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How To Describe Rain In Writing (10 Important Steps)

Describing rain in writing is akin to capturing the essence of a timeless and ever-evocative phenomenon that has fascinated poets, novelists, and storytellers for centuries.

Rain, in its many forms and moods, can be a powerful narrative device, setting the stage, conveying emotions, and mirroring the complexities of human experience.

In this guide, we will explore the art of painting rain with words, delving into the sensory language that allows writers to immerse readers in the beauty and drama of a rain-soaked scene.

From sight and sound to touch, smell, and taste, we will dissect the many dimensions of rain’s sensory language and its capacity to create mood, atmosphere, and profound emotional resonance.

Whether you’re a seasoned writer or just beginning your literary journey, this exploration of how to describe rain in writing will equip you with the tools to harness the poetic potential of this natural phenomenon and infuse your stories with its captivating magic.

Table of Contents

How To Describe Rain In Writing

Describing rain in writing involves using vivid and evocative language to paint a picture in the reader’s mind. Here’s a step-by-step process to help you do just that:

Setting the Scene

Start by setting the scene and creating the right atmosphere. Describe the location and time of day. Is it a city street, a quiet forest, or a coastal town? Is it daytime or night? This contextual information helps the reader envision the rain more effectively.

Select the Right Words

Use descriptive adjectives, adverbs, and verbs to convey the characteristics of the rain. Choose words that evoke the senses. For instance, you can use words like “gentle,” “drizzling,” “torrential,” “pattering,” “incessant,” or “misty” to describe the rain.

Sensory Imagery

Engage the reader’s senses. Describe how the rain feels, sounds, smells, and looks. Does it feel cool and refreshing on the skin, or is it a chilling, biting rain? Does it create puddles and ripples? Can you hear it tapping on windows or the leaves of trees? What is the scent in the air during and after the rain?

Metaphors and Similes

Metaphors and similes can be powerful tools. Compare the rain to something else to create a more vivid image. For example, “The rain fell like a whisper from the heavens” or “The drops were as tiny as pearls.”

Emotions and Mood

Consider the emotional impact of the rain on the characters or the setting. Rain can evoke feelings of nostalgia, melancholy, or even joy. Describe how the characters react to the rain, which can help set the mood.

Focus on Details

Pay attention to the small details that make the scene come alive. Describe the way the raindrops bead on a window, how it slicks the streets, or how it makes the world glisten.

Show, Don’t Tell

Instead of telling the reader that it’s raining, show the effects of the rain. Let the reader infer the weather from the descriptions you provide.

Use Personification

Consider giving human attributes to the rain. This can add depth to your description. For example, “The rain wept from the sky,” or “The rain danced on the rooftop.”

Structure and Flow

Arrange your descriptions in a way that mimics the rhythm of the rain. You might start with a light drizzle and gradually build up to a heavy downpour, creating a sense of anticipation and climax.

Edit and Revise

After you’ve written your rain description, edit and revise to eliminate unnecessary words and ensure that your description flows smoothly.

Remember that the effectiveness of your rain description will also depend on the overall context of your writing , the characters involved, and the emotions you want to convey. By following these steps, you can create a captivating and immersive rain scene in your writing .

Understanding Rain

Rain, that ethereal veil woven from the heavens, defies our attempts to confine its essence within mere droplets. It is nature’s symphony, a celestial dance between Earth and sky, an invitation to reflect on the interconnectedness of all things.

The gentle kiss of a drizzle awakens memories of childhood laughter, while a torrential downpour offers a cleansing catharsis.

With every drop, it whispers tales of renewal and growth, a reminder that even the darkest storms yield to the brilliance of a new day.

To understand rain is to embrace the poetry of existence, where the tears of the sky become the tears of our own souls, falling, glistening, and ultimately nourishing the gardens of our hearts.

The emotional impact of rain

The emotional impact of rain is a symphony of feelings that flows within us as seamlessly as the raindrops descend from the sky.

Rain can evoke a profound sense of nostalgia, taking us back to cherished memories of dancing in puddles or seeking refuge from life’s storms.

It carries an inexplicable comfort in its steady pattering, offering solace to those in search of introspection. Yet, rain can also mirror our deepest sorrows, its tears mingling with our own.

It has a unique power to amplify our moods, whether it’s the serenity that follows a gentle shower or the restlessness that accompanies a thunderstorm.

In the realm of storytelling, rain is a powerful emotional conduit, capable of reflecting characters’ inner turmoil, sadness, or moments of profound revelation. Rain, in its ability to mirror and magnify our emotions, remains a symbol of the ever-changing human experience.

Why rain is a popular element in literature

Rain has emerged as a perennially popular element in literature, owing to its multifaceted symbolic significance and its capacity to elicit a rich tapestry of emotions. Its duality as both a life-giving force and a harbinger of melancholy makes it a versatile tool for authors.

Rain can symbolize renewal and cleansing, as seen in its ability to rejuvenate parched landscapes, while also conveying a sense of melancholy, reflecting the intricacies of human experiences.

It often serves as a narrative device, heightening tension, foreshadowing events, or mirroring characters’ internal turmoil.

From Shakespeare’s stormy tempests to the poignant rain-soaked scenes of modern literature, the rain transcends the physical world to become a vivid metaphorical language that resonates with readers on profound emotional and thematic levels.

Its role in literature is a testament to its timeless ability to captivate, challenge, and move both writers and readers.

Sensory Language

Sensory language is the poet’s palette, the novelist’s symphony, and the artist’s brush, allowing us to paint the world with words, evoke the symphony of senses, and ignite the imagination with a single sentence.

It transcends mere words, transforming writing into an immersive sensory experience. It’s the sultry scent of a tropical rainforest, the exhilarating taste of an adventure, the velvet touch of a lover’s hand, the symphony of colors in a bustling marketplace, and the resonating echoes of a forgotten memory.

Sensory language is a key that unlocks the door to vivid storytelling, where readers don’t just read the words; they taste, touch, hear, smell, and see the narrative come alive, engaging in a dance of imagination that leaves an indelible imprint on their souls.

It’s the secret elixir that makes literature not just something to read, but something to feel and savor.

Using sight to describe rain

Using sight to describe rain is an art of painting with words, capturing the visual poetry of nature’s tears falling from the sky.

Each raindrop, like a liquid jewel, glistens as it descends, creating a shimmering curtain that blurs the boundaries between heaven and earth.

The world transforms as rain showers down, whether it’s a soft drizzle that veils the landscape in delicate mist or a fierce downpour that blurs the horizon.

The sight of rain paints emotions on the canvas of our perception, from the gray melancholy of a stormy day to the joyful, bright hues of a rainbow arching over the horizon after a cleansing shower.

It’s a visual language that writers use to evoke moods, create atmosphere, and transport readers into the heart of a story’s sensory landscape, where every raindrop is a brushstroke in the masterpiece of storytelling.

Using sound to describe rain

Using sound to describe rain is like composing a symphony of nature’s rhythms. Raindrops are nature’s percussion instruments, playing a melodic and sometimes chaotic tune as they pitter-patter on various surfaces.

The soothing sound of a light drizzle creates a delicate lullaby, while a thunderous downpour is a crescendo of raw power, a thunderous applause from the heavens.

Rain’s symphony is not just the sound of droplets on rooftops and leaves; it’s the collective voice of a million tiny performers, resonating with the heartbeat of the earth.

The rustle of rain in a forest, the rhythmic tapping on a windowpane, or the playful splashes on puddles all speak of the rain’s emotional range, from peaceful serenity to turbulent intensity.

Writers use this auditory experience to immerse readers in the very heart of a scene, where the sound of rain becomes a character in its own right, narrating a story of nature’s grand drama.

Using touch to describe rain

Using touch to describe rain is to convey the sensation of nature’s caress or onslaught on the skin. Raindrops, like tender kisses from the heavens, can bring a refreshing coolness to a sweltering day, or they can prick your skin with a chill, making you shiver.

The texture of rain varies, from the gentle touch of mist in a drizzle to the sharp, stinging embrace of a heavy shower. Writers often describe rain as a tactile experience, whether it’s the way it makes your clothes cling, the feel of droplets on your face, or the softness of moist earth underfoot.

The sensation of rain is intimate and sensory, and it can evoke a spectrum of emotions, from comfort and rejuvenation to discomfort and vulnerability.

It’s this tactile connection that allows readers to not just see or hear the rain but to feel it, making it a powerful tool for authors to deepen the immersion of their audience in the story’s world.

Using smell to describe rain

Using smell to describe rain is to unlock the earth’s hidden perfumes, released with the first kiss of moisture after a dry spell.

The scent of rain is one of nature’s most enchanting aromas, a blend of petrichor, the earthy fragrance of soil awakening, and ozone, the electrifying aroma of the atmosphere refreshed.

This symphony of scents brings with it the promise of renewal, a reminder that life continues to thrive even in the midst of a storm. The smell of rain is evocative, transporting us to memories of childhood, when the world seemed pure and full of wonder after a shower.

For writers, it’s a sensory bridge that connects readers to the primal essence of the earth, awakening nostalgia, rejuvenation, and a sense of connection to the natural world.

It’s the scent of life itself, carried on the breeze, and it allows storytelling to transcend the visual and auditory realms into the olfactory, adding a layer of depth and richness to the narrative.

Metaphors and Symbols

Metaphors and symbols are the inkwells of imagination, the keys to unlocking hidden worlds within the written word.

They are the alchemical language of storytelling, where a rose becomes not just a flower but a symbol of love, and the ticking of a clock transforms into the heartbeat of suspense.

Metaphors paint vivid pictures in the mind, revealing hidden truths through comparison, while symbols carry the weight of ages, encapsulating entire ideologies in a single image.

They are the threads that weave the tapestry of literature, enriching narratives with layers of meaning and offering readers a kaleidoscope of interpretations.

In the hands of a skilled wordsmith, metaphors and symbols are the compass and the stars, guiding readers through uncharted territory and inviting them to embark on journeys where words are not just tools but magical gateways to understanding the profound mysteries of human experience.

Rain as a symbol

Rain, in the realm of literature and symbolism, is a versatile and evocative motif that carries a multitude of interpretations.

It often embodies the notion of renewal and rebirth, as it nourishes the earth and washes away the old, much like a cleansing baptism. Rain can symbolize growth and transformation, casting a hopeful light on new beginnings.

At the same time, it’s a symbol of melancholy, encapsulating the tears of sorrow, isolation, or the weight of unfulfilled desires.

In various narratives, rain can also serve as a metaphor for life’s unpredictability and the uncontrollable forces that shape our existence.

Whether it’s depicted as a harbinger of change or a reflection of human emotions, rain remains a powerful literary symbol that beautifully mirrors the complexity of the human condition, allowing readers to explore themes of life, death, and everything in between.

Rain’s role in character development

Rain, as a literary device, often plays a pivotal role in character development. It’s like a mirror reflecting the inner world of characters.

A protagonist caught in a sudden downpour may experience vulnerability and reveal a softer side, shedding their inhibitions or bravado.

For others, a storm can symbolize emotional turmoil, acting as a catalyst for self-discovery and growth. The way a character reacts to rain, whether seeking shelter, dancing in it, or cursing it, can reveal their temperament, desires, and fears.

Rain can also be a metaphorical cleansing, allowing characters to shed their past or old beliefs, paving the way for personal transformation.

In the hands of skilled writers, rain becomes a subtle but powerful tool to deepen character arcs, illuminating the multidimensional aspects of their personalities and serving as a conduit for empathy and connection with readers.

Setting the scene in a narrative is akin to the opening notes of a grand symphony, where every detail, every brushstroke, and every whispered word has the power to transport readers into the heart of a story’s universe.

It’s the alchemy of words and imagination, where the setting becomes more than mere backdrop; it becomes a living, breathing entity that influences characters, events, and emotions.

A vividly painted setting is not just a place; it’s a mood, an atmosphere, a character in its own right, with the power to set the stage for love, tragedy, adventure, or mystery.

It’s a doorway into worlds both real and fantastical, an invitation for readers to step into the shoes of the characters and feel the pulse of the story’s heart .

In the hands of a skilled storyteller, setting is the portal to the extraordinary, the touchstone of emotion, and the architect of immersion, where every word weaves a tapestry of sights, sounds, and sensations that lingers in the reader’s soul long after the final page is turned.

Emotions and Themes

Emotions and themes in literature are the twin constellations that guide readers through the vast universe of storytelling, offering a kaleidoscope of human experiences and profound insights.

Like a masterful piece of music, they orchestrate the symphony of words, each note resonating with joy, sorrow, love, or conflict.

They are the compass that navigates the complex terrain of narrative landscapes, shedding light on the profound questions that define our existence.

Emotions are the heartbeat of characters, the catalysts for empathy, and the glue that binds readers to the story’s soul. Themes, on the other hand, are the hidden gems, the golden threads that tie seemingly unrelated events into a rich tapestry of meaning.

They are the questions that stir the deepest contemplations, be it about love, morality, fate, or the very essence of humanity.

Together, they transform literature into more than just ink on paper; they make it a mirror to our souls, inviting us to explore the boundless complexity of the human condition and reminding us that, within the pages of a book, we may find the reflection of our own journeys.

Conveying emotions through rain

Conveying emotions through rain is like tapping into the heart of nature’s own poetry. Rain has an extraordinary ability to mirror and amplify the feelings of characters and the overarching mood of a story.

A gentle drizzle can evoke a sense of calm, serenity, and even romance, as it envelopes characters in a soft, comforting embrace. In contrast, a torrential downpour might signify chaos, turmoil, or despair, with its relentless onslaught reflecting the characters’ inner struggles.

Writers use rain to create emotional depth, where the weather becomes a silent yet powerful protagonist that shapes the narrative’s emotional landscape.

Rain, in its myriad forms and intensities, becomes a conduit for the raw, unspoken sentiments that swirl beneath the surface, inviting readers to connect with characters on a visceral level, as they too become drenched in the emotional downpour of the story.

Exploring common themes associated with rain

Exploring common themes associated with rain is like delving into a treasure trove of symbolism and emotion. Rain’s presence in literature often mirrors a spectrum of timeless themes.

Love and romance often find their muse in rain-soaked moments, where passionate encounters occur under the soft drizzle or in the midst of a tempestuous downpour. Rain also serves as a symbol of melancholy, capturing feelings of loss, loneliness, or unfulfilled desires.

Beyond that, it represents the idea of renewal and rebirth, akin to nature’s cleansing, washing away the old to make way for the new.

Rain can even foreshadow change, be it positive or negative, in a character’s journey. These common themes associated with rain create a rich tapestry of meaning in literature, allowing readers to connect with the human experience on a profound, emotional level, while offering writers a canvas on which to paint the essence of life’s complexities and subtleties.

Literary Techniques

Literary techniques are the kaleidoscope through which words become art, and storytelling transforms into an enchanting dance of language.

They are the secret pathways that lead readers into the hidden chambers of a writer’s imagination, offering experiences that transcend mere prose.

Metaphors and similes become the brushstrokes that paint vivid pictures, while personification breathes life into inanimate objects, making them whisper secrets in the reader’s ear.

Symbolism, like a secret code, adds layers of meaning that ripple beneath the surface, inviting readers to decode its mysteries. Foreshadowing, that subtle whisper of destiny, guides the narrative, and irony adds a tantalizing twist to the tale.

With these literary tools, writers become magicians, conjuring universes, emotions, and characters that live, breathe, and linger in the reader’s mind long after the final page is turned.

Literary techniques are the key to the door that opens into the enchanting realm of storytelling, where words are not just ink on paper but enchantments that weave a spell over the soul.

Personification of rain

Personification of rain is like granting nature its own voice and personality, turning a meteorological phenomenon into a living character in a story.

Rain, when personified, can take on qualities, desires, and emotions, transforming it into a mystical entity with intentions and whims of its own.

It becomes a silent yet powerful participant in the narrative, capable of comforting, cleansing, or causing chaos. Personified rain can express empathy for the characters, becoming a compassionate friend in their moments of solitude or a relentless adversary during their trials.

By imbuing rain with human-like attributes, writers bridge the gap between the natural world and the human experience, creating a deeper connection with the reader as they explore the complexities of this weather-wielding character.

Rain’s role in creating atmosphere and mood

Rain’s role in creating atmosphere and mood is nothing short of transformative. Whether it’s a gentle drizzle whispering in the hush of dawn or a tempestuous downpour raging against the world, rain is a maestro of ambiance.

It can cast a serene, melancholic, or foreboding aura over a scene, setting the emotional tone with a few drops or a deluge.

The sound of raindrops can serve as a lullaby, soothing the soul, or a cacophony, intensifying suspense. The glistening streets after a shower can evoke serenity, while the gray clouds of an impending storm can shroud a narrative in tension.

Rain’s ability to mirror and amplify emotions, to dance between the mundane and the extraordinary, makes it an invaluable tool for writers in shaping the mood of their stories, turning the weather itself into a silent, atmospheric character.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about How To Describe Rain In Writing

What’s the importance of effectively describing rain in writing.

Describing rain in writing is crucial for setting the mood, creating vivid imagery, and immersing readers in the story’s atmosphere. It can convey emotions, add depth to your narrative, and make your writing more engaging.

How can I make my rain description stand out from others?

To make your rain description unique, focus on sensory details, metaphors, and personification. Add elements that are specific to your story’s setting or characters to make the scene more memorable.

Can you provide some examples of metaphors for describing rain?

Certainly. You can describe rain as “teardrops from the sky,” “a silver curtain,” “a melody of droplets,” or “nature’s soothing lullaby.” Metaphors can evoke powerful images in the reader’s mind.

What are some words to avoid when describing rain?

It’s best to avoid clichés and overused words like “wet,” “dripping,” and “pouring.” Instead, opt for more creative and evocative terms that capture the rain’s unique qualities.

How can I evoke the sound of rain in my writing?

To evoke the sound of rain, use onomatopoeic words like “pattering,” “drumming,” “tapping,” or “whispering.” You can also describe how the rain sounds on different surfaces, such as leaves, roofs, or windows.

Are there any tips for describing the emotional impact of rain on characters?

To describe the emotional impact of rain, show how your characters react. Do they find solace in the rain, or does it bring them sorrow? Use their actions, thoughts, and dialogue to convey their emotions.

Should I use first-person or third-person perspective to describe rain effectively?

The choice of perspective depends on your writing style and the narrative voice. Both first-person and third-person perspectives can be effective. Consider which perspective best suits your story and characters .

How can I create a unique rain description for a specific genre, like fantasy or mystery?

Tailor your rain description to fit the genre. For a fantasy setting, you might incorporate magical elements, while a mystery could use rain to build suspense or reveal hidden clues. Let the genre guide your description.

Is it better to start or end a scene with a rain description?

There’s no strict rule, but you can experiment with both. Starting with a rain description can set the mood, while ending with it can leave a lasting impression. The choice depends on your narrative structure.

How can I avoid over-describing rain and bogging down my narrative?

Keep your descriptions concise and relevant to the story’s context. Focus on key moments and use rain descriptions strategically to enhance the narrative without overwhelming it. Less can often be more.

Remember, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to describing rain in writing . Your approach should align with your story’s unique needs and your personal style as a writer.

In conclusion, the art of describing rain in writing is a window to the world of emotions, atmospheres, and sensory experiences that transcend mere words.

Rain, as both a natural phenomenon and a powerful literary device, has the capacity to enrich narratives, deepen characters, and connect with readers on profound levels.

As we’ve journeyed through this exploration of sensory language, metaphors, symbolism, and the intricate ways rain impacts storytelling, we’ve seen how the mere mention of rain can evoke a symphony of emotions, from joy to sorrow, and how it can add layers of meaning to the narrative.

Rain is more than just precipitation; it’s a vehicle for storytelling, a mirror reflecting our human condition.

By mastering the techniques of describing rain, writers can harness the evocative power of this natural element to create immersive, memorable, and emotionally resonant stories that leave an indelible mark on their readers’ hearts.

So, let the rain be your muse, and let your words dance with its beauty and complexity, inviting your readers to experience the magic of rain through your stories.

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Master List for Describing Weather

A lot of writers struggle with describing settings. I’ve written before about how to describe settings and why it matters , but a few people have told me they’d like me to do some of my master lists for writers to help them out!

I have a weird love for creating lists like this, so I’m happy to do it. “How to describe weather” seemed like a good place to start. This way, you won’t get stuck trying to figure out how to describe nice weather, or thinking up ways to describe rain. Hopefully, this will make your writing go faster.

I always include simple as well as more creative ways to describe or write about weather. Sometimes, the simple word is the one you want! I included dryness and humidity in a few of the categories because it felt weird for them to get their own.

As always, this is not a comprehensive list, and I might add to it. My list will probably make you think of other possibilities, too. Bookmark or pin it for future writing reference!

HOT WEATHER

blazing sunshine

glaring sun

baking in the sun

sun-drenched

scorching heat

extravagant heat

relentless sun

like a suana

dense tropical heat

radiating heat

blistering heat

oppressive heat

insufferable heat

suffocating heat

heat pressing down

searing sun

shimmering heat

like an oven

like a furnace

WARM / PLEASANT WEATHER

(“Pleasant” is a matter of opinion, of course.)

a beautiful day

a clear day

a temperate day

a golden day

a glorious day

heavenly weather

bright and sunny

a gorgeous spring day

a dazzling summer day

a brilliant autumn day

a vivid blue sky

a cloudless sky

fluffy white clouds

gentle sunshine

lazy sunshine

kind sunshine

filtered sunlight

dappled sunlight

welcome warmth

one of those rare, perfect days

the kind of day that made people forget to worry

the kind of day that lifted people’s moods

COOL WEATHER

refreshing air

stimulating cool air

invigorating cool air

bracing cool air

a nip in the air

a brisk day

a chilly day

weak sunshine

GRAY / OVERCAST WEATHER

(Most people don’t like gray days, so most of these descriptions are negative. I love them, so I had to add a few positive descriptions.)

colorless sky

a soft gray sky

a dove-gray sky

a gray day made for books and tea

steel-gray sky

granite sky

cement-gray sky

threatening clouds

foreboding clouds

COLD WEATHER

glacial air

bitter cold

brutal cold

bone-chilling cold

penetrating cold

devastating cold

numbing cold

punishing cold

dangerous cold

unforgiving cold

too cold to talk

so cold it burned one’s lungs

so cold it took one’s breath away

like a blast from a hair dryer

a gust of wind

insistent winds

heavy winds

strong winds

cutting wind

whipping winds

biting wind

wintry squall

violent gale

howling wind

shifting winds

restless wind

fresh breeze

soft breeze

balmy breeze

perfumed breeze

slight breeze

hint of a breeze

stirring breeze

wind rustling through the trees

fine drizzle

gray drizzle

pebbles of falling rain

spitting rain

stinging rain

steady rain

rain falling in torrents

cascades of rain

rain beating down

shower of rain

sheets of rain

hard-driving rain

pelting rain

lashing rain

slashing rain

THUNDER AND LIGHTNING

rumbling in the distance

a roll of distant thunder

crash of thunder

crackle of thunder

crack of thunder

clap of thunder

bang of thunder

booming thunder

rattled with thunder

earth-shaking thunder

tempestuous

a furious storm

flash of lightning

streaks of lightning

SNOW AND ICE

flurries of snow

dancing flakes

snowflakes floating down

snowflakes wafting down

swirling snow

falling thick and fast

big flakes falling like petals

blinding snowstorm

raging blizzard

sparkling expanses

blankets of white

caked with snow

boulders of snow

branches coated in ice

glittering ice

crystallized by frost

silvered with frost

clouds of mist

swirling mist

billowing fog

cloaked in mist

cocooned in fog

shrouded in fog

enveloped by fog

smothered by fog

made mysterious by fog

the fog rolled in

the fog was burning off

the fog was lifting

the fog was clearing

the fog was dissipating

I have many lists like this in my book Master Lists for Writers: Thesauruses, Plots, Character Traits, Names, and More . Check it out!

Master Lists for Writers by Bryn Donovan

Do you describe weather conditions in your writing? Do you have a favorite example of a weather description? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading, and happy writing!

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How To Describe Settings – and Why It Matters #how to write more descriptively #how to describe scenery in writing #how to make a novel longer

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How to describe rain: Descriptive words and adjectives for different types

There are many different types of rain, so it makes sense that we would have a lot of vocabulary to describe rain.

Here we’ll look at some wonderful descriptive words for rain, from adjectives to verbs to idioms. Get inspired to describe rain according to how it looks, sounds and smells, or just express in basic terms what the weather is like today.

Words to describe rain

You may wish to describe rain in a very practical way. For example, if you are going outside in this weather, you need to know whether to take an umbrella, or perhaps consider catching a bus instead of walking.

How to describe rain falling

The following descriptive words for rain are grouped according to the type of rain that they describe, from light to heavy.

Describing light rain

Drizzle is a steady but very light rain, almost mist-like. ‘Drizzle’ can be a noun or a verb, and you may use ‘drizzly’ as an adjective for rain like this.

When it is spitting, the rain is falling quite slowly and gently. Often it starts spitting and then turns into heavier rain.

A shower is a quick burst of fairly light rain. You might have heard of April showers, which are characteristic of spring weather. We have more idioms about spring here.

Describing heavy rain

Pouring (down).

You can say ‘it’s pouring’ or ‘it’s pouring down’ when the rain is steady and heavy. This description of rain is used in the nursery rhyme, It’s Raining, It’s Pouring .

Also featuring the word ‘pour’, a downpour is a short but sudden burst of heavy rain.

Bucketing down / raining buckets

‘Bucketing down’ and ‘raining buckets’ both describe heavy and persistent rain.

Tipping (it) down

This is a primarily British expression for heavy rain.

Chucking it down

Here’s another phrase to describe heavy rain, again usually heard in the UK.

Pissing (it) down

Why do the British have so many ways to talk about bad weather?! This one is rude slang, so be careful how you use it. You should be certain that the person you are speaking to is comfortable with this kind of language. ‘Pissing’ is an informal word for urinating.

Raining cats and dogs

This one is a fun idiom to describe rain ! Whoever thought to imagine cats and dogs falling from the sky? Anyway, it’s just another way to describe rain falling heavily.

A deluge of rain is a large amount that falls suddenly, possibly causing flooding.

Torrential rain is very heavy and lasts for a long time. This is the type of rain you may experience in countries with a monsoon season.

Driving rain is accompanied by strong wind that blows it into the sides of buildings (or straight in your face, if you’re caught out in it).

You could describe rain as ‘incessant’ if it has been going on for a long time and feels like it will never end.

Pelting rain seems to have particularly large raindrops that fall very hard.

If you do get caught in heavy rain you might end up ‘soaked through’ or ‘dripping wet’; these both mean that you and your clothes are very wet!

Example sentences to describe different types of rain

Let’s look at how some of these words can be used in sentences:

I don’t think I need an umbrella; it’s only spitting .
It’s drizzling at the moment but I wouldn’t be surprised if it starts chucking it down soon.
Unfortunately for Liz, it poured down all day on her wedding day.
It’s been bucketing down all afternoon but I hope it stops before the party.
Look at those clouds! Let’s get inside before it starts tipping down .
You’d better take your umbrella; it’s raining cats and dogs outside.
Let’s go home, it looks like it’s going to piss it down soon.
The village was hit by a deluge . Fortunately, there was no serious damage to any property.
I have had enough of this incessant rain!
We’ve had light showers all morning but it looks like the afternoon will be brighter.
Sorry I’m late; I got caught in a downpour and had to wait until it had passed.
You can expect torrential rain if you visit during November.

Words to describe how rain sounds

If you’re indoors, the first sign of rain may be the sound it makes. Here are some words that describe rain according to the sound it makes:

Pitter-patter

“She woke to the pitter-patter of rain falling outside.” “The rain was almost too gentle for me to hear.”

Moderate/heavy rain

Splattering

“I could hear the pounding rain approaching before I could see it.” “They lay listening to the rain drumming on their roof.”

What’s the word for the smell of rain?

Petrichor is the technical word for the smell of rain hitting dry ground. Many people consider this their favorite smell, but may not realize that there is a word for it!

Other words you could use to describe the smell of rain include:

Describing rainy weather

Finally, here are some words to describe the weather in general when it is rainy:

Many of the terms we have to describe rain are negative, as it’s usually an inconvenience for us. However, let’s not forget that rain is necessary for life to survive and for crops and plants to grow, so we shouldn’t always complain about it.

If you’re looking for more ways to describe different kinds of weather, some weather idioms could come in handy.

Have you heard any different ways to describe rain? If so, please leave a comment to share them.

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wonderful information it really helped me with my writing.

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Loved the terms and explanation…it’s very helpful.

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On the first day of my tent camping vacation, we encountered ” blinding rain ” just as we reached the Black Hills. Literally, could not see 3 feet ahead of us!!! (On the interstate! OMG#/=@$×!!! Thought we would die)

Oh dear, what a disaster!

1001 Writing Prompts About Rainy Days

March 17, 2021

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If you are familiar with anime, you’ve probably heard of Weathering with You—an animated film that tells the story of a high-school boy who ran away to Tokyo and befriended an orphan girl with the ability to manipulate the weather. It is set in a world wherein rain never stops, so the people have learned to accept the gloomy weather as a part of their everyday life.

The film was written and directed by the Japanese animator, filmmaker, and manga artist Makoto Shinkai. According to an article published by Deadline, Shinkai was inspired to create the film because of his interest in climate change. In an interview, he said he wanted to make a story about young people dealing with the environmental issue because he had noticed that the world has changed so much because of climate change.

Isn’t it interesting how a person was able to create such a unique story because of the long-term changes in our weather patterns?

Maybe you could also do the same by challenging yourself to write stories inspired by your observations about the weather. Check out this list of writing prompts about rainy days for inspiration:

Write about a spooky night scene with a mysterious atmosphere.
Escape from the rainy circumstance. Write about it.
Write about the love for rainy days.
Write about a night of dreams that rain was inside of you rather than outside.
A family reunion on a rainy day goes awry.
Write about how you feel when you hear heavy rain on the roof.
Write about the feelings of rain.
Write about an endless rain ruining a beautiful moment.
I wrote a poem about these prompts.
Write about a dark and stormy night that you lived through.
An umbrella won’t protect you, it’s way too late for you to be walking the streets, don’t you know?
Someone hides inside your home.
Write about your character chasing down a raindrop, or rather, not being able to catch one.
Find beauty in the little things.
Write about the absurdity of the phrase “the pot calling the kettle black”.
Write about a rainy day from your future.
Write a letter to a loved one who has disappeared.
You have died from a terrible drowning accident…
There’s an off-limits area at the end of my street.
A normal day in the rain is like any other.
Write about the awkward weather.
Includes writing prompts about snow days as well…
He tells you three stories that change you forever.
The spider is happily spinning its web in the center of the room.
Rain falls on the window like teardrops from a princess.
Write a letter from a collector to a person who owes money. Write the first page.
Write a story about a rain dance.
People fear the rain, but it is necessary for us.
Write about a time in your life when it rained.
For every paragraph of flippant fiction, write one paragraph of more serious fiction. Don’t reveal what’s been written, instead have others guess between authoring flippant or serious fiction.
The sun has finally come out after a hard summer of storms.
An angel must choose between the golden light of Heaven and the sunset of Town.
Write about a day spent hiking in the rain.
Write about your least happy memory about rainy days.
Home videos tell the tale of a family lost to the rain.
Write using one or more of your senses.
It’s a love story that begins with 4 letter words. Everyone is asking them how, but nothing is coming from you.
Sometimes, you have to get hurt before you can heal.
You survived the flood but now you must live in the sewers.
Write about the bratty kids who are always violently fighting in the house. Bonus points if they’re siblings.
Then make your day with a simple gesture.
Shipwreck! Be a castaway on an island. Write about your description of the island, your survival skills, etc. You are there for as long as you want to be. You know it will rain every day, and you know that you may never get rescued. What is your life like? Are you agreeable? Does the island get on your nerves? You are not sure when you eat, when you sleep, when you do anything. It is not important, the only thing that matters is that every day, the rain rains down on you.
Tropical rainforests don’t always enjoy sunshine, but are rather full of rains and storms during some times of year.
Write about the worst rain storms you’ve been in.
Write a fictional story about a rainy day.
Write a story about the greatest festival in the world. It always rains on that day.
The sky turns dark outside just as you’re about to give up on your homework.
You wake up from a vivid dream, only to find that the weather outside is exactly like the dream.
Write about a rainy walk home from work.
Write a poem about the rain and the power it holds over the plants.
Describe the beauty of falling rain, the smell of the wet ground.
Write a poem about rain.
Write about your day when it rains.
Write about making the best of a rainy day. Pick one rainy day based on place, time, or topic, and write about it.
Write a short story featuring a truck driving through the rain.
Write about dark rainy nights.
A raindrop falls from the sky, and promptly dissolves into your tears.
Yesterday was sunny and calm. Today is the opposite. Write about how this change affects your day.
Describe what life was like before it rained.
Write about your favorite rainy day rituals.
Write a love letter to rain.
Write about what it is like to experience a rain storm.
You sit on your porch for hours, observing the rain fall.
Write about a food you’d like to be served while it rains outside.
Clear stormy skies reveal a meteor shower overhead.
Write about your first unpleasant experience with the rain.
Write about finding shelter in the rain.
You wake up to the sound of pouring rain outside.
Write about your worst rainy day experience.
Your main character can’t stop thinking about the dark and stormy night.
Name 3 things you enjoy most about rainy days.
Understandably, the liquid freezes on solid surfaces, yet here you are. Fire lingers within the unlit fireplace.
Write about the cloud seeding going on in another part of the country.
You’re stuck inside, sick with the flu.
Create a food that brings thoughts of rainy days.
A boy and his mother hide together from the pouring rain in their fort made of sheets.
Start with a title and no ending.
You step outside to admire the rain, forgetting that your umbrella is broken.
Write about a game of hide and seek in the rain.
A standing puddle on a rainy day.
What beauty lies on a cloud-covered night?
The sun doesn’t come out until…
The dark man with the yellow umbrella shared some secrets with me.
I hope you enjoyed this list of writing prompts using the theme of rainy days. Leave me a comment before you head off and please share. If you need more prompts, check out my posts on going on a trip , visiting the city , and going to school . And, if you haven’t yet, don’t forget to sign up for my free newsletter to get more writing prompts, news about my books, and exclusive short stories not published anywhere else!
Inside a giant, pumpkin patch with no face.
Write about a rainy day you remember with a friend. Tell me about a rainy day when you were in high school. Tell me about a rainy day when you were in college. What is the significance of a rainy day? What do you do when it rains? What do you make of this list of photography ideas for rainy days? Aren’t they amazing? Which one is your favorite rainy day idea? Feel free to write us a comment.
Write a love poem about your significant other when one of you stays home sick while the other goes to work.
Rain drops become tears. Write about your life.
Write about your day soaking in the rain.
A homeless man begs for change from you, as he’s patiently standing in the pouring rain.
Write about the memory you would have from a rainy day.
Write about the weirdest thing you discovered on a rainy day.
Write about a lost person in the rain.
The pavement glistened in the shining streetlight. Its’ reflection flickered in the puddles, like the stars in the night sky.
Write about a rainy day that was from your childhood.
A plane crashes into the side of a building
Build a comical conversation between two characters who have to walk home in a rainstorm.
Are rainy days your favorite of all the days? Explain your answer.
Write about rainy days when you were a child.
Write about your thoughts on rainy days.
Rainy day gum
Write about a message sent with a carrier pigeon.
Write about what you are doing when the rain begins to pour.
Write about a dramatic rainy day.
Be careful driving, don’t hit anyone.
The world dries up and the dead rise.
Write about the hospitality of a stranger in your neighborhood.
Four grandparents are sitting around a table, bragging about their grandkids.
You open the door to see a person, who looks… you can’t quite tell.
You’re eating at a restaurant and it’s raining outside.
There is a sense of melancholy in the rain.
A raindrop is about to drop from the sky when…
On a rainy day, you look up at the sky and see a rainbow.
Write about this day in the life of a stormtrooper.
Colour outside the lines.
Write about things you remember about rainy days.
They say they have been walking through the rain for twice as long as you’ve been alive, and demanded to come in to do the final thing on their list. What did they say?
Describe the quiet of the day after the rain has stopped.
The next day, the rain never stops.
The first time you met your lover on a rainy day.
You walk outside to contemplate life and find yourself under a tree as it is raining cats and dogs. Write about that interaction.
Write about having to hide when it rains.
Your car has broken down and you’re trapped inside, write about what happens next.
Write a short story in a rainy setting.
You tell me that you are crying because no one understands you.
Keep the forces of nature grounded!
Stop staring at the ceiling and listen to words of a man soaked in rain.
Shout your favourite colour. Write down that word on a piece of paper. Tear it to pieces, and hide it. Write down a sentence that describes the colour.
Write about your neighbor, the crazy alchemist.
Write about a rain filled bird bath.
The rain drummed against the windows of the house.
You are trapped in a maze and it’s raining.
It’s still raining. The crops we worked so hard to grow withered overnight into nothingness.
Write about the last time you cried.
Rainy day writing prompts that trigger memories
The old man wore a hat and carried a newspaper.
Write a letter home to your parents about the day’s weather.
List five of those days where your family was stuck cooped up inside.
Write a poem about rainy days.
Write about a rainy day that you regret.
Write about a rainy day when your past is catching up to you.
What do a pirate and a rainy day have in common?
Write about life in a heaven of peace and rain.
A memory from a rainy day.
You try to read, but you can’t focus. The pounding of the rain on the roof drowns out all other sounds.
A girl cries as she sits on a bench in a public park, watching the rain.
Write about a person going through a bad storm.
Why does the rain seem to pause between the buildings but cascade so rapidly from the heavens when it’s over them?
Use your knowledge of beauty products and write a satirical column called “Help for Hags” about their usage on rainy days when one looks tired.
You walk into a room to find your husband lying dead on the floor. The windows are wide open. Snow drifts in from the storm. The curtains whip in the wind. In disbelief, you fall to your knees as rain mists your eyes.
Write about the sound of rain against the walls of your house at night.
It began when they entered high school. Nobody ever thought that it would happen to them. Now they have experienced it first-hand.
Write about a rainy day that changed you forever.
Rain taps upon my nose.
A girl walks alone in the rain.
A loved one has left you to wander in the rain, for an entire week.
Your mother says it’s time for school, but you don’t want to go. The sky is bright white. Write about it.
Write about a person you admire from a distance.
There’s no place to run from this downpour.
Write a story about a girl, boy, man, or woman who isn’t afraid to get their shoes wet.
You wake up to the sound of howling wind and the patter of rain on your bedroom window. You get up and look out, but can only see the grayness of an oncoming storm. You try to go back to sleep, but fear that later the storm will turn into a hurricane. You can’t eat to calm your nerves. The winds howl like a wolf’s baying howl.
It was a hot muggy summer’s night when it began to rain.
Write about your grandmother’s cookie recipe.
It was sunny and warm outside. Sprinkles of rain now began to fall.
He wears a black hat.
A mad scientist sewn together animals into monstrosities made to destroy the world, and only you can stop him.
Discuss your rainy day wishes.
The rain won’t stop. You know what it means. You must get out and stop them.
Tie a shawl around her shoulders and pull down your window shades.
Write about running the first red traffic light.
Write about an outing that gets out of hand in the rain.
Write about the effect of raining on someone.
Write about being stuck in the house with a foul smell coming from your kitchen or bathroom.
Write a story about a rainy day
The world gets flooded, except for a little bit of dry space, and it rains, and rains, and rains.
Write a letter to someone stating why they are wrong.
Write about two people caught in a storm.
List 5 ways to fit in when there is no sun!
Do you invite her in?
The rain gets worse at night.
Write about the horror of rainy days.
A treasure is hidden beneath the broken corner of this wall.
After the storm comes the quiet. The feeling of peace.
Write about why running makes you feel better.
Write about the misty landscape before the rain.
The weather outside is frightful…
Write about your favourite rainy day.
Describe what happens after a big storm.
An immense noise shatters the fragile silence.
It’s not safe to be outside, not when rain falls from the sky like this.
The end of the world happened when it was raining out.
The sky is dark and nothing but the crackling of thunder can be heard in the distance .
Rain taught me a valuable lesson about forgetting to take the trash out.
The pitter patter of rain shivers my window sill.
Write a story about a girl whose cat disappears during a storm.
She claims she can speak to the dead.
Blood Curdling screams echo through the woods.
Write about everyday life on rainy days.
The sky glows in the dark night.
You wake up to the sound of the rain steadily tapping against your window.
A shelter is what you need. Seek refuge.
Write about insomnia and the unreal feeling of nighttime when there is no light.
Write about a time when you were stuck indoors by the rain.
Your character has no umbrella, and now he is wet to the skin. Write from his perspective.
You arrive home after the rain has finally stopped.
People long for sunny days.
Write in the frame of mind of someone who has a lifetime flashing before their eyes.
The leaves crunch and soak up the puddle underneath them. Impossible to avoid.
Water is the blood of the Earth Mother. As we bleed, she bleeds.
Write about your neighborhood on a rainy day.
Write a poem in the style of your favorite artist.
Write about a rainy day when you did something totally unlike yourself.
It was a miserable evening because of the rain. The movie had to be canceled. Your favorite sports team lost in the rain. It’s been ages since you’ve gone outside, and you’re all cooped up in the house. There’s nothing to do but write about the storm.
The stench of salt, the burning sun. Two things which do not go very well with each other.
Did you know that some scientists for nefarious purposes. Many governments. And scientists say. Those days of rain. Might not be that bad.
I see stormy skies, leading my eyes to the walls of grey.
It’s your favorite weather. Write about why.
A glimpse of hope appears when the rain finally stops.
Write about the worst rainy day you’ve ever lived through.
Write about your struggle with chronic illness.
Find beauty in rainy days through art.
The grey clouds part, and you see the sun.
Write what you would do if it were your last rainy day on earth.
Write about what you do during the rainy days of summer.
Write about a day from your past that you would like to go back to.
The rain falls softly without water.
Write about what happens to the world when it rains. What are the consequences? What are some of the great trials caused by a single raindrop?
Write about your most awesome rainy day experience.
Explain why you don’t like rainy weather.
We call them haunted clouds.
The storm raged on for days. No end in sight.
Your prince has taken your apologies and still gone away. You will beg the rain to stop…if you can.
Village of Ravens was a dark fantasy story of betrayal. It was only available as an eBook and was included in the Dark Wings anthology by Ink Smith Publishing in December 2016. In February 2017 it will be included in the anthology Space Pirates by Unwholly Books.
Write about a rainy day that you would rather forget.
It’s been 6 days and it still won’t stop raining.
Explain how a rainy day affects you.
Write about how you became a writer.
Write about the worst rainy day of your life.
You fall down in your coffin-like bed, bringing the soft sheets in with you. “Lovely, drenching rain.”
Write about a rainy day.
Write about the struggle of survival in order to escape a storm.
Write about how you felt about a rainy day.
Does the rain cure or cause a sickness?
This is the first day of summer vacation when you realize it’s going to be raining for days.
Shine your driving lights.
A rainy afternoon makes you realize how grateful you really are.
The trees at the end of your street are yearning to be saved.
The rain is getting heavier and is penetrating your home.
It’s coming down… show me your silliness!
Some pillows, soft from being blown dry in the dryer, a good book, a gust of wind causing a tree …
The rain is blocking your view of the city, but you can still hear it.
Giant trees scattered all around torn apart by lightning strikes.
A small drop of water on a rain free day.
Walk outside in the pouring rain and go somewhere.
Write about the end of a relationship.
Tell how you spent your day.
Your partner ordered you to write. You attempted to write and failed miserably.
Use a coin to decide your fate. Will it be heads or tails?
Write about the moment you receive a letter from your secret lover, who is in another kingdom.
You stepped out into the garden when the downpour began. Having been unaware of this, you realize that you cannot see the light of your own home. You keep walking, trying to find your way home.
Try to cheer up a friend by reminding them of the beauty of those rainy days.
Rain drops trickle down your window.
They want to stay in for the night.
Something vital is hidden in the rain.
A window in a rainstorm.
You can write historical fiction scenarios with this dark and dreary setting. You can also write a suspense or mystery story.
A chance encounter on a rainy day.
Write as if you’ve been living in a world without rain. Your roof sprung a leak and it began to rain inside your house for the first time.
You wake and hear the rain pattering against your window.
Write about a rainy day that becomes clear of the clouds only to reveal the destruction caused by the flood.
After the downpour in the woods, a fairy appears.
A car crash results in your retirement, but it’s OK because it’s raining! Narrate it.
It’s always raining in Summerfield. No one seems to mind, though.
Write about a rainy day and the impact it has on a particular place. Where?
It is a rainy day, and you are excited to finally write your book.
Everybody has to avoid those dark clouds…
Write about a memory of ghostly rainy days.
Write about trying to survive a storm.
Write about the beauty of rainy-afternoons.
Leave the house on a rainy day on impulse. Describe where you end up.
After being caught outside in the stormy weather, you find a friend in someone you least expect. What happens?
Create a dramatic setting where it is always raining.
Write from the point of view of the rain.
Your car breaks down and you’re stranded in the middle of a rainstorm.
Someone has found a scroll with strange text on it. They ask you to copy it for them.
When a rainy day goes bad.
When it rains, the drain always seems to get clogged up.
Write about your reaction.
Write about the mysterious man who visits you on rainy days.
It’s cold and soggy outside.
A rainy night at the beach.
Write about yourself on a rainy day.
The darkness seems menacing as the dark clouds roll in
Write a letter. To the sun.
What does the rain sound like to you?
You wake up and discover the world is flooded.
Give a character weather-based superpowers.
Write about a rainy day from your childhood.
Write about the moment that rains stop.
The moment before the storm hits.
The night where you tried to wait up for the sunrise.
Write about the song the rain sings.
Write about your surroundings. What do you see, hear, and smell?
What are you doing inside the house? Don’t have the urge to play in the rain?
A conversation between two girls meeting for the first time in a crowded waiting room…
Why do we love the rain so much? Give a detailed list of your favorites.
7. Love and Emotions
The rain falls unusually hard for this time of year.
Speak to your inner child. How do rainy days make you feel?
An unexpected storm covers the town in darkness.
Write about a day that seems so much like any other that it doesn’t seem like anything at all.
Write about your house on a rainy day.
Write about a love story that is hopeless.
She hands you an olive branch.
Write about being caught in a torrential downpour.
Envision you are a stone lying on your bed. Using five senses, describe your experience and feelings about the rain.
The sky is dark and grey. There is a rhythm in the raindrops.
Describe a rainbow. In as much detail as possible, you describe the arc of the rainbow, the colors of the rainbow, and the environment at the origin of the rainbow.
Write about the first time you went to the beach, or an important beach memory.
Write a dream sequence about an unsettling rainy day.
Venus comes out from behind the clouds.
Describe how the monotonous, steady sound of the rain really relaxes you.
The rain is a great tapestry upon which my thoughts and feelings are woven…
You just bought a new umbrella and are excited to show it off.
Someone has begun to heavily stalk you.
Step outside on a rainy day. Notice how the rain takes on a particular scent.
You always wished to write like the world is ending. Why not try that thought to fit on a rainy day?
This could be a horror story or a fantastical one full of wonderful creatures.
Revel in the wonder of a boring and rainy day.
A character receives a message that changes their perception of the world.
When it rains, your mind goes into overdrive.
Write about a rainy day from a parent’s point of view.
Write about a rainy day that takes a tragic turn.
Write a story about a rainy day gone terribly wrong.
It was a dry, dry day… an inhospitable day to be outside so the air conditioner was running full blast… which, unfortunately, wafted a putrid odor throughout the house… which, unfortunately, caused your mood to drop like a rock. You banished everyone outside to play. After an hour, they started knocking on the back door.
Write about your favorite rainy day memories.
A drop of rain begins to write a letter.
You’re walking in the forest, watching the rain drip down from the leaves and branches.
Rain does crazy, unpredictable things.
What happens when the constant rains flood so far it covers the earth’s mountains? Who is that strange creature that appears in the waters?
A lightning bolt strikes you, transfiguring you into a vampire.
Icy tendrils twine around the bare trees and tug them as hard as the wind.
Write about a rainy night that was so deadly.
You’re watching the world through a rain-soaked window.
Write about a magical land where water is precious.
There’s nothing to be said when your child co
Spend an afternoon in the woods with a forgotten chest from a shipwreck.
Memories are worth cherishing during rainy days.
Write about falling under the spell of the rain.
What if we lived on a planet where it never rained?
How would you describe this rainy season?
Write about a dog or cat that looks like rain.
Write about a rainy day that changed your life.
I went to a carnival once and they had terrifying nightmare machines.
Write a poem about riding in a hot air balloon over the rainforest and watching the trees sway through a foggy dome of ominous darkness.
Shoes are rarely worn these days, since the good weather disappeared.
A grieving widow, standing alone next to her boyfriend on his open grave.
Write a time-travel romance where the only way she can go back is by flying to the tropics, just after a hurricane.
A boy on the beach, alone, wishing the rain would leave him alone.
It had not rained since Yk’thulghk, which was rumored to be the end of all planetary water, and now all that rain is back.
Write about a monster lurking under bed with the sole purpose of getting wet and spooking the reader with children.
Someone’s life is flashing before her eyes while floating in a lake of rain water.
Write about a moment of peace.
Write about the last time it rained on you.
Addressing a feline that has always been in the house…
It’s far too cold and wet today for anyone to be in a good mood.
Write about a rainy morning. A rainy high noon. A rainy sunset. A rainy midnight.
Write about the loss of faith in one rainy day.
The smell of mushrooms in the air is more potent today because of the rain.
You have the day off work, but because of the weather, there won’t be much to do.
“Ah, nothing like a good old storm to make your point.” He pulled out a knife, ready to fight.
Remember a rainy day long ago.
Write about what you can learn from rainy days.
It was a cold, rainy day when he found the Golden Snitch
Write about a rainy day in a foreign land.
What would you do if you woke up and the clouds were gone?
A rainstorm is making it impossible to sleep because it’s so loud outside.
A girl is walking down the sidewalk, her head tied with her raincoat. She looks very upset. Write a poem about what she had been through.
People get upset when they realize that they will never see the sun again. What are their reactions?
Drive home in a storm and write about it.
Write about the first time you defeated the Ultimate Ninja.
You’re sitting in your bedroom, enjoying the sound of the rain hitting your roof.
You’ve been forced to work outside in the storm.
On rainy days, the smaller things are more beautiful. Describe one of them.
She takes off her raincoat and reveals a soaked dress.
Write about the worst time you’d ever spent on a rainy day. What happened?
Write your own old-fashioned weather advertisement.
It may be considered bad luck, but it’s a rainy night and your date is late.
The scent of fresh rain invades your room and you can’t sleep.
Your dog disappears, it turns out to be a full moon.
Write about your first memory of the rain.
What would you do if you couldn’t go outside anymore?
People have discovered a water source in the barren desert. All of the sudden, everyone is trying to get to this new oasis. You’re trying to find out why, too.
It hasn’t rained for years.
A sunrise in a dark and dreary city.
A novel made up of short stories, one for each day of the week, with each story having something to do with rain.
Write a poem that describes the feeling of rain hitting the ground.
Have each character be affected by inclement weather.
5. We write to tell stories. Why tell what they think they know?
Write about the first time it rained? What surprised or scared you the most about it?
It is a story-telling website, and many seasons and weather are available. Famous authors and individuals have written stories using these prompts, to find them all,
Write about a character who’s always weathering the storm, no matter where they are.
Write about your own experience of a rainy day.
The dirty snow melted, leaving behind a shiny layer of black ice.
Write about someone who embraces rainy days.
From the lips of a rain spout, to the blue ink on your notebook’s pages, all will be washed away when the sun finally shines once again…
Tell your readers your name.
The world begins to fall apart through rain.
Describe what you do when it rains.
Our inner child catches a cold from the dripping rain.
A wild forest fire sweeps through a jungle, leaving the wildlife wet from all the water. Write from an animal’s perspective.
Write about a place that hasn’t seen rain in years.
The world went black, along with all the lights, and the rain continued to pour down.
Write about the end of a rainy day.
Write about a rainy day that changed your life forever.
Describe your favorite rainy day.
Remember the good times from when you first started dating.
Write about winter by describing rain.
You get a call from someone who’s trapped in an alley during a downpour.
What if the earth had no rain?
The night sky is full of water. So beautiful.
Explain how you feel about gloomy weather.
I stare out the window at the rain, watching the birds flee the skies for shelter.
It’s pouring rain. You open your window to let the fresh air in.
Describe a rainy day in your childhood.
Your pet is caught in the rain. Write a poem about this.
I hate rainy days!
Write about a time you experienced bad weather.
Write about your favorite shady spot.
A mysterious man is standing in the shadows. What are his intentions?
Write about a rainy heist.
Write a piece about a missing person or someone you miss on rainy days.
Describe the first time you saw the rain.
The better thou knowest thyself, the more pain thou canst Lake.
Write about the end of the world.
You’re walking through the park, and you discover an unexpected boy.
Write about how rain can relate to crime.
Most people love rainy days. You do not. Write about your experience.
Write about two people going through a divorce or a separation. One of them cheated on the other. Both of them are fighting for everything they have. Rain is trying to stop them, but they remain stubborn to find each other.
Head out and write about a rainy day.
An unidentifiable object lands in your yard and you smash it open with a shovel.
Write about the nastiness of rainy days.
Imagine a rainy urban fantasy.
A young man walks up to you, extending his hand, he proclaims with a grin to share his umbrella with you.
Avoid trying too hard to be fancy. It’s bad enough that it’s raining.
Write about the strangest sound you’ve heard on a rainy day.
Memories from the past…
Write about life before the rains.
Write about exciting things that happen when it rains.
A person sits in the rain staring at a wall.
Write a self-reflective, sad and mostly short haiku poem about how ugly rain and violence make you feel.
Write about how the rain drowned the world.
Write the first thing on your mind when you wake up on a rainy day.
Write about a first love that goes sour.
A petty thief tries to break into your house in the middle of the night, but the weather opposes it.
It is raining so hard, you can’t see the sidewalk.
A conversation on a melancholy, rainy day.
You find yourself trapped inside the house because of the rain.
A father tells his son a story on a rainy day.
Write about your first kiss, when it was raining.
The death of someone you loved was caused by the rain.
Write a short monologue about your disappointment about the weather.
Whether it be fictional or realistic, write about a rainy day.
Write about a rainy day that’s happening in the middle of summer.
It is stopped by a mysterious man who appears just outside your door and instantly says he knows everything about everyone.
Write about the first time you and your best friend met.
Signs of life in the city.
You wake up to the sound of a leaky roof. You are grateful it’s just a little leak, and not water pouring in.
How did you spend your rainy day?
Write about a rainy day when you were a child.
You’ve lost everything to the floods.
For your own safety, you must escape now, and survive the cruel weather.
Something weird happened while the sun was out.
Write about the rain.
Is it ever okay to cheat on your spouse?
How many days until it stops?
Write about a time when you were caught in a rain shower with a loved one.
Enjoy the rain while it’s outside of your window.
A child walks home through the downpour carrying a broken umbrella on a school day.
She is bleeding from her hand.
Write about a troubled, rainy relationship.
Write about the sad feeling of not being understood.
Write about a rainy day from the point of view of your favorite water drop.
Reality and fiction mixes together in today’s world.
Joseph lives for rainy days. There’s a smell in the air that only comes around on rainy days.
You are trapped, unable to get from inside to out.
Write what you would do, if you were in such a situation.
Something miraculous happened the other day, because of that wonderful rain storm.
The sky reminds me of angels.
A lone ship sails on a stormy sea, searching for home.
A flash of lightning lights up the sky.
Write about the true power of rain.
The rainbow was placed in the sky the moment you were born.
For the remainder of today, it will never stop raining.
You answered the door, to see a stranger. Wet from head to toe, with nothing but a flower.
It starts to rain a few days before they arrive.
Write about sharing a rainy day with a pet.
Write about the sounds of the rain.
The reader is only shown things from the second person.
Write about a rainy day when chores need to be finished.
A child opens the door.
Write about a person you miss on rainy days.
Write a diary entry about the day when it rained forever.
You are riding in your car, when all of a sudden it starts to rain.
The End of the Dwarves
Write a story about a person who is afraid of rain.
The road between your town and someone’s golden graves.
Write about the struggles of a lone survivor trapped by the rain.
The sound of raindrops creates an unnatural silence.
Rain soaks humans, but blesses the ground.
“I’ve come for your children,” he says. You look up, surprised, and say, “Well, they aren’t home.”
Write a story about the mysteries of the rain.
You and your significant other bring an umbrella on a date for an evening walk so you can spend time together. The two of you are opposites. While you are dressed in warm coats, he is wearing shorts and a vest. He has the umbrella and insists that you hold an end of the umbrella without saying a word. The two of you walk along, sharing a quiet intimacy.
Your husband comes home soaking wet.
She says her name is Jane Smith. There’s a flash of lightning outside your window.
It’s raining and snowing. The strange dichotomy of the two is soothing.
The sun is beginning to shine again, but the rain keeps falling.
Someone you love is going away and won’t be back for a long time.
At the very top of the tallest hill it tends to cancel the rain.
Write a short story from the perspective of the rain.
Write about a rainy, storm night.
A mail letter delivers a harsh message when you thought nothing could be worse.
Write the story that happens on a rainy day.
Have you ever had someone abandon you in the rain?
An old remembrance…
You have 24 hours to write a masterpiece.
What’s the meaning of rain?
There is no better day for a nap.
Professor Smith was your English teacher in college, and upon graduation, you moved to the other side of town. You haven’t seen each other in over a decade.
You are sitting in your house on a rainy day. It has been days since you’ve seen another human.
A backpacker pacing around at a bus and train station in the rain.
The only thing you can see through the torrential downpour is smoke rising from the top of the hill.
The sun is gone and winter will last for eternity.
Write about the unfortunate people working on rainy days.
Write about a bad day, turned upside down.
It’s starting to rain, and you were just about to leave on an adventure.
Springtime rain is refreshing and clean.
What little good thing is your character seeing in the rain?
Write about confining rain.
Write about umbrellas.
Are you somebody who loves rainy days?
Never leave the house on a rainy morning.
Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Imagine the smell of rain.
What did she want? What did she bring with her?
It is raining…
Write about an old friend you haven’t seen in a long time, and what happened when they just dropped by.
Write about a living’s quest to finish his painting.
You’re stuck outside because of the storm and need ideas for songs.
Someone tells you, “I hate rainy days.” Write what they are like.
Gary Carter left one last message for me…
Flashes of light streak across the sky. You run for cover. Avoiding those hot burning rays that singe skin with each touch.
Do you let the stranger in?
The first few drops of rain feel so good on your face.
They’re looking for a place to stay because the weather has become hostile and their shack has just blown away.
Write about what you’re supposed to do because of rainy days.
It was a dark and stormy night…
Rain drops pushed against your window. It’s a rainy day. Is it okay?
Write about something magical occurring during a rainy day.
Write about how your family spends rainy days.
Whoa, we fell through a black hole into Seattle.
Write about how a rainy day changed something for the better.
Write from the perspective of a rainy-day-loving serial killer.
The rain drops on your face.
Take your most valuable possession outside and let it be soaked with rain.
Invent a weather system and write a brief description of the rain it delivers.
Write about the spookiest thing you’ve ever heard while it was raining.
You wake up on a rainy day to two figures standing at the foot of your bed.
The sun is about to shine through the clouds.
It is raining cats and dogs.
Write about the things you remember about rainy days.
Write about how you stew over your problems during rainy days.
A child secretly hides in a closet as she hears her parents fighting above the rain.
The world is flooded, and your family floats in a makeshift raft.
Write about a lonely person on a rainy day.
Write a story about how fun rainy days can be.
It is a rainy day, and you decide to go swimming in the lake/river to relieve stress.
Write about storm season from the perspective of someone who has apocalypse level…
The rain is a blessing.
The rain always stopped by noon.
Why do birds suddenly sing in the night
The last time George needed to mow the lawn he shivered through raindrops.
It’s such a gloomy rainy day that no one has the courage to go outside.
The rain falls ceaselessly as you fall asleep.
Write about the fun you have when it rains.
A man suddenly jumps from behind your door. He has been sneaking in your house for a few days, eating your food, and taking a shower with your rain. He proposes that you are less sane than he is, and demands that you make soup.
Write about rain from the point of view of a sad, depressed person.
The most important setting, event, tool, or other element in the story begins to rain, as if on cue.
Write about someone who prefers the colors of raindrops.
Write a short description of the streets after a lengthy storm.
What do you do when it rains?
Lightning illuminates the dark forest.
The buzzer rings in the middle of your favorite TV show.
The rain is kissing my forehead gently. It’s dancing on my skin.
Write about your feelings on rainy days.
There was once a child who lived on a reservation… A psychiatrist tries to decipher the man who tried to kill her child…
Write about the sounds of rain.
They answer the door and are startled by what they see.
You unlock your deadbolt to see a friend standing at your doorway feeling sorry for yourself.
A hostile child locks you in a crumbling building with no escape.
It doesn’t matter to me that you live because of rain.
The rain falls to the ground in heavy droplets, clinging to your boots, forming a small pool that’s the color of dull silver.
Write about the reasons you like to sit out in the rain for long periods of time, and why you don’t mind getting soaked when it rains.
What did you do on this rainy day?
Turning away from the rain Leaning against the window Pause and stare outside Where darkness meets the downpour
A rainy day means you’re stuck indoors with someone you hate.
Write about the exquisite torment of the loved one who doesn’t remember you.
Your umbrella is useless.
Rain is a writer’s best friend.
Write about an exciting time that happened during stormy weather.
Thunder – The explosion of lightning strikes the sky and shakes the earth.
Write about a rainy day in the dungeon scene.
Write about a rainy morning.
Write a story featuring a rainy day or week that changes your protagonist’s life.
The sun comes out as soon as your umbrella opens.
The Queen walked slowly through the rain, her heels clicking on the floor as she went. Prince Charming struggled to stay upright in the mud, but he was determined nonetheless.
A “rainy day” is the background to a romantic story. Person A and person B meet on a rainy, stormy day. What happens next?
The rain never stops. Flowers begin to wilt and grow moldy.
Rain. It’s a real bummer.
A hot bath.
Tell a story about a somber, rainy day in prose.
Write a poem about a rainy day.
Why is he or she on your doorsteps so late at night in the rain?
Write about an afternoon you spent watching the rain.
After a particularly miserable rainy day, the sun finally comes back out!
Rain or shine, every day’s the same.
Teach your reader some survival advice for rainy days.
She is sent from the heavens to tell us something.
Write about the memory of a stormy night.
Describe the hardest thing about rainy days.
Write about the decision to stay in bed all day during spring showers.
The night that the rain landed.
Write about your first summer with your family.
You run for shelter from a super-powerful raindrop.
Write about your experiences on a rainy day.
Write about a time you were caught doing something illegal during a rainstorm.
Write about vacations covered in rain.
Write about the effects of rainy days on your self-confidence.
Write about your worst day during the rain.
Describe a normal, everyday rain part of your daily life.
Write a story about a man/woman moving to a new town entirely due to the weather.
The life of a castaway, stranded on a tropical island.
Write everything that happened on the worst rainy day.
Write about having the perfect day.
I open the door, not knowing why this stranger came here at this time of night.
How does it affect your daily routine?
Write a monologue about your relationship with rain.
A time machine fell from the sky, bringing with it an old family photo.
A bird catches the rain in its tail feathers and drinks it.
Write about a memory of a first love.
The war between humans and bad weather has begun.
A vampire story, about the trouble caused by flooding.
You feel angry at the rain?
There’s a flash of light through the thick clouds. Thunder rumbles. Write about a first kiss in the rain.
A deserted street during a thunderstorm.
You’re all tucked in your bed, but can’t sleep because of the constant rain tapping on your window.
Write about the lives of raindrops.
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It was an overcast day and you caught the raindrops on your fingers and licked them.
The man was lying in the ditch. He wasn’t dead…
Write about a day where it just rains, rains, rains.
Write a story within a story. Write about a storyteller telling a story to a group of friends. Write about the story being told. Write about the friends’ reaction. Write about what the friends do after the story is over.
Write a message in a bottle to a distant relative or close friend.
You discover that your city is run by intelligent reptiles.
What good can come out of such a horrible day like this one?
Write an exotic, tropical location, complete with a storm.
You are the last human on Earth, living deep underground.
You’ve just had a baby, and it’s been raining for a month. He’s sick and needs someone to talk to.
Write a scene wherein a sad rainy day gives way to a happy rainy day.
For the list of writing prompts for other seasons, go The Great Pumpkin Posts or to the Schoolhouse at the End of the Universe.
Write a short letter to nature or God.
A newly discovered planet orbits this dim red star.
Ask someone out for a walk in the rain.
Write about your emotional state during a rainy day.
Write a eulogy for a character whose life was defined by the rain.
Write an epic poem about sunny days.
The rains have stopped. How has the quarreling in your home stopped?
One day after the apocalypse, the sun refuses to shine again.
The world ends on a rainy day.
Do not like cauliflower.
A pleasant journey through rainy places.
There’s a magical power in the rain.
She tells you that there is a curse upon the town – that it rains and rains and rains forevermore.
Write a scene about swimming in the rain.
Write about the weather, good or bad!
The thunder keeps shouting.
Write about the creepy mystery about a rainy and gloomy night.
Write about a goblin who dances in the rain for villagers.
Write about your most vivid memory of a rainy day. Was there a child or pet lost, a fight, a lover? Did anyone save the day?
Write about the dreaming child, sad that it won’t be sunny.
The weather isn’t so bad out, you could go for a walk, or do some reading.
Write a poem about your home’s leaky roof.
Write about Christmas during a rainy day.
You have just received a box containing all your wishes. What did you wish for?
Write about playing in the rain on a hot summer day.
It was a dark and stormy night.
A confession during a rainy day
The fear of being a vampire or werewolf.
A sunny yellow raincoat flies through the sky.
The old man’s grandfather once fought a sea monster.
Have you ever danced in the rain? Written a song about it?
Write about a breakthrough you had on a rainy day.
Rainy season comes earlier every year, and we never know when it will end.
Describe a manifestation of misery during rainy days.
Jealous of the sun, the rain lies there… falling.
You turn your back on the world and turn to painting- perhaps a painting of a rainy day. You must use vivid words to describe the painting in your story. You can add things like symbolism, metaphor and simile but avoid any symbolism, metaphors or similes that reference rainy days. Only use vigorous language expressively
Revenge comes to those who are gracious enough to forgive.
Write about a rainy day when something strange happens.
The sun has submerged itself too long under water. It is time for it to rise.
How does the weather affect your romance life?
Write a story centered around a bad storm.
Write about your day. It can be whatever day.
Investigate the mysterious affair of x and y.
Ten rules for rainy days.
The sky is dark and the clouds are fat. It looks like it might rain.
Write about your first axe murder.
Find a rainy day simile.
A penny for your thoughts, they say…
The dark puddles of rainwater cling to your rain boots. You look down at them and a gnawing, seemingly endless hunger starts to stir inside you.
A screaming woman rushes by you. Eyes hungry and clothes stained red.
Are you a fan of rainy days?
It’s been so hot. Really, really hot. It’s made you feel sick.
Write 2-3 page stories about the apocalypse caused by the rain.
It’s too gray. Too feeble. Too inhuman. It’s not my kind of weather.
Write about a rainy day that turns into a sunny day.
Write about the goodness of rainy days.
A day without rain feels pointless. Sketch a busy city on your rainy day.
You’ve never enjoyed the rain more.
The sun glared through the window, lighting my hotel room.
Rain is a natural form of euthanasia.
You are the rain. Describe your day.
The sky is crying today for a loved one we have lost.
Write about the tension between raindrops and the flower covered ground.
Young boy goes into the woods to find a way to escape forever the rain
A little girl finds a kitten in the rain. Write about how she takes care of it in the dark, rainy woods.
I wonder if too much sunshine is just as damaging as too much rain.
Who is your very own character who would benefit from the gift of rain?
Write about how rain changes your day — or how it changes what you’d normally be doing.
Write about your character’s first memory.
Discuss the benefits of rainy days.
Write about a typical day for a character like Skeletor. Write from his point of view.
When it starts to rain I…
It was a rain so thick and a day so bright, that we could no longer see.
Write about a rainy day camping.
Write about your routine while it’s raining.
Direct the rain to tell a story.
In the middle of the rain, talk to yourself about how happy you are that you’re inside.
Write about a rainy day that ruined your life.
It’s been raining for weeks. Read a book. Develop a short film. Draw.
The rain beats down against the windows. Everyone cowers in their homes, except you. You take off your sweater and you go outside with only a towel around you.
You are driving your car home from a payday. The rain tears down your cheeks causing you to have blurry vision.
Write about a rainy night in a city.
Everyone goes outside to dance in the rain.
The heroes question, what about all of the people that got addicted to the rain?
Looking out your window and you can barely see your reflection.
Go back to the past, to the tale of the little girl, and the rain.
Write about a character-building rainy day.
Write about childhood memories of rainy days.
Write about a crazy person on a rainy day.
A good flood from the skies is always a cause for celebration!
You’re the parent of a very sick child on a rainy day.
Write a letter or a note to someone through raindrops.
Write about a rainy day you’d like to live over.
Write about your pet on a rainy day.
For someone who hates rainy days, you sure do write about them a lot. Why do you do this?
Ask your character why they love rainy days.
Describe the first moment when the rain stops.
How did he get caught in the downpour?
Write about what the storm sounds like, feel like.
On the first day of spring the rain suddenly begins falling. What will become of the budding away from your window?
If your character is a superhero, what does her costume look like in a rainstorm?
Write about how this stranger came into your life today.
A taxi cab driver talks to you about his life.
Write about a rainy day setting that will carry the story.
Write about the advantages of wearing raincoats.
Dreaming of the sound of rain…
The rain was the only reminder of what life used to be in this small village.
Write about your dreams while sitting on a park bench in the rain.
What happens when a meteorologist sees a “wanted dead or alive” poster?
Describe a cup of hot chocolate and an electronic device. Describe why they’re both life-changing.
A demon hunched over a desk in its lair, writing down a story while listening to soft rainfall outside.
Write about the darkness of a rainy day.
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens.
There’s no place like a…
You have been stuck outside your home for days. How are you doing with actual supplies?
It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a flash of lightning struck the ground right in front of you. You look up and what do you see? The rain never stops anymore. It’s been so long since we’ve seen the sun. Rainy days make everything seem so much better. The fog blankets the sky. The walls of rain hit the ground. You show the beauty of rain. Bring out the sunshine on rainy days by writing a poem that shows it’s beauty!
Write about an inmate in a long-term prison, undergoing mental torture. Another inmate reveals that beauty is accessed through pain. Write the process of beauty.
His shop flooded, he only had a few moments to grab his most valuable possessions. What catches his eye?
Talk about your favorite rainy night.
The house on ninety-five Hemlock Lane was full of mold due to years of hard rains and neglect. All are gone, now, except for a group of teenage squatters in the basement. And Steve has been hearing a strange laugh in the attic.
Write about today’s rainy day.
Write about memories of rainy days from your childhood. Imagine the smells and sounds of rain.
Write about a character who has a pet raincloud sucking up the sunshine.
Write about a rainy day from the perspective of the rain.
The sun comes out. The world is so, so bright.
I dreamed about a rainy day…
Looks like rain today.
Write about the last storm you experienced. How did you spend your time avoiding the storm?
The poem that sprang to life, a loony palindrome
Open the window and let the rain in.
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You are stuck home all day on a rainy day.
You’re sick and need some medicine.
Lights flick on in a house across the street.
Inside your pockets, you felt something squishy. When you pulled out your hands, it was a tiny sea creature with golden eyes.
Believe it or not, this person used to be your spouse. Be specific.
Write about the memories of rainy days.
Pumpkins are pulled out of the ground after long cold days.
Nothing could save you from this storm.
Write about a lost soul.
Last night, it began to rain blood.
You know your life is about to change forever.
Write about what happens if there is a long or permanent rainy day streak in an otherwise sunny region.
A letter to the universe.
There’s too much water in the world today.
Walking home in the rain, you suddenly realize you don’t know where you are.
Your sibling was just run over by a truck in the middle of a rainy street.
In a world where rain never stopped on a nice day, write about everything that is wrong with this wonderful world.
A snapshot from a rainy day. A mother sends her child out into the downpour.
On rainy days, deep dark secrets unfold within us.
Who were you sitting with under the portico?
Write about time that’s been missing.
Write about your life in 3rd person. Write your way into and out of character.
Write a poem or a story about a rainy day.
Wet pavement, wet windshields, wet hair.
Pretend you are a flame, and write about the heat of the people surrounding you.
In your opinion, what’s the best thing about rainy days?
Write about the unfriendly town you live in.
Write about how to create a rainy atmosphere.
What do you say when the clouds collide with your heart?
The view from the helicopter is dreary. Desolate houses and towns are seen everywhere.
Write about the last day of a sunny season.
Write a story of a person whose special day turns out to be terrible.
Repetitive thud of rain on the window as we huddled around the fireplace trying to forget…
Write about a rainy day that brings you something special.
Write about your travels through a rainy landscape.
Write about the aspects of rainy days you enjoy…
Go on a walk to find a lone fellow, just like you, sitting on a bench covered in rain.
Write about the first day of summer.
The world is ending. What do you do?
Write about an umbrella that defies the prediction of a businessman that selling umbrellas will never fail.
On the day you graduated from the Summer Solstice School of Art, it rained continuously, forcing you to move the ceremony indoors … Write about what you did with your one free Saturday.
Answer a letter about a rainy day in the Middle Ages.
It has been 3 days since the last rain and the clothes outside the window are sopping wet. The inhabitants are mad with anger.
Remember the days when you didn’t have to hide inside the house all day.
Rain can be taken for granted only until it becomes a rare commodity.
It began as a typical day during a downpour and ended up…
Imagine a rainy day where you run into the one who got away.
Write about the rain’s effect on a relationship.
Describe a most memorable rainy day in your life.
Write about a family eating a meal on a rainy night.
Someone you never want to see again comes to a reunion on a rainy day.
Write about your dream, arranging the details in the order in which they appear in your brain.
Dodging the raindrops can be difficult.
A gloomy rainy day cuts shorter.
The sun is out, birds are chirping, we’re perfect for another date in the park.
They tell you they just needed a place to stay while waiting out the rain.
Who is this mysterious mystery person?
Write about the worst storm you have ever experienced.
Between the sheets, it’s a rainy day.
Life has always seemed so easy. Now it feels like it’s become so hard.
Write about the worst rainy day on record.
Is your dog afraid of the rain?
Write about a time you fell from grace.
Partake in the life of a raindrop.
Bath time. A child is splashing and playing in the water.
Write about the break-up letter.
The skies are dark and gray, making everyone on campus gloomy and worrisome.
Write about a stranger you’ve never seen before.
Write about a character who dreads rainy days.
Write about trying to spend the last of your days on earth as you leave it.
Write about the shortest, longest, deepest, widest, or kindest rainy day.
Life would be better without feelings.’ Was it true for you?
Rain trickles down your face, your neck.
Rain on your wedding day.
Describe rain in a disapproving manner.
The rain has washed away all of the beloved memories that you and your love shared.
Write a story about your turn to a zombie when the rain kicks in.
What is your rainy day routine?
Write about a rainy day in your life.
French cigarette commercials will always use dark and raining weather for a moody atmosphere.
The heavens open and your street becomes a river.
Before the rain came.
Write about the coming of a momentous event. The person in this story doesn’t know it yet, but the momentous event is about to happen very soon.
Another refugee from the rain rushes into your safe house. It turns out he’s your long-lost brother…and the key to the cure.
On a rainy night, you hear thunder and the sound of weeping.
One winter afternoon… Write the story.
How does the rain make you feel?
Free write about the positives of being drenched in water.
It was cold and rainy, a night like tonight.
Write about the past–father and son go on a long hunting trip.
Make a list of the litter that commonly gets found in puddles, as if you spotted it from an airplane.
A vacationing couple comes to a rainy island in mid-summer.
Write about a rainy day gone wrong.
Remember a rainy day from your childhood.
The road ahead of you is a stormy one…mine are.
Write a scene about a fabulous rain that suddenly transforms into an ominous storm.
Write a poem celebrating rainy days.
It’s raining cats and dogs outside. Put them in your story.
Your first kiss, in the rain. Write about it.
Write a poem about the rain.
Blood is scattered all across the entrance way.
A pristine rainbow appears and calls you to come outside & bow.
Write about…
Write a composition about your day. Remember to write about your experiences.
Write a story about the most important rainy-day moment in your life. A story about a rainy day you will never forget.
On a rainy day, after spending the day cooped up in the house, your children ask you to play outside. What do you do?
The smell of the ozone lingers in your home for the first time in weeks.
The rain can always be heard, but never seen.
Write about a rainy day in the life of a kept woman.
Write about the perfect rainy day.
Write about the time you lost your umbrella during a rainstorm.
The clouds are black and orange, a real setting for Halloween.
Darkness doesn’t bother you anymore. Rainy days are the only way to describe your night.
How would your life have been different if you’d found your one true love ten years earlier. Write about it.
A penguin walks through a field of daisies while sad, rainy piano music plays in the background.
A storm’s coming. Beware.
Mr Gloom invites your muse for a cup of tea.
Write a grocery list if you were only allowed to buy items found on rainy days.
The poem did not rhyme well. Everyone thought it was a poor attempt at poetry. It stopped you from going outside on a rainy day.
Write about the water cycle – rains down, rose up, floats away – and blessed be.
Write about how the rain is a blessing in disguise.
A writer laps up rainy days.
A tragic incident happens on a rainy day. The protagonist of the story tries to cope.
Do rainy days make you crave chocolate, or something else?
Write about a sad rainy day.
Write about a rainy day on the Job.
Write about two strangers who meet the day after a large storm.
Describe the strange creatures that run wild in the rain.
They come seeking a place to stay and are willing to give up anything.
Taking shelter in a nearby shop from the onslaught of rain, you believe you’ve met the man of your dreams.
Perspective is easy to lose when it’s been nothing but rainy days.
There is a storm outside, and it comes bearing fear.
Write about a meaningful symbol of yours being washed away.
Write about the scariest thing that’s ever happened to you.
It has been 100 years since it rained and left the city barren and empty. Write a story about it.
You could tell something was wrong, but you let him inside anyway.
Everything is gloomy.
Write about what you dream about on rainy days.
Write about your favorite rainy day memory. Is the memory from childhood?
Write about how an even stranger saves you on a rainy day.
Write something about a partner who wants to spend time with you, but you’re too busy staring out the window, refusing to be engaged with your world…
Write a letter to your partner about a time you got caught in rain together.
You hear the distant thunder.
Write about a memory you have that is rainy.
Write about a dream you had about rain. Were you walking on water? Did it feel like raindrops?
Write about two people who are stuck on a rainy day.
Write about the first time you saw rain fall from the sky.
Make a list of items you find scattered on rainy days.
The rain is so heavy. You can’t see out the window, and you can’t see in the mirror.
Write about a fleeting moment of love, lost in all of the rain.
Write about a rainy day from the viewpoint of a dog’s paw.
In between flashes of lightning, see what you can paint with your mind.
Describe the sound of rain.
A wayward soul, seeking refuge in your house.
Drunk with sadness, the rain reveals everything.
Take a photo of the sky full of rain clouds and turn it into a story.
Have you ever thought the rain to be a blessing or a curse?
My friend always tells me his favorite memory of rain was when we were kids.
I wish it would soak into my soul.
Trees sway in the rain, and small animals scurry about. Trees drop things from their branches — squishy things.
What is it about rainy days that make you want to curl up in a cocoon?
You hear the rain, see the rain, but you can’t feel it on your face.
The rain is so lovely today.
A gust of wind blows all your papers into the garden.
A child’s funeral- all their toys and books are placed in a cardboard box.
Rain, rain…all day long. It was the perfect weather for a picnic!
An unexpected surprise befalls you on a rainy day.
A bike ride through the neighborhood on a rainy day.
The only eye witness to a murder is hiding inside a secret room. Listen.
The rain has caused floods all over. Your town is slowly crumbling.
The showers were coming close together, and it wasn’t long before the weather cleared up.
Write about rainy days from your childhood.
A child crosses your path, running barefoot in the rain.
Your best friend died a few days ago. Write about their funeral.
It is so cold and wet outside that he begs to come in and dry off.
Write about an adventure where you clutch the crumbling, mold covered cover of your favorite book.
Your child wants to go outside and play in the rain.
Rain. Write a poem based on the sound of rain hitting windows.
You have to go outside on a rainy day.
Write about a rainy afternoon.
Write about a climatic event that turned out not as disastrous as it could have been.
A reddish dawn pokes through dark clouds.
A new meteorologist brings exciting forecasts including snow in the summer and year round sunny days.
The clouds were a flock of grouse huddled together in anticipation of their flight to warmer climates.
The murky, black rain clouds are much too thick for the sun and the moon to shine through.
The town clock tower chimes on the hour as a child wanders alone in a rainstorm.
Write about a rainy day injury. Who was involved and what happened?
It’s raining outside. You wake up to the sound of crashing waves.
Write about a rainy day you’ve had. Write about the worst rainy day that you’ve ever had.
It’s the first day of summer. Stare out the window. Write about summer.
Write about the nightmares that come during a rainy night.
Although your world is falling apart, you found something to live for.

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The Best Rain in Literature

Straight and silvery, big as buckshot, a thin knife of cool.

This morning, it is raining, and I am drinking tea. Whenever these two elements coincide, I always think of a poem I discovered and fell in love with as an irreverent literary teen: “It is raining. / I guess I’ll make / Some tea.” Yes, it’s a haiku, and sure, it’s by Gary Snyder, but what do you want from me, I was thirteen years old and still amazed at what counted as poetry. I inscribed this poem on my bedspread in fabric paint. I cannot pour tea in the rain without it bouncing through my head. I make this confession only to say that there is rain of all kinds in literature, and considering that it is April (month of showers) and it is a strange April because so many of us are spending it inside (which makes the rain much more appealing and romantic), I thought I would highlight some of my favorites. Maybe a phrase from the below will stick with you and torment you for years, who knows? One can only hope.

From Iris Murdoch’s The Sea, The Sea :

The rain came down, straight and silvery, like a punishment of steel rods. It clattered onto the house and onto the rocks and pitted the sea. The thunder made some sounds like grand pianos falling downstairs, then settled to a softer continuous rumble, which was almost drowned by the sound of the rain. The flashes of lightning joined into long illuminations which made the grass a lurid green, the rocks a blazing ochre yellow, as yellow as Gilbert’s car.

From Clarie-Louise Bennet’s Pond :

Incredible, really. Or so it seemed to me as I went by and heard the thing play out. Further along there were those very small raindrops, droplets I suppose, which attach themselves with resolute but nonetheless ebullient regularity among the fronds of a beautiful type of delicate crass, appearing, for all the world, like a squandered chandelier dashing headlong down the hillside.

From Halldór Laxness’s Independent People :

Shortly afterwards it started raining, very innocently at first, but the sky was packed tight with cloud and gradually the drops grew bigger and heavier, until it was autumn’s dismal rain that was falling—rain that seemed to fill the entire world with its leaden beat, rain suggestive in its dreariness of everlasting waterfalls between the planets, rain that thatched the heavens with drabness and brooded oppressively over the whole countryside, like a disease, strong in the power of its flat, unvarying monotony, its smothering heaviness, its cold, unrelenting cruelty. Smoothly, smoothly it fell, over the whole shire, over the fallen marsh grass, over the troubled lake, the iron-grey gravel flats, the sombre mountain above the croft, smudging out every prospect. And the heavy, hopeless, interminable beat wormed its way into every crevice in the house, lay like a pad of cotton wool over the ears, and embraced everything, both near and far, in its compass, like an unromantic story from life itself that has no rhythm and no crescendo, no climax, but which is nevertheless overwhelming in its scope, terrifying in its significance. And at the bottom of this unfathomed ocean of teeming rain sat the little house and its one neurotic woman.

From Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore :

In the afternoon dark clouds suddenly color the sky a mysterious shade and it starts raining hard, pounding the roof and windows of the cabin. I strip naked and run outside, washing my face with soap and scrubbing myself all over. It feels wonderful. In my joy I shut my eyes and shout out meaningless words as the large raindrops strike me on the cheeks, the eyelids, chest, side, penis, legs, and butt—the stinging pain like a religious initiation or something. Along with the pain there’s a feeling of closeness, like for once in my life the world’s treating me fairly. I feel elated, as if all of a sudden I’ve been set free. I face the sky, hands held wide apart, open my mouth wide, and gulp down the falling rain.

From William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying :

It begins to rain. The first harsh, sparse, swift drops rush through the leaves and across the ground in a long sigh, as though of relief from intolerable suspense. They are as big as buckshot, warm as though fired from a gun; they sweep across the lantern in a vicious hissing. Pa lifts his face, slack-mouthed, the wet black rim of snuff plastered close along the base of his gums; from behind his slack-faced astonishment he muses as though from beyond time, upon the ultimate outrage. Cash looks once at the sky, then at the lantern. The saw has not faltered, the running gleam of its pistoning edge unbroken. “Get something to cover the lantern,” he says.

From NoViolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names :

Then it starts raining, like maybe Godknows has made it rain by all his talking. It’s a light rain, the kind that just licks you. We sit in it and smell the delicious earth around us.

Me, I want my mother, Godknows says after a long while. His voice is choking in the rain and I look at his face and it’s wet and I don’t know which is the rain, which are the tears. I am thinking I want my mother too, we all want our mothers, even though when they are here we don’t really care about them. Then, after just a little while, even before we are proper wet, the rain stops and the sun comes out and pierces, like it wants to show the rain who is who. We sit there and get cooked in it.

From Virginia Woolf’s The Years :

It was raining. A fine rain, a gentle shower, was peppering the pavements and making them greasy. Was it worth while opening an umbrella, was it necessary to hail a hansom, people coming out from the theatres asked themselves, looking up at the mild, milky sky in which the stars were blunted. Where it fell on earth, on fields and gardens, it drew up the smell of earth. Here a drop poised on a grass-blade; there filled the cup of a wild flower, till the breeze stirred and the rain was spilt. Was it worth while to shelter under the hawthorn, under the hedge, the sheep seemed to question; and the cows, already turned out in the grey fields, under the dim hedges, munched on, sleepily chewing with raindrops on their hides. Down on the roofs it fell–here in Westminster, there in the Ladbroke Grove; on the wide sea a million points pricked the blue monster like an innumerable shower bath. Over the vast domes, the soaring spires of slumbering University cities, over the leaded libraries, and the museums, now shrouded in brown holland, the gentle rain slid down, till, reaching the mouths of those fantastic laughers, the many-clawed gargoyles, it splayed out in a thousand odd indentations. A drunken man slipping in a narrow passage outside the public house, cursed it. Women in childbirth heard the doctor say to the midwife, “It’s raining.” And the walloping Oxford bells, turning over and over like slow porpoises in a sea of oil, contemplatively intoned their musical incantation. The fine rain, the gentle rain, poured equally over the mitred and the bareheaded with an impartiality which suggested that the god of rain, if there were a god, was thinking Let it not be restricted to the very wise, the very great, but let all breathing kind, the munchers and chewers, the ignorant, the unhappy, those who toil in the furnace making innumerable copies of the same pot, those who bore red hot minds through contorted letters, and also Mrs Jones in the alley, share my bounty.

From James Joyce’s Dubliners :

It was a dark rainy evening and there was no sound in the house. Through one of the broken panes I heard the rain impinge upon the earth, the fine incessant needles of water playing in the sodden beds.

From Willie Perdomo’s “ We Used to Call it Puerto Rico Rain “:

The rain had just finished saying, This block is mine .

The kind of rain where you could sleep through two

breakthroughs, and still have enough left to belly-sing

the ambrosial hour.

Blood pellets in the dusk & dashes of hail were perfect for

finding new stashes; that is to say, visitations were never

From Lauren Groff’s “ The Midnight Zone “:

The rain increased until it was deafening and still my sweaty children slept. I thought of the waves of sleep rushing through their brains, washing out the tiny unimportant flotsam of today so that tomorrow’s heavier truths could wash in. There was a nice solidity to the rain’s pounding on the roof, as if the noise were a barrier that nothing could enter, a stay against the looming night.

I tried to bring back the poems of my youth, and could not remember more than a few floating lines, which I put together into a strange, sad poem, Blake and Dickinson and Frost and Milton and Sexton, a tag-sale poem in clammy meter that nonetheless came alive and held my hand for a little while.

Then the rain diminished until all that was left were scattered clicks from the drops falling from the pines

From Charles Dickens’ Bleak House :

The weather had been all the week extremely sultry, but the storm broke so suddenly—upon us, at least, in that sheltered spot—that before we reached the outskirts of the wood the thunder and lightning were frequent and the rain came plunging through the leaves as if every drop were a great leaden bead. As it was not a time for standing among trees, we ran out of the wood, and up and down the moss-grown steps which crossed the plantation-fence like two broad-staved ladders placed back to back, and made for a keeper’s lodge which was close at hand. We had often noticed the dark beauty of this lodge standing in a deep twilight of trees, and how the ivy clustered over it, and how there was a steep hollow near, where we had once seen the keeper’s dog dive down into the fern as if it were water.

The lodge was so dark within, now the sky was overcast, that we only clearly saw the man who came to the door when we took shelter there and put two chairs for Ada and me. The lattice-windows were all thrown open, and we sat just within the doorway watching the storm. It was grand to see how the wind awoke, and bent the trees, and drove the rain before it like a cloud of smoke; and to hear the solemn thunder and to see the lightning; and while thinking with awe of the tremendous powers by which our little lives are encompassed, to consider how beneficent they are and how upon the smallest flower and leaf there was already a freshness poured from all this seeming rage which seemed to make creation new again.

From Elizabeth Hardwick’s Sleepless Nights :

Sometimes the rain was beautiful. The lavender and silver streaks, gleaming in the mud, seek to be honored, to receive some word of gratitude. The kindness of damp afternoons, the solace of opening the door and finding everyone there.

What next? Where to? Even in the midst of it all, in the devoted warmth, the well-disposed threat of familiarity, the cemetery waits to be desecrated.

From Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon :

She was thoroughly soaked before she realized it was raining and then only because one of the shopping bags split. When she looked down, her Evan-Picone white-with-a-band-of-color skirt was lying in a neat half fold on the shoulder of the road, and she was far far from home. She put down both bags, picked the skirt up and brushed away the crumbs of gravel that stuck to it. Quickly she refolded it, but when she tried to tuck it back into the shopping bag, the bag collapsed altogether. Rain soaked her hair and poured down her neck as she stooped to repair the damage. She pulled out the box of Con Brios, a smaller package of Van Raalte gloves, and another containing her fawn-trimmed-in-sea-foam shortie nightgown. These she stuffed into the other bag. Retracing hers steps, she found herself unable to carry the heavier bag in one hand, so she hoisted it up to her stomach and hugged it with both arms. She had gone hardly ten yards when the bottom fell out of it. Hagar tripped on Jungle Red (Sculptura) and Youth Blend, and to her great dismay, saw her box of Sunny Glow toppling into a puddle. She collected Jungle Red and Youth Blend safely, but Sunny Glow, which had tipped completely over and lost its protective disk, exploded in light peach puffs under the weight of the raindrops. Hagar scraped up as much of it as she could and pressed the wilted cellophane disk back into the box.

Jack Gilbert’s “Rain”:

Suddenly this defeat. This rain. The blues gone gray And the browns gone gray And yellow A terrible amber. In the cold streets Your warm body. In whatever room Your warm body. Among all the people Your absence The people who are always Not you.

I have been easy with trees Too long. Too familiar with mountains. Joy has been a habit. Now Suddenly This rain.

From Kevin Barry’s “ Fjord of Killary “:

So I bought an old hotel on the fjord of Killary. It was set hard by the harbor wall, with Mweelrea Mountain across the water, and disgracefully gray skies above. It rained two hundred and eighty-seven days of the year, and the locals were given to magnificent mood swings. On the night in question, the rain was particularly violent—it came down like handfuls of nails flung hard and fast by a seriously riled sky god. I was at this point eight months in the place and about convinced that it would be the death of me.

“It’s end-of-the-fucking-world stuff out there,” I said.

From J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye :

Boy, it began to rain like a bastard. In buckets, I swear to God. All the parents and mothers and everybody went over and stood right under the roof of the carrousel, so they wouldn’t get soaked to the skin or anything, but I stuck around on the bench for quite a while. I got pretty soaking wet, especially my neck and my pants. My hunting hat really gave me quite a lot of protection, in a way; but I got soaked anyway. I didn’t care, though. I felt so damn happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around and around. I was damn near bawling, I felt so damn happy, if you want to know the truth. I don’t know why. It was just that she looked so damn nice, the way she kept going around and around, in her blue coat and all. God, I wish you could’ve been there.

From Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing :

“A dollar thirty,” she says, and I have to lean toward her to hear because thunder booms, a great clacking split, and the sky dumps water on the tin roof of the building: a tumble of sound. I can’t see down her shirt but it’s what I think about when I’m standing out in the rain, the back of my shirt pulled over my head like it could protect me, but all of me wet, gas fumes thick with the smell of wet earth, rain running down to blind my eyes, to stream from my nose. It all makes me feel like I can’t breathe. I remember just in time and tilt my head back, hold my breath, and let rain trickle down my throat. A thin knife of cool when I swallow. Once. Twice. Three times because the pump is so slow. The rain presses my eyes closed, kneads them. I think I hear a whisper of something, a whoosh of a word, but then it’s gone and the nozzle goes slack. The care is close and warm, and Kayla is snoring.

From William Shakespeare’s King Lear :

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks! You sulfurous and thought-executing fires, 5Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts, Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder, Smite flat the thick rotundity o’ th’ world, Crack nature’s molds, all germens spill at once That make ingrateful man!

From Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd :

The air changed its temperature and stirred itself more vigorously. Cool breezes coursed in transparent eddies round Oak’s face. The wind shifted yet a point or two and blew stronger. In ten minutes every wind of heaven seemed to be roaming at large. Some of the thatching on the wheat-stacks was now whirled fantastically aloft, and had to be replaced and weighted with some rails that lay near at hand. This done, Oak slaved away again at the barley. A huge drop of rain smote his face, the wind snarled round every corner, the trees rocked to the bases of their trunks, and the twigs clashed in strife. Driving in spars at any point and on any system, inch by inch he covered more and more safely from ruin this distracting impersonation of seven hundred pounds. The rain came on in earnest, and Oak soon felt the water to be tracking cold and clammy routes down his back. Ultimately he was reduced well-nigh to a homogeneous sop, and the dyes of his clothes trickled down and stood in a pool at the foot of the ladder. The rain stretched obliquely through the dull atmosphere in liquid spines, unbroken in continuity between their beginnings in the clouds and their points in him.

Kay Ryan’s “Expectations”:

We expect rain to animate this creek: these rocks to harbor gurgles, these pebbles to creep downstream a little, those leaves to circle in the eddy, the stains and gloss of wet. The bed is ready but no rain yet.

From Colson Whitehead’s The Colossus of New York :

Out on the street they hardly notice the clouds before it starts raining. The rain comes down in sheets. Drenched all at once, not drop by drop. The first drop is the pistol at the start of the race and at that crack people move for shelter, any ragtag thing, they huddle under ripped awnings, the doorway of the diner, suddenly an appetite for coffee. Pressed up against buildings as if on the lam. Little sprints and dashes between horizontal cover. Dry here. Surely it will stop soon, they think. They can wait it out. It cannot last forever.

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Emily Temple

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Search for creative inspiration

19,890 quotes, descriptions and writing prompts, 4,964 themes

rain - quotes and descriptions to inspire creative writing

a rainy day
driving in rain
end of the rainbow
first day of spring
heavy downpour
ideas to write a story
rain in the sea
rain soaked ground
ressource gratuite pour apprendre l'anglais
summer rain
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water cycle

At once there came a flash mob of rain, tap-dancing upon roof and concrete paths the same.

Rain took her flight from cloud to new foliage, forming upon them a flock of water-cloches.

The door stood as weathered shield, ever protecting from the seasonal storm-arrows.

Rain touched our skin as a mother's kisses, quenching and with the ever promise of more.

Rain be-speckled gems upon your skin bring your beauty into every clearer definition.

There is a light, a playful light that comes to heart of tiny rain kissed leaves and raises them far beyond the status of the cold cut gem.

The air was an anxious swirl of drops, wind-freed from gravity.

Honeyed rain before a golden sun promises new rainbows to the day.

The watery alphabet of the clouds comes to sing upon the roof.

And so the rain invites a street of colourful umbrellas to blossom.

I only realise the rain is cold because my skin carries the heat of my blood, because my inner fires burn strong. And as I stride onwards my eyes are always seeking the rainbows given by the light.

From blossomed clouds come water-petals into the fresh spring air.

Rain conjures a sweet pattern upon my skin, the thousands of liquid globes reflecting the greenery of nature. It is cooling on this warm day, a welcome shower to add to the senses.

Each raindrop is the drop that kissed your skin in those days that we were together, me and you, my baby boy. Each one is the same because they sing of these such treasured memories, of the comforting love that remains and the hopes I hold for your future. And so, I love the rain better than photographs, for each one is a perfect moment.

Give me the rain in those flashing sheets of cold droplets and I'll show you how the world breathes into those ready to live. Show me how the rain traces sweet paths on your skin and I'll give you a way to feel more alive than any manmade high ever could. So as the clouds gather I feel my soul stir, the air electrified as it anticipates the quenching storm.

Let the rain come, for I am safe and warm in my home. Let it come with its serenade on the roof and steady drumming on the windows. From this cozy place I watch it enrich the sweet brown soils and make glossy every leaf. It is the liquid goodness that goes to the roots and brings the world to such health.

Show me the rain and I will show you that which fills the holy grail, for without the cloud given water it is only a cup. Yet with these drops that come to greet the earth with the splendour of their music and the sensation of flow, is the feeling of joy - not the elevated and loud happiness of the rave, but the sweet serenity of a loving quiet purpose.

If the rain is one drop it is millions, cascading from a confident sky. It is the sort of weather that washes everything anew, bringing deep puddles into which children splash. And in that happy congregation of water and air, is the sense of being alive, that from such beautiful simplicity comes everything we love, the flora, the fauna, the very essence of nature.

Here come the drops steady and soft, falling from a sky of white velvet. They come altogether and yet as pioneers. And though I am soon quite wet, I have the joy of the leaves, of everything that makes the world so green.

In late summer the Earth is ready for the rains, for sweet drops to quench the soils. It is then that the pitter patter returns to the woodlands, simple water to bring nature's magic. The pathways strengthen from a dusty brown to deep mahogany, reviving a healthy glow I've longed to see return. Summer foliage has it's time, the green canopy to give shelter when it's needed, yet this is beauty also, the heaven-given promise seasonal changes fulfilled.

The rain brings a richness to each hue, the browns deepen in a way that soothes my heart, brings a steadiness to my soul. The grass becomes glossy, reflecting the light, a new bright shine to their wands, softly waving in the breeze. This rain brings a freshness, each drop a heaven-given gift for each part of creation. I raise up my hand, tilt my face toward the sky, feeling water and sunshine together. As I do, a song stirs within, one that feels as if it means "thank you" and "love" all at once. Perhaps this is joy, a happiness that feels pure.

We have these autopilot submarine tankers. They go to where the sea-storms are and collect the rain, a funnel filling the underwater tank. Then they go to where the fresh water is needed... and it's all done with clean technology. We still do desalination, but this is easy and there's no point in letting all that clean water just fall in the ocean.

The rain comes, oblivious to the life it gives. It washes the world, quenching soil and the life whom depend upon it. In either warmth or coldness, sunlight or moonlight, rain comes, humble to its role. In this almost-spring afternoon, it is the percussion to the birdsong and the bringer of brightness to every hue of bark and leaf.

Rain floats in gentle waves, as if gravity is a soft music from the Earth, a sweet beckoning serenade. Each drop bequeathes itself unto the cooling air - wet lifeboats in a dry sea. Together they paint a new picture around a glowing streetlamp. Light streams into the rich blue, as if seeking the sun, as if it is a song to the moon - and in those sacred drops it blooms into a star like those above. Sarah smiles, because in that moment, the water and the light have become a golden flower, an echo of life bursting into the night.

The rain has lost the ambient temperature of early fall, freezing and paling my skin on contact. The path through the park is muddy water in motion, filling deep puddles that hide the ruts of dryer weather. To feel it isn't enjoyment, not fun like the gentle sunshine of springtime, yet it is a part of life and I want to feel it just the same. I want to experience each drop, together and apart, same and different. I want to see the droplets soaking my eyelashes before they join their brethren on the ground like saltless tears. I need to be in this, chaotic and wild, just like my mind and soul - like nature looked right into me and pulled the weather out.

Rain falls like God's own poetry; each drop is a single letter in a song that takes eons to sing. It has always been music, always called to me in ways I cannot explain. When the patter of the drops tumbles from grey skies the melody brings serenity no matter the chaos in my life. Rain. Blessed rain.

Each drop sits on my skin like a puddle that will never leave, perfectly formed, perfectly cold. I feel the water steal my body heat just a tiny bit at a time. Perhaps once I would have sort shelter or warmth - but no longer. I have become accustomed to the elements, to the wind and chill. There is a coziness in my suffering, as if life has and will always be this way. There is comfort in predictability. I wonder though, what if the sun broke through? What if each drop sparkled with light? What then? Would the warmth seep through and bring a new reality? Would I shake off this rain as easily as a cat after a storm? Because... I think I'd like that. I'd like that a lot.

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Writing prompts for rainy days

by Kim Kautzer | Jan 13, 2016 | Writing & Journal Prompts

Whatever the weather today, kids will love dipping their toes into these fun writing prompts for rainy days. After all, rain can happen at any time of year! There’s something for everyone, including The Planner (planning rainy day activities), The Persuader (convincing a friend to like drizzly days), The Pretender (pretending to be a raindrop), and The Poet (writing poems using onomatopoeia ).

1. Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella

When the rain starts falling, you’re the happiest person in the world! Unfortunately, your best friend doesn’t feel the same way. Write a paragraph or two in which you try to convince your friend to appreciate rainy days . Include at least three good reasons why stormy, wet, or drizzly weather can be as much fun as sunny days.

2. Cloudy with a Chance of … Marshmallows?

A strange storm just swept through your town , but instead of rain, something else has dropped from the clouds and covered the ground. What is blanketing the streets and lawns of your community? Marshmallows? Ping pong balls? Pennies? Something else? Write a paragraph explaining how you will lead the clean-up efforts.

3. Rainy Days and Mondays

It’s raining and pouring, and everyone at your house is getting grumpy! Make a list of 20 ways you and your family can have fun on a rainy day.

4. A Drop in the Bucket

Imagine that you are a raindrop who’s making a long journey from the clouds to the earth below. Write a story about your adventures. Where do you first land? What happens to you? Where do you finally end up? Use strong verbs and adjectives to describe what you see, hear, feel, and experience.

5. Sounds Like Rain

When a bee flies by or a window shatters, we can write words such as buzz or crash to imitate their sounds. This is called onomatopoeia . Make a list of words that imitate the sounds of rain, hail, sleet, or thunder. Then write a poem using several of these words. Your poem does not need to rhyme.

Need extra help? Explore these examples.

Examples of Onomatopoeia in Nature
“ Onomatopoeia ” – poem by Jonathan Goldman
“ Gentle Sound of Rain ” – poem by Lee Emmett

If you enjoyed these writing prompts for rainy days, be sure to check back each week for more Writing Prompt Wednesdays !

Photo Credit: Marc Samsom , courtesy of Creative Commons 2.0 .

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Describe The Weather In Writing With Better Vocabulary

When you describe the weather in writing, you set the scene for your story or a part of your story.

It’s an opportunity to show readers the setting rather than tell them about the weather using a couple of quick adjectives.

Using highly descriptive or figurative language and a variety of grammar structures helps you paint the picture vividly in a reader’s mind.

In almost every story, both fiction and nonfiction, there is usually at least one reference to the weather.

In This Article

How to describe the weather in writing

We all know this famous opening line from Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s 1830 novel, Paul Clifford.

It was a dark and stormy night.

Many have criticized the phrase, and Writer’s Digest went as far as to call it the literary poster child for bad story starters.

The main issue is that it uses two very weak adjectives: dark and stormy. Neither of them is usefully descriptive.

The second problem with the phrase is that it starts with a grammatical expletive .

When writing about the weather, using it was, or there was is a common writing fault. It’s because we so often refer to the weather as it.

But few people take into account what follows Bulwer-Lytton’s famous clause. It’s a pity because the complete sentence is a wonderful example of how to describe the weather in writing.

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

He uses descriptive noun phrases , strong verbs, and powerful adjectives.

The combination of these three elements paints a vivid picture for readers.

Choosing your vocabulary

You can find many lists of common and unusual words to describe the weather, so you have plenty of choices.

But you should avoid words that are too simplistic. It was hot, cold, windy, or rainy are all very weak expressions.

But if you describe the heat, the cold, the wind, or the rain with noun phrases, you can improve these easily.

The sun started baking early across the plains, delivering a scorching promise for the day ahead.

The cruel icy wind cut like a knife across her cheeks.

Rain, as always, arrived too little, too late to save the crops.

Words that are not widely understood are also worth avoiding. While it’s interesting to find new words, not all of them are useful.

A good example is petrichor. It is the smell or scent of rain arriving after a period of dry weather.

But it is difficult to use, and it might send readers hunting for a dictionary.

The petrichor gave a hint of hope to the farmers.

It would be better to use a descriptive phrase.

The sweet far off scent of rain on dying grass gave hope to the farmers.

Brontide is another, meaning the sound of distant thunder or rumblings of an earth tremor. Again, it’s a great word to know, but with very limited use in writing.

Try this simple formula

Anytime you need to write about the weather, keep this little trick in mind.

Start with a noun phrase, use a strong verb , then add a descriptive clause .

You also need to describe the noun and verb with adjectives and adverbs.

Here’s a quick example.

The heavy dark clouds rolled slowly and low across the parched pastures, but they were heartbreakers, as not a drop of rain fell before the cruel wind carried them away.

It’s an easy way to make sure you avoid the grammatical expletive and weak adjectives.

You can also experiment with similes or metaphors . For example, raining cats and dogs.

Use verbs that sound like the weather

Onomatopoeic verbs and words are perfect for describing the weather because they make a sound.

Here are a few examples to illustrate sound words.

The pitter-patter of raindrops.

Thunder rumbled overhead.

Light hail pinged on the window pane.

With each step, the fresh snow crunched underfoot.

A bolt of lightning cracked across the night sky.

A cold north wind hissed through the trees.

A sudden boom of thunder forewarned us of the approaching storm.

Verbs and words like these are extremely useful because they are action words and highly descriptive.

This article is not a lesson or lecture on how to describe the weather in writing.

It’s purely a reminder that you can always improve.

I have listed a few ideas above, but there are many more ways you can make the weather more interesting.

All it takes is to remember that the setting for a scene or a story needs careful thought and imagination.

But if there are two key takeaways from my article, they are these.

1. Avoid using the grammatical expletive when referencing the weather.

2. Use noun phrases and strong verbs.

If you do those two things, the rest of your weather scene setting will come very easily.

Related reading: Words To Avoid In Writing That Say Nothing

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Rain Creative Writings Samples For Students

8 samples of this type

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Example Of Creative Writing On Helping Even Without Knowing How

Free creative writing on the picture in the house, adaption written by [name].

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THE FIRST VISUALS CONTRAST MYSTERIOUS, SCARY, EXOTIC FAR AWAY PLACES WITH THE FRIGHTENING STARK NEW ENGLAD UNPAINTED HOUSE

THEIR PURPOSE IS TO SET THE ATMOSPHERE FOR STRANGE, AND NIGHTMARISH LOCATIONS. THE NARRATOR IS SPEAKING AS THE FILM SHOWS SCENES OF MYSTERIOUS PLACES: ANCIENT ITALIAN CATACOMBS AND GRAVEYARDS, CRUMBLING RHINE CASTLES, RUINS OF TEMPLES IN ASIA IN SHADOWS, GERMAN FORESTS AND HIGH DANGEROUS CLIFFS IN MOUNTAINS . . . TO THE WORST A PLAIN UNPAINTED HOUSES IN NEW ENGLAND SQUATING DEEP IN THE BACK WOODS . . .

NARRATOR (SPEAKING DARKLY AS THE SCENES OF SCARY PLACES ARE VIEWED BY THE AUDIENCE

Good creative writing on my unreal world.

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“Nice Of You To Let Me In, Mike, And Have A Beer Waiting For Me.” Creative Writings Example

The western edge creative writing sample, free it sets you free, harper repeated and glanced at the door closing behind joe creative writing sample, the man who envied cows creative writing.

Jim bit his lip as he leaned against the door frame. He watched his wife open her suitcase and start packing her possessions into it. He knew that he hadn’t been a perfect husband, and he also knew that they’d been having problems for a while. There had been frequent arguments, slammed doors and the revving of engines as one of them drove off into the night, furiously wiping tear-filled eyes. It had been hard to bear, but he still loved her in spite of all that.

Creative Writing On The Man Who Was Envious Of Cows

Jim leant against the door frame, biting his lip. He watched his wife open her suitcase and start packing her possessions into it.

He knew that he hadn’t been a perfect husband, and he also knew that they’d been having problems for a while. The frequent arguments, the slamming of doors; the revving of engines as one of them drove off into the night, furiously wiping tears away from their eyes, had been hard to bare. But despite all of that, he still loved her.

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How to Describe a Storm in Writing

Whether they're ruthless tornadoes or torrential hurricanes, storms can add atmosphere and conflict to a personal narrative or story. The use of vivid description is a crucial tool for bringing these weather phenomena to life on paper and moving your plot forward. Using figurative language and active verbs can help you place readers right in the middle of the rain, wind and thunder.

Mighty Metaphors and Storm Similes

A simile is a type of description that makes an explicit comparison between two things using the words "like" or "as." A metaphor, by contrast, is a direct comparison that does not use these words. You can use these devices to create surprising descriptions of your storm. If you're describing a hailstorm, for example, you might use a simile to write, "The hailstones clattered to the ground like marbles spilled from a box." To use a metaphor, you might write, "An avalanche of hailstones fell from the sky."

The Sound of Storms

In real life, the sounds of nature are often key indicators of approaching storms. You can bring these sound effects to your descriptions by using onomatopoeia, a device where words mimic the sounds of their meaning. For example, if a thunderstorm figures prominently in your story, the thunder could "rumble" or "boom," rain could "patter" against the windows" and wind could "rush" across a field. Try making a list of all the sounds the storm in your narrative might involve and brainstorm onomatopoeic words to describe them.

The Character of Storms

If a storm is central to your story's conflict, you might consider having the weather literally take on a life of its own. Personification occurs when a writer gives human characteristics, such as actions and emotions, to an inanimate object. If your characters are trapped in open water during a hurricane, you might write, "The angry waves smacked against the side of the boat." Although water can't feel anger, the description of the waves as "angry" adds emotional texture and characterization to the storm.

Vivid Verbs

Because bad weather can often get out of control, describing a storm is not the time to skimp on verb usage. Weak verbs, such as "was" or "were," drain your descriptions of energy rather than infuse them with detail. Using specific, active verbs for the storm's motion gives readers a more detailed image of the story's events. For example, the sentence, "The dark sky was lit up by lightning," is a good start, but revising it to include an active verb can make the description even more forceful: "Lightning flashed across the sky."

Western Michigan University: Basics of Metaphor and Simile
Read Write Think: Onomatopoeia
Universal Design for Learning: Literary Devices: Personification
Writing Commons: Avoid Unnecessary "To Be" Verbs"

Kori Morgan holds a Bachelor of Arts in professional writing and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing and has been crafting online and print educational materials since 2006. She taught creative writing and composition at West Virginia University and the University of Akron and her fiction, poetry and essays have appeared in numerous literary journals.

Beginning A Composition With Weather Descriptions

Sunday, Sep 9th, 2018
By: BIG IDEAZ
Composition Framework
Writing Techniques

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Weather description is one of the easiest ways for young writers (6 to 8 years old) to begin their compositions. This is also usually the first story starter that they are being taught in school.

For children who are weak in the language, writing a good weather description can be an easy and effective way to get them started in their composition.

However, most teachers do not encourage flowery weather descriptions such as these:

“White fluffy clouds dotted the azure blue sky as the sun beamed beatifically, casting a golden glow upon the earth.”

“The sky was an expanse of sapphire blue, dotted with feathery white clouds as the radiant rays of the sun shone brightly in the azure blue sky.”

You get the picture.

Proper Use of Weather Descriptions in English Compositions

Weather descriptions is an easy way for young writers to begin their stories. Primary 1 and 2 students can start their compositions with weather descriptions, if weather plays a part in the plot.

There is no need to memorise a hugh chunk of bombastic weather descriptions.

Simple words can sometimes be more effective than bombastic ones.

These are some of the weather descriptions written by our P1 and P2 students:

“It was a cool and breezy evening. A strong gust of wind blew against my face.”

“It was a bright and sunny morning. White, fluffy clouds drifted across the sky.”

“Lightning flashed across the sky. A storm was coming.”

Short. Simple. Readable.

The kids came up with these weather descriptions themselves, without memorising any bombastic phrases.

Most importantly, they are natural, something which children can understand, remember and apply in their writing.

Get this set of PSLE Model Compositions with writing techniques highlighted.

So, how can children be taught to write weather descriptions?

For children who are really weak in the language, even writing a simple sentence to describe a sunny day can be difficult. These children often resort to starting their compositions with “One day, we went…” or “One fine day, Peter was …” or “Last Sunday, my family and I …”.

Such story beginnings can be boring and not captivating.

Students can learn to write effective weather descriptions. In our classes, we get our students to do brainstorming.

1. Brainstorm and make a list of all kinds of weather that you can think of.

cold and rainy
cool and breezy
bright and sunny
scorching hot

2. For each weather type, imagine how the sky, sun, clouds and other weather elements look like.

Describe each element in simple, readable English .

Weather Type: BRIGHT AND SUNNY

Describe the sun: – shines brilliantly – bright – like a fire ball

Describe the sky: – clear, blue sky

Describe the clouds: – white, fluffy clouds – sunlit clouds

3. Form sentences using some of these descriptions.

It was a bright and sunny day. The sun shone brilliantly in the clear, blue sky .

It was a bright and sunny day. White, fluffy clouds drifted across the clear, blue sky .

The above 3 steps are effective in teaching young children (Primary 1 to 3) to come up with weather descriptions that sound natural. Most children are able to come up with beautiful weather descriptions without resorting to the method of memorising huge chunks of unreadable flowery language.

Download the FREE Brainstorming Sheet for Weather Description

Use Weather Descriptions Appropriately

Some students have the habit of starting every composition with weather descriptions, regardless of topic or setting. Remember to use weather descriptions only if weather plays a part in your story. For example, if a rainy weather contributes to the plot of the story, it is a good idea to describe the weather, especially the rain and the coldness. If a story is set outdoors, it is fine to describe the weather too.

However, many students fell into the trap of starting their compositions with describing the sun, the clouds and the sky when their story is set indoors! This is a huge mistake, which should be stopped.

Other Types of Story Beginnings

For stories which are not set outdoors or not affected by the weather, there are other types of story beginnings that can be used.

Students can begin their compositions with speech , which is also a common way of beginning a primary school composition.

Another effective way is to begin with a captivating statement or an intriguing question. Such a beginning hooks readers immediately to read on. When used correctly, it piques a reader’s curiosity and make them want to continue reading to find out what happens next.

Upper primary students can begin their stories with character descriptions . This is useful to show a change in the character at the end of the story. For example, a timid person who became courageous, or a bully regretting his actions and turning over a new leaf.

Beginning with an action is great if you want to move the story along quickly. Students can use suitable vivid verbs to clearly describe a character’s actions at the beginning of the story.

Get our FREE pack of 300 vocabulary cards that your child can use in his or her compositions.

Writing is a skill that improves with practice.

Enrol in our highly popular Writing Academy or Junior Writing Academy , our online courses that support primary school students in developing their English composition writing skills.

Author: BIG IDEAZ

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How to Describe the Wind in Writing (100 Words + Examples)

It can be a bit tricky to find the right words or phrases to make your readers see and feel the wind.

Here is how to describe the wind in writing:

Describe the wind in writing by using sensory language to evoke its force, sound, temperature, effect, direction, time of day, and personified traits. Each description should enhance the narrative, helping to set the scene, build atmosphere, and engage the reader.

In this guide, we’ll discuss all the different ways to describe wind based on its force, sound, speed, and more.

Describing Wind by Its Force

Cartoon sun and wind - How to describe the wind in writing

Table of Contents

The force of the wind can dramatically change the perception of a scene.

The contrast between a gentle breeze and a violent gale is not just a measure of intensity.

But can also signify changing moods, symbolize emotional shifts, or foreshadow significant events.

Here is how to do it:

Gentle : A gentle wind softly touches, a delicate interaction with the environment. Example: “The gentle wind caressed the petals of the blooming flowers, their fragrance subtly wafting in the air.”
Light : A light breeze is almost playful, just strong enough to stir the leaves. Example: “A light wind tugged at her hair as she sat by the river, the tranquil scene filling her with peace.”
Calm : A calm wind denotes tranquility and serenity, ideal for peaceful settings. Example: “The calm wind moved lazily through the tall grass, making it sway like waves in a calm sea.”
Whispering : A whispering wind is quiet, giving a sense of intimacy and closeness. Example: “The whispering wind carried the melody of the distant lullaby, lulling the town to sleep.”
Soothing : A soothing wind provides relief or comfort. Example: “The soothing wind was a balm against the harsh summer heat, its gentle caress reviving his spirits.”
Blustery : A blustery wind is strong and cold, often associated with the autumn and winter months. Example: “The blustery wind cut through his jacket, making him shiver as he trod the leaf-strewn path.”
Howling : A howling wind is fierce, invoking images of storms or tempests. Example: “The howling wind made the old house creak ominously, its eerie tune setting the mood for the night.”
Fierce : A fierce wind indicates a wild and uncontrolled force. Example: “The fierce wind shook the window panes, a testament to the storm’s power.”
Wild : Wild wind suggests a sense of chaos and lack of control. Example: “The wild wind tossed the ship like a toy, waves crashing over the deck.”
Gusty : Gusty winds are strong and sudden, capable of causing brief moments of disarray. Example: “The gusty wind snatched the papers from his hands, scattering them in every direction.”

Describing Wind by Its Sound

The sound of the wind is often used to set the atmosphere of a scene.

From the silent rustling of leaves to the ominous howling in a storm, the sonic quality of wind can bring your writing to life.

Soft : A soft wind might be barely audible, adding a sense of tranquility. Example: “The soft rustle of the wind through the trees was a soothing backdrop to their quiet conversation.”
Hushed : A hushed wind is a secret whisper, barely noticeable. Example: “A hushed breeze stirred the silent forest, the only sign of life in the deep wilderness.”
Silent : A silent wind might not make any sound, but its effects can be seen or felt. Example: “The silent wind danced with the dunes, shifting the desert landscape as if alive.”
Quiet : A quiet wind does not overpower other sounds, acting as a subtle background note. Example: “The quiet wind murmured through the leaves, a soft accompaniment to the chorus of singing birds.”
Noisy : A noisy wind is boisterous, drawing attention to its presence. Example: “The noisy wind rustled the newspapers, alerting the alley cat of someone’s approach.”
Roaring : A roaring wind has a deep, loud sound, often associated with storms or extreme weather. Example: “The roaring wind was deafening, drowning out all other sounds.”
Screaming : A screaming wind gives the impression of high intensity or danger. Example: “The wind screamed around them, a chilling prelude to the approaching hurricane.”
Howling : A howling wind is loud and sorrowful, invoking a sense of loneliness or fear. Example: “The howling wind seemed to voice the loneliness of the old mansion, its chilling song echoing in the empty rooms.”
Whistling : A whistling wind creates high-pitched sounds as it passes through narrow spaces. Example: “The wind whistled through the bare branches, a lonely melody in the frigid winter air.”
Moaning : A moaning wind can suggest discomfort or eeriness. Example: “The wind moaned through the ruined tower, its ghostly sighs stirring tales of lost battles and ancient sorrows.”

Describing Wind by Its Speed

The speed of the wind can influence the rhythm and pacing of your writing.

Slow winds might suggest a leisurely pace, while fast winds can bring energy and excitement.

Slow : A slow wind suggests a relaxed or languid mood. Example: “The slow wind moved lazily across the field, the daisies bending and swaying in a slow dance.”
Lazy : A lazy wind has a lackadaisical quality, perfect for a calm, sunny afternoon. Example: “A lazy wind drifted through the orchard, the scent of ripe apples carried in its wake.”
Languid : A languid wind is slow and relaxed, hinting at tranquility and leisure. Example: “The languid breeze that wafted from the sea brought a sense of calm and serenity.”
Meandering : A meandering wind takes its time, as though it’s enjoying the journey rather than rushing towards a destination. Example: “The meandering wind played amidst the autumn leaves, carrying them on a leisurely dance.”
Drifting : A drifting wind is unhurried and aimless, adding a dreamlike quality to the scene. Example: “The drifting wind carried the scent of lilacs, its sweet perfume invoking memories of past summers.”
Fast : A fast wind is full of energy, ideal for scenes of action or urgency. Example: “The fast wind whipped her hair around her face as she raced down the hill.”
Quick : A quick wind might signal an abrupt change or a breathless moment. Example: “The quick wind brought the first hint of the storm, the air suddenly heavy with tension.”
Swift : A swift wind brings movement and flow to the scene, emphasizing speed and motion. Example: “The swift wind carried the fallen petals, creating a blizzard of cherry blossoms.”
Rushing : A rushing wind suggests urgency or turmoil. Example: “The rushing wind tore through the narrow streets, a harbinger of the tempest to come.”
Speeding : A speeding wind signifies rapid movement and can be used to convey a sense of excitement or danger. Example: “The speeding wind roared in his ears as he plummeted towards the ground, his parachute trailing behind him.”

Describing Wind by Its Temperature

The temperature of the wind can greatly influence the overall feeling of a scene.

Whether a warm summer breeze or a frigid winter gust, the wind’s temperature can evoke a range of emotions and sensations in the reader.

Warm : A warm wind suggests comfort and the promise of balmy weather. Example: “The warm wind, heavy with the scent of blooming jasmine, hinted at the approaching summer.”
Hot : A hot wind can be oppressive, often associated with desert or drought conditions. Example: “The hot wind carried the sting of the sand, searing any exposed skin.”
Cool : A cool wind is often refreshing, a welcome relief from the heat. Example: “The cool wind that rustled the palm leaves brought momentary relief from the tropical heat.”
Cold : A cold wind might suggest discomfort or harsh weather conditions. Example: “The cold wind gnawed at their cheeks, turning them a rosy pink.”
Chilling : A chilling wind often connotes something ominous or foreboding. Example: “The chilling wind blew through the graveyard, making the mourners shiver uncontrollably.”
Icy : An icy wind is not only cold but also piercing, cutting through layers of clothing. Example: “The icy wind cut through her coat like a knife, making her shudder with cold.”
Frigid : A frigid wind can suggest extreme cold, often associated with winter or high-altitude settings. Example: “The frigid wind howled across the snow-covered mountains, stinging any exposed skin.”
Scorching : A scorching wind is intensely hot, like being in an oven or near a fire. Example: “The scorching wind was like a wall of heat, making the mere act of breathing a challenge.”
Refreshing : A refreshing wind is cool and invigorating, often associated with spring or morning breezes. Example: “The refreshing wind stirred the wildflowers, carrying their sweet scent across the meadow.”
Biting : A biting wind is harsh and painful, carrying an insinuation of discomfort or hostility. Example: “The biting wind whipped around them, making every step a battle against the elements.”

Describing Wind by Its Effects

Another way to describe the wind is by the impact it has on the surrounding environment.

This can provide a vivid, indirect way of conveying the strength or character of the wind.

Rustling : A rustling wind gently stirs leaves and grass. Example: “The rustling wind stirred up the autumn leaves, creating a colorful whirlwind.”
Whipping : A whipping wind moves with force, capable of causing disarray. Example: “The whipping wind tore at their clothes, making it hard to move forward.”
Caressing : A caressing wind moves gently, like a lover’s touch. Example: “The caressing wind played with her hair, sending shivers down her spine.”
Tugging : A tugging wind pulls at things, providing a sense of its strength. Example: “The tugging wind pulled at his hat, threatening to send it flying.”
Stirring : A stirring wind causes slight movement, especially in water or loose particles like sand or dust. Example: “The stirring wind created tiny ripples across the pond, disturbing the otherwise mirror-like surface.”
Sweeping : A sweeping wind suggests broad, fast movement over a large area. Example: “The sweeping wind cleared the fog, revealing the breathtaking vista of the valley below.”
Roaring : A roaring wind gives an impression of intensity and might. Example: “The roaring wind stripped the trees of their autumn leaves, leaving the branches bare and exposed.”
Dancing : A dancing wind moves unpredictably, swirling and changing direction. Example: “The dancing wind swirled the snowflakes into intricate patterns, as if orchestrating a ballet of the elements.”
Carrying : A carrying wind can transport scents, sounds, or smaller objects over distances. Example: “The carrying wind brought the distant sound of church bells, drifting on the air like a sacred melody.”
Buffeting : A buffeting wind strikes repeatedly and forcefully, causing everything in its path to shake or rattle. Example: “The buffeting wind rattled the old window frames, their constant clattering a testament to the storm’s fury.”

Describing Wind by Its Direction

The direction of the wind can have significant implications for your narrative, from determining the movement of clouds to hinting at changes in weather or seasons.

Here is how to describe the wind by its direction:

North : A north wind, often cold, can signify the arrival of winter or a cooling trend. Example: “The north wind carried the scent of snow, a chilling harbinger of the approaching winter.”
South : A south wind is typically warm, often suggesting the onset of spring or summer. Example: “The south wind, laden with the heady fragrance of blooming roses, heralded the arrival of a sultry summer.”
East : An east wind can be seen as bringing change or new beginnings. Example: “The east wind brought the first light of dawn, casting long shadows on the silent town.”
West : A west wind often carries the connotation of ending or closure. Example: “The west wind carried the last notes of the song, echoing the sun’s farewell as it dipped below the horizon.”
Upland : An upland wind moves uphill, suggesting effort or challenge. Example: “The upland wind whispered encouraging words in her ear as she climbed the steep hill.”
Downland : A downland wind moves downhill, hinting at ease or relaxation. Example: “The downland wind guided the fallen leaves on their journey to the valley.”
Seaward : A seaward wind moves towards the sea, often evoking a sense of longing or adventure. Example: “The seaward wind filled their sails, drawing them towards the vast, unexplored ocean.”
Landward : A landward wind moves towards land, typically associated with feelings of safety or return. Example: “The landward wind carried the familiar scent of pine and woodsmoke, a promise of home.”
Incoming : An incoming wind moves towards the observer, indicating the approach of something. Example: “The incoming wind carried the distant rumble of thunder, a stark warning of the storm’s approach.”
Outgoing : An outgoing wind moves away from the observer, often signaling departure or relief. Example: “The outgoing wind took the last traces of the forest fire, the air finally clear and breathable.”

Describing Wind by Its Time of Day

The time of day can also influence how the wind is perceived, adding an additional layer of nuance to your descriptions.

Morning : A morning wind suggests freshness and the beginning of a new day. Example: “The morning wind, cool and crisp, breathed life into the sleepy town.”
Noon : A noon wind often conveys the intensity of the midday sun. Example: “The noon wind, hot and dry, made the mirages dance on the distant horizon.”
Afternoon : An afternoon wind can signal a gradual easing of the day’s heat. Example: “The afternoon wind brought welcome relief, stirring the lethargic summer air.”
Evening : An evening wind often indicates the transition from day to night. Example: “The evening wind carried the twilight song of the birds, an enchanting serenade as day gave way to night.”
Night : A night wind is typically associated with mystery, calm, or the unknown. Example: “The night wind whispered tales of forgotten times, its hushed voice blending with the rustle of the ancient trees.”
Dawn : A dawn wind implies new beginnings or hope. Example: “The dawn wind stirred the sea into a shimmering canvas, painting the first light of day in vibrant hues of orange and gold.”
Dusk : A dusk wind carries the end of the day and the onset of the evening. Example: “The dusk wind rustled the falling leaves, echoing the sun’s farewell as it dipped below the horizon.”
Midnight : A midnight wind can evoke the depth of the night and the mysteries it holds. Example: “The midnight wind carried the eerie howls from the distance, its chilling message clear in the silent night.”
Daybreak : A daybreak wind suggests renewal or a fresh start. Example: “The daybreak wind carried the scent of dew-kissed grass, a subtle hint of the world awakening to a new day.”
Twilight : A twilight wind signifies transition or change, often bringing a sense of calm. Example: “The twilight wind stirred the lavender fields, their soothing scent bringing a serene end to the day.”

Describing Wind by Its Smell

Scents carried by the wind can help set the scene and evoke strong emotions and memories in your readers.

Here are a few ways you can describe wind by its smell:

Salt-tinged : A wind that carries the smell of the sea. Example: “A salt-tinged wind swept across the deck, instantly transporting him back to his childhood summers by the ocean.”
Pine-scented : A wind carrying the aroma of pine forests. Example: “The pine-scented wind was a refreshing balm, cleaning the city smog from her lungs.”
Smoky : A wind that carries the smell of smoke, indicating a fire. Example: “The smoky wind stung their eyes and throats, a cruel herald of the approaching wildfire.”
Floral : A wind filled with the scent of flowers. Example: “A floral wind drifted through the open window, the intoxicating perfume of the garden mingling with the crisp linen sheets.”
Dusty : A wind that carries the smell of dust or dry earth. Example: “The dusty wind was a tangible reminder of the long, parched summer.”
Rain-soaked : A wind carrying the fresh smell of rain or an approaching storm. Example: “The rain-soaked wind promised a respite from the relentless heat.”
Herb-laden : A wind filled with the smell of herbs, indicating a nearby garden or meadow. Example: “The herb-laden wind carried notes of lavender and rosemary, a comforting reminder of home.”
Citrusy : A wind carrying the zesty aroma of citrus fruits. Example: “A citrusy wind drifted from the orange groves, filling the afternoon with a tangy sweetness.”
Decaying : A wind that carries the smell of decay, indicating rot or death. Example: “The decaying wind held the grim scent of the battlefield, a chilling testament to the day’s losses.”
Spicy : A wind filled with the scent of spices, indicating a nearby marketplace or kitchen. Example: “The spicy wind was thick with the promise of delicious meals, making her stomach growl in anticipation.”

Describing Wind by Its Feeling

Describing the wind by its physical sensation on a character’s skin can help immerse the reader in the scene.

Stinging : A wind that is harsh and biting. Example: “The stinging wind battered his face, each gust like a slap of cold, wet canvas.”
Tickling : A light wind that playfully brushes against the skin. Example: “The tickling wind teased her bare arms, leaving goosebumps in its wake.”
Caressing : A gentle wind that softly touches the skin. Example: “The caressing wind was a tender lover, its soft touch bringing comfort to her weary body.”
Slapping : A strong, abrupt wind. Example: “The slapping wind caught her off guard, its sudden force nearly knocking her off her feet.”
Grazing : A gentle wind barely noticeable on the skin. Example: “The grazing wind was a soft sigh against her cheek, a barely-there touch that hinted at the storm’s retreat.”
Biting : A cold, harsh wind that feels as though it’s biting into the skin. Example: “The biting wind gnawed at his fingertips, the relentless cold seeping through his gloves.”
Scratching : A wind carrying sand or tiny debris that feels abrasive on the skin. Example: “The scratching wind was a desert beast, its sandy claws scraping against his exposed skin.”
Soothing : A wind that brings relief or comfort. Example: “The soothing wind was a welcome respite from the stifling heat, its gentle caress cooling her sunburnt skin.”
Clammy : A wind that is damp and cold. Example: “The clammy wind clung to her clothes, the damp chill seeping into her bones.”
Prickling : A wind that makes the skin tingle, often due to cold or static. Example: “The prickling wind was a ghost’s touch, its chilling caress raising goosebumps on her skin.”

Here is a video on how to describe a windy day:

How Do You Personify Wind?

Personification is a powerful literary device that gives human characteristics to non-human entities.

When it comes to the wind, personification can be an excellent tool to create vivid imagery, build atmosphere, and engage readers on a deeper level.

Consider these techniques to personify the wind:

Whispering : Giving the wind the ability to whisper can make it seem secretive or intimate. Example: “The wind whispered through the treetops, carrying secrets from one part of the forest to another.”
Laughing : A laughing wind can express joy, freedom, or mischief. Example: “The wind laughed in the open fields, playfully rustling the wildflowers as it passed.”
Singing : When the wind sings, it creates a sense of harmony or melody. Example: “The wind sang a lullaby, its soothing hum gently lulling the world to sleep.”
Mourning : A mourning wind carries an impression of sadness or loss. Example: “The wind mourned through the empty streets, a sorrowful echo of the town’s former life.”
Dancing : A dancing wind implies movement, celebration, or unpredictability. Example: “The wind danced through the autumn leaves, twirling them in a whirl of gold and red.”
Roaring : A roaring wind can depict anger, might, or wildness. Example: “The wind roared across the desolate plains, venting its fury on the barren landscape.”
Caressing : If the wind is caressing something, it gives a sense of gentleness or affection. Example: “The wind caressed the waves, leaving a trail of shimmering ripples in its wake.”
Teasing : A teasing wind suggests playfulness and lightness. Example: “The wind teased her hair, tossing it this way and that in a playful game.”
Sighing : A sighing wind can convey disappointment, relief, or resignation. Example: “The wind sighed through the abandoned corridors, echoing the despair left behind.”
Chasing : A chasing wind implies speed, pursuit, or play. Example: “The wind chased the fallen leaves, their rustling flight a merry chase across the park.”

Final Thoughts: How to Describe the Wind in Writing

When you describe wind in your story, try to link your description to the plot, theme, characters, and specific scene.

Everything should tie into the same knotted storyline.

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Describing Smells in Writing: Mastering the Art of Sensory Language

By: Author Paul Jenkins

Posted on September 6, 2023

Categories Writing , Creative Writing

The art of describing smells in writing can elevate your work to an immersive experience for readers. The human sense of smell is closely linked to memory, making it a powerful tool for writers to evoke emotions and transport readers into the world they’ve created.

Capturing the essence of a scent in words can be challenging, but with a robust vocabulary and practiced skill, it’s a technique that greatly enhances storytelling.

Understanding the science of smell allows writers to appreciate how scents can influence our perception, emotions, and memories. Developing a robust vocabulary for scents, categorizing them, and accurately describing their intensity will enable writers to paint vivid, olfactory pictures for their readers.

Through practice, observation, and dedication to mastering this art, you will be able to create stories with rich sensory experiences that leave a lasting impact on your readers.

Key Takeaways

Describing smells effectively in writing can create deeper, immersive experiences for readers.
Developing a strong vocabulary and understanding the science of smell helps writers enhance their storytelling.
Practice, observation, and a focus on accurately capturing sensory details lead to richer, more evocative writing.

The Science of Smell

The role of smell receptors.

Your sense of smell relies on specialized receptors in your nose. These receptors detect and identify various types of odor molecules present in the air you breathe. When these molecules reach your smell receptors, they send signals to your brain, which then interprets the scent. There are approximately 10 main categories of scent, such as fragrant, woody, fruity, and chemical.

Sense of Smell and Emotion

Smell has a unique relationship with emotion. Unlike other senses, the olfactory system is closely linked to the brain’s limbic system, which is responsible for processing emotions and memories. This connection essentially means that smells can evoke strong emotional responses, both positive and negative. For example, the scent of freshly baked cookies may bring feelings of comfort and nostalgia, while the odor of rotten food may trigger disgust or repulsion.

Smell and Memory

One of the most impactful aspects of smell is its connection to memory. The relationship between your sense of smell and memory is powerful due to the proximity of the olfactory system to the brain’s hippocampus and amygdala, which are vital for forming and storing memories. As a result, specific scents can bring back vivid memories, even ones that have been seemingly forgotten for a long time.

When incorporating smells into your writing, consider how they might connect with emotions and memories to create a more immersive reading experience for your audience. By effectively describing a variety of scents and the emotions they evoke, you’ll be better equipped to engage your readers and help them establish a strong connection with your narrative.

A Vocabulary for Scents

Adjectives to describe smells.

The world is filled with an incredible variety of scents, and to accurately describe them in your writing, it’s essential to have a diverse vocabulary at your disposal. By using specific adjectives, you can evoke the sensations and memories associated with different smells. Here are some categories of adjectives that will help you describe various scents:

Fresh : crisp, clean, natural
Earthy : loamy, musty, damp
Floral : flowery, feminine, fragrant
Fruity : citrusy, berry-like, zesty
Woody : pine, resinous, bark
Masculine : musky, leathery, smoky
Chemical : acrid, pungent, rancid
Sweet : honeyed, sugary, syrupy

These are just a few examples to get you started. Be creative and explore the vast array of adjectives available to you when describing smells in your writing.

Describing Smells through Associations

Another effective way to describe smells in your writing is through associations. Since our sense of smell is closely tied to memory, connecting a scent to a particular experience or situation can create a vivid and relatable description for your reader. By incorporating associations, you will make your descriptions more engaging and authentic.

For example, instead of simply stating that a room smells old, you could describe the scents of dusty, yellowed pages and mothballs, evoking the feeling of a long-forgotten library. Likewise, instead of stating that a bakery smells delicious, you could describe the aroma of warm, freshly-baked bread and buttery croissants wafting through the air.

When using associations to describe scents, consider the following tips:

Draw upon personal experiences : Reflect on your own memories and emotions that certain scents evoke, and use them to enhance your descriptions.
Utilize common or relatable experiences : Describe smells that your readers can easily recognize, enabling them to recall similar situations they’ve encountered in their own lives.
Be specific and detailed : Provide rich and nuanced descriptions of smells, painting a vivid sensory picture for your reader.

Remember, the aim is to create a strong and evocative connection between your description and the scent you’re trying to convey. Experiment with different associations and adjectives to find the perfect way to capture a smell in your writing.

Categories of Smells

Natural scents.

When describing smells, think about the different categories of natural scents that you might encounter in the environment. For example, the scent of flowers can range from sweet and floral such as roses, to more earthy and green as in a pine forest. Fruity smells, like those of lemons or other fruits, often have a fresh and invigorating quality. Earthy smells are common in nature and can evoke a sense of being grounded in the environment. Use these natural scents in your writing to create vivid and authentic descriptions of your settings.

Floral : rose, jasmine, lavender
Fruity : lemon, apple, mango
Green : pine, grass, eucalyptus
Earthy : damp soil, rain, moss

Man-Made Smells

Man-made smells are those that originate from human activities or created products, such as perfume or sweat. Think about the characteristics of these scents and how they can add layers to your descriptions. Chemical smells can be harsh, pungent, or even nauseating, while perfume scents often bring sophistication or luxury. Describing the smell of sweat can help to convey an atmosphere of physical exertion, labor, or stress. Incorporate these man-made smells in your writing to enhance your storytelling or underscore certain emotions.

Chemical : bleach, gasoline, ammonia
Perfume : floral, musky, subtle
Sweat : salty, metallic, pungent

Complex Scents

Complex scents are a blend of various smells that are often difficult to separate into distinct components. These scents can add depth and interest to your writing, as they are not easily identifiable or may evoke different experiences for different people. When capturing complex scents, consider the layers of smells present, such as a combination of fruity and floral notes or the merging of earthy and green scents. Describing complex scents in your writing can help create a sense of atmosphere and intrigue.

Fruity floral : a blend of fruit and flower aromas
Earthy-green : an intermingling of soils and plants
Lemony-chemical : a mixture of citrus and synthetic elements

Remember to use a confident, knowledgeable, clear, and neutral tone when describing the various categories of smells in your writing. By using second person point of view (you, your, yours), your readers will feel more engaged and connected to the sensory experiences you are conveying.

Describing Intensity of Smells

Light and faint scents.

When describing light and faint scents in your writing, you can draw attention to the subtle nature of the aroma. These scents might require a character to take a deep breath to fully detect them, or they may be barely noticeable. Feel free to use words like delicate , mild , or soft to convey the lightness of a scent. For example, you can describe a gentle floral aroma wafting through the air on a spring day.

Heavy and Strong Scents

Heavy and strong scents are more distinct and tend to linger in the air or on objects. To describe these scents, choose words that evoke their intensity, like robust , rich , or even heady . Your character might walk into a room and immediately notice a heavy, smoky smell hanging in the air. Additionally, you can highlight the warmth associated with certain strong scents, like a spicy or hot aroma, to further convey their potency.

Overpowering Scents

Overpowering scents can be so intense that they dominate the senses and might even cause physical discomfort. When describing these powerful aromas, words like pungent , overwhelming , and intense can effectively convey their force. For instance, your character may feel their eyes watering and nose burning due to an overpowering scent of cleaning chemicals. Pay attention to the characters’ reactions to such smells to emphasize their impact on the scene.

Tips for Describing Smells in Writing

Relating smells to other senses.

When describing smells in your writing, try to relate them to other senses, like taste or touch. By doing this, you can create additional sensory connections for your reader. For example, you could mention that a certain smell is reminiscent of a particular taste or feeling, which can make it easier for the reader to imagine and relate to the described smell. Think about how smells often have similar attributes to tastes, like sweetness or sourness, and incorporate these into your descriptions.

Using Smells to Evoke Emotions

A powerful way to use smells in writing is by connecting them to emotions. As the sense of smell is closely linked to memory and feelings, associating a specific smell with a character’s emotions can effectively convey their state of mind and create an emotional bond with the reader. Consider how certain scents might evoke feelings of happiness, nostalgia, or even fear, and use that connection to enhance the emotional depth of your writing. For example, the smell of freshly baked bread might evoke feelings of warmth and comfort, while the smell of a damp basement might evoke feelings of unease or anxiety.

Choosing the Right Words

When describing smells, it’s essential to choose the right words to convey the message clearly. Be specific and avoid using vague or overly complex language. Instead, use concrete and descriptive terms that will paint a clear picture for the reader. Some helpful ways to do this include:

Use adjectives : Employ a variety of adjectives to describe the smell’s qualities, such as sweet, pungent, or musty.
Analogies and metaphors : Draw comparisons between the smell and other recognizable scents, tastes, or feelings to help the reader understand the sensory experience better.
Onomatopoeia : Use words that imitate the sound associated with an object or action, such as “sizzle” or “pop,” to help your reader connect with the sensation of the smell.
Show, don’t tell : Rather than merely stating that a character can smell something, describe the actual scent, the effect it has on the character, and the resulting emotions.

By following these guidelines, you can effectively describe smells in your writing, engaging your reader’s senses and creating a more immersive experience.

Examples of How to Describe Smells

Using smells in character descriptions.

To create vivid characters, writers can use descriptions of scents to convey personality traits and evoke emotions in the reader. For example, you can describe a character’s personal fragrance, such as earthy, floral, or crisp. These words can help characterize them as masculine, feminine, or even androgynous.

Here are a few examples of smells used in character descriptions:

Her scent was a delicate mixture of lavender and vanilla, making her presence soothing and comforting.
He carried the unmistakable aroma of fresh pine, evoking feelings of being in a forest.
Their scent was a confusing blend of citrus and cinnamon, giving them an air of mystery and unpredictability.

Setting the Scene with Scents

In addition to character descriptions, you can use smells to help set the scene or create a mood in your writing. Descriptions of scents can transport your reader to different environments, providing an immersive experience and enriching your narrative.

Here are a few examples of using smells to establish a scene:

The sweet smell of freshly baked pastries greeted her as she entered the cozy bakery.
A salty sea breeze filled the air, transporting her back to summer days spent at the beach.
The pungent odor of gasoline and burning rubber filled the bustling garage, immersing the reader in the world of auto repairs.

While describing smells in your writing, remember to keep the tone confident, knowledgeable, neutral, and clear. In doing so, your descriptions will be more effective and enriching for your readers.

Common Pitfalls in Describing Smells

Overuse of adjectives.

One common pitfall in describing smells is the overuse of adjectives. While adjectives are necessary to convey the intensity or quality of a smell, too many can leave the reader overwhelmed and confused. It’s important to strike a balance and use adjectives judiciously. Try to focus on choosing a few strong, specific adjectives that accurately convey the scent you’re describing. Using too many adjectives can also make your writing appear less polished and professional.

Describing Smell without Context

Another issue writers encounter when describing smells is neglecting to provide context. Smells don’t exist in isolation; they are often tied to a specific setting or situation. To make your descriptions more effective, try to include contextual details that will help the reader imagine the scent more vividly. For example, instead of simply describing a smell as “musty,” you might indicate that the musty odor is reminiscent of a damp, old basement, which not only grounds the scent in a physical space but also allows your reader to better visualize and understand the smell.

Ignoring the Readers’ Experiences and Associations

Finally, it’s important to consider your readers’ experiences and associations when describing smells. People’s interpretations of scents can vary widely due to their personal experiences and cultural backgrounds. What smells delicious to one person might be off-putting to another. In your descriptions, try to take these differences into account by using relatable, universal examples that most readers will understand. At the same time, avoid using highly subjective or personal associations that may not resonate with everyone. By keeping the reader in mind and considering their experiences, you can create more effective, engaging descriptions of smells in your writing.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can i effectively convey scents in my writing.

To convey scents effectively in your writing, you should provide a vivid and specific description that helps the reader imagine the smell. Think about the different aspects of the scent – its intensity, its duration, and the sensations it evokes. Make connections with memories or emotions, and use sensory terms and similes to enhance the description.

What are some sensory terms used for describing various smells?

Sensory terms used for describing smells can be grouped into different categories, such as

Floral (e.g., rose, jasmine)
Fruity (e.g., citrus, berries)
Earthy (e.g., damp soil, petrichor)
Spicy (e.g., cinnamon, cloves)
Sweet (e.g., vanilla, caramel)
Pungent (e.g., ammonia, vinegar)

These terms help you create a more detailed and immersive experience for your reader.

What are some ways to describe a compelling fragrance?

When describing a compelling fragrance, consider:

Its main scent (e.g., lavender, sandalwood)
Its subtler notes (e.g., hints of lime or vanilla)
The way it evolves over time (initial burst, heart notes, and base notes)
The feelings it evokes (e.g., warmth, calm, energy)

Use comparisons and similes to make the description relatable and engaging.

How can I illustrate the smell of a person or an environment?

To illustrate the smell of a person or an environment, focus on the most characteristic and dominant scents associated with them. For a person, consider their perfume, body odor, or even the laundry detergent they use. For an environment, think of the combination of smells present, such as the saltiness of the sea, the vegetation, or the exhaust fumes in a city. Use sensory details and create a vivid description that transports your reader to the scene.

What phrases can be used to describe unpleasant odors?

Here are a few phrases you can use to describe unpleasant odors:

Rancid or sour
Musty or stale
Overpowering or suffocating
Acrid or sharp
Fetid or rotten

Be creative with your language and comparisons to help your reader understand the intensity and nature of the unpleasant odor.

How can I incorporate the sense of smell into descriptions of natural surroundings?

To incorporate the sense of smell into descriptions of natural surroundings, focus on the most characteristic scents of the setting. Think about the smells associated with the place – the earthy aroma of a forest, the fresh scent of a meadow, the salty tang of the ocean, or the fragrant blossoms in a garden. Use descriptive language and draw connections with memories or emotions to enrich your depiction and engage your reader.

ThinkWritten

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.

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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191 comments.

I have been on a reading binge since being on vacation from school. By rereading Little House, Anne of Green Gables, and Little Women among others, one wonders about writing a book. I stumbled across this while looking up unit supplements for my kiddos, and thought, hey, write a page a day and see what happens! Thank you for this collection of prompts! I’ve linked back to this page several times so others can try their hand at writing. Thank you again!

The Flicker, The Teeth, and A Warehouse in the Dark (the warehouse prompt)

I am in a large abandoned warehouse with a flickering light The only light in the whole room. It flickered leaving me in temporal darkness It flickered again and as it was dark I swore I saw something glowing It looked like glowing teeth The lights return and I see nothing Flickers on Flickers off I see the teeth closer Flickers on I see nothing Flickers off The teeth so close Flickers on An empty warehouse Flickers off The glowing teeth are inchings away bright red blood drips from their tips Flickers on Panic rises in my chest but nothing is there Turns off The mouth of bloody teeth is before my eyes I wait for the light to flicker back on I wait in complete darkness I wait And wait And wait The teeth open wide I try to scream by the darkness swallows it A hear the crunch of my bones I see my blood pore down my chest But I wait in darkness for the pain I wait And wait And wait The mouth of teeth devours my lower half I wait for pain and death I wait And wait And wait The light flickers on I see no monster Only my morphed body And blood And blood And blood And so much blood The light flickers off The monster eats my arm Flickers on I wait for pain Flickers off I watch as the creature eats my limbs Flickers on I wait for death Flickers off Slowly the teeth eat my head All I see is dark I wait for it to flicker on Where is the warehouse light? Where is the only light in the room? Where is the flicker? Where am I? Where are the bloody teeth? I wait for the light to come back And wait And wait And wait And wait And wait And wait And wait in eternal darkness

WOW. Thank you!

This is such a helpful tool! I’ve learned a lot about my self through picking a random prompt and writing the first thing that comes to mind. I’d love to see a follow up list of possible! Definitely a recomended sight!

I agree. Very helpful.

I am new at the blogging game. You have provided some wonderful ideas for blog posts. Great ideas just to get used to writing every day. Thanks

This list is really impressive and useful for those of us who are looking for good topics to blog about. Thanks!

Thank you! That somes in handy

Very nice list. Thanks for compiling and posting it. It’s not only good for bloggers, but poets, as well.

yess im using it for my new years resolution, which is to write a poem daily!

Wow, thanks so much for all these wonderful prompts! They are lots of fun and very helpful. I love how you’ve provided 365 of them–A prompt for every day of the year! 🙂

Not if it’s a leap year…

Haha. Yea. This is great though all the same.. ;-;

Lol actually there’s 364 days in a year and 365 in a leap year so……yeah

are you fucking stupid

There are actually 366 days in a leap year so… yeah

I use this for my homeschooling-I love it! Thank you so much!! This is a wonderful list. So creative! 🙂 🙂

Thanks! I’m preparing for writing every day next year and this will come in really handy. It’s just 364 writing prompts though. 164 is missing. 😉

MiMschi is wrong 164 is there i looked

I think they meant that as a joke, 164 is called left out…

Good it is useful

no its not you nonce

You Don’t Love Me, Damn You

things left unsaid

and then some

anger strangles the baby

in its crib,

flowers wilt,

rivers dry up

harsh words clatter upon the day,

echo unfortunately

till silence smothers

in its embrace

you wish you could take it back

what’s done is done

never to be undone

though things move on

part of you remains

locked in the middle of protesting

one last thing,

mouth open,

no words emerging

why must you be misunderstood?

why must everything you say

no way of straightening things out

gestures halted mid-air

an accusatory finger

shoulders locked

in sardonic shrug

dishes smash on the floor

spray of fragments

frozen mid-air

slam the door

it doesn’t open

but in spite of yourself

you turn and look

one last time…..

(Greg Cameron, Poem, Surrey, B.C., Canada)

Love these. Thank you!

This is really amazingly deep. I love it so much. You have so much talent!!

Thanks SOOO much for the prompts but I have another suggestion!

A Recipe for disaster- write a recipe for a disastrous camping trip…

that one sounds awesome.

Haha. Reminds me of the old twin’s show.. what was it.. where the two girls switch places when they meet at camp?

Pretty sure I know what you’re talking about. The Parent Trap, right? Never seen the whole movie, but it seems funny.

and also #309, everyone should have thought of a hamster “write” away XD!

May I have permission to use this list at my next Ozarks Chapter of the American Christian Writers meeting. Thank you for consideration.

Hi Leah, please send some more info here: https://thinkwritten.com/contact

i am using it for my homeschooling and i love it

i am using it for my homeschooling

where is prompt 165?

sorry I meant 164, my mistake.

well kay, there is a 164 AND 165. So your head is clearly ????????????

What I like most about these is how you can combine them and get really weird ideas. For example, empathy from the rooftops: what if you shouted something positive in public every day – or if everyone did so? It might be fun to try, and then write a diary about it. Online time travel: if people could live virtually in incredibly well=constructed versions of different time periods, what would the effects be on today’s society? Could it change our language or customs?

It would be cool if we could have goggles that showed places during a certain time period. Like Seattle 1989. And you could buy special plugins, like specific people you want to hang out with, famous or non.

That one about online time travel is crazy brilliant!!! And highly thought-provoking.

It is amazing what creative writing could do to you. Daily prompts have proven to be very inspiring and overtime writers develop their own style of writing depending on how passionate they are about it. I would love to write about all 3, online, space, and time travel. cheers! and Don’t stop writing!

I belong to a writing club. We seem to have a lot of prompts to use. I love stories having to do with rain. Would you join me. I am jim

Wow! Inspiration right here.

May I use this list for a speech at my Ozarks Chapter of the American Christian Writers?

Love the inspiration

THANK YOU. THAT IS ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS THANK YOU.

What about a leap year? You’re missing one topic.

Wonderful! I love writing and these prompts are very helpful. Thank you very much! ♥

It’s been really useful in getting me to write again! Thank you very much!

I really love the list of writing ideas you have compiled here. I will be using it and others to get myself back into writing every single day if I can be away with it. Also, I have noticed a few problems with this list. One is a repeat topic. Those are numbers 76 and 162. And you skipped a number. And have only 364 days of writing. Still through! All these ideas are absolutely amazing and awesome ideas! I commend you for putting it all together in an easy to read format too. Thank you so very much.

I think we have the list all fixed now, but thanks for catching a couple of early mistakes!

Thank you for helping me edit Lora! I don’t always have a second pair of eyes + appreciated this to fix + update the post! I always say my readers are my best editors. 🙂

these days get brighter, mine gets darker, why does it has to be me , why not life.

Mirror, Mirror: What if you mirror started talking to you?

u r awesome man

Wonderful compilation of ideas! I will send your blog along to my many Creative Writing students. I’m enjoying reading your posts.

wow!! great tips! but how long did it take you to write that? its a lot of words!! lol great stuff though..

This is so cool! I love these prompts and will definitely recommend some to my teacher!!

The promise “I made a promise with my best friend, I said i’d never break, Our personalities really did blend, But then I lied awake, The people disappearing, Her gaze was always leering. I never thought she was serious, I always took it as a joke, But it really made me curious, When she was digging around that oak, My best friend is a serial killer, And i knew the truth, My life turned into a thriller, And eating at me took away my youth, I couldn’t take it any long living with this weight, To the police I went to tell my tale, Looking at me with eyes of hate, she smiled and said, without her I would fail. Now i sit in the prison cell, Waiting for my call My friend across the room smiling, my eyes begin to swell, My neck snapping on the, from my sides my hands fall

Although my writing style is dark, that’s the way I enjoy writing, and thank you for this list, even though I didn’t do one per day, scrolling through I was able to see keywords that formed ideas in my mind

I love this <3 It's amazing :))

These are really nice I absolutely love them.

This is very helpful and I’ve been finding a way to help improve my creative writing!!! Thank you very much!

You are such a life developer, who can virtually transform a life busy with unnecessary activities humans are posted to through internet. And who can restore the appetite of people to purchase pen and paper which have considered the last commodity in the market at the expense of that great vampire ‘social media’ that left both old and young paralyzed. Thanks to the proponent of this great idea.

These are great. The Closed door one gives me a great idea for a new story! Thank you so much!

man what the fuck is this shit! i was looking for short story writing prompts and I get stuck with shit like “write about the weather outside”. Damn this shit is disappointing.

Hi John, the weather might seem boring, but there are a lot of ways you can springboard from that – maybe you write a story about a character who despises the sunshine or melts if they get rained on or they live in a underground tunnel and the house gets flooded…You can also use it as an exercise in developing more descriptive writing that shows, not tells for the scenes in your story. Writing about the weather seems “easy and boring” but seriously challenge yourself to write about it in a way that makes it interesting – it is not so easy to avoid the cliches as you might think!

I LOVE IT SO MUCH i do not know why but my kids, they will just like come on this website every time it is time to have a little bit of video games! XD

The weather outside that day was dark.

It was a perfectly reasonable sort of darkness. The kind of darkness you might get if you wake up an hour before sunrise. But it was late in the morning.

He had to make sure of that. He checked his alarm clock, his microwave oven clock, and his cell phone.

The sun was supposed to be out. But the moonlit sky was starlit and clear.

And as he looked outside again, he saw that people were out, going about their business, as if none of this really mattered at all.

What was he missing here?

(There. Now you have a short story writing prompt..)

You know what “John” i think this website is great so fuck you.

yeah you tell him john

It depends on how you view it. That one topic for instance has given me a beautiful story telling. I am currently about to round up with it and trust me the feedback has been amazing.

That is great! I’m glad it helped inspire you!

Dude kids go on here so stop swearing “John”

Maybe you need to work on improving the quality of your writing. Your use of expletives is totally uncalled for. I see nothing wrong with “writing about the weather outside”. In fact, this is a great topic and can lead to awesome discussions.

Very useful indeed. Thank u

i think this is a good prompted

I think it’s awesome, I looked for inspiration, I found inspiration, thank you

well! i fall in love with all these ideas! i loved this page! thanks for sharing these amazing ideas!

Great stuff mat Keep up the good work

I LOVE THIS SO MUCH IT IS VERY HELPFUL BUT FOR A SUGGESTION YOU COULD DO DIARY STUFF MAYBE

When I read your comment, I thought you said “DAIRY,” not “DIARY.”

So… why not both? Write something based on a dairy farmer’s diary. Or… a dairy COW’S diary. Tell their stories, their private dreams. Or hidden shame…

That’s the way to think + use this list 🙂

Great idea!

Awesome list! Thank you!

Thanks so much! I’ve always been told I’m a great writer and should publish. I haven’t done a lot of leisure writing because I’m afraid I might realize I’m NOT a good writer. My therapist wants me to write more and these prompts are perfect!

This is fun i will keep doing this no matter what every year. I can’t stop writing either. Thanks for making this, it is very fun.

This helps so much! love these ideas

Can this website give me a write on the following topic. –

Imagine that the scientists could replace the human brains with computers or invent the computers with human feelings. What do you think would happen?Would the world become a better place to live in???

I’ve been looking for prompts to work through my creative art/collage journal for 2017…and love the ones you offer here….LOVE THEM! I like that they are more than just one word and give me something to think about before I start creating each day as a warm up to what is ahead.

I hope don’t mind, but I shared them on both Instagram and my FaceBook page in hopes to get my artist/creative friends to follow along with me in creating each day. I would like to include a link to your page in a near future blog post about my creative journal.

Thank you for posting and sharing you prompts…I’m excited to get started!

I’m on number 43 and I’ve already discovered a whole bunch about myself! These prompts are amazing and I can’t wait for the next 322 of them. I’ve recommended this to several of my friends. Totally worth several notebooks chock full of prompts and a years worth of writing 🙂

Very inspiring….

Hello! Is it alright if I add some of these to a little book I’m making for my Grandmother? She hasn’t opened a computer in her life but I know these prompts would do her a world of good. I believe in the importance of asking permission to use the creative property of another person 🙂 Cheers!

Hi Maxx, of course you may share with your grandmother – the only thing we would worry about is if you were to publish them for monetary gain. Enjoy! 🙂

This is really helpful. I’m glad I saw it first. ♥

OMG!! I’ve never been in this website before!!

Thank u so much this was so helpful. Idk how u came up with all thoughts prompts. It was very helpful. Thank u again.

For the first time in a long time it finally felt like I knew was going to happen next. I was gazing into her eyes and she was gazing back. I remember it like it was just yesterday, when she was still the one for me but never forgave me. I miss the sweet sound of her laughter and now all i hear are friends. I have tried to go back and apologize to her just to see if the answer will change but even I know that it will never change because I will never be enough for her. But if she ever decides that she wants me back she can have me because a life without love is one not worth living.

gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood

can u give me one using the prompt “normal”

Thanks for this!!!!! Will definitely help me in learning to tap into my creative writing genius 🙂

Thanks, this helped me a lot!

u have a typo!!!! 364

Thanks for pointing out, got it fixed 🙂 Sometimes my brain goes faster than the computer. 🙂

I wrote this, tell me what you think; prompt #4-dancing You see her tapping her toes, always listening to music. Although she doesn’t like the music, what she doesn’t know yet is it will be stuck in her head for the next year. She’s as graceful as a butterfly yet as strong as a fighter. Many only see a pretty face yet those close enough to the fire know the passion burning deep inside of her. At home she’s quiet, always in her room yet making loud noises through the floorboards. Her parents know what she’s up to but her little brothers don’t quite understand yet. All they know is that when she goes up there she’s listening to music and soon she will play it for the whole neighborhood to hear. They don’t know that she’s practicing, practicing for the most important day of the year. The one she’s been waiting for since she’s been a little girl. Tapping her toes at the table only stops when her parents beg her to rest. Even in her dreams she on stage, dancing like a swan. Yet deep down she’s scared of the failure that she will feel if this one day goes a bit to south. Tapping her toes to the beat of her music gives her a bit of pip in her pep when she walks down the halls. No one quite understands the stress she’s going through. Through her smile she’s worries, scared that one misstep might end it all for her. But she won’t let anyone see that she’s nervous. She’s used to getting bruises, she falls on the ground but always gets back up. Because she’s a dancer, the show must go on.

Brilliant. Loved it.

Amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m working on a site in Danish about writing and I would love to translate these awesome prompts into Danish and use it on the site. Would that be OK? I’ll credit with links of course!

Hi Camilla, you cannot copy + post these on your site, but feel free to link to the article – our site is compatible with Google translate 🙂

Hi Camilla, this list cannot be republished, even if translated into another language. However, if you would like to link to our website that would be great, your readers are able to translate it into any language if they use a web browser such as Google Chrome.

My goal is to write all of these prompts before 2018

This is amazing! I am writing for fun and this is a list of amazing prompts!

Ha, Ha . I see what you did , #164 was missing and now it say write about being left out .

Thanks a ton !!!

This link has been really helpful for my blog, loved the ideas.

Thanks for not publishing my email address

You are welcome! We never publish email addresses. If you’d like to learn more about how we collect and use information you may provide us with on this website, you can read more on our privacy policy page. Hope that helps! https://thinkwritten.com/privacy/

I have another suggestion, What about “The Secret Journey to the Unknown”. I reckon it’s awesome!

I was wondering if you could please send new ideas to me, much appreciated thanks.

I love all of these so much and i try to write referring to these at least once everyday thank you so much for these!

Trust, It is a beautiful thing. You give it to others, For them to protect. They can keep it forever, Or they can destroy it.

Wow what a treasure! Am glad I have found the right place to begging my writing journey.Thanks guys

Super awesome! Thanks so much for this collection of writing prompts!!

Today is the last day of the year 2017. I’m proud to say that I was able to complete this challenge. Thank you for the inspiring prompts! 🙂

That is awesome! We might just have to think of some new ones!!

how about one with sports like the NBA

I thought my life was over when I couldn’t access this for a couple weeks. These prompts are excellent. I write two page short stories on one every day. I hope you guys never take down this site but I’m printing these for insurance because it truly was devastating. I’m very emotionally attached to this list. Thank you so much for sharing.

Yes, we did have a small glitch in our hosting services for a few days! Fortunately, it was only temporary and unexpected! {Though I’m sure it did feel like 2 weeks!} Good to hear you are using the prompts!

Very nice article. Very useful one for improving writing skills

Thank you Sid! Glad it is useful for you!

Oh my god.. This is something a different, thought provoking and a yardstick to those who cultivated passion on writing, like me, beginners. Wishes for this website. I really wanted to try this 365 days of writing. Thanks in tons.

Glad you find it helpful! I hope it keeps you inspired to keep growing as a writer!

i love writing too! i am writing a book and this website inspired me too!

i have been writing lots of things and am getting A + on writing

thxs for your time with the web

i am making a epic book. it is because of this website. you really help. i will share a link of my book once i am done with it to your awesome cool really helpful website! thank you for your time

That is great to hear Christopher! Would love to see some of your work when you are ready to share! 🙂

WOOOOOOOOW BEST SITE!

I’m going to write few marvelous essays based on ideas in your impressive list. Thanks!

Just to tell some people that 165 or 164 is not missing because some people probably can’t see but just to let u know that 164 is a prompt called “Left Out”

Dang. The second idea about writing about what it feels like to love someone who doesn’t love you back, I wrote something like that BEFORE I found this website.

You can always try writing it again, maybe from the other person’s perspective this time? That is the beauty of the open-ended writing prompts – you can always interpret them in a way to push and challenge you as a writer!

Thank you for these prompts! I enjoyed looking through them and writing them! They gave me great ideas and inspired me so much.

This is my favorite website to find inspiration to write. I had run out of ideas and i had a huge writers block but this made it all go away. Here’s something i wrote:

He is a mess She is beautiful He has tears streaming down his face She glides across the room as if it were her kingdom And she’s The reigning queen He’s curled up in a ball In the corner of the room He looks at me I wonder what he thinks I can’t take my eyes off her The way she subtly smiles when she realizes Someone is looking She seems to be happy all the time But I can see through the smile It’s my first time noticing It’s not complete That was the first time I wanted to say hi But I thought Why would he look at me? The nerd with all the answers in her head All the books in her hands And Her sleeves full of hearts She looked at me From the corner of her eye She saw me looking The boy with the tear stains She saw me His tears were no longer streaming He had finally stood up Tall and handsome As he is Eyes Bluer than the blue jay that sat outside my bedroom window She had opened a book and started reading She hadn’t changed pages for a while Safe to assume She was distracted She looked up and Without knowing I was in front of her “Hi” Her brown eyes Stared in to my soul Erased the memory of why the tears Were streaming in the first place “Hi”

I love it Cynthia, thank you for sharing and glad that it inspired you to keep writing! 🙂

Thank you for so many amazing ideas! I love the sound of mirror, mirror!

Glad you found it inspiring Ar!

read the whole thing and didn’t find anything I’d enjoy writing 🙁

What kinds of things do you like to write? We have a whole collection of additional writing prompts lists here. Sometimes challenging yourself to write something you don’t like all in its own can be a good exercise for writing. Hope that helps!

These are ingenious!

I love these prompts! They’re inspiring! I’ve chosen to challenge myself by using one of these prompts every day of this 2019 year. I posted my writings for the first prompt on my Tumblr and Facebook pages with the prompt and a link back to this article- I hope that’s alright. If not, I can take it down, or I would love to discuss a way I could continue to do this. I hope more people can see and use these prompts because I have already found joy in using the first one.

Hi Elizabeth! Glad you are enjoying the prompts! You can definitely post what you write with these prompts as long as you do not copy the entire list or claim them as your own. Linking back to our website or this post will help others find the prompts so they too can use them for writing! If you have any questions feel free to contact us anytime using our contact form. Thanks!

Amazing original prompts Thank you so much!

Good list, but you’re not supposed to mistake it’s for its. Not on a website for writers, of all places!

I appreciate your comment, especially because after triple checking the article AND having a few grammar-police personality type friends do the same we could not find any typos. All of the instances of its and it’s are the correct usage.

However, one thing we did remember is that it is very easy for the person reading to accidentally misunderstand and not interpret it the way as the writer intended.

To clarify when we should use it’s vs. its:

We use it’s when we intend the meaning as the contraction. This is a shortened way of writing it is . We use its without an apostrophe when we use it as a possessive noun. Any instances you may note here are correct for their intended meaning.

Some examples:

Prompt #141 It’s a Sign : In this case we intend it to be interpreted as IT IS a Sign , where the usage is a contraction.

Prompt #7 The Rocket Ship : In this case we intend it to be interpreted as the possessive form.

I hope that helps clear up any possible confusion for you!

Thank you soooo much! That helped me a lot!

You’re welcome Keira! Glad you enjoyed our list of writing ideas!

It is so rich in bright and thought-provoking ideas. Thank you so much. Get inspired to have more, please

Thanks for this. I love to write things like this. Some of these though, weren’t as interesting as I wanted it to be, not saying that they aren’t interesting. I like the help you’ve added in, such as being led into a dark room with only a flashlight to help so it gets us started. Great job!

Thanks Maya, I’m glad you like the prompts. Sometimes the prompts that seem boring are the best ones to help you practice your skills as a writer to make them interesting topics. Some of the best writers can make the most mundane topics fun!

Nice….I don’t think I’ll ever lack something to write on … I so appreciate your ideas ..,they are great

Thank you, glad you enjoyed them!

Thank you for providing these writing prompts! They are great!

Thank You so much, these are amazing to start of with to get the creative juices flowing

Thank you very much

Sweet! Thank you so much! I plan to use some of these for some creative writing on CourageousChristianFather.com

I’m glad they inspired you Steve! I always love seeing what everyone writes with these prompts – I really enjoyed your post about the cookie ad jingle! 🙂

Thanks so much for this list. I needed something to kickstart my writing. This is exactly what I’ve been looking for! I just wrote #1. WooHoo!!

Thank you for your list. This is great!

I write feature articles for our church library’s monthly newsletter. Perusing this list has helped me come up with a couple dozen ideas to consider for future issues! Thanks much for putting this together – it is being used beyond the scope of what you intended, I think!

That’s wonderful Debbie! There are so many ways to apply these prompts to any sort of project – thank you for sharing how you are using them!

Thanks for your prompts, an idea I have for a prompt is write a story based on your favorite story for example I’m writing a fantasy book based on the game dungeons and dragons…

i guss its ok

cgv hbvkd vjvhsvhivhcickbcjh

Just needed to ask: I’d like to think these prompts are for free writing with no pauses? But, does one edit and polish the piece after that? I keep reading about writing every day…like brain dumping. But, there is never a mention of what one does with the piece after that??

This article has been written with sheer intelligence. Such 365 creative writing prompts has been written here. This article is worth marking as Good. I like how you have researched and presented these exact points so clearly.

Thank you for this list! You’ve inspired me to take up the challenge, though I haven’t written anything in years!

I have even created a blog to post my ideas, and keep myself accountable. I hope this is okay, I will credit, and provide a link back to this page on each post. https://thefishhavegotitright.blogspot.com/

I love it Ariadne, I’ll definitely come check out your site! Keep at it!

This is really Helpful thanks I love it😊

I never knew how much I had to write about. This should definitely keep me busy! Thank you so much for the list.

Hi! I saw a note saying this had been updated for 2020. I was curious if there are plans to update it for 2021. If so, when would the 2021-updated list become available?

Hi Gabrielle, I am not sure when we will next update this list, but feel free to check out some of our other writing prompts lists if you’ve exhausted this one! Writing Prompts for Kids {which is for grown-ups too!} and Poetry Writing Prompts are two great ones to check out. Hope that helps!

Loved this a lot! I would like to ask permission for using these prompts for my poetry and stories page on Instagram. Kindly let me know if I can use these and let my followers write on them too.

Hi, Piyusha, I’m just a user of the site like you, so I’m not “official”. But if you hit CTRL + F in your browser, that should open the “Find” dialog. Search on “Camilla”, and that will take you to a post and response concerning your request. Have a great and productive writing day. K. B. Tidwell

very informative thank you

I have always had problems finding something to write about. My problem is solved🥰 Thank you

I love this

Oh great. Good for everyone who enjoys picking the pen and writing something readable

The Best Examples Of The 5 Senses And Descriptive Writing

Using the 5 senses in writing can deeply immerse readers in scenes and stories by creating more vivid imagery in their minds. It’s a skill that can elevate books to a higher level. But so often we writers find ourselves lured into the trap of relying on sight and sound. Relying on a narrow range of sensory language isn’t always enough to bring a story to life. We can inject so much more into our stories simply by utilizing sensory details in our writing.

In this guide, we’ll take a look at our sensory organs, why we use vivid writing that appeals to the senses, look at the 5 senses with examples of descriptive writing, and ways we can use each sense to elevate our stories to the next level.

Many people experience things through smell, touch, and taste. So appealing to the senses in our writing will enrich our tales and prose with vivid imagery , which is often used to help the reader feel immersed and engaged.

In fact, the oft-forgotten 5 senses are some of the most powerful forms of description, things that can enrich a story and give it life.

And, as we’ll see below, using a sensory description has an incredible ability to connect with us on a psychological level.

Let’s dive in.

Choose A Chapter

Why are the five senses important in writing, how to use the 5 senses in writing, the power of sensory description, what are the five sensory organs, imagery and the 5 senses, the 5 senses and descriptive writing examples, 5 senses writing checklist, examples of a descriptive paragraph using sensory details, using the 5 senses in writing – exercises, adjectives for the five senses, discover more examples of descriptive writing using the 5 senses, using the 5 senses in writing – faqs.

Using your five senses in your writing is an incredibly powerful way to immerse your reader in the tale.

The more the reader can understand what it’s like to be in your character’s shoes at that precise moment, be it fleeing a demon or marching to war, knowing how it feels and smells like, as well as the visual and audio descriptions, can elevate stories to a whole new level. It quite simply makes it more enjoyable to read.

From a writing perspective, incorporating each of the five senses in your writing at appropriate moments is something your readers will love.

From the perspective of the fantasy writer specifically, using the 5 senses is a terrific way to reveal the details created during your worldbuilding process.

This is especially useful when you’re trying to convey unique imagery or something that’s altogether alien to the reader. It’s something I used a lot when writing Pariah’s Lament and readers loved it. This is just one of the many 5 senses examples you’ll find below.

If you re-read some of your favourite books there’ll no doubt be passages where the writer employs a sight and smell or taste or touch to great descriptive effect. Oftentimes they employ simple but effective techniques (which we’ll cover below) that draw you deeper into the scene, so much so that you feel as if you’re there.

Often some of our favourite books are those that use to great affect the five senses. Books that transport us to new worlds and take us on epic adventures. And so often it’s the vivid descriptions that draw us in and help us walk amongst the characters.

We’ll look at some examples of the 5 senses in writing below that illustrate just how effective they can be further on below. But first, let’s look at why this is all so important.

The 5 Senses And Writing About Feelings And Emotions

It’s difficult to describe how a character feels. People are complex beings and at the best of times, we can’t make sense of how we think and feel about a given thing.

When writing, using the 5 senses can open up doors into the minds of our characters. In utilising them, we can avoid simply telling the reader what our character is feeling, (like, “he felt sad”) and instead, we can suggest or show it through the likes of body language, like how their shoulders are (sagging or raised).

Here are some more examples of the 5 senses when describing emotion:

Sight – If, for example, your character is feeling a little down, you could focus on describing the way they interpret the world around them, such as focusing on the grey clouds hanging low in the sky, the wilted flowers in the garden, or the empty chair across the room.
Sound – Incorporating sounds can help to create an atmosphere that resonates with your readers. Let’s say your character is feeling anxious. You could describe the ticking clock, the distant sirens, the creaking floorboards—things that increase the tension.
Touch – A powerful method is to use tactile descriptions to help your readers feel what the character is feeling. For example, if your character is feeling nervous, you can describe their clammy hands, the beat of their heart in their ears, the tightness in their chest.
Taste – Using taste really adds depth to your descriptions of emotion. If your character is feeling joyful, you could describe the sweetness of a ripe strawberry, the richness of a dark chocolate truffle, or the effervescence of champagne bubbles. Linking these things back to memories can also help to trigger a more powerful reaction. For instance, the taste of a an Indian curry that you had the night you proposed to your wife.
Smell – Scent can also help to create a visceral experience for your readers, one that relates to them on a more emotional level. If your character is feeling nostalgic, you can describe the aroma of freshly baked cookies, the salty sea air, or the musky scent of old books.

By using the five senses in your writing you can create a multi-dimensional experience for your readers, making your characters and their emotions more real and relatable. Let’s take a look at just how powerful sensory details are when it comes to painting a picture in the reader’s mind.

We’ve covered a lot about using sensory descriptions and how they can elevate your writing to the next level. However, there are a lot of scientific studies that back up the theory.

For instance, in a study published back in 2011 by The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, it was found that we process certain words faster than others if there is a sensory experience attached to them.

Such studies aren’t new. In fact, Miller and Johnson-Laird (1976) examined how fundamental “word-percept associations” are to our language. This was expanded upon n a 2003 study by Rakova who emphasised a very important point—that the purpose of language is to express how we feel, what we see, hear, smell and taste.

Another study on sensory linguistics (which looks at how language relates to the senses), published by the University of Birmingham , examined humanity’s dependence on perceptions and how we interact with the world through feeling, seeing, tasting, hearing and smelling.

What we can see here is a growing understanding of the power and influence of a piece of sensory description. By examining these studies, writers can find a whole new appreciation for using the 5 senses in writing.

Why Do Writers Use Sensory Details?

Writers use sensory details in writing to help readers feel more immersed and engaged with the story. Explaining how something tastes can create vivid images and sensations in the mind of a reader. This can help make the story more enjoyable to read.

What Are Sensory Details?

Sensory details make use of the five senses—touch, sight, taste, sound, and smell—to make your writing more immersive. This draws readers deeper into the story such that they feel like they’re experiencing everything the characters do.

What Is Sensory Writing?

Sensory writing is the process of using the senses of sound, sight, touch, taste and smell in our writing to paint vivid images in a reader’s mind.

Finding Sensory Details Examples

Above, we looked at some sensory details examples that hopefully have provided you with a good idea of how to create vivid imagery in your writing. If you’re looking for more examples, I recommend checking out the following books that all make excellent use of the five senses:

Blindness by José Saramago – great for sense of sight examples
Perfume by Patrick Süskind
Taste by Roald Dahl (short story) – an excellent example of describing taste in writing.
Invisible Collection by Stefan Zweig

How Do You Achieve Vivid Writing That Appeals To The Senses?

If you want to learn how to achieve vivid writing that appeals to the senses, here are some quick tips:

Practise – it sounds simple but one of the best ways to get used to including the 5 senses in your writing is to practise. Below, you can find lots of handy exercises that can help you sharpen your writing skills.
Reading – another very effective method of sharpening your usage of the five senses in your writing is to simply read the works of top-class authors. These talented writers can use small details that appeal to the senses and immerse you in the story.
Explore – to boost your vocabulary when describing scenes, characters and feelings with the senses, it helps to go out and explore the world and absorb what it is you’re trying to convey. For example, if you need to describe the feeling of the bark of a tree, going out and examining and touching the different trees around you can help you come up with ideas for describing textures, smells and unique visual descriptions.

Before we dive into looking at the 5 senses in a writing context, let’s look at what the five sensory organs are:

Special receptors in the skin that enable us to touch and feel

Combined, our five senses enable us to learn, experience and create memories. Pepsi Max, for example, always reminds me of my history lessons in college—I’d drink a can during every lesson. Think of songs too. They have an incredible ability to transport us back to moments in our past. Let’s explore things in more detail.

If you’d like to learn more about the basics surrounding the 5 senses, see more examples, or learn how to incorporate sensory description in your writing, see this quick video.

Are There More Than 5 Senses?

Now, something you may be wondering about is whether or not there are more than the 5 classic senses. It is, in fact, believed that there is more than touch, taste, sound, sight, smell. These golden 5 were defined by Aristotle because he could relate them to sensory organs. They are sometimes known as the “five senses folk model”.

But it depends on the manner in which you define a sense.

Newer approaches look at the number of sensory organs we have. And many academics now counter the sixth sense as the vestibular system. This relates to the inner ear and the impact it has on our balance and vision.

But other academics have gone further than this. Some tweak the definition to include sensory receptors. Now the skin, for instance, has at least four sensory receptors, relating to pain, temperature, touch and body awareness (otherwise known as proprioception).

So when someone asks how many senses do we have, it’s all a matter of definition. You can check out this awesome video below by SciShow which explains things in more detail.

Perhaps the main one of the five senses, sight often receives information first and therefore forms our initial judgements.

When it comes to using sight in writing, our stories and characters are often guided by this prime form of description. We describe what our characters see.

However, it would be nigh impossible to describe every aspect of a scene, and even if you did achieve it, nigh impossible to read.

Some of the most acclaimed writers, Charles Dickens, in particular, approached it by picking the right details. The little things that tell us everything. Let’s look at an example of the sense of sight in writing from Great Expectations :

“There was a bookcase in the room; I saw, from the backs of the books, that they were about evidence, criminal law, criminal biography, trials, acts of parliament, and such things. The furniture was all very solid and good, like his watch-chain. It had an official look, however, and there was nothing merely ornamental to be seen. In a corner, was a little table of papers with a shaded lamp: so he seemed to bring the office home with him in that respect too, and to wheel it out of an evening and fall to work.”

This is Jagger’s office. Though he doesn’t feature, we’ve gleaned much about who he is from details like the types of books upon the shelves and the paper-filled table, suggesting he lives a busy, professional life.

Colour is another fantastic tool when it comes to sight. Dickens was known for using colours to portray emotions or themes, such as red for frustration or anger, black for death, white for purity or goodness. Using colour, particularly with themes and the premise , can add extra layers to a story.

We explore some more 5 senses examples below to give you some ideas when it comes to sight.

Writing Prompt

Stand in the middle of your bedroom. Look all around you. Make notes of every little detail you see. Colours, shapes. Crumbs or dust on the floor. The more attentive you can be the better.

Pick out things that could relate to characterisation. The books on a shelf perhaps—what kind of books are they? Are there empty glasses beside your bed, dishes too? All of this helps to build interesting imagery, as well as contribute to other elements of the story, in this instance, characterization .

Sound is incredibly important when it comes to using the 5 senses in our writing. Dialogue dominates many stories, but so often little attention is paid to how characters sound when they talk. It’s strange when you think about how unique people sound, and a person’s voice makes such a difference to how we form views of them.

Something I learned not so long ago is that ducks don’t quack. They tend to grunt or even cackle. It’s easy to assume how things sound, but sometimes what we assume is wrong.

It’s always worth taking the time to research. In doing so you may find new and original ways to describe the sound. Using metaphors and similes, particularly if the sound is unusual, is a great way to bring clarity to descriptions.

Another often overlooked thing is silence. Silence is an excellent tool to set the tone or build an atmosphere or tension . A noiseless forest. A still, foggy street. Eerie.

Either using yourself or ideally, your character, place yourself in a location in which things are happening around you—a park, for instance. Close your eyes and listen.

Make a note of every little sound you hear, from tweeting birds to jackhammers digging up roads. If you can, make a note of how different sounds make you feel. Do fireworks startle you, for instance? Then think about why they could startle you or your character.

Of all the five senses, touch is, in my view, one of the most powerful yet underrated ones. If you can convey touch in an effective way, you’ll reap the rewards.

The scope of this sense depends on the nature of the scene, but imagine, for example, walking barefoot through a forest. The softness of moss between your toes, the cool slime of mud, the pokes and scratches of sticks and stones. Such details can draw readers deeper into the story.

We’ll look at some sensory writing exercises below, but as a brief writing prompt now, close your eyes and pick something up. Describe how that object feels. What features does it have? The texture? Sturdiness? Width? Weight?

These little details can make all the difference when it comes to incorporating the 5 senses in your writing.

Taste is the more neglected one out of the five sensory organs when it comes to writing. Just like all of the senses, using taste can enrich your story immensely.

How many times have you said the phrase, “It tastes like …”. So many of our memories are tied to tastes. Like I said before, Pepsi Max always reminds me of history classes in college. Which tastes trigger memories for you?

If this happens to us, it happens to your characters too. It’s a great thing to include within your characterization process.

Like smell, taste can serve as a trigger for memories. For example, a husband who shared a love for apple turnovers baked by his deceased wife is reminded of her whenever he eats one.

Taste can also trigger emotions. There’ve been times when I’ve eaten food that tasted so good I bounced with glee in my chair.

A fun one. Head down to your kitchen and finding something to eat that has a bit of texture. Close your eyes, take a bite. Focus closely as you chew, as the food rolls around your mouth, over your tongue and down your throat. How does it taste? How does it make you feel?

We, at last, arrive at smell, though its place is no reflection on its importance when it comes to using the 5 senses in our writing.

The power of smells cannot be underestimated. We smell things all of the time and those scents help to shape our impressions. What can you whiff right now?

A smell helps us to form a judgement on things, such as whether something’s okay to eat. And crucially, smells can trigger vivid memories and emotions, vital tools to any writer.

Here’s one of my favorite 5 senses examples for using smell in writing from James Joyce’s Ulysses :

“ Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. He liked thick giblet soup, nutty gizzards, a stuffed roast heart, liverslices fried with crustcrumbs, fried hencods’ roes. Most of all he liked grilled mutton kidneys which gave to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine.”

How do you describe the smell of rain in creative writing?

The technical term for the smell of rain is “petrichor”.

Rain brings with it a freshness, a crispness, an earthiness. It awakens the scents of other things like dry soil, flowers and grass.

Similar to the task above which involves a trip out to a busy place, like a park, sit down and have a good sniff. Another good place to try is a coffee shop. Lots of smells of roasting coffee and baking cakes in there.

Importantly, think about where those smells lead you in your mind. Do they trigger memories? Do associated words pop into your mind? From your character’s perspective, this is what their experience would be like too.

The main aim of using the 5 senses is to create imagery in the minds of readers. That is the ultimate aim of writing fiction—to transfer the thoughts and ideas from the writer to the reader.

It’s arguably the most magical thing about writing, the ability for an author to connect with a reader thousands of miles away or hundreds of years into the future.

So it’s up to the writer to create vivid imagery and the 5 senses is one way of achieving that.

There are actually specific terms for the types of imagery that each sensory organ can conjure. Here they are:

Visual Imagery – this, of course, relates to sight
Olfactory Imagery – this fancy word relates to smell
Auditory Imagery – you may have guessed, this one relates to the description of sounds
Gustatory Imagery – this one’s all about taste
Tactile Imagery – and this final one is all about touch, an often-forgotten sense

5 senses imagery, in short, is a powerful tool in a writer’s arsenal. Let’s look at some examples of how it’s used in practice.

Let’s move on to look at the 5 senses and descriptive writing examples. As we’ve seen above, vivid imagery is often used to help the reader feel immersed in the story. So in this section, I’ve provided some descriptive writing examples from some bestselling books that make great use of the 5 senses.

“The tearing of flesh, as though a butcher were yanking meat from a flank. The bubbling of liquids and the soft rasping of the cutting tools.” Tooth & Nail , Ian Rankin

“Stars spun across his vision and his head felt as if it were about to burst… With difficulty, Hanno undid the chinstrap and eased off his helmet. Cool air ruffled his sweat-soaked hair.” Hannibal: Fields of Blood Ben Kane

“A cold wind was blowing out of the north, and it made the trees rustle like living things. All day, Will had felt as though something were watching him, something cold and implacable that loved him not.” A Game of Thrones, George RR Martin

“It was dark and dim all day. From the sunless dawn until evening the heavy shadow had deepened, and all hearts in the City were oppressed. Far above a great cloud streamed slowly westward from the Black Land, devouring light, borne upon a wind of war; but below the air was still and breathless, as if all the Value of Anduin waited for the onset of a ruinous storm.” The Return Of The King , JRR Tolkien.

This last one for me is a great example of a descriptive paragraph using the five senses. From the off, you not only get a vivid image of the setting (dark, dim, sunless dawn), but you can feel what it’s like to be there on an emotional level (hearts in the City were oppressed). Our senses are further teased with the description of a “still and breathless” air.

If you’d like to find more sensory description examples, I recommend doing this simple exercise:

Pick up any book that you see, one ideally that you don’t mind marking with a pen or highlighter. Next, scan the pages, looking for descriptive scenes. Whenever you see a sentence that refers to any of the five senses, highlight it in some way.

The benefit of doing this is that you get examples from a variety of different writers, each with their own clever way of making their exposition more immersive.

Something you may notice is that many of them employ metaphors and similes to help you build a visual image in your mind. This is a very effective way of using the 5 senses in writing. You could say things like:

The water smashed into the ground like the tide hitting a rocky coast
A squeal filled the air like a pig fearing slaughter
It smelled like an overflowing latrine pit sat in the baking sun

You can learn more about using metaphors and similes in this guide on writing prose.

More Examples Of Descriptive Writing Using The 5 Senses

If you’re looking for more 5 senses examples for your writing, one of the best things you can do is to read books that pay particular attention to this. One of the standout books that explore this is Blindness by José Saramago.

There’s no shortage of sensory language examples out there for you to study. From books to writing guides like this, there are plenty of helpful resources you can learn from.

Something I’ve done to improve my use of the 5 senses in my writing is to include them within the planning process. It’s good to save it until the end when you’ve plotted out your story or chapter, however.

What I do is read over the plan and try and place myself in the scenes. Working my way through each sense, I list everything that pops into my head.

It’ll be unlikely that you need to spend too much time on sight , but taking the time to consider things in detail can provoke new and unique ideas. What little details can be included? Remember the power of specificity.
Next, onto sounds . Like sights, it’s unlikely you’ll need to spend too much time on this but it’s always helpful to consider the likes of characters’ voices and any usual sounds that could be featured.
Smells . When it comes to smells a good starting point is to list everything that comes to mind, even mere whiffs, which can be the most telling of all. Smells can provoke memories and emotions too, like the smell of perfume could remind a character of their dead lover, and that leaves you open to describe emotions.
What can your character touch or feel? How does the hilt of the sword feel in your character’s fingers? How does the touch of a vivacious woman feel to your lonely character? What information can be gleaned from the manner of a handshake?
Lastly, what tastes , if any, can you include? Is your character eating? Can they taste blood after being punched in the cheek? Do they enter a room where the smell is so foetid they can taste it?

I wanted to provide you with a few examples of descriptive paragraphs that use sensory details. Examine how they elevate the scene by drawing you deeper. Each little detail paints a more vivid picture, such that you can almost feel yourself there, experiencing it yourself. This is a real skill when it comes to creative writing, but it’s definitely one you can learn and master.

Let’s look at our first 5 senses paragraph example:

The mud of the road sucked at her tattered leather boots, a quagmire after incessant rains. Autumn circled like a hawk. The wind grabbed at her woollen green cloak and homespun dress. The hand-me-downs from her cousins never fitted, always too wide at the waist and short of length. She pulled her cloak tight about her, bundling it around her hands to keep away the biting chill.

The ringing gave way to those crashes and bangs, each one coming with the beat of his heart. His eyes flickered open. Slate-grey clouds hung above. Dust hovered in the air, rocks and debris showered down upon him. He raised his throbbing head and looked around. Men and women, hands over their ears, cowered down behind the crenellations of the wall, fear etched upon their faces, consuming their eyes, paralyzing their bodies. A few defiant individuals continued to loose arrows. For many, it was the last they shot. The Karraban thunder smashed the parapets to bits, obliterated siege engines, battered the cliff behind them and knocked from it great chunks of rock that tumbled down to crush those below. The ringing in Jem’s ears eased enough for him to hear the screams. They became the backdrop to the rumbling of the Karraban thunder. Only one thought entered Jem’s mind: flee.

The bells rang loud and panicked across Yurrisa. Hidden in the shadows of the abandoned warehouse, Edvar and the others lay in wait. He peered through a crack in a boarded window at the cobbled street. Echoing along it came a shout. Another. Steps rushed toward him, and into view burst a group of soldiers, breaths billowing mist in the cold morning air.

Laughter rippled from the table behind Edvar. The three men were tanners, the least difficult of all working men to identify: stained clothes and hands and stinking of a peculiar cocktail of rotten flesh and mint. They rubbed themselves with the latter to mask the stench of the former. Nobody could bear their presence long enough to tell them it didn’t work.

As you can see, these examples use each of the five senses to great effect. If you’re curious where these came from, I pinched them from Pariah’s Lament .

Here are a few useful exercises to get into the swing of using the senses. The more you practice, the more it’ll become ingrained in the way you write.

One place, one sense . As the title suggests, think of a place and describe everything you can using just one sense. Challenge yourself. Pick a sense you feel you struggle with. Or do one sense, then a different one.
Close your eyes and pick something up. This one was mentioned above, but it’s a powerful tool. Jot down everything you can think of.
Pick your favourite food and eat! This one’s a bit more fun. Take chocolate for example. Savour each bite and write down everything, from taste to texture, the sounds of it breaking in your mouth, and importantly, how it makes you feel.
Pick something alien and try to use sensory descriptions. This is a great way to challenge your use of the 5 senses because you have to create everything from scratch and to a whole new level of detail. So if you’re a sci-fi writer, this could be a great way to learn how to describe a spaceship in writing.

Here’s a brilliant visual exercise too which I highly recommend trying. It’s quick, and easy and really does hone your skills when it comes to using the 5 senses in writing.

Another Descriptive Writing Exercise Using The 5 Senses

This exercise I call walk and write . Take a notepad and write five headings: sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. The next time you go out, even if it’s just to the shop on the corner, write down everything you experience. The touch of the rain or breeze, how the pavement feels underfoot, snippets of passing conversation you hear, the whistle of birds, how that warm and crispy sausage roll tastes. *Warning* You may look odd stopping all the time.

Here’s a step-by-step guide:

Take a walk outside and observe your surroundings. Use your senses to take note of what you see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. Write down your observations.
Choose one of the things you noticed on your walk and use it as a prompt for your writing. For example, if you noticed the sound of birds chirping, write a descriptive paragraph that captures that sound.
As you write, be sure to use sensory language to bring your description to life. Instead of simply saying “I heard birds chirping,” try something like “The melody of birdsong filled my ears, each chirp a delicate note in a symphony of nature.”
Repeat this exercise for each of the senses. Choose a different observation each time and challenge yourself to use vivid sensory details to paint a picture with your words.

Write A Short Story With The 5 Senses

One of the most effective ways that you can sharpen your sensory description writing is to write a short story with the 5 senses.

The way it works is simple. Plan out your story—characters, plotting, theme—and then when it comes to the writing, you’re only permitted to use the five senses.

It can help to think of a story in which you’d likely use the sensory organs more than usual. Let’s look at a few writing prompts:

Your protagonist awakens in a dark cave. It’s cold and damp. They must figure out what’s happened and find their way out.
Your protagonist is fleeing through a forest. What are they running from? What awaits them up ahead?
Your character is upon a ship and is knocked overboard. How do they survive in the turbulent waves?

These are just a few prompts that are specifically designed to help you use the five senses in your writing. Trust me, an exercise like this will have your skillset sharpened in no time.

5 Senses Writing Prompts

Here are some 5 senses writing prompts that may help you get started:

You’re at home, watching TV. You catch the scent of something. Something that makes you mute the TV, look around, stand up. What is it you smell?
For three days you’ve been travelling alone through the woods. You’re two days from your destination. Tired, weary. And you’re pretty sure something is following you. The sun has long since set. The embers are dying in your fire. And you begin to hear sounds close by…
You’ve just started a new job. The office is big, labyrinthine. On your way back from lunch on your first day, you get lost. You open a door with stairs leading down. You follow them. Get further lost. And the steps give way. You awake in darkness to the sound of something growling. You reach for your phone, turn on the torch…

There are a few examples of sensory language-based writing prompts for you. See where they take you.

You can never have enough adjectives to help you describe the five senses. Below, you can find a pretty simple list, but it serves as a great starting point. From there you can add some of your own examples of using the 5 senses in descriptive writing.

adjectives for the five senses in writing

Thank you so much for checking out this guide on using the 5 senses in writing. I genuinely hope it’s been of use to you. Below, I’ve included some more guides on writing as well as places you can find extra 5 senses descriptive writing examples that you may find useful.

I may not have a sensory details generator on my site, but you can check out this random fantasy name generator tool to help with character creation
Learn more from my fantasy writing podcast
And to help you make your notes about the 5 senses, check out my guide to notebooks for writers
Check out my free book description generator here
Head here to learn more about the best essays on creative writing
What is the effect of foreshadowing?
How To Unlock The Five Senses In Your Writing
Descriptive Writing And The 5 Senses

Below, you can find answers to some commonly asked questions when it comes to sensory descriptions, as well as more descriptive writing examples using the 5 senses.

“The icy wind rattled the ancient shutters upon the windows, stirring a shudder and setting every hair on her body on edge.”

This sentence uses sensory language to describe not just how the setting looks (from the rattling ancient shutters we see it’s an old possibly abandoned house), and crucially, we get a sense of how it feels to be in that setting, which is the main objective. It feels eerie, we feel the cold. We’re spooked.

Sensory description in fiction writing requires a writer to utilise the 5 senses – sight, sound, touch, taste and smell.

Incorporating the senses into your writing is simple. First, focus on what your characters can see in the scene. Then, one by one, think about what they can hear, smell, feel and taste. Assort your various descriptions and pick out your most powerful few.

The five senses are often used to draw a reader deeper into the scene, to feel closer to the characters. Writers do this by adding extra details focusing on the likes of touch and smell. This vivid writing that appeals to the senses can help immerse readers in our tales.

The best way is to pick up your favourite book and highlight any sentences or paragraphs that utilise the 5 senses. You’ll then have a bank of sensory details examples to call upon whenever you need them.

A sensory description is one that includes sight, sound, touch, smell and taste. Exploring sensory language examples gives you a greater ability to immerse your readers in the story and experience what the characters feel.

If you have any questions or need more examples of the 5 senses in writing, please contact me.

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32 thoughts on “The Best Examples Of The 5 Senses And Descriptive Writing”

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When writing about the senses, authors should be careful to avoid FILTER words (saw, heard, felt, smelled, tasted) that detract from the scene. Don’t say, “I saw the sparkling water.” Instead, make it more vivid. Leave out “saw.” We know you saw it because you are describing it to us. Tell us instead more of WHAT you are seeing. “The sparkling water bubbled as a creature from below made its way to the surface.” Same goes with using “heard,” “felt,” “smelled,” and “tasted.” Omit those words and describe those senses so people can experience what the character is experience.

Terrific points! Thanks for taking the time to share!

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Thanks for sharing!

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Thanks for the link!

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This was very helpful in as a source.

How to Write Evocatively & Pull Readers Into Your Story: 3 Nose-Tickling Examples

by Henneke | 36 enchanting opinions, add yours? :)

How to Describe Smells in Writing - 3 Nose-Tickling Examples

It happened to me recently.

I was reading the book Revelations in Air by Jude Stewart.

As I’m reading, I feel like I’m standing next to her smelling the orange she’s peeling. I notice a whiff of lavender as she dabs the scented oil on her wrist. Oh, and the smell of freshly-cut grass!

How can she describe smells so fabulously?

I quickly let go of my envy and begin to study her writing: What makes Stewart’s descriptions so evocative? What can I learn from her?

Describing aromas may seem like a niche writing technique but the lessons apply to almost any writing, fiction or non-fiction.

Shall we look at some examples first?

Example 1: The aromas of peanut butter

Here’s how Stewart describes peanut butter:

It’s rich, smoky, surprisingly deep. The scent stacks in clear layers: at the top floats a note of honeyed sweetness. A heavy swirl of oil forms the grounding base note. In the fat middle, it’s all sticky, particulate peanuts: a smell that matches the taste with uncanny fidelity.

When I read this description, I think: Yes, I know the fat middle with the peanutty smell. I also know the oily base note. But the sweetness? I’m not sure.

I grab a pot of peanut butter and sniff. At first, I only smell peanuts and oil. Then I let the smell come to my nose more quietly, and there it is: Sweetness.

To describe a smell more accurately, you first have to sniff more attentively. You have to stop and pay attention. That’s how you can detect the different layers of a smell—honeyed sweetness, oily base, and sticky peanuts.

Example 2: The smell of petrichor

Petrichor is the smell of rain after a long period of dry weather. Stewart starts her description like this:

Petrichor, the smell of parched earth after rain, is immersive, roomy enough to move around in. Its bright mineral tang is edged with vegetal green. There’s a hint of sourness, haloed by fresh water droplets. Petrichor lifts the ground, with all its smells, closer to the nose. It’s as if the earth has exhaled. Because this smell emanates from millions of pinpoints at once, petrichor has a stereoscopic quality. Inside the smell, each moment seems to dilate and slow. It fills the air with relief.

Describing a smell can be tricky. In his book An Immense World , Ed Yong suggests the English language has only 3 dedicated words for smells : “stinky, fragrant, and musty.” So, we borrow words from other senses, use metaphors, or name the source of a smell (e.g., rose). In the above description of petrichor, the phrases mineral tang and sourness describe tastes as much as (or probably more than) smell.

Stewart turns her description of petrichor into a 3-dimensional experience: It’s immersive and roomy enough to move around in. It’s as if the earth has exhaled (such a lovely example of personification !). The air is filled with relief.

Isn’t that lovely?

Example 3: The scent of roses

How would you describe the scent of roses?

Perhaps: Flowery, a tad sweet. The roses in our garden are still in bud, so no chance to sniff their scent for a more accurate description. I’m inclined to suggest that roses smell like … eh … roses, yeah?

Here’s how Stewart starts her description of the scent of roses:

At first the smell of roses fills the nose in a giddy rush, sweet and headlong. The burst of luxury feels total. But that rush rapidly settles down and shades into a regal stillness. You become aware of joining a vast throng of admirers in a shared contemplation. The scent’s wildness doesn’t stay wild for long in the nose; inevitably, one recalls one’s grandmother in her church best. Yet behind its rounded, classical quality, the scent still emanates some heat, prickly and pollen-like. It evokes late summer, lazily crawling insects, the finery of silken petals rotting under a bush, the sprawl of untidy nature. Inside the smell of roses one senses the momentary quality of life, how rapidly loveliness blossoms and fades, the nearness of beauty to rot.

Stewart relates how she experiences the scent in two stages: The giddy rush that settles down into a regal stillness. Next, she describes the memories the scents evoke: Grandmother, late summer, crawling insects. And lastly, there’s a philosophical note on the fading of beauty and the momentary quality of life.

Smells can ground you into the present. Forget all your worries. Forget all your stress. Instead savor the smells in the air around you, here and now. I love this when I’m cooking. I love how the smells evolve and intermingle. It’s a full-body experience. As Stewart writes, olfactory receptors not only “line our noses but also our skin, skeletal muscles, and major organs.” We smell with our entire bodies.

But aromas aren’t just about the present. They can also evoke strong memories and transport us back to the past. As Stewart suggests, smell is a form of “emotional time travel:”

(…) important memories in your life are nearly always emotional. When an important episodic memory forms, we’re feeling all the feels, registering all the details clearly. If we happen to smell something distinctive during that experience, the amygdala, hippocampus, and olfactory bulbs fuse feelings, memory, and smell together effortlessly.

To describe a smell, you can choose to stay in the present or you can go back in time. Like music, aromas can evoke strong memories.

The art of describing a smell

As we’ve seen there are at least 3 techniques for describing a smell.

First, you can use sensory language to describe the different layers of an aroma, and how it changes over time.

This technique requires us to pay close attention: To sniff, and sniff again, and then to put into words what we’re smelling. This may require patience and practice. Stewart admits that while working on the chapter about the smell of skin, she sniffs her partner’s t-shirt for 20 (!!!) minutes.

Next, you can turn a smell into a multi-sensory or 3-dimensional experience.

You can describe how you experience a smell, how it caresses or prickles your nose or how you can move in it—like the softly sweet smell of honey that greeted me and enveloped me when I cycled towards a field of rapeseed a few weeks ago.

Lastly, you can narrate the memories and associations that a smell evokes.

I have many aroma-infused memories of living in Hong Kong in the late 90s. I remember the excitement and slight trepidation of arriving at the old airport and disembarking into the clammy dampness with the overbearing smells of kerosine and hot tarmac. Oh, how I wish I had paid more attention and made notes!

How to become a better writer

Improving our writing skills is about more than vocabulary, sentence structure, and creative writing techniques .

We also need to practice the art of noticing.

What do you observe when you pay closer attention? How can you describe an interaction, a problem, a solution, a person, or a situation more precisely?

What happens when you experience the world with a childlike wonder? What attracts attention when you follow your curiosity?

In our fast-paced world, it can be hard to stop and pay attention. Our mobile phones, the news, social media are always there to distract us. The standard mantra is to go faster, do more, and be more productive.

Yet, slowing down helps us observe better. It helps us be present, savor life, and experience a moment more deeply.

Plus, it helps us write more accurately and more vividly, so we can invite our readers into a different world.

So, let’s stop to smell the roses.

Happy writing!

PS Thank you to Phil LeMaster for the excellent book recommendation.

Book mentioned in this post:

Revelations in Air by Jude Stewart (highly recommended)

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Reader Interactions

Leave a comment and join the conversation cancel reply.

September 27, 2022 at 10:44 am

Hi Henneke, What a great post! Finding it useful as I write about New York’s architecture 🙂

I hope everything is well with you ❤️ Virginia

September 28, 2022 at 8:37 pm

I have no doubts that your writing about New York’s architecture will be great, infused with your passion. ❤️

June 12, 2022 at 9:01 pm

I took an online Memoir Writing Course last year then found several people fron that group to be my accountability partners. All of us “graduates” are now in the facebook group for alumni. May I link to your article there? It’s so wonderful and adds to the first thing we learned — show don’t tell. Trudy

June 13, 2022 at 9:46 am

Yes, sure. I’m always grateful when people share my work. 🙂

June 12, 2022 at 1:38 pm

Writing about the senses will be an important part of my efforts to explore them more deeply. It is always a pleasure to read your blog because it makes me feel positive, loving, and compassionate.

I appreciate your blog very much.

June 12, 2022 at 3:27 pm

Awww, that’s such lovely feedback. Thank you, Bhupendra. Happy writing!

June 9, 2022 at 5:17 pm

Smell, infrequently used, but deeply evocative, especially in terms of memories. Thank you for this overview of how to describe smell in creative writing. I’ll be returning to this.

June 10, 2022 at 11:08 am

Thank you, Alex. I’ve wondered why we use smell so infrequently. Is describing a smell just too hard?

June 7, 2022 at 9:08 am

Hi Henneke,

I am a writer too, and I am always looking for new inspiration and guides that will help me improve. I learned a lot from this article, and I will definitely try to write like this. All these examples were amazing. I think you write beautifully. Thanks a lot for sharing this amazing article and guide. It was very helpful.

June 7, 2022 at 9:39 am

I’m glad you found it helpful, John. Happy writing!

May 30, 2022 at 6:58 am

Hi Henneke, Sorry I read this post a bit late. I admire you a lot. I started my own blog and your course on blog writing has guided me a lot in becoming a better writer.

May 30, 2022 at 12:35 pm

There’s no deadline for reading my posts. You can read them at any time 🙂

I’m glad you enjoyed my blog writing course, Mary!

May 25, 2022 at 6:05 am

We don’t realize how complex our senses are until we try to describe them using words, which is really all we have. Jude’s attempts are beautiful, almost poetic. She masterfully uses words and phrases to ping the faraway places in our minds that smells occupy, evoking memories and emotions.

I can’t wait to read this book.

Thanks, Henneke.

May 25, 2022 at 9:33 am

Jude Stewart’s aroma descriptions are amazing, aren’t they? I hope you’ll enjoy her book, too!

May 24, 2022 at 10:21 pm

Great piece!

May 24, 2022 at 8:04 pm

Henneke, your post seems to roll off your tongue, or shall I say nose, with ease. This really brought a smile to my face. I look forward to thinking more deeply about senses in all of my writing. Thank you!

May 24, 2022 at 8:54 pm

I’m so glad you enjoyed this. I felt very much inspired by Jude Stewart’s book and it was such a joy to write this (still did quite some editing, though!).

May 24, 2022 at 6:58 pm

Be prepared. ( I’m surprised this hasn’t already happened.) But, be prepared for it. You pick up a random note from your desk. You find a file tucked away and forgotten on your computer. You read it. You are impressed. You wonder. Who wrote that… and realize… you did! If it hasn’t happened yet, it will. Enjoy that moment when it does. Grace and peace.

May 24, 2022 at 8:52 pm

What a lovely suggestion (and a compliment!). Thank you so much, Curtis. When it happens, I’ll think of your words and remember all your encouragement through the years. Grace and peace to you, too.

May 24, 2022 at 5:56 pm

One word – Lovely. I don’t know how Stewart even managed to create such descriptions. To me, there are an impossible task (till now), but maybe with time and practice, I might achieve .05% of this writing style. Yes, smells do drag us back into memory lane. The smell of a hot summer afternoon, the smell of freshly washed clothes, the smell of soap after my Mother had her bath, the smell of my Father’s shirt (it was a mix of Old Spice aftershave and John Players cigarettes) – it was as if a new smell had been given birth with their combination. I envy Stewart for having the ability to write such exotic descriptions. It is a class apart and will make any content stand out from the rest. I wish I could write like her…

May 24, 2022 at 8:51 pm

First, I think you’re underestimating your own ability. You’ll do much better than you think. I can see that you’ve already been inspired to think of smells and memories. I love the smell of line-dried laundry.

Secondly, you and I don’t need to reach the same level of smell descriptions as Jude Stewart. That’s unless you also want to write a guide book on smells! Just thinking about smells and weaving a one-sentence description into your writing now is more than most writers do, and that’ll make your writing already stand out.

Thanks so much for stopping by, Subhankar. Happy writing!

May 24, 2022 at 4:55 pm

Fantastic insight. Writing is more than vocabulary, sentence structure, and creative writing techniques. I’ve been concentrating solely on those aspects. Now, I see beyond. Thanks for sharing.

May 24, 2022 at 5:51 pm

I think it’s a logical focus. It’s what most writing books and blog focus on. Me, too!

Thank you for stopping by, Donna. I much appreciate it.

May 24, 2022 at 4:52 pm

“That night, it felt as if the world was about to be deluged. I could feel moisture on my skin through the air. My stepdad and I closed packs in their covers and he grabbed his raincoat. I didn’t have one. —The smell pouring from the sky was like mushrooms and sky.–It was like everything living, everything possible. Lightning erupted inside dark fields, close enough I could see strokes of a downpour through the night.”-Craig Childs, “Tracing Time; Seasons of Rock Art in the Colorado Plateau.”

I’ll find myself sniffing the sky when the clouds build in the afternoon from now on after reading that and Jude’s “Revelations”

Thanks for the shoutout/link!

But I really need to thank you for the inspiration to notice wonderful things everywhere.

May 24, 2022 at 5:50 pm

I’m finding myself sniffing a lot more, too. I also found it interesting that our smell receptors regenerate. As Stewart writes: “Olfactory receptors—the receptors in our noses whose proteins bind to smell molecules—regenerate every four to eight weeks and change in response to whatever new smells they encounter. Smelling new scents, articulating what you smell in words, learning to identify similar smells—in short, practicing your sense of smell is brain-building, particularly in older adults.” Such a nice incentive to develop our sense of smell!

Craig Childs’ writing is amazing, really multi-sensory. I’ve look forward to reading “Tracing Time,” too! Thank you for all your inspiration and recommendation, Phil. A good book recommendation is so precious. A few hours well spent. A new world opens.

May 24, 2022 at 1:43 pm

Yes! Describing smells will take a lot of practice and I will have to be creative! Thanks for the book suggestion, I’ll make a note of that for future reading. I so enjoy reading your newsletters or posts, however you would describe your writing to us. I try to learn from them. I need to sit with this one awhile and get used to being more aware of smells, sniffing more and being more present in the moments I experience ☺️

May 24, 2022 at 2:05 pm

Reading “Revelations in Air” made me a lot more aware of smells, too. There are interesting exercises in the book, too. Like keeping a smell journal, varying your sniffing technique, and comparing smells of similar items (e.g., try to smell the difference between types of vinegar). It’s really interesting to start paying more attention to smells and try to describe them (it’s hard!).

May 24, 2022 at 1:25 pm

A lovely and imagination-stirring piece, Henneke. I’ve learned to take my small notebook with me when visiting a park or garden as I know the descriptive sensory words and connections that come to mind are all too fleeting if I don’t capture them in the moment! Will definitely add this book to my reading list.

May 24, 2022 at 1:26 pm

That’s such a great habit. I should do that, too. I always think that I’ll remember.

May 24, 2022 at 2:01 pm

So true. Just a little note. On the small notebook idea. Another tactic. You can use your smartphone to voice record your thoughts or write them. Or even make a video. I wonder if we will ever be able to record an aroma.

May 24, 2022 at 2:06 pm

Wouldn’t that be interesting if we could keep a box with aromas from the past just like a photo album?

May 24, 2022 at 6:21 pm

My dad taught me a lot about the sense of smell. For example, he said that once you have smelled an aroma, you will never forget it. If you ever smell it again, it will immediately pop up in your memory.

I didn’t know that! So interesting.

May 24, 2022 at 11:58 am

Loved ever bit of this article. Keep ’em coming dear Henneke! You’re my writing star!

May 24, 2022 at 12:04 pm

Thank you so much, Isabel. It was such a joy to write this 🙂

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Last updated on Feb 14, 2023

10 Types of Creative Writing (with Examples You’ll Love)

A lot falls under the term ‘creative writing’: poetry, short fiction, plays, novels, personal essays, and songs, to name just a few. By virtue of the creativity that characterizes it, creative writing is an extremely versatile art. So instead of defining what creative writing is , it may be easier to understand what it does by looking at examples that demonstrate the sheer range of styles and genres under its vast umbrella.

To that end, we’ve collected a non-exhaustive list of works across multiple formats that have inspired the writers here at Reedsy. With 20 different works to explore, we hope they will inspire you, too.

People have been writing creatively for almost as long as we have been able to hold pens. Just think of long-form epic poems like The Odyssey or, later, the Cantar de Mio Cid — some of the earliest recorded writings of their kind.

Poetry is also a great place to start if you want to dip your own pen into the inkwell of creative writing. It can be as short or long as you want (you don’t have to write an epic of Homeric proportions), encourages you to build your observation skills, and often speaks from a single point of view .

Here are a few examples:

“Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.

The ruins of pillars and walls with the broken statue of a man in the center set against a bright blue sky.

This classic poem by Romantic poet Percy Shelley (also known as Mary Shelley’s husband) is all about legacy. What do we leave behind? How will we be remembered? The great king Ozymandias built himself a massive statue, proclaiming his might, but the irony is that his statue doesn’t survive the ravages of time. By framing this poem as told to him by a “traveller from an antique land,” Shelley effectively turns this into a story. Along with the careful use of juxtaposition to create irony, this poem accomplishes a lot in just a few lines.

“Trying to Raise the Dead” by Dorianne Laux

A direction. An object. My love, it needs a place to rest. Say anything. I’m listening. I’m ready to believe. Even lies, I don’t care.

Poetry is cherished for its ability to evoke strong emotions from the reader using very few words which is exactly what Dorianne Laux does in “ Trying to Raise the Dead .” With vivid imagery that underscores the painful yearning of the narrator, she transports us to a private nighttime scene as the narrator sneaks away from a party to pray to someone they’ve lost. We ache for their loss and how badly they want their lost loved one to acknowledge them in some way. It’s truly a masterclass on how writing can be used to portray emotions.

If you find yourself inspired to try out some poetry — and maybe even get it published — check out these poetry layouts that can elevate your verse!

Song Lyrics

Poetry’s closely related cousin, song lyrics are another great way to flex your creative writing muscles. You not only have to find the perfect rhyme scheme but also match it to the rhythm of the music. This can be a great challenge for an experienced poet or the musically inclined.

To see how music can add something extra to your poetry, check out these two examples:

“Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen

You say I took the name in vain I don't even know the name But if I did, well, really, what's it to ya? There's a blaze of light in every word It doesn't matter which you heard The holy or the broken Hallelujah

Metaphors are commonplace in almost every kind of creative writing, but will often take center stage in shorter works like poetry and songs. At the slightest mention, they invite the listener to bring their emotional or cultural experience to the piece, allowing the writer to express more with fewer words while also giving it a deeper meaning. If a whole song is couched in metaphor, you might even be able to find multiple meanings to it, like in Leonard Cohen’s “ Hallelujah .” While Cohen’s Biblical references create a song that, on the surface, seems like it’s about a struggle with religion, the ambiguity of the lyrics has allowed it to be seen as a song about a complicated romantic relationship.

“I Will Follow You into the Dark” by Death Cab for Cutie

If Heaven and Hell decide that they both are satisfied Illuminate the no's on their vacancy signs If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks Then I'll follow you into the dark

You can think of song lyrics as poetry set to music. They manage to do many of the same things their literary counterparts do — including tugging on your heartstrings. Death Cab for Cutie’s incredibly popular indie rock ballad is about the singer’s deep devotion to his lover. While some might find the song a bit too dark and macabre, its melancholy tune and poignant lyrics remind us that love can endure beyond death.

Plays and Screenplays

From the short form of poetry, we move into the world of drama — also known as the play. This form is as old as the poem, stretching back to the works of ancient Greek playwrights like Sophocles, who adapted the myths of their day into dramatic form. The stage play (and the more modern screenplay) gives the words on the page a literal human voice, bringing life to a story and its characters entirely through dialogue.

Interested to see what that looks like? Take a look at these examples:

All My Sons by Arthur Miller

“I know you're no worse than most men but I thought you were better. I never saw you as a man. I saw you as my father.”

Arthur Miller acts as a bridge between the classic and the new, creating 20th century tragedies that take place in living rooms and backyard instead of royal courts, so we had to include his breakout hit on this list. Set in the backyard of an all-American family in the summer of 1946, this tragedy manages to communicate family tensions in an unimaginable scale, building up to an intense climax reminiscent of classical drama.

💡 Read more about Arthur Miller and classical influences in our breakdown of Freytag’s pyramid .

“Everything is Fine” by Michael Schur ( The Good Place )

“Well, then this system sucks. What...one in a million gets to live in paradise and everyone else is tortured for eternity? Come on! I mean, I wasn't freaking Gandhi, but I was okay. I was a medium person. I should get to spend eternity in a medium place! Like Cincinnati. Everyone who wasn't perfect but wasn't terrible should get to spend eternity in Cincinnati.”

A screenplay, especially a TV pilot, is like a mini-play, but with the extra job of convincing an audience that they want to watch a hundred more episodes of the show. Blending moral philosophy with comedy, The Good Place is a fun hang-out show set in the afterlife that asks some big questions about what it means to be good.

It follows Eleanor Shellstrop, an incredibly imperfect woman from Arizona who wakes up in ‘The Good Place’ and realizes that there’s been a cosmic mixup. Determined not to lose her place in paradise, she recruits her “soulmate,” a former ethics professor, to teach her philosophy with the hope that she can learn to be a good person and keep up her charade of being an upstanding citizen. The pilot does a superb job of setting up the stakes, the story, and the characters, while smuggling in deep philosophical ideas.

Personal essays

Our first foray into nonfiction on this list is the personal essay. As its name suggests, these stories are in some way autobiographical — concerned with the author’s life and experiences. But don’t be fooled by the realistic component. These essays can take any shape or form, from comics to diary entries to recipes and anything else you can imagine. Typically zeroing in on a single issue, they allow you to explore your life and prove that the personal can be universal.

Here are a couple of fantastic examples:

“On Selling Your First Novel After 11 Years” by Min Jin Lee (Literary Hub)

There was so much to learn and practice, but I began to see the prose in verse and the verse in prose. Patterns surfaced in poems, stories, and plays. There was music in sentences and paragraphs. I could hear the silences in a sentence. All this schooling was like getting x-ray vision and animal-like hearing.

This deeply honest personal essay by Pachinko author Min Jin Lee is an account of her eleven-year struggle to publish her first novel . Like all good writing, it is intensely focused on personal emotional details. While grounded in the specifics of the author's personal journey, it embodies an experience that is absolutely universal: that of difficulty and adversity met by eventual success.

“A Cyclist on the English Landscape” by Roff Smith (New York Times)

These images, though, aren’t meant to be about me. They’re meant to represent a cyclist on the landscape, anybody — you, perhaps.

Roff Smith’s gorgeous photo essay for the NYT is a testament to the power of creatively combining visuals with text. Here, photographs of Smith atop a bike are far from simply ornamental. They’re integral to the ruminative mood of the essay, as essential as the writing. Though Smith places his work at the crosscurrents of various aesthetic influences (such as the painter Edward Hopper), what stands out the most in this taciturn, thoughtful piece of writing is his use of the second person to address the reader directly. Suddenly, the writer steps out of the body of the essay and makes eye contact with the reader. The reader is now part of the story as a second character, finally entering the picture.

Short Fiction

The short story is the happy medium of fiction writing. These bite-sized narratives can be devoured in a single sitting and still leave you reeling. Sometimes viewed as a stepping stone to novel writing, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Short story writing is an art all its own. The limited length means every word counts and there’s no better way to see that than with these two examples:

“An MFA Story” by Paul Dalla Rosa (Electric Literature)

At Starbucks, I remembered a reading Zhen had given, a reading organized by the program’s faculty. I had not wanted to go but did. In the bar, he read, "I wrote this in a Starbucks in Shanghai. On the bank of the Huangpu." It wasn’t an aside or introduction. It was two lines of the poem. I was in a Starbucks and I wasn’t writing any poems. I wasn’t writing anything.

Creative Writing Examples | Photograph of New York City street.

This short story is a delightfully metafictional tale about the struggles of being a writer in New York. From paying the bills to facing criticism in a writing workshop and envying more productive writers, Paul Dalla Rosa’s story is a clever satire of the tribulations involved in the writing profession, and all the contradictions embodied by systemic creativity (as famously laid out in Mark McGurl’s The Program Era ). What’s more, this story is an excellent example of something that often happens in creative writing: a writer casting light on the private thoughts or moments of doubt we don’t admit to or openly talk about.

“Flowering Walrus” by Scott Skinner (Reedsy)

I tell him they’d been there a month at least, and he looks concerned. He has my tongue on a tissue paper and is gripping its sides with his pointer and thumb. My tongue has never spent much time outside of my mouth, and I imagine it as a walrus basking in the rays of the dental light. My walrus is not well.

A winner of Reedsy’s weekly Prompts writing contest, ‘ Flowering Walrus ’ is a story that balances the trivial and the serious well. In the pauses between its excellent, natural dialogue , the story manages to scatter the fear and sadness of bad medical news, as the protagonist hides his worries from his wife and daughter. Rich in subtext, these silences grow and resonate with the readers.

Want to give short story writing a go? Give our free course a go!

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Perhaps the thing that first comes to mind when talking about creative writing, novels are a form of fiction that many people know and love but writers sometimes find intimidating. The good news is that novels are nothing but one word put after another, like any other piece of writing, but expanded and put into a flowing narrative. Piece of cake, right?

To get an idea of the format’s breadth of scope, take a look at these two (very different) satirical novels:

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

I wished I was back in the convenience store where I was valued as a working member of staff and things weren’t as complicated as this. Once we donned our uniforms, we were all equals regardless of gender, age, or nationality — all simply store workers.

Creative Writing Examples | Book cover of Convenience Store Woman

Keiko, a thirty-six-year-old convenience store employee, finds comfort and happiness in the strict, uneventful routine of the shop’s daily operations. A funny, satirical, but simultaneously unnerving examination of the social structures we take for granted, Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman is deeply original and lingers with the reader long after they’ve put it down.

Erasure by Percival Everett

The hard, gritty truth of the matter is that I hardly ever think about race. Those times when I did think about it a lot I did so because of my guilt for not thinking about it.

Erasure is a truly accomplished satire of the publishing industry’s tendency to essentialize African American authors and their writing. Everett’s protagonist is a writer whose work doesn’t fit with what publishers expect from him — work that describes the “African American experience” — so he writes a parody novel about life in the ghetto. The publishers go crazy for it and, to the protagonist’s horror, it becomes the next big thing. This sophisticated novel is both ironic and tender, leaving its readers with much food for thought.

Creative Nonfiction

Creative nonfiction is pretty broad: it applies to anything that does not claim to be fictional (although the rise of autofiction has definitely blurred the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction). It encompasses everything from personal essays and memoirs to humor writing, and they range in length from blog posts to full-length books. The defining characteristic of this massive genre is that it takes the world or the author’s experience and turns it into a narrative that a reader can follow along with.

Here, we want to focus on novel-length works that dig deep into their respective topics. While very different, these two examples truly show the breadth and depth of possibility of creative nonfiction:

Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward

Men’s bodies litter my family history. The pain of the women they left behind pulls them from the beyond, makes them appear as ghosts. In death, they transcend the circumstances of this place that I love and hate all at once and become supernatural.

Writer Jesmyn Ward recounts the deaths of five men from her rural Mississippi community in as many years. In her award-winning memoir , she delves into the lives of the friends and family she lost and tries to find some sense among the tragedy. Working backwards across five years, she questions why this had to happen over and over again, and slowly unveils the long history of racism and poverty that rules rural Black communities. Moving and emotionally raw, Men We Reaped is an indictment of a cruel system and the story of a woman's grief and rage as she tries to navigate it.

Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker

He believed that wine could reshape someone’s life. That’s why he preferred buying bottles to splurging on sweaters. Sweaters were things. Bottles of wine, said Morgan, “are ways that my humanity will be changed.”

In this work of immersive journalism , Bianca Bosker leaves behind her life as a tech journalist to explore the world of wine. Becoming a “cork dork” takes her everywhere from New York’s most refined restaurants to science labs while she learns what it takes to be a sommelier and a true wine obsessive. This funny and entertaining trip through the past and present of wine-making and tasting is sure to leave you better informed and wishing you, too, could leave your life behind for one devoted to wine.

Illustrated Narratives (Comics, graphic novels)

Once relegated to the “funny pages”, the past forty years of comics history have proven it to be a serious medium. Comics have transformed from the early days of Jack Kirby’s superheroes into a medium where almost every genre is represented. Humorous one-shots in the Sunday papers stand alongside illustrated memoirs, horror, fantasy, and just about anything else you can imagine. This type of visual storytelling lets the writer and artist get creative with perspective, tone, and so much more. For two very different, though equally entertaining, examples, check these out:

Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson

"Life is like topography, Hobbes. There are summits of happiness and success, flat stretches of boring routine and valleys of frustration and failure."

A Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. A little blond boy Calvin makes multiple silly faces in school photos. In the last panel, his father says, "That's our son. *Sigh*" His mother then says, "The pictures will remind of more than we want to remember."

This beloved comic strip follows Calvin, a rambunctious six-year-old boy, and his stuffed tiger/imaginary friend, Hobbes. They get into all kinds of hijinks at school and at home, and muse on the world in the way only a six-year-old and an anthropomorphic tiger can. As laugh-out-loud funny as it is, Calvin & Hobbes ’ popularity persists as much for its whimsy as its use of humor to comment on life, childhood, adulthood, and everything in between.

From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell

"I shall tell you where we are. We're in the most extreme and utter region of the human mind. A dim, subconscious underworld. A radiant abyss where men meet themselves. Hell, Netley. We're in Hell."

Comics aren't just the realm of superheroes and one-joke strips, as Alan Moore proves in this serialized graphic novel released between 1989 and 1998. A meticulously researched alternative history of Victorian London’s Ripper killings, this macabre story pulls no punches. Fact and fiction blend into a world where the Royal Family is involved in a dark conspiracy and Freemasons lurk on the sidelines. It’s a surreal mad-cap adventure that’s unsettling in the best way possible.

Video Games and RPGs

Probably the least expected entry on this list, we thought that video games and RPGs also deserved a mention — and some well-earned recognition for the intricate storytelling that goes into creating them.

Essentially gamified adventure stories, without attention to plot, characters, and a narrative arc, these games would lose a lot of their charm, so let’s look at two examples where the creative writing really shines through:

80 Days by inkle studios

"It was a triumph of invention over nature, and will almost certainly disappear into the dust once more in the next fifty years."

Named Time Magazine ’s game of the year in 2014, this narrative adventure is based on Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne. The player is cast as the novel’s narrator, Passpartout, and tasked with circumnavigating the globe in service of their employer, Phileas Fogg. Set in an alternate steampunk Victorian era, the game uses its globe-trotting to comment on the colonialist fantasies inherent in the original novel and its time period. On a storytelling level, the choose-your-own-adventure style means no two players’ journeys will be the same. This innovative approach to a classic novel shows the potential of video games as a storytelling medium, truly making the player part of the story.

What Remains of Edith Finch by Giant Sparrow

"If we lived forever, maybe we'd have time to understand things. But as it is, I think the best we can do is try to open our eyes, and appreciate how strange and brief all of this is."

This video game casts the player as 17-year-old Edith Finch. Returning to her family’s home on an island in the Pacific northwest, Edith explores the vast house and tries to figure out why she’s the only one of her family left alive. The story of each family member is revealed as you make your way through the house, slowly unpacking the tragic fate of the Finches. Eerie and immersive, this first-person exploration game uses the medium to tell a series of truly unique tales.

Fun and breezy on the surface, humor is often recognized as one of the trickiest forms of creative writing. After all, while you can see the artistic value in a piece of prose that you don’t necessarily enjoy, if a joke isn’t funny, you could say that it’s objectively failed.

With that said, it’s far from an impossible task, and many have succeeded in bringing smiles to their readers’ faces through their writing. Here are two examples:

‘How You Hope Your Extended Family Will React When You Explain Your Job to Them’ by Mike Lacher (McSweeney’s Internet Tendency)

“Is it true you don’t have desks?” your grandmother will ask. You will nod again and crack open a can of Country Time Lemonade. “My stars,” she will say, “it must be so wonderful to not have a traditional office and instead share a bistro-esque coworking space.”

An open plan office seen from a bird's eye view. There are multiple strands of Edison lights hanging from the ceiling. At long light wooden tables multiple people sit working at computers, many of them wearing headphones.

Satire and parody make up a whole subgenre of creative writing, and websites like McSweeney’s Internet Tendency and The Onion consistently hit the mark with their parodies of magazine publishing and news media. This particular example finds humor in the divide between traditional family expectations and contemporary, ‘trendy’ work cultures. Playing on the inherent silliness of today’s tech-forward middle-class jobs, this witty piece imagines a scenario where the writer’s family fully understands what they do — and are enthralled to hear more. “‘Now is it true,’ your uncle will whisper, ‘that you’ve got a potential investment from one of the founders of I Can Haz Cheezburger?’”

‘Not a Foodie’ by Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell (Electric Literature)

I’m not a foodie, I never have been, and I know, in my heart, I never will be.

Highlighting what she sees as an unbearable social obsession with food , in this comic Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell takes a hilarious stand against the importance of food. From the writer’s courageous thesis (“I think there are more exciting things to talk about, and focus on in life, than what’s for dinner”) to the amusing appearance of family members and the narrator’s partner, ‘Not a Foodie’ demonstrates that even a seemingly mundane pet peeve can be approached creatively — and even reveal something profound about life.

We hope this list inspires you with your own writing. If there’s one thing you take away from this post, let it be that there is no limit to what you can write about or how you can write about it.

In the next part of this guide, we'll drill down into the fascinating world of creative nonfiction.

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27 Creative Writing Examples To Spark Your Imagination

With all the types of creative writing to choose from, it’s hard enough to focus on just one or two of your favorites.

When it comes to writing your own examples, don’t be hard on yourself if you hit a wall.

We’ve all done it.

Sometimes, all you need is a generous supply of well-crafted and inspirational creative writing examples.

Good thing you’re here!

For starters, let’s get clear on what creative writing is.

What Is Creative Writing?

How to start creative writing , 1. novels and novellas, 2. short stories and flash fiction, 3. twitter stories (140 char), 4. poetry or songs/lyrics, 5. scripts for plays, tv shows, and movies, 6. memoirs / autobiographical narratives, 7. speeches, 9. journalism / newspaper articles, 11. last wills and obituaries, 12. dating profiles and wanted ads, 13. greeting cards.

Knowing how to be a creative writer is impossible if you don’t know the purpose of creative writing and all the types of writing included.

As you’ll see from the categories listed further on, the words “creative writing” contain multitudes:

Novels, novellas, short stories, flash fiction, microfiction, and even nanofiction;
Poetry (traditional and free verse);
Screenplays (for theatrical stage performances, TV shows, and movies)
Blog posts and feature articles in newspapers and magazines
Memoirs and Testimonials
Speeches and Essays
And more—including dating profiles, obituaries, and letters to the editor.

Read on to find some helpful examples of many of these types. Make a note of the ones that interest you most.

Once you have some idea of what you want to write, how do you get started?

Allow us to suggest some ideas that have worked for many of our readers and us:

Keep a daily journal to record and play with your ideas as they come;
Set aside a specific chunk of time every day (even 5 minutes) just for writing;
Use a timer to help you stick to your daily writing habit ;
You can also set word count goals, if you find that more motivating than time limits;
Read as much as you can of the kind of content you want to write;
Publish your work (on a blog), and get feedback from others.

Now that you’ve got some ideas on how to begin let’s move on to our list of examples.

Creative Writing Examples

Read through the following examples to get ideas for your own writing. Make a note of anything that stands out for you.

Inspiring novel-writing examples can come from the first paragraph of a well-loved novel (or novella), from the description on the back cover, or from anywhere in the story.

From Circe by Madeline Miller

““Little by little I began to listen better: to the sap moving in the plants, to the blood in my veins. I learned to understand my own intention, to prune and to add, to feel where the power gathered and speak the right words to draw it to its height. That was the moment I lived for, when it all came clear at last and the spell could sing with its pure note, for me and me alone.”

From The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin:

“‘I’ll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter of the imagination…. ”

The shorter your story, the more vital it is for each word to earn its place. Each sentence or phrase should be be necessary to your story’s message and impact.

From “A Consumer’s Guide to Shopping with PTSD” by Katherine Robb

“‘“Do you know what she said to me at the condo meeting?” I say to the salesman. She said, “Listen, the political climate is so terrible right now I think we all have PTSD. You’re just the only one making such a big deal about it.”

“The salesman nods his jowly face and says, “That Brenda sounds like a real b***h.”’

From Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (collection of short stories)

“Something happened when the house was dark. They were able to talk to each other again.” (From ‘A Temporary Matter’)

Use the hashtag #VSS to find a generous sampling of short Twitter stories in 140 or fewer characters. Here are a few examples to get you started:

From Chris Stocks on January 3rd, 2022 :

“With the invention of efficient 3D-printable #solar panels & cheap storage batteries, the world was finally able to enjoy the benefits of limitless cheap green energy. Except in the UK. We’re still awaiting the invention of a device to harness the power of light drizzle.” #vss365 (Keyword: solar)

From TinyTalesbyRedsaid1 on January 2nd, 2022 :

“A solar lamp would safely light our shack. But Mom says it’ll lure thieves. I squint at my homework by candlelight, longing for electricity.” #vss #vss365 #solar

If you’re looking for poetry or song-writing inspiration, you’ll find plenty of free examples online—including the two listed here:

From “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” by Emily Dickinson

“I’m Nobody! Who are you?

Are you – Nobody – too?

Then there’s a pair of us!

Don’t tell! they’d advertise – you know!

“How dreary – to be – Somebody!

How public – like a Frog –

To tell one’s name – the livelong June –

To an admiring Bog!

From “Enemy” by Imagine Dragons

“I wake up to the sounds

Of the silence that allows

For my mind to run around

With my ear up to the ground

I’m searching to behold

The stories that are told

When my back is to the world

That was smiling when I turned

Tell you you’re the greatest

But once you turn they hate us….”

If you enjoy writing dialogue and setting a scene, check out the following excerpts from two very different screenplays. Then jot down some notes for a screenplay (or scene) of your own.

From Mean Girls by Tina Fey (Based on the book, Queen Bees and Wannabes” by Rosalind Wiseman

“Karen: ‘So, if you’re from Africa, why are you white?’

“Gretchen: ‘Oh my god, Karen! You can’t just ask people why they’re white!’

“Regina: ‘Cady, could you give us some privacy for, like, one second?’

“Cady: ‘Sure.’

Cady makes eye contact with Janis and Damien as the Plastics confer.

“Regina (breaking huddle): ‘Okay, let me just say that we don’t do this a lot, so you should know that this is, like, a huge deal.’

“Gretchen: ‘We want to invite you to have lunch with us every day for the rest of the week.’

“Cady: ‘Oh, okay…’

“Gretchen: Great. So, we’ll see you tomorrow.’

“Karen: ‘On Tuesdays, we wear pink.’”

#10: From The Matrix by Larry and Andy Wachowski

“NEO: ‘That was you on my computer?’

“NEO: ‘How did you do that?’

“TRINITY: ‘Right now, all I can tell you, is that you are in danger. I brought you here to warn you.’

“NEO: ‘Of what?’

“TRINITY: ‘They’re watching you, Neo.’

“NEO: ‘Who is?’

“TRINITY: ‘Please. Just listen. I know why you’re here, Neo. I know what you’ve been doing. I know why you hardly sleep, why you live alone and why, night after night, you sit at your computer. You’re looking for him.’

“Her body is against his; her lips very close to his ear.

“TRINITY: ‘I know because I was once looking for the same thing, but when he found me he told me I wasn’t really looking for him. I was looking for an answer.’

“There is a hypnotic quality to her voice and Neo feels the words, like a drug, seeping into him.

“TRINITY: ‘It’s the question that drives us, the question that brought you here. You know the question just as I did.’

“NEO: ‘What is the Matrix?’

Sharing stories from your life can be both cathartic for you and inspiring or instructive (or at least entertaining) for your readers.

From The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

“It was in fact the ordinary nature of everything preceding the event that prevented me from truly believing it had happened, absorbing it, incorporating it, getting past it. I recognize now that there was nothing unusual in this: confronted with sudden disaster, we all focus on how unremarkable the circumstances were in which the unthinkable occurred: the clear blue sky from which the plane fell, the routine errand that ended on the shoulder with the car in flames, the swings where the children were playing as usual when the rattlesnake struck from the ivy. ‘He was on his way home from work—happy, successful, healthy—and then, gone,’ I read in the account of the psychiatric nurse whose husband was killed in a highway accident… ”

From Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt:

“When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.”

From Call the Midwife: A True Story of the East End in the 1950s by Jennifer Worth:

“Nonnatus House was situated in the heart of the London Docklands… The area was densely-populated and most families had lived there for generations, often not moving more than a street or two away from their birthplace. Family life was lived at close-quarters and children were brought up by a widely-extended family of aunts, grandparents, cousins, and older siblings.

The purpose of most speeches is to inform, inspire, or persuade. Think of the last time you gave a speech of your own. How did you hook your listeners?

From “Is Technology Making Us Smarter or Dumber?” by Rob Clowes (Persuasive)

“It is possible to imagine that human nature, the human intellect, emotions and feelings are completely independent of our technologies; that we are essentially ahistorical beings with one constant human nature that has remained the same throughout history or even pre-history? Sometimes evolutionary psychologists—those who believe human nature was fixed on the Pleistocene Savannah—talk this way. I think this is demonstrably wrong…. “

From “Make Good Art” by Neil Gaiman (Keynote Address for the University of Fine Arts, 2012):

“…First of all: When you start out on a career in the arts you have no idea what you are doing.”

“This is great. People who know what they are doing know the rules, and know what is possible and impossible. You do not. And you should not. The rules on what is possible and impossible in the arts were made by people who had not tested the bounds of the possible by going beyond them. And you can.”

“If you don’t know it’s impossible it’s easier to do. And because nobody’s done it before, they haven’t made up rules to stop anyone doing that again, yet.”

How to Write a Creative Brief with Examples and Templates

By Joe Weller | March 5, 2024

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A creative brief is a roadmap for teams planning a marketing or advertising campaign, including the objectives, deliverables, and target audience. Strong creative briefs keep team members and external stakeholders aligned as the campaign develops.

Inside this article, you’ll discover how to write a creative brief , the main elements to include, and downloadable example briefs and templates . Plus, you’ll learn how to use generative AI to help draft a creative brief .

Main Elements of a Creative Brief

Creative briefs should include sections detailing the campaign’s goals, deliverables, style, and target audience. The brief will also have information about the brand and competition in the marketplace.

A project manager for the team requesting the content or a member of the marketing or advertising team will write a creative brief. The specific sections of a creative brief might vary depending on the project and its stakeholders, but keep these eight main elements in mind:

Brand Identity and Project Overview: The first section of the creative brief provides relevant background information about the brand’s mission and the campaign’s purpose, whether it is responding to pain points or advertising a new product. Summarizing these key details at the outset gives the creative team a focused direction and ensures the campaign fits into the overarching brand identity.
Objectives: Clearly define goals and be sure to link them to key performance indicators (KPIs) . Using SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) goals when crafting objectives help you focus on the project and key metrics.
Competitive Analysis: Reviewing examples of recent campaigns from rival brands is a valuable strategy when seeking insight for a creative brief. Analyzing competitors’ strengths and weaknesses sheds light on what resonates with consumers and how to make a campaign stand out in the market.
Target Audience: Creative briefs should boil down which segment of the brand’s audience the campaign will target. Specific demographic profiles help the creative team understand customer behaviors and deliver the most effective and appealing assets.
Tone and Style: Whether defining a personality, listing adjectives that correspond with the core message, or designating a color palette, the creative brief clarifies the attitude and visual identity of the campaign. Designers need direction on the desired voice and style to ensure a unified final project that speaks to the target audience.
Content Format and Deliverables: Every creative brief must outline the specific content that the creative team needs to produce, such as social media assets, print advertisements, graphics, video content, online copy, or other elements of the campaign strategy. Include any format requirements or other specifications, so that the creative team can align their output with the campaign objectives.
Timeline and Budget: Stipulating key deadlines, checkpoints, and budget requirements enables the creative team to deliver on target. This information is crucial when working with external agencies, for whom the brief can function like a contract. Concrete schedule parameters give project managers details that they can follow up, warding off scope creep. Learn how to manage scope creep and keep projects on track.
Stakeholders: Briefs should include the contact details and roles for all the team members who will be involved in the project. Establishing individual responsibilities and review processes ensures internal and external stakeholders can communicate seamlessly throughout the process.

How to Write a Creative Brief

Writing a creative brief starts with gathering the information that will guide a campaign’s direction. Begin with a focused overview of the project and include concrete details on your objectives, audience, and deliverables.

A strong creative brief is clear, specific, and short. Think of it as a blueprint to inspire creativity and keep your team on track from ideation through delivery and execution. Consider using creative brief templates to save time and maintain consistency across multiple projects. For branding campaigns or launches, a more specialized brand brief might be necessary.

1. Gather Information and Resources

Before you start writing, do the prep work for your brief. This might include researching competitors, analyzing pain points, meeting with stakeholders, and referencing past campaigns. Use this information to finalize your core message, target audience, and objectives.

Once you have a clear idea of the campaign, gather the necessary supporting documents. Compile links to important resources, such as a brand style guide, digital asset library, and any example content for the creative team to reference.

2. Decide What to Include

The details of the campaign, stakeholders, and objectives will determine which elements of the creative brief are necessary. For example, internal team members might not need comprehensive information about your brand mission. Or you might include a budget for advertising campaigns, but not for designing a new website banner.

Keep in mind that the creative brief should be concise and focus on the creative direction of the campaign. If you need to determine a comprehensive marketing and distribution strategy, consider completing a marketing strategy brief first.

3. Name the Campaign and Write an Overview

Naming the project is a simple first step to streamline communication. The campaign name should point to its core message — the idea, consumer benefit, or call to action (CTA) — the creative team needs to get across with their assets.

Start by writing an overview that defines the core message in a few sentences. Consider including relevant brand identity aspects or drafting a short section with brand and product background. Establish why you are launching this campaign, the opportunities or challenges, and the takeaways for your audience.

“For example, in our creative brief for a new rug collection launch, we highlighted our rugs’ unique designs inspired by Southwestern traditions and their high-quality sustainable materials. Conveying these key points up front allows designers and copywriters to center their creativity around the communication of these distinguishing factors,” offers Connor Butterworth , CEO and Owner of Southwestern Rugs Depot .

4. Set Clear Objectives

Highlight one or two goals for the campaign that align with its core message. Be sure to define the KPIs you will use to measure success. Common campaign objectives include boosting engagement, increasing conversions, and communicating a specific call to action or desired consumer behavior.

advertising creative brief objectives example

5. Analyze the Competition

Survey the competitive landscape for real-world models. Focus on a few major competitors and provide examples of their recent campaigns for similar products. Highlight key successes and failures to learn from, and create a list of the ways in which your brand or product differs.

Elaine Chen , Founder of marketing consultancy Excogita, advises, “Creatives understand that not every project will immediately hit the mark, but they need feedback to get to the right place. Spend time looking at competing campaigns so that you have concrete ideas about what you feel will and won't work, and share some of these insights in your brief.”

6. Define the Demographic

Determine a primary target audience for the campaign. Are you trying to reach a segment of the current brand audience or potential new customers? Break down your target audience with demographic data — such as age, gender, and geographic location — as well as buying behaviors and psychographic information, such as preferences and interests.

Instead of listing all the aspects of your target audience, use profiles or personas to draw a precise portrait of your customer in a couple sentences. Learn how to create customer profiles to better understand your audience with individualized buyer personas.

7. Explain the Tone

Choose several adjectives that describe an attitude or personality for the campaign. Align this personality with the key message, cater it to your target audience, and fit it within your brand identity. Include links to any brand style guidelines or designated fonts and color palettes.

Should graphics feel sophisticated and minimalistic or playful and energetic? Is the tone authentic and empowering or confident and provocative? The adjectives you choose will guide both the visual direction and voice of your campaign, keeping all the elements of the project cohesive.

8. Designate Deliverables

Determine what assets or content the creative team needs to produce to meet the campaign objectives. Specify the content format, the number of deliverables, and any requirements or specifications, such as image dimensions or character limits. You might mention your distribution strategy if modified versions of the assets will be needed for different platforms.

9. Walk Through the Timeline and Budget

Working backward from the campaign launch date, determine when assets need to be delivered in order to be reviewed by key stakeholders and released on schedule. Fill in important due dates, review periods, meetings, and final approval deadlines leading up to the release date. If the creative team will be producing video content or multichannel advertising campaigns, establish a budget.

10. Present to Stakeholders

Share the completed brief with all the stakeholders involved, from the creatives who will be producing the content to the executives who will approve final designs. The creative team might consist of in-house designers and marketers, or it could be an external agency. Consider including a project manager to track deadlines and deliverables. Project managers can create a separate project brief to summarize high-level details.

Whether you present the brief at a project kickoff meeting or distribute it electronically, be open to feedback. The creative team might have questions on the timeline, resources, tone, or approval process. The marketing director could help you fine-tune the target audience and core message. Refine the brief if necessary before you share the final version. Make sure everyone understands the direction of the project and their responsibilities.

Examples of Creative Briefs

These creative brief examples use variations on the basic creative brief template to communicate specific project details to stakeholders. These downloadable and customizable templates include example copy for a variety of creative brief scenarios.

Simple Creative Brief Example Template

Download the Simple Creative Brief Example Template for Microsoft Word

Download the Simple Creative Brief Blank Template for Microsoft Word

Here’s an example of a creative brief for a marketing campaign designed in-house. This short creative brief template keeps a tight focus on the project itself — and doesn’t waste time providing unnecessary context.

Client Creative Brief Example Template

Download the Client Creative Brief Example Template for Microsoft Word

Download the Client Creative Brief Blank Template for Microsoft Word

This example shows how a creative brief might be completed for implementing a marketing campaign with an agency. There is more information about the client — the brand, project message, and call to action — while leaving room for the creative team to innovate.

Graphic Design Creative Brief Example Template

Download the Graphic Design Creative Brief Example Template for Microsoft Word

Download the Graphic Design Creative Brief Blank Template for Microsoft Word

Here’s an example of a creative brief for a graphic design project that is perfect for solo graphic designers or graphic design firms planning projects in collaboration with their clients. The simple, adaptable layout has room for details on image requirements and design elements, as well as direction about the project.

For more elaborate design projects — such as a logo design or product design — consider using a specific design brief .

Advertising Creative Brief Example Template

Download the Advertising Creative Brief Example Template for Microsoft Word

Download the Advertising Creative Brief Blank Template for Microsoft Word

This creative brief example uses a straightforward advertising campaign template to cover objective, tone, messaging, target audience, and non-negotiables. There are also key advertising elements needed for the campaign.

What to Keep in Mind When Writing a Creative Brief for Internal Use vs. an Agency

Creative briefs are a campaign’s starting point for both in-house teams and agencies. The project’s stakeholders will determine the brief’s content. Both internal and external creative teams need information about the campaign’s message, but agencies might need more brand details.

Internal creative briefs are often short and direct, since the stakeholders will bring their understanding of the brand and its identity to the project. Internal creative teams might already be familiar with style guidelines, recent campaigns, and customer personas. It’s still important to include focused direction specific to the campaign objectives, but the brief can be more informal and flexible.

Creative briefs shared with external agencies, on the other hand, are often more extensive. CEO and Founder of Awning.com Shri Ganeshram recommends crafting a “more detailed and structured brief” when working with an agency. “It has to convey the essence of your brand and project requirements without any assumed knowledge,” he continues. “When I worked with an external design agency for our marketing campaign, the detailed brief we provided helped them grasp our brand ethos quickly, resulting in a highly successful campaign.”

As a marketing executive with both in-house and agency experience, Chen points out that projects that are contracted out might also require more comprehensive briefs. “Many companies are only working with agencies on high-profile or very strategic assignments such as major advertising campaigns, creating new brands, or significant rebrands. Accordingly, the briefs will need to include lots of insights about the product and audience, while avoiding being too prescriptive to give the agency room to innovate.”

Additionally, while both internal and agency creative briefs typically include deliverables and deadlines, these stipulations might carry more weight externally. In his experience working with agencies, Ganeshram explains, “The creative brief acts as a contract of sorts that outlines what the client expects, providing a clear framework within which the agency operates. This distinction is crucial for ensuring both parties have aligned expectations.”

Pitfalls to Avoid When Writing a Creative Brief

An effective creative brief empowers designers, advertisers, or marketers to deliver original and compelling content. On the other hand, vague or complicated briefs make it impossible for creative teams to meet expectations. Avoiding these pitfalls streamlines the creative process.

There are five common pitfalls to keep in mind when writing creative briefs:

Ambiguity:

A vague direction can make it impossible for the creative team to understand the vision for the campaign. Provide specific information about the tone and message, as well as clear guidelines for the format of the final product. “If you leave anything up for interpretation, then you risk the result not being what you expected,” advises Kristien Matelski, Content/PR Manager at Vizion Interactive . “I’ve found that a few good examples are much more valuable than just describing what I’m looking for.”

Overprescription: Conversely, including too much detail can limit creativity and overwhelm the core message. Designers, copywriters, and other creatives need freedom to bring their own expertise and imagination to the project. “While detailed background information is always helpful, realize that you can only convey so much in a single communication,” Chen notes. “Avoid requiring your creative team to fold in too many messages or else you could end up with a garbled mess.”
Broad or Unspecified Audience: It’s crucial to define a target audience with as much detail as possible. Large campaigns might have primary and secondary markets, but to create effective assets, the team needs to have a specific audience in mind and understand their behaviors. “Too often companies are so focused on what they have to say that they end up failing to incorporate customer perspectives and create a message that just falls flat,” cautions Chen.
Unrealistic Expectations: The purpose of a creative brief is to keep stakeholders’ expectations and responsibilities aligned throughout the project’s development. However, if the brief sets impossibly tight deadlines or unattainable objectives, creatives won’t be able to deliver compelling results.
Complicated CTA: Campaigns work best with a simple and clear core message or desired outcome. Creative briefs that fail to develop a clear call to action result in campaigns that can’t meet their objectives. Chen adds, “It's most realistic to ask consumers to do just one easy thing after seeing your ads. A complicated, multistep process or a confusing mix of options is doomed to fail.”

How to Use Generative AI to Write a More Effective Brief

Recent advancements in generative AI have made it a powerful tool for crafting creative briefs. AI can analyze pain points and customer data, suggest relevant core messages, and elevate directions on tone and style. Think of the AI as a partner or assistant when drafting your prompts, and be prepared to finetune the results.

“Generative AI can be a game-changer for crafting creative briefs in marketing and advertising,” observes Peter Wood, CTO at Spectrum Search . “It's essential to leverage AI for initial idea generation. By feeding the AI system with your campaign’s objectives and target audience demographics, you can get a diverse range of creative concepts and narratives, which might not be immediately obvious to a human team.”

You can also use AI to assist in data analysis when researching your competitors and establishing customer personas. Wood continues, “This analysis can inform the tone, style, and content of your brief, ensuring it is aligned with what resonates with your audience.”

“As a content manager, I’ve found that creative briefs have been a primary use for AI,” reveals Kristien Matelski. To get the best results from the AI, she recommends providing it with background information about your brand and objectives, as well as detailed instructions for the content you want it to generate. Keep revising and updating your prompts as you work, and make sure to verify any facts or data in your results.

Here are four tips to keep in mind when utilizing AI to draft your creative brief:

Pretend the AI Is Your Assistant: AI is not a search engine, and it can handle more complex directions. “Be as detailed as possible with what you want, like you’re giving instructions to an assistant to write a brief or outline for you,” suggests Matelski.
Provide Background: Feed the AI relevant information about the brand, product, or campaign objectives. Matelski says, “I generally start by giving the AI some context about the who, or the company we are generating a creative brief for, including a link to their website. Then I tell it the what that we’re creating, a creative brief or outline for a new product page.”
Include Specifics: If you are using a template, make sure to list the fields you want the AI to generate. Establish any requirements and important campaign directives to include in the brief. As an example, Matelski offers, “Be sure to mention X, Y, Z brand names, color choices, and keywords.”
Edit, Edit, Edit: Once the AI has generated the brief, read through the results and determine next steps. “You’ll need to edit yourself or go back and forth with the AI a few times to get it how you want it,” Matelski acknowledges. You might ask the AI to condense the overview, suggest a more playful core message, narrow the objectives, or tailor the deliverables for a specific social media platform. Consider whether you need to provide additional information with your instructions.

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When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time. Try Smartsheet for free, today.

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Natural Writing
Essay on The rainy season
Writing Prompts: Quiet and Portrait #writing #writingprompts #storywriting #creativewriting
This will help you with your creative writing! #writing #writer #writertok
As right as rain
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How To Describe Rain In Writing (10 Important Steps)
Select the Right Words. Use descriptive adjectives, adverbs, and verbs to convey the characteristics of the rain. Choose words that evoke the senses. For instance, you can use words like "gentle," "drizzling," "torrential," "pattering," "incessant," or "misty" to describe the rain.
PDF DESCRIBING THE RAIN
DESCRIBING THE RAIN ... A simple example might look like the paragraphs on the next page. LEVEL 1 I looked out the window. The sky was tar-black and the large clouds were moving towards ... The metaphors should be more creative and the turn of phrase made more enriching. LEVEL 4 'The sun enables life. The rain grants it safe passage'.
38 Creative Rainy Day Writing Prompts » JournalBuddies.com
Yes, here is a wonderful list of creative writing prompts for describing rainy days. Write a funny story about losing your umbrella on a rainy day. Center a story outdoors on a rainy day. Begin a story with the following sentence: raindrops splattered on the windowsill like teardrops from a princess.
Master List for Describing Weather
"How to describe weather" seemed like a good place to start. This way, you won't get stuck trying to figure out how to describe nice weather, or thinking up ways to describe rain. Hopefully, this will make your writing go faster. I always include simple as well as more creative ways to describe or write about weather.
38 Phrases & words to describe rain falling, sounds & smells
Gloomy. Dismal. Overcast. Unsettled. Wet. Ominous. Miserable. Many of the terms we have to describe rain are negative, as it's usually an inconvenience for us. However, let's not forget that rain is necessary for life to survive and for crops and plants to grow, so we shouldn't always complain about it.
1001 Writing Prompts About Rainy Days
Check out this list of writing prompts about rainy days for inspiration: Write about a spooky night scene with a mysterious atmosphere. Escape from the rainy circumstance. Write about it. Write about the love for rainy days. Write about a night of dreams that rain was inside of you rather than outside.
The Best Rain in Literature ‹ Literary Hub
From William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying: It begins to rain. The first harsh, sparse, swift drops rush through the leaves and across the ground in a long sigh, as though of relief from intolerable suspense. They are as big as buckshot, warm as though fired from a gun; they sweep across the lantern in a vicious hissing.
Rain
rain. - quotes and descriptions to inspire creative writing. At once there came a flash mob of rain, tap-dancing upon roof and concrete paths the same. By Angela Abraham, @daisydescriptionari, May 26, 2023 . Rain took her flight from cloud to new foliage, forming upon them a flock of water-cloches.
25 Writing About Weather Prompts For Students
Write a daily weather report. Students need to have a diverse vocabulary to describe the weather. If your teacher gives you instructions to write about the weather, you'll need to have some weather words ready to describe it accurately. Our 25 weather writing prompts will help you create word banks for describing it that you can use in future ...
Writing prompts for rainy days • WriteShop
Whatever the weather today, kids will love dipping their toes into these fun writing prompts for rainy days. After all, rain can happen at any time of year! There's something for everyone, including The Planner (planning rainy day activities), The Persuader (convincing a friend to like drizzly days), The Pretender (pretending to be a raindrop), and The Poet (writing poems using onomatopoeia).
Describe The Weather In Writing With Better Vocabulary
A good example is petrichor. It is the smell or scent of rain arriving after a period of dry weather. But it is difficult to use, and it might send readers hunting for a dictionary. The petrichor gave a hint of hope to the farmers. It would be better to use a descriptive phrase. The sweet far off scent of rain on dying grass gave hope to the ...
Rain Creative Writing Examples That Really Inspire
Example Of Creative Writing On Helping Even Without Knowing How. It was one rainy day that one old man in the neighborhood was hardly fixing his car. The car is quite old that fixing its parts would definitely be difficult. The man was lying under the car and I noticed that he simply could not reach for his tools easily.
How to Describe a Storm in Writing
Vivid Verbs. Because bad weather can often get out of control, describing a storm is not the time to skimp on verb usage. Weak verbs, such as "was" or "were," drain your descriptions of energy rather than infuse them with detail. Using specific, active verbs for the storm's motion gives readers a more detailed image of the story's events.
Beginning A Composition With Weather Descriptions
Some students have the habit of starting every composition with weather descriptions, regardless of topic or setting. Remember to use weather descriptions only if weather plays a part in your story. For example, if a rainy weather contributes to the plot of the story, it is a good idea to describe the weather, especially the rain and the coldness.
How to Describe the Wind in Writing (100 Words + Examples)
Fierce: A fierce wind indicates a wild and uncontrolled force. Example: "The fierce wind shook the window panes, a testament to the storm's power.". Wild: Wild wind suggests a sense of chaos and lack of control. Example: "The wild wind tossed the ship like a toy, waves crashing over the deck.".
Describing Smells in Writing: Mastering the Art of ...
These are just a few examples to get you started. Be creative and explore the vast array of adjectives available to you when describing smells in your writing. ... Earthy: damp soil, rain, moss; ... or even fear, and use that connection to enhance the emotional depth of your writing. For example, the smell of freshly baked bread might evoke ...
365 Creative Writing Prompts
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. Printable Ad-Free 365 Writing Prompt Cards. 16.
The Best Examples Of The 5 Senses And Descriptive Writing
Auditory Imagery - you may have guessed, this one relates to the description of sounds. Gustatory Imagery - this one's all about taste. Tactile Imagery - and this final one is all about touch, an often-forgotten sense. 5 senses imagery, in short, is a powerful tool in a writer's arsenal.
1800+ Creative Writing Prompts To Inspire You Right Now
This list of 1800+ creative writing prompts has been created by the Reedsy team to help you develop a rock-solid writing routine. As all aspiring authors know, this is the #1 challenge — and solution! — for reaching your literary goals. Feel free to filter through different genres, which include... Dramatic — If you want to make people ...
Creative Writing Examples (20 Types for You to Try)
Short stories range between 1,000 and 10,000 words, and like novels, they appear in a variety of genres. "Passing Ghosts" by Hannah Lee Kidder (from her collection Starlight) "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gillman. "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allen Poe.
How to Describe a Smell in Writing: 3 Nose-Tickling Examples
Example 1: The aromas of peanut butter. It's rich, smoky, surprisingly deep. The scent stacks in clear layers: at the top floats a note of honeyed sweetness. A heavy swirl of oil forms the grounding base note. In the fat middle, it's all sticky, particulate peanuts: a smell that matches the taste with uncanny fidelity.
10 Types of Creative Writing (with Examples You'll Love)
A lot falls under the term 'creative writing': poetry, short fiction, plays, novels, personal essays, and songs, to name just a few. By virtue of the creativity that characterizes it, creative writing is an extremely versatile art. So instead of defining what creative writing is, it may be easier to understand what it does by looking at ...
27 Creative Writing Examples
Read through the following examples to get ideas for your own writing. Make a note of anything that stands out for you. 1. Novels and Novellas. Inspiring novel-writing examples can come from the first paragraph of a well-loved novel (or novella), from the description on the back cover, or from anywhere in the story.
How to Write a Creative Brief with Examples and Templates
Here's an example of a creative brief for a marketing campaign designed in-house. This short creative brief template keeps a tight focus on the project itself — and doesn't waste time providing unnecessary context. Client Creative Brief Example Template. Download the Client Creative Brief Example Template for Microsoft Word