only been in office for a year. He is already being tempted by a corrupt group of criminals who want him to sabotage a series of public safety projects in exchange for funding his entire reelection campaign.
• Your main character is being offered a promotion from the high school principal to the district director. Sadly, she knows her replacement will cut funding to all of the art programs. How does she manage the situation?
• A high profile general learns that the opposing army will surrender if he hands himself over. Will he prioritize his own safety, or sacrifice himself for his country?
• Write about a successful businesswoman who has built herself from the ground up. The business is suddenly threatened by the son of a rich local contractor who started a similar business out of boredom.
• A successful lawyer knows that his client is guilty of the murder for which he has been charged. He is a good liar and could easily win the case. The case is getting constant media coverage and would guarantee him making partner at his firm.
• Your main character has lived a sheltered, isolated life. When their delusional and overbearing father dies. They are thrown into the real world and unsure of how to cope.
• The doorbell rings and your character answers it – finding nothing but an envelope with nothing on it. They open it and follow the instructions to attend a secret underground event. Afterward, they become a part of a huge resistance that the rest of the world knows nothing about.
• After a family member’s funeral, you arrive home to a stranger on your doorstep claiming the person is not really dead. The funeral was open-casket.
• It is your character’s wedding day. While the vows are being said, someone from the crowd yells “I object!”
• A huge storm has stopped traffic. Your character is stuck in the car with someone for an unknown amount of time. The person chooses this moment to confess their undying love. The feeling is not mutual.
• Your character finds an old, disposable camera on the ground. Feeling, they get the photos developed. What they see tells an unsettling story.
• Two old friends are reminiscing on a prominent and life-changing event. They have very different memories from that day.
• Your main character is a world-traveling nature photographer. She stumbles upon a small tribe of indigenous people who have found the cure for all cancer in a small local plant.
• A young man has been homeschooled all his life and is ready to start college. An attack on his small home town has him being drafted into the army. He is away from home for the first time ever and terrified. However, he becomes a key strategist due to his unique perspective and undiscovered scientific talents.
• A middle-aged man is tired of his career in a corporate office. He takes all his vacation and sick days at once for an excursion in the Appalachian Mountains. Everything is fine until a blizzard hits.
• A shy and reserved web designer thinks she has found the man of her dreams online. She is actually being catfished by a competing company who wants to get information from her.
• A man and women work for two neighboring, rival fast food companies. They always take their lunch breaks together on the bench right in the middle of the two.
• An ongoing murder investigation takes an unexpected turn when it is discovered that a prolific group of corrupted police officers were behind the whole thing.
• A television star is renowned and respected for his “method” acting. He only interviews or appears on TV in character. But, this is because he doesn’t have a personality outside of his three most famous characters.
• A professional gymnast is under fire for her supposed use of performance-enhancing steroids. She leaked the story herself to draw attention away from the fact that she is the leader of a high-profile drug ring.
• An older couple on the brink of retirement keeps their life savings in the pages of the books in their home. They are just about to start looking for a retirement home to live in when a fire destroys their house and their cash.

Tips for Writing Drama

• Drama is usually character driven , so make use of both your round and flat characters .
• Introduce the conflict right away and keep it prominent. A drama will thrive off conflict.
• Don’t let the resolution come easily.
• Don’t be afraid to kill characters and write difficult situations.
• Always show, don’t tell.

Supernatural Writing Prompts for Adults

Supernatural stories are popular. The world is in love with vampires. Write something interesting and unique enough, you might be writing their next favorite book. Use these supernatural story starters for your basic premise. 

• On her 16th birthday, your main character miraculously survives a deadly car crash without a scratch. Later that week, she watches as a small scratch heals and disappears right before her eyes. Where did this new power come from and what will she do with it?
• There is an elite society of high education that wants to test a new drug. They give it to highly gifted students, and it allows them to stay awake for 48 hours and record everything they see, heard, and feel in that time. Unfortunately, some unexpected side effects set in two weeks later.
• A middle-aged man is the only one in his famous and high-profile family without a superpower. The local police rely on his super-powered family to help them catch and fight crime. However, the powers are failing them during a specific investigation. Your protagonists “normal” perspective might just save the day.
• Your main character suffers a terrible concussion. After recovering, they cannot control the vivid nightmares about the accident. However, they can also take images from their mind and project them into the real world. Doctors think they are crazy and keep them heavily sedated.
• Write about a world where technology has given animals the ability to speak.

Tips for Writing Supernatural Stories

• Setting the story in the real world will make your supernatural species more believable.
• Create the origins of your species and supernatural characters.
• Create the physical limitations for your species and beings.
• Avoid the cliches of the genre.
• Understand your reasons for using supernatural creatures. You shouldn’t be writing them in simply due to their popularity.

Thriller Writing Prompts for Adults

Thrillers can come in many forms and can be incorporated with many genres. Regardless of the details though, they are always meant to excite. Suspense and tension are crucial – it’s always more fun when you don’t know. Writing a good thriller requires a strong set of writing skills. These prompts will give you a good base. If you think you need to improve, try some writing exercises.

If your thriller can get hearts racing, you’ve done a good job.

• The body of your main character’s best friend is dumped on their doorstep. They make it their mission to find out who is responsible, even if it means crossing some lines and breaking some laws.
• A murderer is on the loose in your character’s hometown. For 10 weeks they have killed one person on the same day at the same time. Your main character is the next victim. They are abducted exactly three days before the planned kill time.
• Strange things start happening around town. Your main character decides to find out for themselves what is going on. They do learn the truth, but now they aren’t allowed to leave.
• Your character suffers from a condition that causes seemingly random blackouts for varying amounts of time. The only thing they ever remember before these episodes is a yellow car with a dent on the side. One day, that car is parked outside their house. This time, there is no blackout.
• Your main character and their friends take an unsolicited mini-vacation to an off-limits island off the coast of their seaside town. Shortly after arrival, they discover the islands inhabitants and the reason why it was off limits.
• Your protagonist is in intensive therapy due to extremely vivid nightmares detailing someone’s gruesome death. Many have said it’s just their twisted imagination, but this new therapist seems to think it’s much more than that.
• You are legally allowed to kill someone one time in your life. You must fill out a series of paperwork, and your intended victim will be given notice of your plan.
• A brilliant serial killer has been getting away with murder for decades. His only weakness is his acute inability to tell a lie. He is finally caught and tried for all murders. Write about how he still manages to walk free, with no charges laid.
• Your character is a host at a restaurant. A couple comes in and says they have a reservation. You look it up in the system and find that the reservation was booked 40 years ago.

Tips for Writing a Thriller

• Have a story that suits a thriller. This usually involves the protagonist falling victim to someone else and being caught in impossible situations.
• Different points of view can add a lot of value to a thriller. It gives several perspectives and allows the reader into the heads of many characters.
• Put action as close to the beginning as possible.
• Don’t be afraid to make your characters miserable.

Thriller Book Writing Template

Squibler has a book writing template that was created specifically for writing a thriller:

It will walk you through each section of a typical thriller. It includes the basics of a thriller structure, without stifling your creativity. The guidelines are easy to understand, but loose enough that you can insert the details of your story with ease.

Horror Writing Prompts for Adults

The horror genre has always had a cult-like following. Several fictional killers have become household names. Some horror fans will spend their whole lives chasing the adrenaline that comes with a good scare.

If you’re learning how to become a better writer in order to scare your readers, these writing prompts will get you started. A book writing template may be helpful in creating a true horror as setting the stage properly is crucial.

• It’s Halloween night and a group of rowdy teenagers break into an infamously haunted house in their town. They soon discover it is not the ghosts they have to fear, but the madman who lives upstairs is poisoning them with hallucinogenic gas.
• There is a disease outbreak at a school. It appears at first to be chicken pox but it is actually a virus that is causing violent outbreaks in the children who begin to terrorize the town.
• Your main character attends a meditation retreat. It turns out to be a recruiting process for an extremist cult that convinces members to commit dangerous acts of terror. Your protagonist is the only one in the room who is immune.
• So overcome by his nightmares, your main character attacks anyone who comes near him. He cannot distinguish between loved ones and the monsters in his head.
• A young man has to dive 300 feet into the ocean to rescue his girlfriend caught in a broken submarine. He must cross through a genetically modified shark breeding ground.
• An old time capsule is about to be opened and the whole town is present for the celebration. When opened, the only thing found inside is a detached human hand with a threatening note in the grasp. The note is written in your character’s handwriting but dated 50 years before they were even born.

Master horror writer Stephen King reveals some of his thought process: “So where do the ideas—the salable ideas—come from? They come from my nightmares. Not the night-time variety, as a rule, but the ones that hide just beyond the doorway that separates the conscious from the unconscious.”

Horror doesn’t always have to be fantastical and dreamy in nature. Sometimes horror exists in the real world, within people.

Tips for Writing Horror

• Don’t be afraid to give that gruesome, bloody description.
• Aim to create extreme emotions.
• Make sure the readers care about your characters. This will make their horrible situations more impactful.
• Consider what scares you the most. Keep this in mind when writing.
• Set the stakes high.
• Some comic relief or brief periods of peace are okay – necessary even. It can help build suspense.

Crime and Mystery Writing Prompts for Adults

Stories of crime and mystery have been told for ages. There are some classic crime dramas that will never get old. Many non-fiction books have been written on this topic as well. 

Creating a proper mystery takes time and much planning. When done correctly though, it makes for a most memorable story.

• Your main character discovers another women’s clothes tucked in the back of her boyfriends closet. She plans an elaborate fishing trip to get him far away for a weekend so she can teach him a lesson.
• A new serial killer is on the loose, killing one person every other day within 500 feet of a museum. There must be a connection and a reason, but how will they catch him when he keeps destroying the cameras and escaping?
• A young officer is three years sober and committed to getting back on track. That is until he is called to the scene of a high-profile drug bust and is in charge of collecting evidence. Can he control himself around so many drugs?
• Abandoned cars start randomly appearing throughout the city. No license plates and nothing inside. That is until one is found to contain several dismembered human limbs.
• Your character has been receiving nasty, lifelike drawings in the mail. They ignore them at first, thinking it is some kids being silly. Until the drawings start coming to life. Since they have the drawings, they know what is going to happen next, and in what order.
• Your main character and her husband awake one night in the early hours of the morning, both recalling a horrific dream from the night before. They soon learn the dream to be true as they discover a fresh, painful brand in between each of their shoulder blades.
• Your character never wakes up feeling rested, no matter how long they sleep for. Medication doesn’t help. They decide to film themselves one night. The next morning they watch as they get out of bed around midnight, smirk at the camera, and wave before disappearing out the door for hours.
• Your protagonist is a member of a small religious group. When a precious artifact goes missing, the head elder’s daughter is blamed for it. Your character knows she couldn’t be responsible because the two of them were romantically involved at the time of the theft. Such activities are strictly forbidden and the daughter would rather go down for the theft than admit to breaking that law.
• There is a serial killer going after the children of rich and notable families in the area. Your main character is the child of one such family and is terrified every waking moment. Tired of living in fear, they decide to figure out who the killer is and stop them  
• Your character gets a DNA test, just for fun. After getting the results and doing some more research, they discover that members of their ancestry from all over the world were once all gathered in the same place. The reason is unknown.
• Your character receives a strange voicemail from an unknown number. The voicemail ends up changing the course of their entire life.
• Your character is in an accident and loses the memory of the last year of their life. There are so many things that don’t make sense. They must retrace their steps to find answers.
• The entire town has started sleepwalking, together, every night.  
• Your character has a short but friendly encounter with a stranger in an elevator. The next day, they are all over TV as the victim of a brutal murder.
• Your character is redecorating and takes down a painting. They notice something strange engraved on the back of the frame.
• Your character goes to their usual coffee shop and orders “the usual.” The Barista smiles, nods, and slides something entirely different across the counter. She has never made a mistake before.
• Your character opens a random book at the library when the cover page falls out. It says “if you are reading this, you have been chosen.”
• When looking through some old family photos – going back generations – your character notices a cat in almost every photo. The very same colorful spotted cat with a single docked ear that is sitting on their lap.
• When paying for their groceries, your main character mentions to the clerk that there is a mess in aisle 11. The clerk is confused and explains that there is no aisle 11.

Tips for Writing Crime and Mystery

• This is a genre where a book writing template can come in handy. The plots are often so complex, it can be overwhelming to keep it all straight.
• Draw inspiration from real-life crimes. This will make your story believable.
• Also, draw your inspiration from real-life people and give them realistic motives behind their crimes. Crime and mystery are rarely set in a fantasy world, so being realistic is important.
• Know how the mystery is solved before you start writing.
• Include a few cliffhangers – usually at the end of a chapter.

Science Fiction Writing Prompts for Adults

Science fiction is similar to fantasy in that you can make up a lot of stuff, which is a fun way to write.

This is a versatile genre that can be molded into anything you want.

Sometimes, it is rooted in truth with elements of real scientific and technological advances. Other times, there are many assumptions made about the future of science, and lots of make-believe takes place.

• A spaceship that can surpass the speed of light is allowing a few humans on board to escape our solar system and it’s dying sun. How does the world decide who gets to survive?
• A shy, introverted tech guy develops a virus that can control human desires, impulses, and choices.
• A pet store becomes overrun with kittens and sells them off at a low price. However, these cats are actually an alien hybrid that can body jump. It begins causing the owners of these cats to commit suicide within 24 hours of adoption.
• A live TV broadcast from the White House experiences some technical difficulties. They end up broadcasting a top-secret meeting about a pending alien invasion.
• Science has developed a brain scanning software that can read thoughts. Before they can decide what to do with it, someone has hacked the system and stolen it.
• Your character wakes up on a spaceship with no memory.
• The world has developed a genetic system that engineers everyone for a specific job in the community. Your character hates what they were created to do. This never happens.
• The world has finally reached a state of all-encompassing peace thanks to a technical system that keeps things regulated. Your character is in charge of keeping the system running. When they discover exactly how the system is kept running, they consider abandoning their post and never turning back.
• Your character accidentally traps themselves in an alternate universe that hasn’t discovered electricity or technology yet.

Tips for Writing Science Fiction

• Make your story complex, but don’t rush it. Let your audience process information before adding more.
• Keep the language simple and easy to understand even if the world isn’t. The majority of your readers will not be scientists or tech experts.
• Be consistent in terms of the universe. Physical laws, social classes, etc. Know your own world.

Dystopian Writing Prompts for Adults

Dystopian stories are growing in popularity. The genres itself is growing and evolving all the time as people figure out what works and what entertains.

Dystopian is a fun genre to read and experience, but writing it can be just as enjoyable. Having fun while learning how to become a better writer is of utmost importance.

Be careful you’re not writing Dystopia just because it sells well. Make sure you have a real story to tell and that it’s one you believe in.

• A newly married couple become pregnant with twins. Due to growing overpopulation, they are told they must make a choice when the babies are born. Only one will live. Rather than submit to this, they plan their escape across the border.
• An amateur teen scientist accidentally discovers an impending alien attack set to destroy earth within a month. He becomes the unwilling leader of the evacuation and defense coalition.
• A hacker discovers that the new iPhone can be remotely detonated. Many corrupt political leaders are assassinated in this way on the same day. The world breaks into chaos.
• World War III has come and gone. Governments are a thing of the past and money is useless. Survival is the objective. Your main character also has a medical condition to keep under control.
• A horrible outbreak of disease devastated the wildlife population 100 years ago. A scientist has recently created a virus that will strengthen the immune systems of the remaining animals. It works too well, and the animals are starting to overtake the human population.
• After mental illness devastates a generation, scientists create an airborne substance that balances the levels of all people on the earth. Your character is one of the few who is immune.
• Rampant wildfires are taking over the surface of the earth. Your character is part of a group who is trying to find a rumored ocean deep settlement. The settlement doesn’t really exist.
• Nature extremists have taken over the government. Any and all activities that are harmful to the land or plants are forbidden and outlawed.
• Natural farming is a thing of the past. All food is manufactured artificially and distributed. There is no flavor and it’s the same thing every day. Your character takes a stress-relieving trip to the mountains. Here they find the remnants of some real plants, with a few berries on them.

Tips for Writing Dystopian Fiction

• Know what the message of the story is. What is the main character trying to achieve?
• A dystopian society is usually one that has taken the current problems of the world and projected them into the future.
• Dystopian realities are never good ones – make sure you have enough doom, gloom, and darkness for your readers to understand the state of the world.

Historical Writing Prompts for Adults

Historical fiction can be whimsical and charming. It can be dark and spooky. It can be funny and ridiculous. Stories of history span many genres.

Historical fiction can be a combination of educational and entertaining. It tests a writer’s research skills as well as knowledge. The better depiction you can create of your desired time period, the more effective your story will be.

Learning to research is crucial to know how to become a better writer.

• From a first-person perspective, write about the showdown between a criminal and a lion in the Roman Colesseum.
• Abraham Lincoln is famous for his top hat. Where did the top hat come from? Who was the president without it? Write a story about the infamous top hat and its life.
• The Berlin wall has crashed to the ground and its love at first sight for one lucky couple – whose parents aren’t so impressed.
• Your character is a talented composer whose direct competition is Beethoven.
• Write about a dinner party where three famous historical figures are in attendance.
• Your best friend has invented the very first time-travel machine.
• Write about a well-known war, but give it a different outcome.
• Write a happy ending for Dracula.
• Your character’s husband of ten years has just confessed that he has traveled through time from the fourteenth century. He decided to stay because he fell in love with her.
• Write about the thoughts of someone who is secretly watching Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel.
• Your character is the only one who knows who really killed JFK. It wasn’t Oswald.
• Your character is working under William Shakespeare as his apprentice.
• Write about a pair of detectives who solve their cases by traveling back and forth in time.
• Write about the experience of someone who has just learned of the Titanic’s sinking. They had a loved one on board.
• Choose a major historical event. Write from the perspective of a witness.
• Your character wants to travel across the land. No forms of transportation have been invented yet.
• Write about someone who worked at one of the first printing presses during the printing revolution of the 15th century.

Tips for Writing Historical Fiction

• Do your research! Inaccuracies or incorrect facts about the time you are writing in will break trust with your readers and decrease your credibility.
• Choose a specific time period and location. “Early twentieth century” is too broad.
• In addition to setting and facts, characters need to match the time period. This includes dress, behavior, and language.
• Small details will matter.
• Balance the historical facts with the drama and fictional elements.

Humorous Creative Writing Prompts for Adults

Another genre that is especially fun to write as well as read, is a comedy. Nothing beats throwing your head back in full laughter.

The goal here is to make people laugh as much as possible while still balancing a good story and believable characters.

• Substitute teachers are tired of not being taken seriously. They come together and form a secret society, with plans to revolt.
• An Elvis impersonator is so good that many start to believe Elvis has actually come back to life. Soon, he has been recruited to lead a superstitious Elvis-loving cult.
• Three friends are out on the town for a night. Write about the most ridiculous series of events you can think of.
• Life has gotten tough and your character is considering moving back in with their parents. Before they are able to make a decision, their parents show up at their door asking if they can move in.
• Your character wakes up one day and everything they say rhymes. They can’t control it.
• The climate is changing and your main character’s city gets snow for the first time in their entire life. She and her friends are recruited for clean up.
• Your main character has never had a real job before. They are starting a job at the biggest, busiest store in town on the busiest day of the year.
• Your character is set up on a blind date with their sworn enemy.
• Every morning you have a package delivered that contains an item you end up needing that day.
• Struggling with writer’s block, an author decides to sit at a local train station for information. They get some good material.
• Your characters are holding a high-stakes rock-paper-scissors tournament.
• Your main character gets backstage at a concert. What happens back there is much more interesting than the show.
• Your protagonist decides to buy an old school bus and travel across the country. Being single without any close friends, they post an ad asking if anyone wants to join. The end up having their pick of travel partners.
• Write a story about a low-profile, insignificant but long-unsolved crime is finally cracked.
• Your character is a serial killer who kills anyone who hitchhikes along the mountain they live on. One day, they pick up a hitchhiker who kills whoever picks him up.
• The world’s greatest detective finally meets his match: A criminal so stupid and so careless that the detective can’t ever predict what he is going to do next.

Tips for Writing Comedy

• Test the humor on others. You might find something hilarious, but if no one else is going to laugh, it will be useless to include.
• Observe comedy. Your ability to write it will hinge on your experience with it. Watch, read, listen, and speak comedy.
• Have fun with it. Comedy is fun. If you’re not laughing at yourself along the way, you’ll never get through to the end.

Fantasy Writing Prompts for Adults

Fantasy is one of the most popular genres of the time. It’s growing every day because of its creative and immersive nature. People love to preoccupy themselves with something magical.

Being transported into another world for a little while – that’s what fantasy can do

• In a world of advanced technological and magical advancements, one group keeps their practice of ancient spells a secret. One day, they are discovered and it leads to a fight. What is more powerful – old magic, or new technology?
• A large, protected national forest is secretly home to werewolves. One summer there is an especially bad flea epidemic, and the werewolves are greatly affected. The fleas from the werewolves infect the town water supply and start turning everyone into werewolves. The only ones not affected are children under 13.
• The world is overrun with vampires and humans are dying out. Different races and factions of vampires are beginning to go to war over the limited supply of human blood.
• Your character finds a strange looking egg in the forest. Thinking it will make a great decoration, they take it home. What hatches from that egg surpasses their wildest imagination.
• A city has spent centuries living in peace with the water-dwellers who reside in their lakes. Suddenly, the water dwellers declare war and no one knows why.
• Your character has always been able to alter their appearance. They hide unattractive features. Suddenly, their powers stop working and their true appearance is revealed.
• Your main character has a fascination with untouched societies – such as hidden tribes in the Amazon. She sets out to study them as a living. One day she accidentally allows herself to be seen by one of the members. What this person does is beyond what your character ever thought to be real.
• The earth itself is dying and all life on the planet is dying with it.
• Some people in the world have magic, others don’t. No one knows why. Your main character has magic, but his best friend doesn’t. The friend is exceptionally jealous and is growing more and more desperate to make the magic his.

Tips for Writing Fantasy

• Focus on being unique
• Don’t neglect worldbuilding . Inconsistencies will be obvious to readers. This is where a book writing software like Squibler can come in handy. It helps you stay organized and efficient.
• Create unique names.
• Don’t be afraid to make the journey long and the outcome unexpected.

Fantasy Novel Writing Template

Fantasy is one of the most complicated genres due to the necessity of building a brand new world. Squibler’s fantasy writing template will help you through this daunting process:

This template offers guidelines and suggestions for building your world as well as structuring and creating your storyline. It’s helpful but loose enough to allow your creativity to keep flowing.

Dialogue Inspired Writing Prompts

Sometimes, all it takes is a small exchange or a witty one-liner to get your brain working. Take these words and start something new. Or, insert them into an existing project and see what happens.

• “As she stepped onto the train, I fought every urge to jump on after her.”
• “He was expensive. Please be more considerate of my money the next time I hire an assassin to kill you.”
• “You say that like it was a struggle.”
• “I’m your conscience. That is literally my one job.”
• “Well, I wish you didn’t love me. I guess no one is getting what they want today.”
• “I guess it didn’t take.”
• “I was bored so I blew up my house.”
• “I taught you how to pick locks, and THAT is how you’re choosing to use the skill?”
• “They thought I would forget everything. I remember even more than when they started.”
• “Yes. But I don’t care.”
• “I killed my mother. Are you really questioning what I can do to you right now?”

Write Your Next Masterpiece With These Creative Writing Prompts for Adults

Whether you have a book writing templat e all filled out or you are starting from scratch, these writing prompts will get your imagination going and make your writing time more productive.

Beat the writer’s block, get your groove back, or just be inspired.  Figure out how to love writing again. Whatever you’re looking for, hopefully, these ideas have helped form the story you need to tell.

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50 Creative Writing Ideas to Combat Writer’s Block

A lack of creative writing ideas often leads to a writer’s worst fear: writer’s block.

It’s so easy to fall into its clutches, spending hours at your laptop (or notebook or typewriter) writing sentence after sentence only to cross every one out. Or even worse—to sit an an empty page and write nothing at all. Sometimes it takes time and hard thinking to get out of the rut once you become stuck. Sometimes, however, it takes a little more than that. Sometimes it just might take some outside help.

It can be exceedingly difficult to find solid, mature creative writing ideas on the internet. If you Google “creative writing ideas,” most of what comes up is directed at children or casual writers looking to practice a hobby. But what about creative writing ideas for adults? What about when you have the dedication, passion, and experience with writing, but you just don’t have the  ideas ?

And if these don’t work, check out my other two posts on Writer’s Block (and second Writer’s Block article ).

The next time you’re at a loss for what to write about, try using these creative writing ideas and prompts below. Maybe you’ll be inspired enough to propel you straight out of your writer’s block, or maybe it’ll just be enough to get the gears turning in your head again.

50 Creative Writing Ideas (with Prompts) to Boost Your Inspiration

1. Try Writing Magical Realism

Write a story from a universe similar to this one but possessing one specific magical quality.

1. Write about two people who grow up together, eventually part ways, move to different sides of the country, and somehow still end up unintentionally running into each other very frequently for the rest of their lives.

2. Write about someone who is reincarnated over and over again and remembers all of his/her past lives, but no one else on earth remembers theirs.

3. Write about two people who are physically unable to be awake at the same time.

4. Write about a contract killer literally haunted by his first hit.

5. Write about a prophet who knows the exact day, time, and occurrence of his death years in advance.

6. Write about a character who can taste people’s emotions through the food they prepare.

7. Write about two people who dream about each other before they actually meet.

8. Write a post-apocalyptic story and explain only your main character’s coping mechanism: creating a fantasy world in his/her head and living there.

9. Write about a person who goes to the theater with friends multiple times but always sees a different movie than his/her friends see on the same screen.

10. Write about a person who grows a new finger every time he/she acts cruelly to someone.

If you want help writing your novel, I’ve got the best novel-writing guide in the universe:

12 Steps to Write a Bestselling Novel.

That link will give you advice on characters, plotting, point of view, and more.

2. Write from a Different Perspective

Use a voice and background different from your own to write something unfamiliar and fresh.

1. Write from the perspective of an advanced AI.

2. Write from the perspective of a person in the year 2550.

3. Write from perspective of a mythological siren stuck on the rocky shore of an ocean, trying to lure sailors to their deaths.

4. Write from the perspective of an “inside guy” (jury member, lawyer, judge, etc) during an important court case.

5. Write from the perspective of a family pet whose fate is decided when its owners split up.

6. Write from the perspective of a different gender when subjected to explicit sexual objectification.

7. Write from the perspective of an inanimate object in nature, like a rock or the wind.

8. Write from the perspective of someone with a chronic but not fatal illness (diabetes, OCD, Lyme disease, etc).

9. Write from the perspective of a blind person who comes home to find all the furniture in his/her apartment rearranged.

10. Write from the perspective of a fed-up guardian angel whose designated human is prone to self-sacrificial acts.

3. Write About What’s Around You

Get inspired by ordinary objects in your home.

1. Find a small object in your junk drawer (stapler remover, chewed-up pen cap, paperweight, etc) and write about how it could be used as a weapon to kill.

2. Imagine you have to hide documents essential to national security somewhere in your office or bedroom and write a story about wherever you think is the best place.

3. If the room you’re in has windows, write a story in which the room is exactly the same but with no windows, and vice versa.

4. Imagine you’re cleaning out your desk and find a secret message carved or written on the bottom of one drawer.

5. Open a book in your office, turn to a random page, blindly point to a word, and use it as the very first word of your story.

6. Find a photo of yourself and write a narrative about the photographer in that moment.

7. Pick a room in your house and recount a story, real or fictional, about how a particular object in that room came to be there.

8. Mentally (or physically, if you want to) rearrange all the furniture in your office or bedroom and write about how that changes the overall mood of the room.

9. Search your coat pockets for old recipes, notes, or trinkets and write a story centered around something you find. (If you find nothing, write about why you empty your pockets so frequently.)

10. Pick a small item from your desk drawer and write about a character who carries it around as a talisman.

4. Let Your Reading Inspire Your Writing

Use your favorite books as a launching pad to create something original.

1. Write a scene borrowing the protagonist of a book you’ve read, but cast as a different gender.

2. Research an author you enjoy, then combine his/her life with the life of a character from one of his/her books to create a new character.

3. Take a familiar scene from a book and rewrite it, adding yourself in as a character (spectator, narrator, background figure, etc).

4. Reset a scene from a book in a drastically different time period.

5. Write a different story using the same title as a familiar book.

6. If the book you’re using has a first person narrator, rewrite a scene either from the perspective of another character or in the third person.

7. Write about a fictional person who has an intense reaction (either positive or negative) to a book you’ve read.

8. Write a story using only words found in the first and last sentences of each chapter of a book.

9. Take a book you know well and write an alternate ending that is the exact opposite of the real ending (whatever you think “opposite” means).

10. If the book you’re using has a third person narrator, rewrite a scene in the first person (as one of the author’s characters or a new character).

5. Take a Plot and Write It Multiple Ways

Take a well-defined prompt and write it multiple times, each with a different ending.

1. Write about a Japanese steakhouse chef who accidentally cuts him/herself while cooking in front of a family.

2. Write about a painter who is commissioned by a family member to paint a dead man/woman using no pictures, only descriptions from other people.

3. Write about a group of truckers who all frequent the same truck stops and form a book club for when they see each other again.

4. Write about a seasoned model who shows up to her agency one day with inexplicable cuts all over her legs.

5. Write about two strangers who each grab one end of extremely rare record at the same time in a secondhand vinyl shop.

6. Write about a manic-depressive linguist who conveys his/her emotions to friends using words from other languages that aren’t translatable into English.

7. Write about a group of whalers who accidentally discover mermaids the size of blue whales.

8. Write about someone who mistakenly picks the lock to the wrong apartment at two in the morning when trying to get into a friend’s apartment.

9. Write about a strictly Shakespearian actor who loses all of his/her money and has to take modern comedic roles to stay afloat.

10. And finally: Write about a writer struggling with long-term writer’s block who desperately searches the internet for ideas and prompts.

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76 comments

oh my gosh this was really helpful – thank you! :))

SAME WITH ME. EVEN THOUGH I AM JUST 13 YEARS OLD, I AM CONSTANTLY SEARCHING FOR NEW IDEAS TO WRITE. THANKS SO MUCH.

YES THIS IS ALSO VERY HELPFUL WHICH IS WHY I AM WRITING IN CAPITAL LETTERS

Really helpful and cool, thank you!!!

YESSSSS!!!!!!

so helpful I really needed this

Super helpful

These were soooooooooooooooo random prompts! They didn’t help me at all! 🙁

well maybe you shouldn’t become a writter then because if you look it was helpful to the other writters boom .

i dont think this means they shouldnt be a writer, writers block can be really difficult to get over and maybe these ideas didnt help them get over it, i know they didnt help me yet ive been writing for nearly 5 years constantly. each author is different, so its great if it helped others but that doesnt guarantee itll help everyone

That’s really rude becoming a writer means working towards your goal. Some ideas don’t inspire some people. Progress takes work and the ability to write doesn’t come easy to some people. Who knows he/she could become a great writer. We just don’t know it. We choose are destiny.

what a geek

wow look at that. you are telling people off but you can’t spell the word writer! look into a dictionary.

Maybe you guys should be nice. It’s hard to be a writer, and putting other people down because they didn’t find anything helpful isn’t right. Please remember we all want to change the world.

I think random prompts are good prompts.

I agree. If they’re random that means that there’ more variety

keep looking, I’m sure there’s something there.

I think that it was the point tp be random ideas. I personally think that these were amazing ideas and I think you might need to try to be a bit more creative.

the point is to just getting you to write something versus nothing. So if you start getting your creativity flowing it will help you with your personal work.

Same I agree

I hope you come up with even better ones!

Same . It was like you have to find something and it takes ages

Honestly, I’ve been to 3 different sites before this one looking for some decent writing prompts. Don’t be fazed if they don’t help you 🙂

That’s fine, they might not help everyone! It also might not be what you’re used to, try writing with one of the prompts, if you don’t end up liking it, it’s still an exercise for your mind. Good luck!

Good fodder for insight, topics . Curious what other readers used these to for ??

Good ideas and it helped me!

Thank you so much for these! I usually see such generic prompts on other sites, but these were very original and inspiring! I would love more if possible 😉

love these ideas I would like more if possible!

This helped me with school a lot!!

I feel personally attacked by that last one.

“and finally…” LOL. Agreed

Ha- me too!

Thank You! Your ideas are really quite wonderful. 🙂

If these don’t help you, then try procrastination. You subconscious is working on your story, so when you sit down, it is so much easier to continue writing. (Works for me!)

Someone that has used one of these prompts should be super nice and let me read what they came up with. I’m super curious as to how some of you are using them.

I’ve only managed to use one so far, there are some very great prompts here.

I am 12 years old and I am confused on where my life is going… either a vet actor, or a book writer. I need advice from some adults.

dear ADVICE PLEASE [or anyone really] you should get to be whatever your heart desires. I think that you could be a vet or actor as well as an author. The world needs writers, so get out there and spread some joy! Oh btw, I’m sure we’re all on this site for the same reasons, but don’t give up on your writing dreams

I am using it for a random report I wanted to write about something. It was just kind of boring until I realized… there IS a positive side to COVID 19! I mean c’mon guys there is a positive side to everything so search for the positive sides not the negative ones. So the positive side was… WE COULD IMPROVE OURSELVES!!! Literally just by working on something we like during COVID 19 will make it seem better and BE better!! Some people had no time to improve because they were too busy with some other job but NOW.. We could spend our whole day on something we like and trust me it will benefit each and every one of you!!! ( And your day won’t be AS boring and sad because there WILL be something to do. There is always something to do!!! )

These are some helpful ideas but I don’t agree with a few but that doesn’t matter because some of them helped me. Anyway thank you for them!

Thanks this really helped as I had something set to write to so randomness helped!

These were helpful! ( And by the way…One of your probmpts scared me, I often dream about people sometimes and then meet them later. It’s very complicated about how and why. )

I want to read what other people wrote now

That last one had me cracking up.

i second that eva

Really good ones! the last one got me smiling!

Spider girl – why not all of them? You have a long life ahead of you and to only focus one career your entire life is dreary for some people such as myself. I have been a firefighter, preschool teacher, sales person, and am currently a writer and a music teacher.

they’re really good ideas, none of them really appealed to me specifically, but it seems like someone could still make a good story out of them! 🙂

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was exactly what I needed thanks so much

These have really have been a good use for me. I have been in a writer’s block for at least two weeks now and just by looking at some of these creative writing ideas, it has helped a lot. I know some of them may not appeal to all of you specifically, but it does give more confidence in your writing and your stories just by looking at some. For instance, if you were to look at one of the Magical Realism writing ideas, it could open a whole door to new writing possibilities. You can take one of the ideas and turn it into your own. You may not all agree that these ideas can help you, but it can definitely give you the confidence that you may lack when writing stories or maybe just inspire you. These ideas are helpful. Thank you!

Okay Hi, I was looking for a random prompt to write about, and I didn’t find one can anyone give me some ideas for one? I would be so grateful. Just for a little info, I am 13 and in 8th grade and just felt the need to start writing. Anyway, whoever sees this I hope you have a wonderful afternoon (or morning) Be safe throughout this week okay.

You could write about your dream for when you grow up. Like Martin Luther King Jr.

Thanks so much this helped

The 2nd one in the very first idea is one I think I’m going to use. Thanks so much!

omg this is fantastic…Thank you so much. I can relate to so many of these prompts but never really thought of them…

these were so good it inspired me to write:)

Thank you for this. I’ve been working on the same project for ages and this was a wonderful break from it.

Lot of love. Thank you. This is great help.

Wow! I could never have thought of these ideas even if I was given a million years. Thanks.

This took YEARS of me

This was so much help the thing is can you add some easy and fun ones?

This is very helpful thank you 🙂

These have been very helpful. Thank you so much for sharing these. The last one was hilarious and made me realize in many cases I was blocking myself, lol. It was great!

• Pingback: 50K Words Later: NaNoWriMo Lessons & Takeaways

most of these really did help me. I put them on to a word doc and kept going back on them and then went to different webs. now if I have writer’s block I have 64 pages of things to try.

I needed this

Some were a bit sus but ok

SOOOOOOOOOO HELPFUL!!!!!

Every writer NEEDS this book.

It’s a guide to writing the pivotal moments of your novel.

Whether writing your book or revising it, this will be the most helpful book you’ll ever buy.

55 episodes

Award-winning dreampunk & fantasy author Anna Tizard plays the surrealist word game of Exquisite Corpse to create unique writing prompts, by mixing words you've posted at annatizard.com/play. Results are often hilarious at first, but after a little digging, they develop into wild, weird & unexpected stories. This is a creative, evolving show: Shows 1-37 usually have in-depth discussions on writing before game play. Shows 28-33 are Alice in Wonderland specials. Shows 37 & beyond focus on storytelling, and the story brainstorms are deeper & richer. Dip in wherever you fancy! A ton of fun.

Brainstoryum: Creative Writing Prompts & Story Craft Anna Tizard

• MAY 10, 2024

#54. Writing Prompts with Magic, Monsters… and Morose Literary Magazines?

Enjoy more zany, imagination-bending journeys into fantasy fiction using writing prompts generated by the surrealist word game of Exquisite Corpse. Get writing!   Today’s show features story ideas sent in by listeners based on “the foggy box”, plus new short story ideas, impromptu storytelling and creative writing tips from award-winning fantasy and dreampunk author, Anna Tizard.   Subscribe for free to Anna Tizard’s private email list and get exclusive material from her series, The Book of Exquisite Corpse. All at www.annatizard.com. INTRO: Hello imaginative people! I’m Anna Tizard and this is episode 54 of Brainstoryum. I hope you are ready for some wild new story ideas and writing prompts, because today’s show is positively bulging like the 3 socks of destiny which contain words… Whose words? Your words? Maybe, if you’ve sent me some on the Play page at annatizard.com…   But before we begin new journeys into the weird depths of our imaginations, I have some brilliant ideas to share with you, sent in by listeners who responded to a writing prompt the last show. This is what I truly love: a bit of collaboration, sharing the wonder and weirdness of storytelling. So let’s get on with the show...

• APR 26, 2024

#53. Short Story Ideas: Weirdness, Wonder & Inventing Creatures

More zany, imagination-bending journeys into fantasy fiction using writing prompts generated by the surrealist word game of Exquisite Corpse. Get writing!   Today’s show features story ideas sent in by listeners based on “the boisterous rocking chair”, plus new short story ideas, impromptu storytelling and creative writing tips from award-winning fantasy and dreampunk author, Anna Tizard.   Subscribe for free to Anna Tizard’s private email list and get exclusive material from her series, The Book of Exquisite Corpse. All at www.annatizard.com.

• APR 12, 2024

#52. More Story Writing Ideas; Uniqueness & Originality; Clowns, Creatures, Hauntings & Plunder

It’s time once more to be inspired (and amused) by zany, imagination-bending writing prompts using the surrealist word game of Exquisite Corpse. Today’s show features story ideas sent in by listeners based on “the susurrant plunder”, plus snippets of storytelling exploring a rich array of new short story ideas and writing tips from award-winning fantasy and dreampunk author, Anna Tizard. Subscribe for free to Anna Tizard’s private email list and get vol 1 in The Book of Exquisite Corpse plus exclusive material not published anywhere else. All at www.annatizard.com.   INTRO: Hello imaginative people! I’m Anna Tizard and this is episode 52 of Brainstoryum. Well, my personal life has been a bit manic lately, with major roof works going on. The noise has been like 3 or 4 ogres trying to smash their way in through the ceiling with truncheons; I was quite surprised to look out the window and see humans, mere humans on the scaffolding. So today I’m grateful that I can bask in one of my favourite distractions: the delicious escape of storytelling, brainstorming ideas and sharing them with you. So whatever you’ve been up to this week, I’m glad you’re able to enjoy this with me.   I have a packed show for you today with some new great story ideas suggested by listeners, plus there will of course be 3 new bizarre writing prompts today plucked from the depths of the socks of destiny.   First things first - let’s hear the story ideas sent in by my highly imaginative listeners. The "susurrant plunder": a curious phrase indeed. It sounds like murmuring treasure; stolen goods that whisper? The rabbit hole I dived into when this phrase came up was one of treasure hunting and a secret history of pirates. But this is only one rabbit hole among countless possibilities, since everyone’s imagination is unique...

• MAR 29, 2024

#51. Creative Writing Ideas Galore: Enter the Transdimensional World of Your Imagination

Time to be inspired by zany, imagination-bending writing prompts using the word game of Exquisite Corpse. Includes story ideas sent in by listeners based on “the transdimensional witch”, plus storytelling with a rich array of new short story ideas and writing tips from award-winning fantasy and dreampunk author, Anna Tizard. Subscribe for free to Anna Tizard’s private email list and get vol 1 in The Book of Exquisite Corpse plus exclusive material not published anywhere else! "Hello imaginative people. I’m Anna Tizard and this is episode 51 of Brainstoryum. I hope life is treating you well, but whatever your state of mind is, I feel certain that today’s show can only improve your mood as I share the magic of storytelling – but not just mine.   In the last few episodes, I’ve been inviting you to share your story ideas based on writing prompts that have come up on the show, and today, there are some really good ones I can’t wait to read out.   But before I do, and before I reach once more into the socks of destiny for 3 new writing prompts, someone has written a poem about me and the show...  

• MAR 15, 2024

#50. The 2nd Anniversary Special! A Celebration of Short Story Ideas & Writing Successes

In this 50th episode and 2nd anniversary of Brainstoryum, Anna Tizard shares some of the best (and weirdest) Exquisite Corpse writing prompts that have come up in the show; plus, successes from other authors who’ve used inspiration from the show to write and publish stories; listeners’ ideas based on the “pedantic staircase”; and 3 new rounds of the imagination-bending word game.   Subscribe for free to Anna Tizard’s private email list and get vol 1 in The Book of Exquisite Corpse plus exclusive material not published anywhere else! https://annatizardsubscribe.ck.page/e631e9eb31

• MAR 1, 2024

#49. A Sack-full of Short Story Ideas – Including Yours!

Time for some zany, imagination-bending writing prompts using the word game of Exquisite Corpse. Enjoy interactive storytelling and some great ideas for writing short stories, with writing tips from award-winning fantasy and dreampunk author, Anna Tizard.   In today’s show, listeners and readers suggest their own story ideas based on a writing prompt from the last show: “the frozen chaise longue”. Next, Anna mixes listeners’ word suggestions into bizarre sentences and brainstorms new story ideas from the results. Subscribe for free to Anna Tizard’s private email list and get vol 1 in The Book of Exquisite Corpse plus exclusive material not published anywhere else! annatizard.com

• © Anna Tizard

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