creative writing prompts first lines

First Line Generator: 101 Sentences To Get You Started Writing

Sometimes, the muse speaks through creative writing prompts .

And sometimes all you need is a single sentence to get you started on your next epic story .

Among the one sentence prompts you’ll find below, you’re sure to find at least one first line generator for a story you’ll love writing.

So, whether you’ve got a first name already picked out for your next main character or you’re starting with nothing but the will to write, enjoy the prompts below.

List of 101 First Line Generator Ideas

The best way to use a sentence generator is to start free-writing on the first one that grabs your interest and write as quickly as you can.

This is not the time to edit. Let the words flow out as the story forms in your mind.

Short Story First Line Generator

Fantasy first line generator, random first line generator, poetry first line generator, novel first line generator, historical fiction first line generator, first line generator tools .

Enjoy these first line generator ideas for writing a short story .

1. With his background and fierce appearance, no one expected Bruno the mastiff to be a good dog for small children.

2. She frowned thoughtfully at the tarot cards arranged before her.

3. Writing down her thoughts about their relationship wasn’t as cathartic as she’d hoped.

4. She bent down to pick up what she thought was a half-buried seashell.

5. No one suspected that every one of the vaccine syringes sent to those areas would render their receivers sterile for life.

6. It was there the billionaires of the world gathered to announce their joint decision, either oblivious or indifferent to the revolution brewing next door.

7. Just when she thought she’d finished crying, the phone rang.

8. On a night like this, the sky should be full of stars, but as she looked up, her legs almost gave out.

9. She’d forgiven everyone and emptied her home of all that gave it meaning.

two people brainstorming while writing first line generator

10. Three times, now, she’d almost died, and no one had noticed.

11. Her fifteen-month-old son tensed up in his shopping cart seat when the man approached.

12. “Oh, spare me the theatrics, and go cry somewhere else,” he said, adding, “No one wants to see that.”

13. Her voice broke over the phone when mine did, but she said, “It’s actually pretty nice here.”

14. “Okay, before I tell you, mom, you have to promise not to be mad.”

15. If they don’t find Ben attractive, they at least find him compelling. That’s the problem.

16. Once she catches your scent — a scent like yours, especially — she learns everything about you.

17. “I need something to look forward to that doesn’t come in a bottle. You got any ideas?”

18. It was his living room art display that finally convinced her to leave him.

When you’re writing your next page-turning fantasy novel , a good first line can get the creative ideas flowing.

Use these as a springboard, even if you end up changing the first line in your final draft.

19. This world was never meant to survive her.

20. As far as she was concerned, he was a typical teenager with a hoodie.

21. It’s not every girl who finds out her mom is a centuries-old superhero.

22. My first tutor was a dragon with a terrible sense of humor.

23. I looked into the crystal ball and saw myself walking hand-in-hand with my mortal enemy.

24. What I made for my mother’s birthday was supposed to be a harmless pendant.

25. I spent a thousand years in that bottle before a child freed me from it and called me “Mama.”

26. He made it sound as though the very worst thing I could be was a witch.

27. She was changed into something else while her parents stood nearby, watching the others.

woman busy in writing and facing her laptop first line generator

28. The label on the bottle said “Drink me,” and Alice rolled her eyes and snickered as she poured herself a glass.

29. The freeway was completely deserted, and the only words on the marquee near my exit were “Supplies have run out, and shelters are full.”

30. She told me I was the perfect candidate for their weaponized shifter program; and their target was someone easy to dislike.

31. I knew she’d been scratched during the attack, but until now, full moons hadn’t been a problem.

32. He shouldn’t have made me choose between my world and this one.

33. The one thing my mother hadn’t told me about her past was the reason I now lived in an icy cave near the top of the highest peak.

34. The trolls in that valley are the ones who found me and gave me my name.

35. I’m unusually tall for a dwarf. My mother was not prepared.

Don’t underestimate the creative power of random thoughts from memories or recent experiences.

Use one of the following to launch into a story that weaves elements of your own or someone else’s history into it.

36. If only she hadn’t bought the red one.

37. One bite, and his eyes closed, his focus turned inward, while she quietly exhaled.

38. She was the kind of person who loudly insulted others’ intelligence while neglecting her own.

39. Doctors told her she could never diet again.

40. I don’t sleep with that stone unless I want to wake up feeling as though I spent the whole night running.

41. It was enough for her that he’d found a lost child and returned him to his parents.

42. You’d think a winning lottery ticket was just what we needed.

43. In exchange for the apartment, she had agreed to bring the inmate his meals.

44. Her father always said driving would be the death of her.

45. What if I told you the separation of church and state is an illusion?

46. The largest golden maple leaf I’d ever seen landed at my feet as I turned the corner.

47. “Help me! I’m not your enemy,” he said.

48. For some reason, no one thought to question the other housekeeping staff.

49. As soon as he stepped across the threshold, she caught a whiff of something.

50. Even with a baby in her arms and her hair loose, I knew her. And it all came back.

51. He waited, nervously clearing his throat until my husband left the room.

52. His bike still hung on the rack, covered in dust, and one wheel bent into a moon shape.

Sometimes, all you want to write is a poem to express the ideas circulating in your mind.

Use any of the following to open the spigot and let the uncensored words out onto the page. Editing can wait.

53. The sky feels as empty as my chest.

54. The trees would miss you if you left.

55. The sunlight brought me back to you.

56. I was tired before my first sip of wine.

57. Memory is all around us, as well as within.

58. Don’t tell me what I need.

writing in notebook while in front of laptop first line generator

59. No expensive funeral for me, if I even have one.

60. The first step toward you was the hardest.

61. My hope literally took form inside of me.

62. I fight for what you’ve had from birth.

63. I come to shatter this fortress— not protect it.

64. You were born to make mistakes and to change the world as you learned from them.

65. The burn is what gets me.

66. There’s something in the water that now lives in me.

67. Why should I get away with it?

68. One bloom outlasted the rest before suddenly dropping.

69. I wish I could tell you this has nothing to do with me

First Line Generator at WritersDenPantomimepony.co.uk

Click on the giant blue button, and this generator will give you an opening line inspired by careful analysis of classic openers. The secret to writing a compelling opener is creating a story within a single line. And that’s something the makers of this generator understand.

Keep clicking until one of the options gets you thinking. Then brainstorm as many follow-up ideas as you can.

Opening Line Generator at Plot-Generator.org.uk

This generator gives you ten opening line ideas right away. Below them, you can select the number of new opening lines or ask them to suggest a number. Click on “Write me an opening line” to generate as many or as few openers as you like.

On the left, you’ll see their “Top 10 Generators,” including “Character Name” and “Rap Lyrics.” On the right, you’ll see “Newest Generators,” including “Pirate Name” and “Coronavirus Activity.”

Random First Line Generator at WritingExercises.co.uk

The Writing Exercsies website has a wide selection of content generators, including this one for random first lines. You can also find a rhyming dictionary (in case you prefer traditional, rhyming poetry), as well as generators for plots and random bits of dialogue .

Click on “Generate a First Line” as many times as necessary to find something you can use to get started.

If you had to choose one first line generator from the selection in this post, which ones spoke to you the loudest?

Or have you already started writing something that has you brimming with creative energy and excitement?

If this will be a long story , remember to do yourself a favor and stop for the day when you still want to keep going.

When you already have an idea of what happens next, sitting back down to it is much easier.

May the words keep flowing. And may at least one of these writing prompts set you on the path to writing something you and your readers will love.

Sometimes all you need is a single sentence to get you started with your story. These 49 first line generator prompts will set you off on the best writing path in different genres.

First Line Generator: 100+ First Sentences to Spark Creativity

She had never known that a human body could twist into that position.
The bookcases tilted at a precarious angle over the sleeping infant.
He was a brave man except when it came to small, tight spaces like the tunnel in front of him.
The rich couple was never generous, with their time or with their compliments.
Richard Garlong Champion III believed that though he had never ridden a horse, it would come naturally to him.
After his seven children had gone to sleep, the father piled the ten puppies into a sack and drown them in the river, but one managed to escape.
The young couple, who’d just gotten engaged ten minutes earlier, didn’t think the hot air balloon was supposed to make a hissing sound.
He thought he was the bully online, until a message popped up on his screen one night.
If her husband had believed her when she said she was getting migraines every day, maybe she wouldn’t have left him.
She got drunk even before the food arrived.
He got her alone in his car on the darkened street.
Everyone said that Amelie was a genius, but Albert never expected what she did one day at school.
One flashlight flash meant danger, two flashes meant it was safe; but she saw three flashes that night from beyond the bog, and they had never talked about what three flashes meant.
The new boy liked making tiny little origami weapons — swords, spears, axes — and leaving them on his desk for the next class to find.
78 wasn’t very different than 77, Earl was discovering the day after his birthday.
He would have married her all over again for their ten year anniversary, at least until the morning he discovered the emails between her and his colleague at work.
I don’t want to work, ever, I don’t want to study, and I refuse to play this little life game that you all have set up for me.
The best part of hating life is that nobody ever calls you an optimist.
I wanted to be a winner, and that meant I was willing to cheat.

[Writer’s note: I used to have 120 sentences, and a computer error erased them. Please be patient — I will rebuild them again.]

Stuck in a writing rut? Or just want to write something outside your normal genre?

This first line generator provides you with hundreds of first sentences to rev up your imagination.

What kind of creative writing prompts are these?

These first line prompts are written in the 3rd person
They are mostly realistic, not fantastical
They are 100% original to Bookfox

Every single one of these first lines should provide you with the energy to create some amazing stories.

4 Ways to Get the Most out of this First Line Generator:

Write as fast as you can without thinking. Go with the first ideas that come to you.
If you look at more than twenty, you can start to become a writing tourist, skipping through ideas for the fun of it rather than settling down and committing to just one. Don’t just window shop. Buy one and play with it.
Do you want the main character to be a woman or a girl instead of a man? Change it. Do you want the tense to be different? Change it. Do you want the location to be different? Change it.

photo writing prompts
musical prompts
creative nonfiction prompts
first line generators

If you end up writing something from one of these writing prompts, please leave a comment below on which first line gave you the inspiration. And certainly if you end up publishing something based on one of these prompts, let us know in the comment section so we can all congratulate you with some hearty electronic pats on the back.

Co-Authors:

Cassandra Hsiao is a rising senior at OCSA (Orange County School of the Arts). Her work has been nationally recognized by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and National Student Poets Program. She has been chosen as finalists of national playwriting competitions held by The Blank Theatre, Writopia Labs, and Princeton University. Her poetry, essays and reviews have appeared in The Los Angeles Times, TeenReads, Jet Fuel Review, Feminine Inquiry, Aerie International and more. She also conducts print and on-camera interviews as a Star Reporter and Film Critic for multiple online outlets.

11 comments

Really Helpful. Thanks a lot for these.

THIS WEBSITE IS AWESOME!

I think the generator doesn’t work anymore 🙁

yeah. ii didn’t find anything that would work either.

My English professor posted this as an aid for our “short short” assignment. I’ve tried to open it using 2 separate browsers and it hasn’t worked for either. Think something is wrong with the generator, would have been very helpful though!:)

I loved the way you wrote #19. I might use it.

nothing really sparked for me but they are awesome!

i do this stuff naturally XD i cant believe i do this kind of stuff like just write and don’t think naturally but my biggest problem is creating the first scene , I’ve got the characters, the will and happiness to write but where do is start? i cant start in the middle of a fight because i want to first grow the characters as in why he will jump in front of her to save her life from the thundering bullets . what is their relationship . i rewrite some times , i sometimes even put myself on a cliff hanger .

It was good and my book is almost ready!

Every writer NEEDS this book.

It’s a guide to writing the pivotal moments of your novel.

Whether writing your book or revising it, this will be the most helpful book you’ll ever buy.

Writing Prompts

150+ Story Starters: Creative Sentences To Start A Story

The most important thing about writing is finding a good idea . You have to have a great idea to write a story. You have to be able to see the whole picture before you can start to write it. Sometimes, you might need help with that. Story starters are a great way to get the story rolling. You can use them to kick off a story, start a character in a story or even start a scene in a story.

When you start writing a story, you need to have a hook. A hook can be a character or a plot device. It can also be a setting, something like “A young man came into a bar with a horse.” or a setting like “It was the summer of 1969, and there were no cell phones.” The first sentence of a story is often the hook. It can also be a premise or a situation, such as, “A strange old man in a black cloak was sitting on the train platform.”

Story starters are a way to quickly get the story going. They give the reader a place to start reading your story. Some story starters are obvious, and some are not. The best story starters are the ones that give the reader a glimpse into the story. They can be a part of a story or a part of a scene. They can be a way to show the reader the mood of a story. If you want to start a story, you can use a simple sentence. You can also use a question or an inspirational quote. In this post, we have listed over 150 story starters to get your story started with a bang! A great way to use these story starters is at the start of the Finish The Story game .

If you want more story starters, check out this video on some creative story starter sentences to use in your stories:

150+ Creative Story Starters

Here is a list of good sentences to start a story with:

I’ve read about a million stories about princesses but never thought I could ever be one.
There was once a man who was very old, but he was wise. He lived for a very long time, and he was very happy.
What is the difference between a man and a cat? A cat has nine lives.
In the middle of the night, a boy is running through the woods.
It is the end of the world.
He knew he was not allowed to look into the eyes of the princess, but he couldn’t help himself.
The year is 1893. A young boy was running away from home.
What if the Forest was actually a magical portal to another dimension, the Forest was a portal to the Otherworld?
In the Forest, you will find a vast number of magical beings of all sorts.
It was the middle of the night, and the forest was quiet. No bugs or animals disturbed the silence. There were no birds, no chirping.
If you wish to stay in the Forest, you will need to follow these rules: No one shall leave the Forest. No one shall enter. No one shall take anything from the Forest.
“It was a terrible day,” said the old man in a raspy voice.
A cat is flying through the air, higher and higher, when it happens, and the cat doesn’t know how it got there, how it got to be in the sky.
I was lying in the woods, and I was daydreaming.
The Earth is a world of wonders.
The fairy is the most amazing creature I have ever met.
A young girl was sitting on a tree stump at the edge of a river when she noticed a magical tree growing in the water.
My dancing rat is dressed in a jacket, a tie and glasses, which make him look like a person.
In the darkness of the night, I am alone, but I know that I am not.
Owls are the oldest, and most intelligent, of all birds.
My name is Reyna, and I am a fox.
The woman was drowning.
One day, he was walking in the forest.
It was a dark and stormy night…
There was a young girl who could not sleep…
A boy in a black cape rode on a white horse…
A crazy old man in a black cloak was sitting in the middle of the street…
The sun was setting on a beautiful summer day…
The dog was restless…”
There was a young boy in a brown coat…
I met a young man in the woods…
In the middle of a dark forest…
The young girl was at home with her family…
There was a young man who was sitting on a …
A young man came into a bar with a horse…
I have had a lot of bad dreams…
He was a man who wanted to be king…
It was the summer of 1969, and there were no cell phones.
I know what you’re thinking. But no, I don’t want to be a vegetarian. The worst part is I don’t like the taste.
She looked at the boy and decided to ask him why he wasn’t eating. She didn’t want to look mean, but she was going to ask him anyway.
The song played on the radio, as Samual wiped away his tears.
This was the part when everything was about to go downhill. But it didn’t…
“Why make life harder for yourself?” asked Claire, as she bit into her apple.
She made a promise to herself that she would never do it.
I was able to escape.
I was reading a book when the accident happened.
“I can’t stand up for people who lie and cheat.” I cried.
You look at me and I feel beautiful.
I know what I want to be when I grow up.
We didn’t have much money. But we knew how to throw a good party.
The wind blew on the silent streets of London.
What do you get when you cross an angry bee and my sister?
The flight was slow and bumpy. I was half asleep when the captain announced we were going down.
At the far end of the city was a river that was overgrown with weeds.
It was a quiet night in the middle of a busy week.
One afternoon, I was eating a sandwich in the park when I spotted a stranger.
In the late afternoon, a few students sat on the lawn reading.
The fireflies were dancing in the twilight as the sunset.
In the early evening, the children played in the park.
The sun was setting and the moon was rising.
A crowd gathered in the square as the band played.
The top of the water tower shone in the moonlight.
The light in the living room was on, but the light in the kitchen was off.
When I was a little boy, I used to make up stories about the adventures of these amazing animals, creatures, and so on.
All of the sudden, I realized I was standing in the middle of an open field surrounded by nothing but wildflowers, and the only thing I remembered about it was that I’d never seen a tree before.
It’s the kind of thing that’s only happened to me once before in my life, but it’s so cool to see it.
They gave him a little wave as they drove away.
The car had left the parking lot, and a few hours later we arrived home.
They were going to play a game of bingo.
He’d made up his mind to do it. He’d have to tell her soon, though. He was waiting for a moment when they were alone and he could say it without feeling like an idiot. But when that moment came, he couldn’t think of anything to say.
Jamie always wanted to own a plane, but his parents were a little tight on the budget. So he’d been saving up to buy one of his own.
The night was getting colder, and the wind was blowing in from the west.
The doctor stared down at the small, withered corpse.
She’d never been in the woods before, but she wasn’t afraid.
The kids were having a great time in the playground.
The police caught the thieves red-handed.
The world needs a hero more than ever.
Mother always said, “Be good and nice things will happen…”
There is a difference between what you see and what you think you see.
The sun was low in the sky and the air was warm.
“It’s time to go home,” she said, “I’m getting a headache.”
It was a cold winter’s day, and the snow had come early.
I found a wounded bird in my garden.
“You should have seen the look on my face.”
He opened the door and stepped back.
My father used to say, “All good things come to an end.”
The problem with fast cars is that they break so easily.
“What do you think of this one?” asked Mindy.
“If I asked you to do something, would you do it?” asked Jacob.
I was surprised to see her on the bus.
I was never the most popular one in my class.
We had a bad fight that day.
The coffee machine had stopped working, so I went to the kitchen to make myself a cup of tea.
It was a muggy night, and the air-conditioning unit was so loud it hurt my ears.
I had a sleepless night because I couldn’t get my head to turn off.
I woke up at dawn and heard a horrible noise.
I was so tired I didn’t know if I’d be able to sleep that night.
I put on the light and looked at myself in the mirror.
I decided to go in, but the door was locked.
A man in a red sweater stood staring at a little kitten as if it was on fire.
“It’s so beautiful,” he said, “I’m going to take a picture.”
“I think we’re lost,” he said, “It’s all your fault.”
It’s hard to imagine what a better life might be like
He was a tall, lanky man, with a long face, a nose like a pin, and a thin, sandy moustache.
He had a face like a lion’s and an eye like a hawk’s.
The man was so broad and strong that it was as if a mountain had been folded up and carried in his belly.
I opened the door. I didn’t see her, but I knew she was there.
I walked down the street. I couldn’t help feeling a little guilty.
I arrived at my parents’ home at 8:00 AM.
The nurse had been very helpful.
On the table was an array of desserts.
I had just finished putting the last of my books in the trunk.
A car horn honked, startling me.
The kitchen was full of pots and pans.
There are too many things to remember.
The world was my oyster. I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth.
“My grandfather was a World War II veteran. He was a decorated hero who’d earned himself a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, and a Purple Heart.
Beneath the menacing, skeletal shadow of the mountain, a hermit sat on his ledge. His gnarled hands folded on his gnarled knees. His eyes stared blankly into the fog.
I heard a story about a dragon, who was said to be the size of a house, that lived on the top of the tallest mountain in the world.
I was told a story about a man who found a golden treasure, which was buried in this very park.
He stood alone in the middle of a dark and silent room, his head cocked to one side, the brown locks of his hair, which were parted in the middle, falling down over his eyes.
Growing up, I was the black sheep of the family. I had my father’s eyes, but my mother’s smile.
Once upon a time, there was a woman named Miss Muffett, and she lived in a big house with many rooms.
When I was a child, my mother told me that the water looked so bright because the sun was shining on it. I did not understand what she meant at the time.
The man in the boat took the water bottle and drank from it as he paddled away.
The man looked at the child with a mixture of pity and contempt.
An old man and his grandson sat in their garden. The old man told his grandson to dig a hole.
An old woman was taking a walk on the beach . The tide was high and she had to wade through the water to get to the other side.
She looked up at the clock and saw that it was five minutes past seven.
The man looked up from the map he was studying. “How’s it going, mate?”
I was in my room on the third floor, staring out of the window.
A dark silhouette of a woman stood in the doorway.
The church bells began to ring.
The moon rose above the horizon.
A bright light shone over the road.
The night sky began to glow.
I could hear my mother cooking in the kitchen.
The fog began to roll in.
He came in late to the class and sat at the back.
A young boy picked up a penny and put it in his pocket.
He went to the bathroom and looked at his face in the mirror.
It was the age of wisdom and the age of foolishness. We once had everything and now we have nothing.
A young man died yesterday, and no one knows why.
The boy was a little boy. He was not yet a man. He lived in a house in a big city.
They had just returned from the theatre when the phone rang.
I walked up to the front of the store and noticed the neon sign was out.
I always wondered what happened to Mary.
I stopped to say hello and then walked on.
The boy’s mother didn’t want him to play outside…
The lights suddenly went out…
After 10 years in prison, he was finally out.
The raindrops pelted the window, which was set high up on the wall, and I could see it was a clear day outside.
My friend and I had just finished a large pizza, and we were about to open our second.
I love the smell of the ocean, but it never smells as good as it does when the waves are crashing.
They just stood there, staring at each other.
A party was in full swing until the music stopped.

For more ideas on how to start your story, check out these first-line writing prompts . Did you find this list of creative story starters useful? Let us know in the comments below!

Marty the wizard is the master of Imagine Forest. When he's not reading a ton of books or writing some of his own tales, he loves to be surrounded by the magical creatures that live in Imagine Forest. While living in his tree house he has devoted his time to helping children around the world with their writing skills and creativity.

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50 Creative One-sentence Writing Prompts That Will Make You Want To Write

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Need a few great first lines to get the ball rolling on your next story? Each of these one-sentence writing prompts gives you an opening sentence that hooks readers from the beginning. Have fun with these creative ideas as you craft your next short story or novel.

Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. If you click one of these links and make a purchase, we may receive a commission. This commission is paid by the retailer, not by you. Learn more .

Why Use Story Starters in Your Creative Writing Process?

You need a spark of inspiration.

Sometimes, coming up with short story ideas feels overwhelming. Maybe you have an assignment due and you don’t know where to start or perhaps you’re looking to write a little at the end of a long day but your creative juices have dried up. Perhaps you have a standard case of writer’s block.

Creative writing prompts with sentence starters or first lines help you overcome these challenges. Without forcing you into a certain direction, they give your story an interesting starting point. They are the kindle you use to start the fire, but tending it is up to you. Fifty people could take the exact same writing prompt and run with it in different directions, and we’d end up with fifty completely different short stories.

As you read through the list of one-line writing prompts below, don’t overthink it. Pick the one that stands out to you the most, the one that instantly inspires a dozen questions in your mind.

For example, if you read the first one-sentence writing prompt below, The message inside the fortune cookie, which contained only four words, has become my fate, you immediately wonder things like who ate the cookie? where did they get it? who was it intended for? what were the four words? how did they become his/her fate?

If a first line turns you into an interrogator, you know you’ve found an idea worth exploring.

If you still have writer’s block and need some more inspiration, read these narrative sentence examples for suggestions on how to write compelling sentences that develop character, settings, themes, plots, an conflict.

You Want to Try Something Different

Writers often get stuck in ruts. We find a formula that works for us and we repeat it. This can be great for meeting deadlines or selling stories, but it can also be limiting and boring. An occasional venture outside our comfort zones expands us as writers, exposes us to styles and storylines we might not normally pursue, and lets us play around with unfamiliar concepts.

If you’ve never explored science fiction or fantasy before, you might choose a story starter that offers an escape from reality. Or maybe you want a contemporary setting with just a touch of modern realism. Or, conversely, if you’re used to creating complex fictional worlds and magic systems, a realistic setting with a main character who’s just gotten some bad news could be out-of-the-box for you. You may even want to try your hand at writing a melancholy love story with our sad romance writing prompts .

You’re Not a Planner—Or You Need a Break from Being a Planner

I confess: I’m a serial planner. ( This is my go-to guide for novel planning. ) The notes I make before writing a book usually come close to matching the book in length. I like to know everything before I ever write a single word. (This level of planning is probably also a form of productive procrastination).

Planning is helpful, but sometimes it feels like a barrier too. Planners can feel like they can’t write a story unless they’ve done all the planning, and if they don’t have the time or inspiration for the planning, they don’t write. It’s a convenient excuse, but it gets us nowhere.

For extreme planners like me, one-sentence writing prompts permit us to write without a plan. We’re not trying to come up with the best way to lay the scene for the coming action or set the stage for character development. We’re parachuting into the middle of the action and it’s sink or swim.

Those questions we talked about a moment ago? The ones generated by the first sentence? They’re in charge here. They’re calling the shots. Instead of carefully mapping out a series of plot points, we need to figure out the answers to those questions and reveal them to the reader in the most tantalizing way possible.

The questions—and their answers—will take us where they want to go, not the other way around.

I’m not saying this method will make us leave plotting behind for good—perish the thought!—but it does allow us to tackle our writing from a different angle, an experience that will only sharpen our writing skills.

50 One-Sentence Writing Prompts

The message inside the fortune cookie, which contained only four words, has become my fate.
I’ve walked by that old house hundreds of times in the past two years, but today was the first time I caught the little girl watching me from the window.
Just when I thought my life couldn’t get any more complicated, my mother decided to open her new business—a coffee shop—in our living room.
My little sister thought she’d found the best hiding place in the house…until she realized it wasn’t exactly part of the house.
Susan hadn’t expected the hot air balloon to be filled with two dozen baby animals, but when your great uncle sends you a modern-day ark, you roll with it.
When I heard that familiar jingle coming down the street, I assumed it was the ice cream truck; I never knew they had mobile deliveries of those.
The cruise ship was supposed to be the setting for the perfect vacation, and it was—until that stupid movie star showed up and decided we were all going to be part of her game.
The first step in surviving middle school is easy—always be prepared—but the second rule? That’s not so simple.
Confused and disappointed, Marcus tossed aside the photo album his mom gave him for his birthday but when voices started coming out of it, he decided to pay attention.
“Don’t look at me, I thought we were going for tacos.”
Late for work, I throw open the front door and find myself face-to-face with a UPS driver standing next to the biggest box I’ve ever seen.
You know that dream where you’ve gone back in time and you’re reliving the craziest moment of your entire life?—I’m living it.
The house shook with a violent surge like a hurricane had whipped right through it and, just as suddenly, was still.
We danced until the sun went down and the floor gave way beneath our feet.
Professor Soto said the assignment would be easy; he never mentioned we’d have to do it on a roller coaster.
The old man in the seat next to me on the train speaks loudly on his cell phone; I’m pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to let that information out.
Joanna’s favorite band is playing a sold-out show tonight but thankfully, she’s figured out a way to get in.
When Jaden and his best friend took the blank page out of the notebook and drew their map of Ancient Egypt on it, they had no idea of the chain of events they’d set in motion.
“Pick a number, any number,” she said, her voice a taunt, “And I’ll show you your future self.”
Constance was planting daffodil bulbs in her flower bed when her trowel struck a most unusual object in the soil.
“In other news,” Zach leans over and whispers to Marie, “they’re expecting you to go up on stage and resign in about, oh, sixty seconds.”
Hup two three four, hup two three four—wait, shouldn’t we have been there by now?
Why did she burst through the door like that if she wasn’t going to tell me the truth?
Though Evie knew the dog was special, she’d never realized he was magical.
The return address on the gold envelope is in Greenland—had they really tracked me down from the other side of the world?
I always thought good historical fiction should transport you to another time and place, but when a man in a waistcoat and a top hat enters my room, I realize the book I’m reading has taken that to a whole new level.
The checkout line at the grocery store wouldn’t have been my preferred place to “be discovered”—fluorescent lights and all—but who am I to say no to Elizabeth Van Zee?
Is it even worth showing up here again if nobody’s ever going to come and answer my questions about my grandma?
I can’t justify the crimes I committed, even though they saved lives.
“Does this purple shirt make me stand out?” asked the giant one-eyed cat.
I wish I could tell you that everything went as planned, and no one got hurt, but that would be a lie.
They found my mom’s ratty ball cap by the edge of the creek around a month after she went missing; I wish they hadn’t.
She’d eaten a lot of pie during her career as a restaurant critic, but never before had she tasted one quite like this.
It was no problem catching the thief; he left his fingerprints everywhere.
I knew Jax was meant to be my best friend, from the moment we met right up until his death.
My knuckles were white as I gripped the armrests of my seat, hoping desperately that our pilot could get the plane back on course before it was too late.
Riley Davis always said that I was his whole world, but if that was true, he wouldn’t have destroyed my life.
I didn’t want to have to hurt him, so I ran away as soon as August got down on one knee.
At first, I had thought telepathy would be a cool superpower, but that was before I knew of the chaos that lives in every person’s mind.
“Why do you think you’re here?” Dr. Judy asked when I took a seat in her office.
I had just finished crocheting the small grey elephant for my nephew and was placing it in a gift bag when it let out a little trumpeting noise.
Teddy had always known there was something fishy about that new girl, and his suspicions were confirmed as soon as he saw the live salmon in her backpack.
She was on the hunt for a way to ease her anxiety, and it didn’t take her long to discover that goat yoga was not the answer.
I had never taken an interest in Randy until we both attended the teen fantasy club at the local library.
Beauty is everything, something I learned from a very young age.
I’ve been to at least a hundred weddings since I began my career as a photographer, each one a reminder of the love I will never have.
My sister had always loved flowers, and I felt bad for only ever giving them to her after she died.
When people ask what happened to my wife, I say it was a car accident, because no one would believe the real story.
I had no idea how big a polar bear’s stomach really was until I was inside of one.
When I began my study on ducks throughout the multiverse, I had no idea it would later solve world hunger.

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55 One-Sentence Writing Prompts to Kickstart Your Student’s Stories

boy using one-sentence writing prompts to write a story

One-sentence writing prompts are such a fun, helpful way to teach students how to write— and instill a love of writing .

I love watching my children think up new stories. You can almost see the wheels turning and thoughts churning!

But sometimes, those gears grind to a halt, and they get stuck.

That’s where writing prompts, also known as story starters, come in and save the day!

I especially like using one-liner story starter sentences in our homeschool.

They don’t require any prep on my part, and the kids love them.

Make Writing Easier with Free One-Sentence Prompts

Get a printable PDF of writing prompts sent straight to your inbox!

How One-Sentence Prompts Make Creative Writing Easier

I think the hardest part for every student is staring at that blank page wondering “ How do I start writing a story? “

Remember how hard that was?

Writer’s block is something kids deal with, too!

That pressure—creating a story out of thin air—can be a total inspiration-killer.

There’s something to be said about just getting their creative juices flowing.

That’s why I love sentence starters for creative writing because that’s exactly what they do.

One-sentence writing prompts are just what they sound like—an opening sentence or idea that’s meant to inspire a story.

For older students, I even like using first-line writing prompts for essay writing. You just have to start with prompts that are a little more subject specific.

The art o f writing can be a daunting task for anyone, especially for elementary-aged children and middle school students who are just starting their writing journey.

Sentence prompts relieve some of that pressure by acting as story starters .

They allow writers to focus their thoughts while providing ideas for their storylines.

Well-written prompts also help with the basics of sentence constructions, which sets the example and encourages better writing over time.

How to Use One-Line Writing Prompts

When students use one-sentence writing prompts as a starting point for their tales, it often helps them think more creatively.

It can drum up ideas they may not have thought of otherwise.

To use these story starters for kids, have your students brainstorm ideas for each one-sentence prompt.

Remind them that there is no right or wrong answer (or plot).

This brainstorming step can be part of their writing assessment or even part of their writing practice.

After all, every good storyline begins with ideation.

Even having your students do some journaling before starting a prompt could be useful. Great journal entries have, at times, been the source of wonderful essays!

55 Exciting One-Sentence Story starters

Sometimes, one sentence is all it takes to get those creative juices flowing. So here are 55 creative one-line story starters to ease the burden of the dreaded “blank page.”

Once you’ve cycled through the prompts below, check out our other free writing exercises:

Picture writing prompts
Fall prompts
Winter prompts

Encourage your children to use them as opening sentences for their stories , but also let them know it’s okay to change things up as needed!

1. I received a letter from a great uncle I never knew, stating I was heir to his throne in a faraway kingdom.

2. Suddenly, the merry-go-round stopped and all the horses came to life!

3. It all started when I took home the wrong backpack…

4. When I walked into the living room this morning, my mom had a huge grin on her face.

5. The next day at school, everyone wanted to know what happened last night.

6. My dad told me he started a new job today, and I found a superhero cape in the backseat of his car!

7. This summer, I’m going to visit my grandparents who live in another country.

8. Yesterday, I saw an old man walking down the street not wearing any shoes.

9. The little boy looked at me and said, “The choice is yours. What will you decide?”

10. I thought it was my new puppy making that strange noise, but it was actually…

11. It sounded like a trumpet, and it was coming from outside.

12. When I woke up this morning, there were hundreds of balloons everywhere!

13. A few days ago, I went out to play soccer, and suddenly, everything changed.

14. Last week, I met a girl named Mary, and we became best friends even though she’s not like most people I know.

15. I remember the moment like it was yesterday…

16. I received a letter with no return address, and it said something I never expected…

17. I was through the woods with my older brother when we heard a strange growl.

18. My dad silently handed me a piece of a paper that was actually a treasure map leading to…

19. As I gazed up at the stars, I noticed an especially bright one moving slowly across the night sky.

20. Today, I got a call from someone saying they have important news about my family history.

21. There once lived a king whose name was forgotten with time, but his kingdom…

22. It was the best feeling in the world…

23. I went with my grandpa to milk the cows, but something was different about the barn today.

24. Today, I saw a strange-colored bug I’ve never seen before…

25. My favorite teddy bear was nowhere to be found, but suddenly…

26. I felt as if I could fly…

27. I’m so excited because tomorrow I’ll finally meet my long lost cousin!

28. I always wondered what it would be like if it actually rained cats and dogs, then it happened.

29. I’ve always been afraid of spiders, but the world was counting on me, so I pushed through.

30. Suddenly, all the streets turned into rivers!

31. One minute, I was sitting quietly reading a book; the next thing I knew, I was running away from…

32. I can’t believe how fast the time went by when I was…

33. It was happening—I was finally going undercover as a spy on a top-secret mission.

34. I was just minding my own business when something stopped me in my tracks.

35. I was eating lunch with friends when I overheard them talking about a mysterious creature called a MarshCrawler.

36. I was playing hide-and-seek with my friend when I saw something I’ve never seen before.

37. I was doing my homework when I heard a loud crash downstairs.

38. On a camping trip with my family, we discovered a cave filled with the most beautiful treasures you’ve ever seen.

39. My dad taught me how to use a metal detector, and you’ll never believe what I found.

40. I had a dream last night where I was flying high above the clouds.

41. I was walking down Main Street when I spotted a man who looked exactly like my grandfather.

42. I was riding home after school when I came upon a group of kids throwing rocks at each other.

43. I was watching TV when I heard a knock at the door.

44. I was having dinner with some friends when I realized I’d left my wallet back at home.

45. Every story has a hero; this time it was me.

46. They still had a long way to go when it started snowing.

47. When I opened the front door, I saw someone I never expected.

48. I was given the gift of any wish in the world…

49. From the next room, I heard my little sister laughing hysterically.

50. I was walking around the neighborhood when I stumbled onto a secret passage.

51. I was taking a nap when I woke up to find myself surrounded by hundreds of people.

52. I tried desperately to persuade him, but he wouldn’t listen.

53. The day began normally until I noticed an odd smell coming from the kitchen sink.

54. We were driving along when I saw a huge black cloud heading our way.

55. Every day, the same strange thing happens…

Want to Print These First-Line Writing Prompts? (Free PDF!)

To make these one-sentence story prompts easier to use, we created a free printable of 55 “short-and-sweet” story starters.

Get them sent to your inbox below!

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365 Creative Writing Prompts

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

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

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

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

Here are 365 Creative Writing Prompts to Inspire:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

10. Friendship: Write about being friends with someone.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

57. Alarm Clock: Write about waking up.

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

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

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

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

62. Slip Up: Write about making mistakes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

90. Green Thumb: Write about growing something.

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

92. Bug Catcher: Write about insects.

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

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

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

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

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

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

99. Seasonal: Write about your favorite season.

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

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

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

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

104. Vacation: Write about a vacation you took.

105. Heat: Write about being overheated and sweltering.

106. Spellbinding: Write a magic spell.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

162. Missing You: Write about someone you miss.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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193 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

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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

Love these prompts. I am going to write a story about a group of people creating and building a city where homeless people can live, where everyone has access to as much money as they need because money is in endless supply. Where no one has too little or too much of anything.

I decided to write a poem about prompt 41, I have been writing poetry for 2 years now and haven’t had much inspiration so I appreciate these prompts!

“WHAT THEY DON’T KNOW”

They don’t know. They don’t know the dread I feel, The pain I feel, The crippling anxiety And the depression that I feel.

For I have worn this mask, Sealed to my face with wax, To make sure no one knows That I am suffering, Every Single Day.

Telling someone these feelings I feel, Well that would surely Be a relief, But if something goes wrong, If they send my thoughts Throughout everyone I know, And anyone I could know.

Well, if that happens, I’ll have to travel abroad. To a distant land, Start over.

And hope and make sure, No one finds out what Might be under this mask Sealed with wax. And that they won’t know how I feel.

Because I’d rather deal with being a Trainwreck, A teenage disaster, And keeping everything about me a secret, Then having everyone Look at me as if I’m not human For having problems just like them.

50 creative writing prompts to enrich your craft

Creative writing prompts provide a useful way to jog inspiration. Try these creative writing exercises focused on individual elements of storytelling:

Post author By Jordan
13 Comments on 50 creative writing prompts to enrich your craft

Typewriter with lightbulb symbolizing writing prompts and inspiration

Creative writing prompts – find inspiration to:

Create compelling dialogue, craft vivid setting descriptions, create interesting characters, create strong story openings, master tense, craft more effective sentences and phrases, find story ideas.

Create eventful plots

Craft satisfying story endings

1. a relocation.

Prompt: A character is moving to another city. She visits her favourite public place and sees something that makes her want to stay. Describe this in 500 words, using third person POV (he/she). Then rewrite in first person, using ‘I’.

Why: Rewriting third person scenes (especially emotional ones) in first person helps you find your character’s voice. You’re telling the reader what your character thinks as your character, not an observer. When you rewrite in third person (if you prefer this POV), some of this immediacy will carry over.

Prompt: A character is being chased by a villain or villainous group through an abandoned warehouse. Describe their fear and lucky escape in 500 words or less. Rewrite the piece from the viewpoint of the villain(s).

Why: Rewriting a protagonist’s scenes from the antagonist’s perspective can help you create a more realistic sense of threat, since you will be able to picture the protagonist as well as antagonist’s movements and psychological state clearer.

3. A late arrival

Prompt: A character arrives late to a party, not knowing that an old significant other is attending too. The relationship didn’t end well. The host introduces them to each other, unaware of their history.

In 500 words or less, write the scene and rewrite it twice, once from each character’s perspective: The late arriver, the ex and the host.

Why: Sometimes a story scene can be effective written from a secondary character’s point of view. Writing as a neutral observer might help you notice details worth including in the scene (such as the main characters’ actions and body language); actions that you wouldn’t think about as much if you were writing from a different viewpoint.

GET YOUR FREE GUIDE TO SCENE STRUCTURE

Read a guide to writing scenes with purpose that move your story forward.

4. A long affair

Prompt: A POV writing exercise courtesy of Writer’s Digest:

A teenage couple is sitting at a restaurant, playfully making up a fake Cosmo love test for each other. What questions do they ask each other? Now, write the same scene, but this time the couple is in their thirties. How would the questions differ? Write the same scene again, but this time the couple has been married for fifteen years. How would their questions be different than the other two tests?

Why: Character development makes your characters feel real. Rewriting scenes from the POV of younger and older versions of your characters will give you a sense of how your characters’ voices and concerns could change over the course of your novel realistically.

5. A change of view

Prompt: A detective is called to a small hotel to investigate the disappearance of a guest. Describe him searching the guest’s room in 500 words or less. Use first person POV. Then rewrite the scene in the second person (using ‘you’ to describe his actions, as though the reader were the detective).

Why: Although the second person is very uncommon as a point of view, writing a series of actions in second person can help you get into descriptive mode – you’re putting the reader immediately in the viewpoint character’s shoes, making them see and do exactly what your character sees and does.

Creative writing prompt - dialogue between fighting lovers

6. An argument

Prompt: Two lovers are having an argument in a bar. Character one hates public displays and is trying to calm the situation. Character two doesn’t care at all what other patrons think. Write their exchange in 500 words or less.

Why: Conflict in dialogue makes it lively and the raised stakes draw readers in. The point of this creative writing prompt is to remind you to include individual characters’ differing psychologies and likes and dislikes so that each character’s voice is distinct.A new tag

7. Remove dialogue tags

Prompt 7: Take several lines of dialogue (either your own or another writer’s work) that use dialogue tags (‘he said’, ‘she said’).

Rewrite the exchange without any dialogue tags, describing each character’s body language (e.g. crossing arms, pacing back and forth, sitting down, standing up) between their spoken lines instead. (E.g. “You said the same thing yesterday.” She crosses her arms, leaning back.)

Why: Dialogue tags can be distracting and repetitive. Body language can show how your characters are speaking and feeling without telling the reader outright, and this brings characters to life.

8. A public figure

Prompt: A public figure (a celebrity or politician) is giving a long speech when they are interrupted by a member of the audience and heckled. The speaker loses their calm and responds to the heckler in far more informal speech.

Why: We use different ways of talking depending on whom we address. Creating sudden shifts in how a character talks in scenarios such as this helps us remember to vary a character’s expression according to their circumstances.

9. An elevator pitch

Prompt: Two characters have been stuck in a lift for an hour. They were strangers but they begin opening up, telling each other about their lives while they wait for assistance. Their conversation is awkward at first but by the end it’s as though they’re old friends. Use 500 words or less.

Why: Creating a sense of progression in dialogue shows change and this change and sense of development is a large part of what makes a story interesting.

10. A group project

Prompt: . Four college students have been put in a group to compile a report. Each has a very different work approach. One student loves to research first, another likes to organize people and delegate tasks, one is a lazy slacker and one just agrees with everyone else to avoid conflict. Write their argument about how to complete the project.

Why: It’s important when writing multi-character scenes to give each character a voice that corresponds to their immediate goals as well as personalities. This exercise will help you create multi-character scenes that are complex and rich with dramatic potential.

[Try extra character writing exercises here for further practice.]

11. A lone hiker

Prompt: Imagine your character has gone hiking in a forest on a mountainside. There is nobody else around. Describe what they hear as they pass through different parts – a densely wooded area, a stream, and a high ravine.

Why: Often when we write setting we rely on visual description almost exclusively. Creative writing prompts that help you invoke the other senses will help you create fuller mental imagery for readers.

12. A city changes

Prompt: Describe the general goings-on in a city over the past 100 years. In the course of your description, describe at least one major landmark that’s changed as well as one memorable event that residents won’t soon forget.

Why: Writing setting well, especially in historical fiction, requires showing place as dynamic rather than static. The process of time changes a place and showing these changes occasionally makes your novel’s locations feel real.

13. A sailor’s impressions

Prompt: Describe a seaside city from the viewpoint of a traveler who is visiting for the first time. Describe the same place again from the viewpoint of a local. Think about the different places in the city each would find interesting, and have each character list three things they love and three things they hate about the city.

Why: Characters’ relations to places affect what they notice about them and where they go, and the same place in your novel can have multiple qualities depending on whose POV is being used. A visiting character might end up eating at awful tourist-bait diners, for example, while a local is more likely to avoid these.

14. A house changes

Prompt: Describe a big, rambling house in the daytime and make it seem comfortable and homely. Rewrite the piece, keeping everything except the adjectives the same. Change the describing words you use so the house feels sinister, eerie or outright terrifying.

Why: In setting, time of day and place work together to establish mood and atmosphere. This exercise will help you show how places take on different characters according to the conditions under which we experience them.

15. A character’s refuge

Prompt: Imagine your character has a favourite place they escape to whenever they feel stressed or need quality alone time. It could be somewhere in nature or else an inner city café, music hall or public library. Describe this setting in 500 words including at least three of senses: smell, touch, sound, sight or taste.

Why: Involving the reader’s senses in your settings makes your fictional world easier to imagine. We form memories of places not just through vision but the other senses too. Do this exercise regularly to create memorable locations for your story.

16. A Mary Sue

Prompt: Describe a character who is loved by everyone (if you’ve seen the cult classic show Twin Peaks , Laura Palmer is a good example). Describe the character and what is so lovely about her in 500 words or less, but end with a secret or flaw that not everyone sees.

Why: Story characters who are perfect are boring. Great characters are light and shade. ‘Good characters’ can have flaws and ‘bad’ characters can have pasts that show the reader a human side. The villain Lord Voldemort in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series was once an ordinary boy.

17. A police line-up

Prompt: Imagine a character who witnessed a crime has to identify the perpetrator in a police line-up. Each of the suspects is quite similar looking but there is one vivid aspect of the guilty party that stands out. Describe your character noticing this stand-out feature and realizing who the guilty suspect is in 500 words or less.

Why: When we describe characters, we often reach for the most obvious physical features such as hairstyle and eye colour. But these are seldom particularly identifying and can read as clichéd. When readers could spot your characters in a police line-up, you’ll know they are vivid. [Someone on Tumblr used forensics software to put together sketches of famous literary characters based on their descriptions: See more here ].

18.A formative experience

Prompt: Imagine a character who has a single, over-arching goal in his or her life (it could be the quest for money or love, status or acceptance, for example). Now describe a single event from your character’s life that strongly influenced their adopting this goal. Describe the event from the character’s viewpoint as a memory, in 500 words or less.

Why: Even if you don’t explicitly mention a character’s entire backstory in your novel, knowing details about why your character wants and strive for specific things will help you create a three-dimensional cast for your novel.

19. An intriguing voice

Prompt: Go to YouTube. Click on a random video and quickly minimize the window before you see anything. Describe the voice of the first person you hear speaking, in detail. Is there any defining characteristic? Is it low, high, raspy, clear? Do they have a stutter or an odd way of starting, pausing, or ending sentences? Begin with ‘Her/his voice is/was like…’

Why: Thinking about the differences in how people sound and express themselves will help you write characters whose voices are unique and interesting.

20. A metamorphosis

Prompt: It’s fun to ask yourself questions such as ‘if my character were an animal/song/building/food item, what would they be?’ Imagine a character in her mid 40’s who’s a schoolteacher. Her class loves her because she’s a bit odd and quirky. Now answer these questions:

If my character were an animal what would she be and why?

If my character were a song, what would it be and why?

Why: Creative writing prompts that involve asking questions about imaginary people help to create a more concrete idea of them in your mind’s eye. Even if your reader doesn’t know every little thing about your character, you should have a very deep understanding of them yourself so that, if they’re faced with a specific situation, you will already have some intuition as to how they will react.

21. A dramatic incident

Prompt: Begin an opening sentence with a character having died. For example, Faulkner begins his acclaimed story ‘A Rose for Emily’ thus:

When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old man-servant–a combined gardener and cook–had seen in at least ten years. William Faulkner, ‘A Rose for Emily’. Available online here .

Why: Dramatic story openings that leave things unanswered pull the reader in. How exactly was Miss Emily a monument? Why is she so intriguing to the town and why had nobody seen the inside of her house? How did she die? Faulkner leaves many questions to answer in the course of the story.

22. A narrator’s regret

Prompt: Begin a story with the words ‘If I’d known then what I know now, I never would have…’ Continue the opening for up to 500 words.

Why: Conditionals (if, would, could, etc.) create a question in the reader: ‘Then what?’ Beginning a story with a character talking about having grown or acquired new knowledge in some way makes it clear to the reader that there has been momentous change of some kind, and change is what creates story.

23. An uncommon birth

Prompt: Begin a story ‘I was born…’ Many classic novels that are bildungsromans (stories about coming of age) follow this format (e.g. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens and Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie).

Why: Great characters have history and can remember (and are driven to some extent by) important life events. You don’t have to give your character’s life history from the day they were born. But write a list for each character in your novel about important events in their life, even if we only meet them when they are in their thirties.

24. A strange action

Prompt: Begin a story with a surprising or unusual action. For example, ‘I rushed around the house in terror, turning every tap on full’.

Why: The mundane and everyday can happen in the course of your novel. But keep the most mundane parts of your book for any part but the beginning. An unusual or inexplicable action as an opening creates curiosity.

25. An encompassing idea

Prompt: Write a first line that encompasses the whole of a story idea. For example, the first line of The Lord of the Rings written this way could be ‘I had been to Mount Doom and back, and everything in the Shire had changed.’ This great exercise was suggested by Joe Bunting of The Write Practice in his post on writing great first lines .

Why: Being able to condense your story into a single line is a good skill to have. It’s often best to write the first line of your novel once you have finished your first draft, too, and once you have all the details of plot you’ll be especially able to find an opening that encompasses the central ideas your book covers.

26. A marriage day

Prompt: Imagine a character describing her wedding day. Describe how she and her future spouse walk down the aisle and how she feels about the occasion, all in the present tense and first person plural (‘we’). Then rewrite the passage in the future tense (‘We will’).

Why: Different tenses and moods have interesting effects (e.g. the subjunctive mood is used to describe hypothetical situations – ‘if I had been president, I would have…’). Rewriting an important event in the future tense can show a character’s longing or the castles in the sky they are building. Writing the above scenario this way can be very effective if you will later show how the event did not go to plan at all. It will let you create a contrast between expectation and reality and this element of surprise is a satisfying component of storytelling.

27. A revelation

Prompt: Your character is a high school student who has just sat his exams.

Describe the exams he has completed in the recent past tense (e.g. ‘Yesterday, I wrote history and my pen ran out of ink in the middle of the French Revolution’).

Now rewrite the piece in the past perfect (past perfect tense shows actions that are complete, e.g. ‘I had walked to the exam venue at 8:00 am.’) End the rewrite with a revelation that came on the last day (for example, the entire class had to re-sit the exam because there was a mix-up with question papers).

Why: Past perfect tense is useful for creating anticipation, because it shows something happened before something else . The reader says to herself ‘I see that all these actions have been completed, so what are they leading to?’ Mastering past perfect will help you create a more complex sense of time and chronology in your novel.

28. An interview

Prompt: Describe a character waiting nervously outside a venue for a job interview. Describe what they are worried they will be asked and in what ways they feel prepared. Write in recent past tense, ending with ‘the door opened’. After this, rewrite the same scene in the present progressive tense (beginning ‘I am sitting outside….’ and ending ‘the door opens…’)

Why: It is important to be consistent with tense in a single section of your book or scene, unless transitions between tenses are logical and easy to follow (for example, a character shifting from sharing a memory to describing a present action). Mastering ‘present progressive tense’ (the tense using present participles that shows immediate, current action) will help you create active scenes that unfold in front of the reader.

29. A five-year plan

Prompt: Describe a character making plans for where they will be in life when they reach 30. Make several uses of the future perfect tense that indicates an action that will be complete in the future (e.g. ‘I will have finished studying’).

Why: Characters, like real people, project themselves into the future, imagining when certain tasks or undertakings will be finished and what their achievements will look like. Future perfect tense shows that the narrator’s current situation has a definite end-point, making it clear that your character is in a state of transition. This helps to create a sense of both shorter time and longer time scales in your novel.

30. An unexpected visitor

Prompt: Begin a story about an unexpected visit with the words ‘I had not been expecting anyone, but…’ Use the past perfect progressive tense (‘I had been [working/walking/thinking/waiting/missing]’) at least two more times in the exercise.

Why: The past perfect progressive tense is used to describe a continuous action that was completed in the past. It’s useful for writing about interruptions because there is an implied ‘but’ or ‘when something else happened’. For example ‘I had been reclining by the pool with my eyes closed when I heard an unfamiliar voice.’

31. An imperfect copy

Prompt: Open a favorite book to a random page and pick a paragraph. Copy out the paragraph but change every adjective to a synonym. Compare the two versions and note any differences in connotations. For example ‘green’ describes the color, but ‘verdant’ describes the green of lush vegetation or grasslands specifically.

Why: When you rewrite, finding more descriptive alternatives for words that perhaps aren’t carrying enough weight will make your writing more vivid.

32. A marathon

Prompt: Write a scene where your main character is running a competitive marathon. Describe her progress and feelings as she nears the finish line. The first time around, use adverbs (e.g. ‘I ran quickly around the bend in the road’), then rewrite using descriptive verbs instead of verb-plus-adverb (e.g. ‘I hurtled/sprinted’, instead of ‘I ran quickly’).

Why: Adverbs tell the reader how an action is performed, while active verbs show that specific quality of action more imaginatively.

33. A synonymous exchange

Prompt: Write a scene between two characters who are out on a date at a restaurant. They mirror each other’s gestures from time to time in a subconscious display of affinity. For the first pass, use the same words for these gestures (e.g. ‘She smiled at me as she returned from the restroom and I smiled back.’) The second time around, take all the double words (e.g. ‘smiled’ and ‘smiled’) and replace one with a synonym so there is less repetition.

Why: Sometimes it is hard not repeating the same word in short succession or you do so intentionally for effect. Yet using the same describing words within a short space of time for different objects or actions can feel amateurish and repetitive to readers. Use this exercise to practice creating variation and to expand your repertoire of useful synonyms.

34. A precocious child

Prompt: Write a scene in which your main character is talking with a precocious child who uses big words a lot (such as ‘precocious’, meaning showing certain abilities or interests at a younger age than the norm). Then go through the scene and find the shortest possible alternative for every longer word. An alternative to ‘precocious’ could be ‘clever’.

Why: Learning to simplify your writing and strip it down to its most basic meanings is important for becoming a good editor. Before you can write great ornate prose, you need to have a good sense of how to write simply and sparingly.

35. A letter

Prompt: Write a scene in the passive voice, where a character receives bad news in a letter and describes being given the letter and reading it. For example, ‘The letter was given to me yesterday.’ Then rewrite the whole scene in the active voice, where the character is in the subject position: ‘I received a letter yesterday.’

Why: A lot has been written about using active voice rather than passive voice. Passive voice can be used intentionally to create the impression that a character is fairly passive in their life and pushed and pulled by others. Generally, though, active characters are interesting to read about because we have a sense of their actions being purposeful and driven by some or other immediate goal, and that creates stakes that arouse interest.

36. A newsworthy hook

Prompt: Go to Google search and click on ‘news’, then type in a single word. It can be the name of a place, a colour, a job description. Then use the first line of the top result to begin a story and continue for 500 words. For example, for ‘purple’ the current result is ‘Jimi Hendrix would have been perfectly comfortable with the purple haze of uncertainty that surrounds many of the Liberal government’s most pressing agenda items.’ Granted, it would be an odd story, but you could write speculative fiction about Jimi Hendrix returning from the dead to be a guitar-playing political commentator.

Why: News articles are a great source of story ideas, from the ordinary to the bizarre.

37. A chance find

Prompt: Open a favourite novel to a random page. Use the first 5-7 words of the first complete sentence to begin writing a story. For example, from Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-up Bird Chronicle: ‘I was going to beat him…’

Why: Other writers’ books are filled with great turns of phrase. A single image or action can spark your imagination and start off an interesting story.

38. An autocomplete

Prompt: Go to Google search and start typing in a phrase beginning ‘What if’. Look in the auto-complete suggestions that pop up (for ‘what if everyone was’ a suggestion is ‘what if everyone was vegan’). Write a story opening up to 500 words long that explores this idea in greater detail.

Why: Many great stories and novels branch out from a simple premise. For example, C.S. Lewis’ great fantasy novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe starts from the question ‘what if there were another world where animals could talk and we could reach it through secret portals?’

39. A blind stroke of luck

Prompt: Open a dictionary to a random page five times, close your eyes and land your finger on a random word. Write each of the five down and try to combine them into a story idea. For example, for ‘alternative’, ‘full’, ‘discovery’, ‘critic’ and ‘original’, you could come up with ‘A critic obsessed with Kafka makes a discovery – a drawer full of alternative original drafts of stories that seem to give a cryptic message.’

Why: Using random techniques can jog your creativity and help you find curious combinations of subject matter you’d never normally dream of writing about.

40. A song to start it all

Prompt: Take a playlist on a music streaming service or your own device and select shuffle.

Press play and use the words of the title as either the opening of a story or to create the main idea. For example, the words ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ (the title of a song by the band Joy Division) could be words a character thinks in a story about an unhappy love affair.

Why: Songs are great sources of writing inspiration because they are often ambiguous and allow us to fill in the gaps using our own imaginations.

Create eventful plots

41. a great win.

Prompt: Write a scene in which a person wins the lottery. Describe their excitement and the lead-up to claiming their ticket, and the moment that they find out that they got the date of the draw wrong and didn’t win anything after all.

Why: The ‘reversal of fortune’ is a common ingredient of tragedy and drama. Practice writing about reversals of fortune to improve at creating the rising and falling action of dramatic moments in your stories’ plots.

42. A prophecy

Prompt: Write a scene in which a prophet comes to a village and shares a premonition that throws the townspeople into turmoil. Describe how a main character decides to set about resolving the situation.

Why: The catalyst for your story, the inciting event that sets it in motion, needs to create tension (whether between characters or within one character) that begs resolution. This exercise will help you practice creating action-centered story beginnings.

43. A betrayal

Prompt: Write a scene in which two old friends have a fight that threatens to dissolve their friendship for good. It could be a fight over a clash of values or a personal betrayal. Towards the end, show that there is a glimmer of hope that they will reconcile.

Why: Conflict (whether internal or between characters) is the lifeblood of great plots. If everything is easy and straightforward for your characters, the stakes are low and the reader invests less emotionally.

44. An adoption

Prompt: A woman has been searching for her birth mother for years because there are important questions she needs to ask her. She’s finally found the right address and has made contact, and the woman has invited her over. Start with ‘She rings the bell’ and describe their interaction for about 500 words.

Why: Climactic plot moments are opportunities to create suspense and resolution. Isolating and practicing writing moments of plot revelation will help you handle moments of truth creatively and assuredly.

45. A new piece of evidence

Prompt: A detective has been on the hunt for a notorious killer for years. He’s finally tracked him down to a hideout and the detective manages to cuff and arrest him. But while combing through the killer’s hideout, the detective makes a shocking discovery that opens a whole new chapter. Write an ending for this story that also suggests the beginning of a new plot line.

Why: Writing a book series is challenging, and knowing how to create new arcs even as you resolve major ones helps to keep readers invested in seeing what your protagonist will face next.

46. A late pardon

Prompt: A man imprisoned wrongly for a crime is released after 20 years. He’s lost touch with his family. Describe his surprise homecoming in 500 words or less.

Why: Dramatic stories that carry a lot of emotional weight need to be resolved satisfyingly. If your protagonist has suffered immensely, the ultimate deliverance should read as comparatively immense. This exercise will help you find dramatic story endings for dramatic beginnings.

47. A better ending

Prompt: Take a novel that had an ending you found unsatisfying. Rewrite the ending and change elements so that you’re happy with the outcome.

Why: Sometimes writers make choices that upset us. We finish thinking ‘there was so much promise, and then they went and did that ‘. So practice writing endings that satisfy your expectations of a book so that you are best equipped to satisfy your readers’ own.

48. An educated guess

Prompt: Read the first paragraph of a short story or novel, then close the book and write a final paragraph.

Why: Many story openings give a clear sense of what the general themes and preoccupations of the book are. It’s important that the opening and closing of your book resonate with each other, so practice writing these two parts together as an exercise.

49. A top-rated finale

Prompt: Take a favorite television series or movie. Make up your own ending based on what you can remember of the plot line and characters.

Why: Using TV shows and movies as inspiration is effective because screenwriters are especially well-versed in strong beginnings and openings. Practicing an exercise like this will help you think like a screenwriter in how you craft compelling story endings.

50. A blank slate

Prompt: Create your own prompt for writing a story ending and post it in the comments below

Why: Coming up with prompts is a valuable creative exercise in itself.

Find daily writing prompts with exercises to practice literary devices and craft.

Try easy, step-by-step prompts that will help you outline your novel and support to see you through the challenging first draft.

Daily writing prompts: 365 ways to practice craft
Character archetypes: How to enrich your novel's cast
Creating your own budget MFA in Creative Writing
Tags writing exercises , writing inspiration , writing prompts

Jordan is a writer, editor, community manager and product developer. He received his BA Honours in English Literature and his undergraduate in English Literature and Music from the University of Cape Town.

13 replies on “50 creative writing prompts to enrich your craft”

This is an amazing list! I love the fact that you listed a “why” after each exercise, it really helps to focus the mind. I’ve included a link to this post in my latest blog post on https://elisabethannewritesthings.wordpress.com/ I hope you don’t mind! If you do, let me know and I will take it down, but I thought it would be great to share it with other people.

Thanks, Elisabeth. Not at all, I’m glad you liked it and grateful for the mention. B.

[…] you are struggling to come up with ideas to write about daily, these great writing prompts will inspire you and maybe take your writing in a new […]

Writing prompts has a great significance. It helps the readers come to know the goal of writing the article.A single word, a single line even a picture can be the writing prompts.So, we should be more creative to write a writing prompts.It must be clear, concise and focused.Nowadays, many paper writing service, online writing schools help us to learn writing prompts. Here you have shared fifty real life example of writing prompts. These examples must help us to write a great prompt. Thank you for sharing.

Hi Cody, it’s a pleasure. Thank you for reading!

I wrote a short story based on the first one, and I didn’t follow it exactly but I am really happy with it. I plan on having my friends edit it. I love the why it helps me understand what the point of it is besides just typing words. Thankyou

It’s a pleasure, Emilie. I’m glad you found it inspiring. Good luck with your story!

There are some amazing ideas here! So glad I found this list, you’ve really got me thinking! Thank you 🙂

I loved the prompts as well as the structure of your post! It certainly gave me some food for thought…I was wondering if there’s some way to get feedback on what I write using these prompts, though…is that possible?

Thank you Ananya, I’m glad you enjoyed this article!

You can share pieces for feedback from peers in our members-only writing groups. You can sign up here: https://www.nownovel.com/users/sign_up

Fantastic. Thank you.

It’s a pleasure, Tinka, thank you for reading!

[…] Look no further than http://www.nownovel.com/blog/50-creative-writing-prompts/ […]

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105 Creative Writing Prompts to Try Out

General Education

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

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

feature image credit: r. nial bradshaw /Flickr

10 Short Writing Prompts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

11 Writing Prompts for Kids

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

#1 : Include something falling in your writing.

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

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

#4 : Write a dumb internet quiz.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

15 Cool Writing Prompts

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

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

#3 : Write using no adjectives or adverbs.

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

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

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

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

#8 : Write a recipe for an intangible thing.

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

#10 : Write a story from within a bubble.

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

#12 : Write a story in second person.

#13 : Write a story that keeps contradicting itself.

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

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

15 Funny Writing Prompts

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

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

#3 : Write about writers' block.

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

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

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

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

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

#9 : Come up with 10 different ways to:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

54 Other Writing Prompt Ideas

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

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

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

#4 : Write a pirate story with a twist.

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

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

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

#8 : Write a story as a dream.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#40 : Write a story about a secret room.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to Use Creative Writing Prompts

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

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

#1: DON'T Limit Yourself to Prose

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

#2: DON'T Edit as You Write

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

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

#3: DO Interpret the Prompt Broadly

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

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

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

#4: DO Try Switching Up Your Writing Methods

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

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

#5: DO Mix and Match Prompt Ideas

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

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

#6: DO Try to Write Regularly

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

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

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

What's Next?

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

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

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

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

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

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Heather E. Wright

Resources for Writers of All Ages and Teachers, Too.

WRITING PROMPTS

Announcing New Online Writing Camp for Teens!

I’ve created an online, 5-day creative writing program called Writing Camp for Teens . The program contains five activity bundles with writing-centered exercises, crafts, resources, and the odd field trip. You will have enough writing prompts to last a long time. There are options that include email coaching or a critique of your story. Please check out Writing Camp for Teens here .

I’ve given this page a new look that I hope is easier to negotiate that the previous, strangely-numbered edition. Scroll down to find six different categories of writing starters: first lines, thinking about your character, connect the random words–or not, writing prompts and questions, dialogue prompts, story titles. From now on, new prompts will get added to all the categories from the top, except the dialogue prompts that have to get added to the end of the category to keep the numbering system working. Have fun!

The prompts below can help you find a story idea, but if you’re looking for a way to outline the action of a longer story, consider the hero’s journey. Here’s an outline of how it works.

Plotting with the Hero’s Journey

In 1949, a scholar named Joseph Campbell published a book called The Hero with a Thousand Faces . In the book, he explained what he had learned from studying religions, mythology and legends from around the world. He looked at stories from different cultures about their heroes and heroines. He found one story that seemed to occur in all cultures, no matter when they existed in history or where they existed on the planet. This pattern for a story has become known as the “hero’s journey.”

The hero’s journey is not just a pattern that belongs to old stories. It’s being used today in books you’ve read and movies that you’ve seen. Writers use it because it is a pattern that their readers enjoy, no matter whether they are male or female. Screenwriters use it because it helps them write a better movie.

One well-known book about the hero’s journey was written by Christopher Vogler. It’s called The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers. Vogler worked at Disney Studios when they were creating The Lion King and Aladdin and wrote a memo to the Disney screenwriters about using the hero’s journey pattern to make good films. Use the terms “hero’s journey” to search the Internet and you will find lots of examples and more detailed descriptions of the pattern.

The hero’s journey pattern roughly follows the steps in the list below. Keep in mind, that just because it’s called the hero’s journey, this story pattern isn’t restricted to stories about boys only. You’ll see, from an example later on in the chapter that this pattern applies to stories about girls, too. Can you think of a book you’ve read or a movie you’ve watched that follows a similar pattern to the steps here?

The hero has an “unusual” birth. Often the hero is an orphan or has something mysterious in his past.
The hero is asked to do something that, at first, he doesn’t want to do, so he says no. Then he is asked again, but this time he says yes.
Early in the journey, the hero gets help from someone wise.
The hero travels from the familiar world to the adventure world.
The hero is tested by people and events.
The hero often has a helper or sidekick in the adventure world.
The hero faces a final battle where all could be won or lost.
After the battle, the hero returns with something that benefits others

George Lucas used that pattern in his Star Wars films, JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books follow the pattern, and you can see the pattern in The Hunger Games , too. Not every part of your story has to match the steps listed above. The hero’s journey is just a plotting device that’s worth thinking about when you tackle a big project like a novel. Here’s how it works in two books you might know.

Hero’s Journey in Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief and Ella Enchanted


The hero has an “unusual” birth. Often the hero is an orphan or has something mysterious in his past.	Percy is a demi-god. His father is the ancient Greek god, Poseidon	Ella is given the gift of obedience when she is born from a fairy named Lucinda. This gift is really a curse. She has a fairy godmother and is part fairy herself, but doesn’t find that out until she is older.
The hero is asked to do something out of his or her comfort zone and initially refuses. Then The hero is asked again, but this time he or she decides to accept.	Percy’s doesn’t want to go to the camp his mother is taking him to, and doesn’t understand the danger. At camp, he doesn’t really want to be there, especially after he finds out who his father is and he is separated from his friends.	After her mother dies, Ella is told that she has to go to finishing school. She doesn’t want to go, but she is given an order so she has to obey.
Early in the journey, the hero gets help from someone wise.	Charon gives Percy a ballpoint pen that becomes a sword. He gets prophecies from the oracle, but is told that they might not mean what he thinks they do.	Ella gets help from her fairy godmother, Mandy. Because Ella is part fairy, she can read a special book that Mandy gives her. The book tells her what other people are doing and thinking.
The hero travels from the familiar world to the adventure world.	Percy goes on a quest to return lightning to Zeus. His personal quest is to save his mother. The world outside the camp isn’t the same as when he left it because he now knows that it is full of danger and monsters.	Ella goes to finishing school where her step-sisters find out her secret. She runs away and travels to a giant’s wedding so she can find Lucinda and get the curse undone.
The hero is tested by people and events.	He faces many monsters and threats to his life on his quest, including being attached by the Furies, Medusa, Chimera, and Echidna.	Ella is tormented by her step-sisters and forced to give up her only friend at the school She runs away to find Lucinda and tames ogres and meets giants and goes for 6 days without food. Lucinda gives her a worse curse—to be happy when she obeys. She agrees to marry someone she doesn’t love because of the curse.
The hero often has a helper or sidekick in the adventure world	Percy travels with two friends: Annabeth and Grover	Ella gets help from the book, and from the soldier that Char sends with her to the giants. She also makes friends with the elves.
The hero faces a final battle where all could be won or lost.	Percy has to battle Ares, the god of war, in order to win the helmet that has to be returned to Hades.	Ella breaks her spell in order to save Char whom she loves.
After the battle, the hero returns with something that benefits others.	Percy returns the lightning to Zeus and saves his mother. He ends the conflict between Zeus and his father.	Ella is free from the curse and can marry Char, and her step-mother and sisters are punished.

Keep in mind the story line graph that your teachers draw on the board showing the introduction, the inciting incident, the rising action, turning point, falling action and conclusion. That drawing is a good reminder that you need to keep your reader interested in your character’s story by keeping your character in trouble, increasing the danger until a final moment when the action comes to a climax and the problem is finally solved.

In the table above, “the hero is tested by people and events” corresponds to the rising action of a story. In a short story, the rising action doesn’t take any breaks, and follows a steady course to the end of the story. In a longer work, you will need to give your readers some short breaks in the action while your character reflects on what has just happened, heals wounds, gathers strength or learns skills for the next challenge, reviews the clues (if your story is a mystery), or maybe just has some fun. After these breaks, your character’s next challenge will have a strong impact on your reader and keep those pages turning.

FIRST LINES/LAST LINES

Think of a story that might begin or end with one of these sentences:

Toy guns can’t kill people – or so I thought. (contributed by a reader)
Today I got the phone call. (contributed by a reader)
Henry said, “Do not wish me a Happy New Year.”
Helen dropped the last of his photographs into the trash.
Why wasn’t I surprised that the light switch didn’t work either.
I hoped they remembered the old adage, “Don’t shoot the messenger.”
We’d never make it before dawn.
They were not her people. Helen realized she was lucky to still be alive.
One of these days, I’m going to say no.
I agreed that Henry was a puzzle, but I was the only one who thought a couple of pieces were missing.
It’s bad enough when your ex-boyfriend calls you, but when the call is from his mother, it’s time for action!
I knew that sound. Dragons.
I thought space was supposed to be silent.
We didn’t know it would be our last sunset at the lake.
Tires screeched. I turned and ran down the alley.
He lit a cigarette and watched Henry close the door.
Who’s that woman in the photo?
Two years ago, I swore I’d never come back here again.
It’s not unusual to find odd bits of paper tucked into library books for a bookmark, but this time it was a letter.
Some jokes just aren’t funny.
“Next time,” said Henry, “we’ll plan our escape in better weather.”
“Moon Base Omega failed to report, sir.”
We heard the approaching horses (car) and hurried further into the woods.
I was not ready to admit defeat.
“This is the last straw!”
Henry looked guilty.
Helen looked up from her reading and her book fell from her lap.
I’d always wondered what real fear felt like. I was sorry I found out.
Monday was supposed to be the worst day of the week. Today had it beat by a mile.
We all felt the cold before he entered the hall.
Breathing at this altitude was harder than I thought it would be.
“Are you sure he’s here?”
Low battery. Exactly the two words I didn’t want to see right now.
After sitting at the same desk for three years, I figured I was beyond seeing anything new. I was wrong.
“Have you seen this?”
Rain turned the narrow path into a steam of mud and dead leaves.
The man’s face glared down from the picture frame on the wall.
We smelled the smoke before we saw the flames.
Going on this vacation had been a mistake.
I was sure that I someone move past the window.
Henry died two years ago, but I saw him for the first time today.
“What do you mean, you’re out of lemons?”
Unlike Disneyland, my hometown was not the happiest place on earth.
A day at the mall. I’d agreed to spend a day at the mall. An hour was my usual limit.
The voice on the phone was warm and convincing.
The flames had nearly reached the stables.
Bill looked up at the flag to check the wind.
Helena reined her horse back to a walk. She needed time to think.
“When was the last time you saw him?”
He reached for the knife.
If school sucked, then Mr. Wentwhistle’s English class was the largest Dyson in the building.
I always liked the number 24.
The old man leaned forward over the table.
“No. You unwrap your present first.”
I yanked out my ear buds. That noise had to be a scream.
Margot always ate her vegetables first.
The smell of smoke lingered long after the blaze had died.
I huddled in the stern as the sea slammed the little boat.
Why was her floor covered in broken glass?
Yellow leaves crackled underfoot.
Ben pulled the brim of his hat further down over his eyes.
The cave was dark, but at least it was dry.
The last thing Helen needed now was a crying little brother.
“Storm’s coming.”
Where’s Ralph?
Yesterday I would never have guessed that this could be true
The sword felt heavy in her hand.
Flight was second nature to him.
My best friend is a ghost.
My mother always said that it was better to ask for forgiveness than for permission
I was beginning to wonder if driving a car was something I should be doing with a cranky Dalmatian in the back seat and a migraine pounding behind my eyes.
Some tunes bring back the wrong kind of memories.
I’d thought the carpet was clean until my face made close and painful contact.
At times like this, I knew better than to ask, “Why me?”
Was I the only one who had noticed that there’d been no squeal of brakes before the car hit the gate post?
“Carly hates me.”
Peter hid under the table.
The jewels sparkled in the sunlight.
Marcus pulled his cloak more tightly around his shoulders
“When was the last time you saw Henry Marsh?”
Margot closed the book she was reading and turned out the light.
Mondays never go well.
How can someone get lost twice in one day?
Is that a threat?
I definitely didn’t like the way those lights were flickering?
I had nothing left but thanks.
Sunsets will never be the same again.
Kisses are just the beginning.
Typical Michael.
Tom had everything, except …
If you couldn’t arrange a solar eclipse to darken your day, there was always Henry.
The winter wind rattled the windows.
Dirt was fine—in its place.
He’d always had the perfect golf grip. The one he used on the gun wasn’t bad either.
Palm trees always reminded me of him/her.
Parker was definitely not singing in the rain.
I think that, after you lose your car keys three days in a row, you should just be able to stay home.
Pick up the sword.
That is definitely not supposed to be lying on my front porch.
Landlords must take special courses in how to be aggravating.
A bright orange sun crawled out of the horizon.
Only the desperate need apply.
I’d had a lot of experience with death, but this time …
If my smartphone was so smart why had it just called Jim?
Sam shivered. It wasn’t the cold.
White lace curtains fluttered in the warm breeze.
The air was thick with wood smoke.
I thought Play-Doh® was for kids until I saw the body.
Now I know what they really mean by “caught in the act.”
Erik loved the dark.
Red warning lights flashed on the console.
Remind me again why I wanted to be a June bride.
A black wall of cloud raced in from the west. Dead leaves scattered in the wind. Once again, the perfect setting for his arrival.
I refused to let them see me cry.
When I thought about the cabin, I only remembered the corners—the ones where I’d crouched in fear.
I never dreamt it would be still standing after all these decades, but then, if my great aunt’s diary was right, this simple weathered cabin was magic.
I hated classical music, so fortunately for me the concert was cut short half way through the William Tell Overture—sadly so was the conductor’s life.
Character 1: “Listen to the rain pounding on the roof!”//Character 2: “That’s not rain.”
“Share my umbrella, lady?”
“I thought you said this tent was waterproof!”
After two hours of the brain-numbing, thud-swish of windshield wipers, Carol stopped her car.
Marnie sat in front of her computer, staring at a screen full of photos. “Delete,” she whispered and the screen went blank.
A year had passed and it still hurt to walk in the house and not hear his voice.
Pat walked into the library and flicked the light switch. A flash, a hollow pop, and darkness.
Fine. I’ll do it.
If you’re hungry, you’ll eat it.
The next time I say ‘yes’ I’m actually going to listen to the question.
I thought this was supposed to be a vacation.
The sign says, “No Trespassing.”
In a perfect world chocolate would be calorie free.
Heartbeats shouldn’t be this loud.
Mike heard the click and froze.
Fences are for climbing.
Who says you never forget how to ride a bike.
The rain and the mud were bad enough; I didn’t need her smirk, too.
Alex threw the sack onto the table.
Just a few more steps
Only three days to save his life.
Even though the umbrella cast a wide shadow, I still wondered if dead skin could sunburn.
The candle guttered and we were left in the dark.
Dad’s tree was dying.
His watch has stopped.
Feet scrabbled into the shadows.
Only the body disturbed the smooth surface of the pool.
Put that down.
Dear Diary.
I didn’t expect to be happy he was dead.
This was absolutely the wrong time for the fuse to blow.
If I heard that whistle one more time …
His hand trembled as he closed the book.
The creature slipped into the long grass.
Only animals’ eyes are supposed to glow at night.
I didn’t need to smell the place to know why I hated it.
Please tell us a little about yourself.
Haven’t you ever seen a knife before?
It will be here any minute.
Sit down, or else.
The wind was changing. I felt it in my skin.
Never lend Parker anything.
The sound of his voice never failed to make me cringe.
“I’d wish you a Happy New Year, but I have a feeling it would be a little inappropriate at a murder scene.”
Jasmine held the small shell, looking at it closely for a moment before putting it carefully in her pocket.
The icy rain clattered on the windows like an endless chorus line of rhythm-challenged tap dancers.
Winslow put down his pen and read the note one last time.
Eyes that green were definitely dangerous.
Mike’s Saloon was usually closed in the morning.
Where did you come from?”
The screech of gulls stopped her in her tracks.
Charlie read the inscription in the front of the book again. Now, what does that mean, he wondered.
After four days, Jeff had had enough.
I hated it when she smiled that way.
It didn’t take long to realize that, once they found the body, I was going to be suspect number one.
My boss was right. Sunday was the perfect day for a murder.
It was too damn quiet.
Outside the diner, a black pickup rolled to a stop.
Helen never looked good in red.
Jim said he’d checked the cottage yesterday. It wasn’t like him to forget to lock the door.
Beth put her mug down with a thud and jumped up from the table. She really had heard it. It wasn’t her imagination.
Chris woke to the sound of crying. It was 3 o’clock in the morning and he’d been alone when he went to bed.

THINKING ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER

What would your character write in his or her journal in response to these prompts? a) What annoyed me today. b) What made me laugh today. c) The news story/Facebook post that made me smile. d) How I feel about thunderstorms. e) Music that brings back memories. f) If I could live at any time in human history, it would be ________ because ….
Have some fun with these questions designed to dig a little deeper into your character and to give you some thoughtful journal topics to explore.
What masks do your characters wear to hide their feelings in certain situations? Whom do they trust to see behind their masks?
What costumes did your characters want to wear on Hallowe’en when they were children? Did they want to be superheroes or bunnies or witches or pirates or ….? What was your favourite Hallowe’en costume? Why was it your favourite?
What do you need to have the best start to your day? Eight hours sleep? Two cups of coffee? Skipping morning altogether? Music? All news radio? What happens when your favorite morning routine goes wrong? Now answer these questions for your character.
In Stuart Kaminsky’s Toby Peters mysteries, Toby has recurring nightmares that feature Bozo the clown. Write about your recurring dream or create one for your character.
If your characters live in the present, what photos or images do your characters have on their desktops or cell phone screens? Why is this image important? If your characters live in another time, what photos would they keep in a wallet or on a bedside table, or what poster would they have on their bedroom walls? Explain why certain photos or images are special to you?
What does your character consider a luxury? A day at the spa? Box tickets for a game? Feeling safe? A snow day home from school? One more day? What obstacles keep your character from enjoying this luxury? Describe what you would consider a luxury. If it is something that you can treat yourself to once in a while, how does it make you feel? If it is something that is out of reach, how important is it that you eventually get to enjoy it?
What makes your character impatient or angry? How does he or she deal with anger? Does your character keep it bottled up to explode later over something insignificant? Let it all out right at the moment and then move on? Never really get angry? Count to 10? React with fists or words? What does it take to get a strong reaction from your character? Think about how you handle anger. How does it affect you and your relationships?
Do holiday festivals make you happy, or do they bring back sad memories, or do they do both? How do you deal with your holiday feelings? How do holidays affect your character?
Think about makes you laugh. Do you have a favorite comedian or TV show or movie? What makes the person or program so funny? What kind of humor appeals to you? Witty repartee? Slapstick? Farce? What makes your character laugh? One of the key rules of humor is, “Pain is funny.” Do you think it’s true? Why or why not?
How would you complete the following sentences? How would your characters complete the sentences? If I could be a kid again, I would … ; If I could go back to one day in my life, I would …; If I could have one good-bye over again, I would ….
What brings you comfort? A hug, the low vibration of a purring cat, fuzzy slippers and a favorite housecoat, ice cream, money in the bank, Jack Daniels? Explain why certain things make you feel comforted. Now answer the same question for your character.Have you ever wanted to get in your car or on a bus or train and just keep going? What is pulling you from where you are? What do you want to leave behind, if only for a while? What do you hope is ahead of you? What does your character think and do when he or she feels this way?
What makes your character stop and savor the moment? The peaty aroma of an Islay malt? A baby’s smile? What special memory or feeling is evoked? How can this change of pace enhance your story and let the reader know your character better?
What has your character wasted in the past—money, time, a relationship, someone’s trust? How does that event color what your character is doing today and how does it influence your character’s choices? Answer the same question for yourself.
What is your favorite word?
What is your least favorite word?
What turns you on?
What turns you off?
What is your favorite curse word?
What sound or noise do you love?
What sound or noise do you hate?
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
What profession would you not like to do?
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
What is your character’s greatest fear? If your character doesn’t have one, create one and make sure that he or she has to face that fear at a critical time in your story. Think Indiana Jones and the snakes.
What is the one ‘good-bye’ that you said to a living person that you regret saying? Answer the same question for your character.
Does your character prefer to be alone or with a lot of people? What benefits does your character derive from being in his favorite situation? How does he cope when he must experience the opposite? Think of placing your character in his least favorite setting and add another level of conflict to whatever else is happening in the scene.
What food do you hate? Consider serving your character her most despised meal in a situation where she feels she actually has to eat it.
What place have you always wanted to visit? What attracts you to this place? What do you wish you could experience there? Answer these questions for your character.
Many mystery novelists hook readers with their expertise in a certain skill: gourmet cooking, knitting, quilting, showing dogs. Do you have or know about a special skill that could add an extra dimension to your character?
If your main character could choose to play a character in a play or movie, which character would he or she choose? Which character would you choose?
Write an opening paragraph in which your character comes into physical contact with someone or something.
Think about secrets. Make sure your character has some and imagine the kind of person he or she would trust with those secrets. How could that other person gain that trust? Why might that person betray that trust and tell the secret to someone else?
Send your characters on an adventure to a “land far, far away.” Look through some old issues of National Geographic and imagine how your character would cope in a yurt, or in a market in Marrakesh or in a tent on the side of a mountain.
Begin your story with your character in motion—driving, running, flying, riding. What is your character running from? What is your character running to?
Your character loses a backpack/ purse/briefcase containing one thing that his or her future depends upon. What hapens next?
Think of the skills you have: putting up a tent, downhill skiing, solving crosswords, cooking. Add these skills and interests to your characters or make learning them essential for your main character’s survival.
Elmore Leonard said, “I once named a character Frank Matisse, but he acted older than his age; and for some reason he wouldn’t talk as much as I wanted him to. I changed his name to Jack Delany and couldn’t shut him up.” Try renaming one of your characters and see what happens.
How does your main character accept a compliment? What is your main character a little (a lot) vain about?
What does your character value the most? Is it an object like a ring or a photograph? Or is it a reputation for honesty or an influential position or the chance to find true love? How can you put what your character values most at serious risk in your story? What do you value most?
How concerned is your character about global warming and conservation? Does he or she recycle or have a garden or compost or drive a hybrid? How does this concern or lack of it affect day-to-day decisions and choices that your character makes?
If you could take back any words that you said, what would they be? Why would you want to take them back? What words would you character choose? Why?
Is your character a planner or is your character spontaneous? Is he or she happy when someone just drops by or only happy when visits are planned and prepared for?
How many times a day do you check your watch or phone for the time? Are you checking to see how much time has passed or how much is left? Do you manage time well or do things just get done when they get done? How do your story’s characters feel about the passage of time?
Have you ever felt that you have ‘burned your bridges’ with a friend, family member, or employer? What happened? Has this happened to your character? What happened to him or her? How can this cause a complication in the story you are writing
How do you communicate with those you love? Do you call, or Skype, or text? Is it important to hear their voices or see their faces? Are words enough? How do your characters keep in touch? Is there anything they miss as they keep in touch?
When did you last see your best friend? Describe what you did and what you talked about. Why is this person so special to you? Answer the same questions for your character.
How have you felt when you faced a “significant” birthday? What thoughts when through your mind? What resolutions did you make for the next year, the next decade? Is age just a number for you? How does your character feel about his or her age or upcoming birthday?
When is the last time you cried? Describe what happened. Describe what happened the last time your character cried
What do you do/feel when you find out that you’ve been lied to? How does your character reactHow do you cope when you get a cold? Head for bed or work through it or …? How does your character deal with being sick?
What represents stability to you? Do you value stability in your life or do you prefer to live with a lot of uncertainty? Why do you think you feel this way? Answer these questions for your character?
Do you prefer silence or noise when you work? Why? Answer the same questions for your character.
If your story were going to be filmed, who would star? Why would they be the best match for your characters?
Who is your favorite superhero or folk hero? Why is this person so compelling? Which super/folk hero is your character’s favorite? Why?
What topic does someone have to introduce into a conversation for you to shut down? What topic do you never want to talk about? What topic causes this reaction in your character? Why?
What would be your favorite place to go for a walk? What would your five senses experience there? How does being in this place make you feel? Answer these questions for your character.
How do you feel when you are doing something that you don’t want to do, or are spending time with people you don’t like? How do you cope? How does your character feel in these situations?
If you could instantly fix anything in your life right now, what would it be? Would you change anything or have trouble picking just one thing? What would your character want to fix—nor not?
What strategies do you use to comfort a friend who is going through a bad time? What advice do you give or what do you say to help this person feel better? Is this something your character is good at, or does he or she try to avoid these moments as much as possible?
Describe in detail what is in your character’s pockets or purse or backpack. Why does your character carry these things with him or her all the time?
What kind of driver are you? How do you feel about your car? Is it just a simple necessity or does it say a lot about who you are? Answer these questions for your character.
What’s your favorite board or card game? Why do you enjoy it? Who are your favorite gaming partners? How competitive are you? Do you enjoy the game whether you win or lose? Answer these questions for your character.
What would you do with a large inheritance? What would your character do if he or she inherited a large sum of money?
If someone asked you to describe one happy moment from your childhood, what would it be? Would you have trouble choosing only one? Or would you have difficulty finding any to choose from? How would your character answer this question?
What would you do if you won the lottery? What would your character do?

CONNECT THE RANDOM WORDS–OR NOT!

For each group of words, freewrite around one, some or all of them to create a scene or a story or a poem:fire, light, field, lost, run, black

case, grip, red, box, secret, cord
bowl, gold, web, border, track, glimpse
flower, song, frame, balloon, calm, purple
chair, shadow, dial, repair, candle, cup, yellow
path, marking, window, sky, light, white
wonder, snow, crystal, sky, glow, footprints, run
number, frame, sharp, cold, red, wire, slump
rise, platform, cries, thunder, stone, path, danger
cup, danger, blue, fragile, reach, high
book, scratch, far, wonder, red, end
curtain, lights, remember, warm, close, fear
Key, glass, red, petal, end, call
Paper, control, gold, drop, glow
Smile, block, brown, music, real
Peel, wood, lace, light, blue
Wheel, border dark, wire, box, narrow
Cover arm strand leaf, tall, blue
car, leaf, blue, and, glass, chain
plate, stick, chair, day, ring, wall
holiday, red, flash, tin, tremor, find
salt, light, hand, turn, cover, water
bag, handle, glass, date, black, walk
blue, jar, post, mirror, glow
door, sliver, label, dawn, clasp
knife, paper, ice, coat, silver, lake
clasp, frame, red, strike, notes, tin
clock, chain, grip, moon, shade, lock
band, star, blue, fever, petal, lie
toy, cup, tremble, weight, park
, car, bowl, sidewalk, apple
ribbon, glass, silver, roof, pace
brush, mask, window, ring, fan
bridge, note, match, string, dial
circle, cliff, jewel, paper, snow, nail
ice, gift, map, moon, lamp
ring, storm, table, train, blue
drink, call, space, ladder, jam, cliff
flame, table, cover, mask, hollow, leaf
box, watch, garden, window, ship
sage, match, corner, light, border
bloom, wall, flow, cup, eye, time
shirt, pen, thunder, cry, case, paper
puddle, tree, letter, steps, trail, ache
march, crock, blue, bloom, roof, stone
glass, willow, tile, edge, hollow, bar
empty, bowl, crack, window, yellow
pane, river, stone, open, branch, cloud
cap, link, wheel, funnel, pot, turret
glasses, stake, pool, shadow, crest, choke
poem or scene: bricks, crack, stain, twine, reach, pry
lake, call, face, track, grind, shelter, breath
bird, scrape, clock, envy, whistle, sunset
border, willow, rust, wine, fortune, still
fan, wrong, shot, games, cord, note, window
leaves, books, new, bright, time, hope
snow, windows, night, candle, branches, waiting
keyboard, cup, red, tower, sunset, eye

WRITING PROMPTS AND QUESTIONS

When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? Did you finally choose that career or are you still secretly wishing for that childhood dream to be real? Why or why nor? Answer the same questions for your characters.
What was your favourite piece of clothing when you were a child? A special sweater make by grandma, a t-shirt with a favourite TV or movie character, a shirt from you favourite team? Describe the garment and how you felt wearing it. Do the same for your characters.
How does your character react to frustration? (I’m writing this during my second consecutive hour of online assistance in an effort to get Photoshop to download and work on my computer. I admire the perseverance of the client services person, but I sooooo have other things I’d rather be doing right now!) I got out my NEO and finished writing my blog post. What does your character do when he or she has to wait for much longer than he or she thinks is appropriate, or when something small becomes a road block to a larger project that your character considers urgent?
What do sunsets make your character think about?
What makes your character laugh out loud?
What kinds of souvenirs do you bring home from your vacations or trips away from home: Programs? Ticket stubs? Collectible spoons? Maps? Brochures? Books? Where do you keep your souvenirs? How often do you look at them after you return? Is it important to have these keepsakes from your trips? Answer these questions for your characters, too
In what point of view have you written your story? Take a couple of paragraphs and use a voice different to the one you originally chose. Was it easy or difficult to find the words for the rewrite? Did you learn something about the characters or events in the scene that you didn’t know before? Are you in the right POV for your story?
Think of a memory that involves a piece of music: a popular song that you always sang along to, a lullaby, a TV show or movie theme, a melody that you or someone you knew played on an instrument, a song you sang on the way to camp, or in church. Describe the events, people, or emotions that you associate with that piece of music. Do the same exercise for the main character in your story.
What’s your favorite natural sound? Wind shaking poplar leaves? Ocean surf? Thunderstorms? One bird’s song? Describe the place that the sound reminds you of. What other senses do you recall? Do you remember a special smell, taste, touch or sight associated with this place?
Get away from the keyboard and write with pencil/pen and paper. This is the way you first started to create. The connections are still there. If you already write in longhand, change your paper, use colored pens, or change your location.
See what happens when you explore one of the following: My life as an aunt/uncle; The worst mess I ever had to clean up; Why I love … ; If you want to annoy me, just ….
Think of all the meanings and expressions that relate to the word “light.” Here are some examples: light as a feather, light bulb, light on her feet, light-headed, neon, incandescent, bright, burnt out, light the way. Play with these until one of them leads you to a story or poem.
Think of a sound that isn’t around anymore: the click of typewriter keys, the tone that played during the test pattern on 1950’s TVs, the sound of the dial turning on a telephone, the theme of an old TV or radio program, the sound of a former pet’s paws on hardwood floor, the sound of the doorbell of a house you used to live in. What memories do those sounds conjure up? What rooms or people do you see?
What if–The antique bracelet found by your character was engraved with map coordinates and a date in the near future; a garden shed was really a time travel portal; a picnic basket held a wonderful romantic meal—and a gun.
Write about a “body of water.” Consider the following: a bubble bath, a puddle, a storm-blown lake, a calm green sea, a child’s wading pool.
Write about an incident involving a dog, a window, and a green hat from three points of view.
Think about the meanings and expressions related to the word “glass.” Here are some examples: glassy-eyed, glass half empty, glass of water/wine/…, eye glasses, smooth as glass, clear as glass, hourglass, magnifying glass, glass slippers … Play with these until one of them leads you to a story or poem.
Freewrite around the word “lonely.” To what or whom do you turn when you are lonely? To what or whom does your character turn?
Think of things white. Choose one word to freewrite around and fill your white page with words: snow, teeth, clouds, wedding gowns, peonies and magnolias, paper, smoke, grubs ….
If you only had one window to look out of for the next six months, what would you want to see on the other side? Describe the view. How would it change? Why did you choose this particular view? Do the same exercise for your character? What did you learn?
Are you a lark? Describe your perfect morning. Are you an owl? Describe your perfect night?
Describe the best kiss you ever gave or received–or both.
Have you ever felt that you should have been born in a different decade? What draws you to this time? Write about what you would do on a typical day in your other decade.
Choose one sentence from the opening paragraph of the novel you are currently reading and use it to begin your story. Here’s mine from The Tribune’s Curse by John Maddox Roberts: “If you are extremely happy, the gods have it in for you.”
What’s your favorite film? What special quality does this film have that sets it apart from the rest? How can you add that special quality to your current writing project?
Think of veins. Think of them flowing with healthy blood, tracing delicate patterns in leaves, leaving cruel blue patterns on an old woman’s legs, holding a rich deposit of gold, mutilated by drug use, taking in life-saving medication. Choose one vein of thought and write what you imagine.
Scour magazines and newspapers for interesting faces. Give them new names, professions and histories and see if they want to come and play in your story.
Write a story for children. Start with “once upon a time” or “long ago in a land far away.” Enjoy a magic place where anything can happen.
Several works share the title, “A Stitch in Time” derived from the saying: A stitch in time saves nine. What titles and stories can you create from other proverbs or sayings? Try one of these: What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Once bitten, twice shy. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Jack of all trades, master of none.
If you have an antique or flea market nearby, look for old postcards and read the messages on the back. Here’s one I found. What story can you imagine lies behind this message? “I suppose you are still in Plaster Rock. Heard that Frank 1st has left you. I guess he must be a wanderer.”
April showers bring May flowers. What flowers could you name your characters after? What kind of people do you associate with names such as Peony, Rose, Thorn, Lily? Here are some characters from stories you might know that are named after flowers: Molly Bloom, Flora Poste, Violet Beaudelaire, Scarlet Pimpernel, Fleur Forsyth, Fleur Delacour, Daisy Buchanan, Lily Owens, Violetta Valéry, Zinnia Larkin, and don’t forget Scarlet O’Hara’s original name was Pansy!
You’re walking home with a friend after dark. When you look at her, her eyes reflect light like a cat’s. What happens next?
Look at your favourite CD cover. Hide everything but one square inch. Describe what you see?
Play with the word “needle.” How many different needles can you visualize? Put one or two of them in your character’s hands or just out of reach and see what happens. Here are some prompts: someone away from home for the first time sewing on a button, fearing a dentist’s needle, needles clacking in Paris while heads roll… Or have your character be needled by someone or needle someone else.
Write an opening sentence in which something or someone falls. What happens when they get up–or don’t!
Turn off everything and try writing in silence or change your background sounds. Try jazz, blues, Benedictine monks, Mozart
Brainstorm around the word dry. Here are a few ideas to get you started–bone dry, dry out, dry as a desert, parched, dry dock
Find a place where you can do some serious people-watching. Pick three strangers and, one by one, imagine them saying good-bye. Decide what they are saying good-bye to–their homeland, their family, a lover, a job, a threat. What has happened to bring them to this moment? What lies ahead of them? Is the good-bye the beginning of their story or the end?
Start with the sound of sirens. How does that sound affect you? What do you imagine has happened? Where has it happened? Who is affected?
June 21st marks the official beginning of summer. Use some of these summery titles and excerpts to frame a story, personal memory, or poem: A Summer Place, Summer in the City, Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows, The Summer Breeze, The Summer of ’42, Summer Wine, Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?, The Longest Day, Summer Holiday, Summer of ‘69.
Head to your local bookstore or library with a friend and your writing journal. Take two envelopes and lots of small pieces of paper. For five minutes wander the shelves and write random novel titles on the small pieces of paper and put them in your envelopes. At the end of five minutes, exchange envelopes. Dip in and pull out a title and brainstorm a story that would go with those words. Maybe you could use the words as a line of dialogue to begin your story or in the opening sentence. Keep playing until one story starts to claim your full attention. Start writing.
Draw a map. It could be of a country, a city, an island, a kingdom, a space station. Add lots of details and place names. Now send your characters on a journey through the imaginary world you have just created, making sure that they get into lots of trouble along the way.
Think of the places that you know well: a neighbourhood, a city, a school, a cruise ship, a gym, a museum, a summer camp. Now imagine them as places where your characters can fall in love or be shocked or frightened. They can be places where a murder takes place or where people reveal secrets.
I wish I may I wish I might have the wish I wish tonight. What wish would your character wish for upon a star or ask a genie to grant? What would be the consequences of that dream coming true? What would you wish for? Why? How would your life change if your wish came true?
Flowers don’t just inspire people’s names, but they inspire place names, too. What stories could you create in towns like these: Flower’s Cove, Newfoundland; Strawberry, Arkansas; Weedpatch, California; Beanblossom, Indiana; Rosebud, Alberta; Carrot River, Saskatchewan; Olive Branch, Michigan; Fallen Leaf, California; Lady Slipper, Prince Edward Island; Tiger Lily, Saskatchewan
Use some of these April-inspired song titles to inspire a story or poem: Crying in the Rain, I’ll Remember April, Early Morning Rain, April in Paris, April Come She Will, Rainy Days and Mondays
Have your character find or receive something small enough to be held in two hands. Now create a story around that small thing that turns your character’s life upside down. Think of Bilbo and a ring, Arthur and a sword, Snow White and an apple.
March 21st marks the vernal equinox when day and night hours are perfectly balanced. Do you strive for balance in your life? How do you achieve it? How do you cope when the dark overwhelms the light in your life? How would your character answer these questions?
Consider words/ideas associated with the words ‘lion’ and ‘lamb’ and see what stories are hiding in them: Lamb Chop, soft, woolly, Mary and the lamb, lamb to the slaughter, MGM’s lion, roaring, fierce, Androcles and the Lion, Africa, Serengeti, pride, hunter, Lion King.
March has two astrological signs: Pisces the fish and Aries the ram. What characteristics are suggested by those two animals? Do they apply to anyone you know? Think about what animals your characters could be. When Laurence Olivier created his role of Richard III, he saw him as a spider.
Put an obstacle in your main character’s way by changing the weather. Introduce some high winds into the story. Stop an escape with a fallen tree. Blow sand into his eyes. Have the rain make so much noise she can’t sleep. Signal a weather change and send him down with a migraine.
Think about the different forms of power: personal, financial, political, power of nature, power of the weak, superpower, electrical, etc. What power is in the hands of the antagonist or your main character’s family, friends, lover that make your main character’s task even harder? What power does your main character exert on others?
Think of the most bizarre item that could be delivered by courier. Write about the recipient. Write about the sender.
Write a letter to yourself to be opened ten/twenty years from now. What do you want that person in the future to know or remember about you now? What do you want that person to have accomplished? Try the same exercise for your character.
Write a poem/story from the point of view of: an alarm clock, a road map, a baseball cap.
You’re the family photographer in a large department store. Imagine a family that has come to have their photograph taken for a holiday card. What do you see that the family doesn’t see or that the family doesn’t want you to see?
You’re on a bus and you don’t know anyone. 1) You people watch. What do you see? OR 2) Not knowing anyone suddenly scares you. What happens next?
Write about pain. It can be physical or emotional or both.
Think of a time when you made a difficult choice. Remember how it felt and how you carried on afterwards. Think about the motives behind your decision. Now imagine that you are the kind of person who would have chosen to do the very opposite. Write from this person’s point of view describing his or her motivations, feelings, and how the consequences were dealt with.
Take a risk—at least in imagination. Take the bungee jump, extreme ski, sing in front of thousands, and then write about it. Make sure that you use all your senses to describe your adventure.
Use the word “house” to search for images on the internet. Choose a house that appeals to you and imagine a family that lives there and what their story might be. What do they see when they look out their windows? What’s in the basement? Or the attic?
Write about an incident involving a door, a stain, and a sigh from three points of view.
Free write around the word “empty.” A few prompts: An empty nest can be a lonely place or a new freedom. An empty journal can be an opportunity to create. An empty bottle …
Describe a moment when you were surprised. Did the surprise make you happy or sad or frightened? Describe a similar moment for your character.
Have some fun with words relating to time. Here are few to get you started: Big Ben, stopwatch, time passes, time limit, running out of time, race against time, Time Lord, timeless.
What would be your perfect vacation destination? Who would be your ideal travel companions? What would you do there? How would you feel if you never had to come home? Answer these questions for your story’s main character, too.
See what happens when you brainstorm around the word “sand.” Here are a few suggestions to get you started—hour glass, sand trap, sand between your toes, dunes.
Look at your favorite magazine. Look carefully at the faces and people in the magazine until you find one that connects with you. Create a history for that person. Tell his or her story.
Try the word “seat” as a starting place for some freewriting. Here are a few suggestions: throne, kitchen chair, chaise lounge, subway, lawn chair.
How much do you know about your family? Does anyone ever compare you to one of your relatives? How do you feel about the comparison? Do you speculate that other family members that you don’t know might be like you? How do your characters relate to their relatives?
Use the word “fly” to spark your imagination. Here are a few ideas: dragonfly, no fly zone, jet, insect, soar, “Come Fly With Me.”
Try the word “step” to create a scene or a story. Here are a few connections to start: step-ladder, step aside, step to the back, watch your step, out of step, step-mother.
Who is your favorite author in the genre you write in? Have you researched his or her life? What is your favorite book? What writing lessons can you take away from your favorites?
What’s your favorite cartoon strip in the newspapers? Why does it appeal to you? Which comic strip is a must-read for your character? Why?
Think of what you can create using with the word “snap.” Here are a few places you can start: card game, twig, snapdragon, snap of the fingers, turtle.
See where the word “ball” can take your imagination: Here are a few prompts: Cinderella, basket, bearing, beach, ball and chain.
Play with the word “black” and see what story or poem ideas turn up. Here are a few ideas to get you started: licorice, cat, magic, widow, knight.
Think about fences. What do they keep in? What do they keep out? What happens when the fence breaks?

DIALOGUE PROMPTS

Use these bare bones of dialogue to create a scene between two people. Add setting, character, action and emotion to fill in the gaps.

1) I’m so glad you made it. How many people did you tell? Why? I was followed. I’m asking you again. How many people did you tell? Just Terry. Just one. One too man

2) I brought it, as you asked. Thank you. Thank you? That’s not much of a response considering … Considering what? Considering the cost

3) It’s broken again.

Can’t you fix it?

Not this time.

4) The sun’s almost down. Won’t be long now. Why do we have to wait until it’s dark? Ask him when he gets here. Are you ready? Are you?

5) What do you mean you don’t hear it? Hear what? Over there. Listen. What am I supposed to be listening to? You don’t hear it? No. Then you’d better stay here. Why? Because I just heard my name.

6) You’re late. I thought you weren’t going to make it. I nearly didn’t. Do you have it with you? Yes. Good. Can we go now?

7) Are you ready? Yes. You’re sure? Yes. You’re not saying much. There’s no need. You don’t have to come. I do. And you know it.

8) What are you doing? What does it look like I’m doing? Sorry. Forget it. What do you want. The book. It’s on my list. Help yourself, Bill.

9) Excuse me did you drop this? No that’s not mine. I think it is.

10) “Come here and look at this!”

Kelly obediently peered over Mike’s shoulder at the computer screen. “What am I supposed to be looking at?”

“Linc’s Twitter account’s been hacked.”

“Yeah, so? Happens to lots of people. The message usually says that someone is saying bad things about you and gives you a link you’re supposed to be stupid enough to click on. No one falls for it anymore. Linc knows what to do.”

“This message is different.” Mike pointed at the screen. “Look.”

Kelly read the message to herself and then again out loud. “They’re going to kill me. Help.”

11) I think we’re going in the wrong direction.

What did you say?

I said, I think we’re going in the wrong direction.

You just might be right.

12) There’s a storm coming.

We have about an hour.

That should be long enough.

13)I think you need to reconsider.

Look behind you.

14) I’m not going in there.

What’s the problem?

It’s dark and it stinks.

Okay, I’m going in there.

15) I have to talk to you.

Why should I listen?

Because this time I’m not lying.

16) What’s that in your hand?

It’s not “nothing.” Your hand is red.

17) I can’t take another step.

I know. I’m tired, too.

You don’t understand. I really can’t take another step.

18) Whose car is that?

Hal’s, I think. Why?

I’ve seen it before.

I’m not sure you want to know.

19) What’s that?

I don’t hear anything.

Shhh. Listen.

Oh. That’s not good.

20) How’d it go?

The captain was less than impressed.

But did he believe you?

Yes. We’re leaving in an hour.

21) What’s so interesting? You’ve been staring out that window for the past hour.

Bill’s late.

Wouldn’t he call if he were going to be late?

Yes, if he could.

22) Did you get what you wanted?

Then let’s get out of here

23) The fire is out.

Don’t look at me! I’m no boy scout.

I figured that out already. Just what are you?

24) Why do you keep staring at that painting?

I know who painted it.

Well, that’s not difficult. His name is in the corner.

You don’t understand. I know who really painted it.

25) Where are we?

I have no idea. But I do know one thing.

What’s that?

It’s not safe.

25) How did you get here?

No. Really, how did you get here?

I think I’d better explain.

27) I wish it would stop raining.

You want to get back on the road, don’t you?

28) Here. Catch.

What is it? It’s really heavy.

That’s not all it is

29) Did you hear about Henry?

No. What’s new?

He’s run away.

30)Please stop doing that.

It reminds me of someone.

Your brother.

31) I have to leave.

But, I need your help.

It’s a bit late to ask.

32) We have to go.

But I like it here.

And I like staying alive.

33) Wilson has the answer.

Are you sure?

Yes. And I’m not the only one. That’s why we need to get him out of here now.

34) “We need to find shelter.”

“Yes, I’d figured that out.”

35) “I can’t take another step.”

“I know. I’m tired, too.’

“You don’t understand. I really can’t take another step.”

36) “Whose car is that?”

“Hal’s, I think. Why?”

“I’ve seen it before.”

“Oh. Where?”

“I’m not sure you want to know.”

36) I wish you didn’t have to leave.

I must obey the master.

37) Who are you waiting for?

Who says I’m waiting …. Okay, I’m waiting.

38) Did you see that car?

The grey one?

Yes. Did you see who was driving?

No, it was going too fast.

I’m not surprised. It just tried to run me down.

39) Pass me that will you?

What are you doing?

I’ll let you know when I’m done.

40) I just heard from Henry.

He’s not coming.

He said you’d know.

41) I can’t believe how hot it is.

You chose this place for our vacation.

Yeah, when I thought they’d have air conditioning.

42) Have you seen Henry?

He should be here by now.

43) Your secret is safe here, my lord.

And why should I believe you?

Because you are still alive.

44) Am I late? Did I miss the bus? Yes, and yes. Why did you wait for me?

45) I can’t come. I’ve got work to do. Look, it’s just this once, and we won’t be late.

46) Why did Henry choose to meet us here? He said it would be safe. You’re joking, right?

47) Lord Henry doesn’t trust us. How can you tell. His men are following us.

48) Oh no! My laptop’s got some weird virus! What’s it doing? My screen is blank except for three sets of numbers and the word help . Let me see.

49) Are you sure we’re going the right way? These are the directions Henry gave me. Was that before or after you had the fight?

50) Do you think Mrs. Wilson knows? Knows what? That Helen cheated. We’ll find out soon.

51) I saw Henry this morning. But, I thought he said he was leaving last night. That’s what he wanted us to think.

52) Why do we have to meet on the bridge? What’s the matter? Scared? I’ve got every reason to be.

53) You guys are fighting over a book? You don’t know what’s in it.

54) When do you think she’ll be done? She finished an hour ago. Then why isn’t she here yet?

55) I’m not ready to go. Well, when will you be ready? How about never.

56) But Chris is Henry’s best friend! He didn’t behave like it this morning.

57) Don’t bother explaining it again. I’ll never get it. But it could save your life. That’s what you’re here for. And what if I’m not here?

59) Turn on the light. I did—and I checked the bulb. There’s no power. That’s not good.

60) Why did you leave Harry? I didn’t. He left me. That’s not what he said.

61) I’m sorry for your loss, Helen. Believe me. It was no loss. But how can you say that?

62) I thought robots were supposed to do what they were told. Not when they’re told something stupid.

63) What’s in the bag? Groceries. The stores closed an hour ago. Okay then. I liked.

64) Have you ever seen any creatures so disgusting. No. Should I say something? You should say, thank-you. They saved our lives remember.

STORY TITLES

Use one of these titles for a story or poem:

Winter Solstice
Sonata in Screams
I Hate Love Stories
Blue Wednesday
The New Year’s Mystery
A Dog for a Day
The Witch Next Door
The Reluctant Prince
Fire in the Hills
Murder at the Laundromat
Love and Old Movies
Yesterday Rain
The Haunting
If Looks Could Kill
Danger’s Throne
Push Button to Reset
Three Robots
Holiday for Horror
Thursday’s Child
A Small Hero
Shadow Land
The Blue Empire
Target Gold
Dragon Rites
Clock Tower
Midnight Moon
The Wanderer
Broken Promise
Turning the Corner
The Blue Stone
Wind and Weather
Death at the Races
Framed, Table for Three
How to Stop a Killer
Spring and Violet
Street Corner
Rooftop Romance
Thieves Game
A Quiet Place
The Dragon’s Tower
The Stars Await
Big City Blahs
Red Sky at Night
The Secret Cave
Call Me Never
Life Changer
Death at Sharpe’s Cove
The Turn Around
Blue Yesterday
The Ring Keeper
Last Wishes, Diary of a Dropout
The Ruby Secret
The Gold Claw
Night Among the Mad
The Secret Three
The Journey Home
Walking on a Shroud
In the Mirror
The House by the River
Just a Dollar
Death Takes a Credit Card
Love Factually
Gone with the Sinned
Over the Rainbow
Unforgettable
No More Mr. Nice Guy
Taking a Chance on Love
White Night
Murder and Shadow
Spree for Two
Dream Warrior
Yesterday’s Coffee
The Art of Telling Lies
One Small Step
Rainbow Memory
Yesterday’s Rain
Puddle Jumper
Misty Morning
In Cold Blood
The Winter Sea
Cat Among the Pigeons
The Most Dangerous Game,
The Sound of Thunder
The Talisman
Mister Murder
Elephants Never Forget
A Kind of Peace
Among the Lost
A Fine Romance
Dead at Dinner
The Dragon’s Curse
Far From Love
The Lucas Curse
By Common Consent
Honor Among Thieves
The Red Roof
Winters Are Murder
The Lady Takes A Bite
Guardian’s Promise
Cat’s Lament
The Deadly Season
Broken Glass
Today and Tomorrow
Luke’s Journey
Face in the Mirror
One More Mile
Packed Bags
One Shoe Missing
Just a Short Walk
Wonder Mountain
Mended Fences
Brett’s Cabin
Getting Charlie
Calculated Risk
The Coyote Mystery
Danger’s Edge
Red Sky at Dawning

30+ Back to School Writing Prompts 🍎

by Sue Weems | 0 comments

Start Your Story TODAY! We’re teaching a new LIVE workshop this week to help you start your next book. Learn more and sign up here.

Students are heading back to school this month and next, and if you're like me, you remember that old standby back to school writing prompt: “What did you do over summer”. If you're looking for some new ideas to get students back in the habit of writing while you have a little fun developing skills, try one these fun writing prompts!

When I was teaching middle school and high school students, I loved using writing prompts for those early days of school (and truly year round). Students are still trying to figure out how to get through new classes and friendships, and writing is an opportunity to gently get to know each other.

How to use prompts with students

Two things helped me set the tone in those early days. The first is this: everyone writes. I set a timer, even if it was only for five minutes and we write. Me included! It meant that sometimes I walked around the room with my notebook and pen in hand trying to get my own words down while silently directing students back on task, but it set an example.

The second thing was this: I always open the floor for sharing at the end of writing time. Sometimes I encouraged students to share with someone near them, other times I would take volunteers, but I always offered it.

Here's how you can make sharing writing more accessible for every student. First, set a timer. If we wrote for five minutes, I might open the floor for another three to four minutes for sharing. Then, limit what is shared. At the beginning of the year, I ask students for a sentence or two they'd like to share.

I never force students to share, and we made it a time to celebrate thinking and word play, instead of focusing on grammar (that came later!). Within a month or two, nearly every student felt comfortable sharing at least a sentence with peers. And that's not easy, even for adults!

Mix up your prompts!

When you're choosing prompts, I love to do a mix each week. I might have mentor sentence Monday where we share a sentence from a writer we'll be reading that week and we all try to write a similar sentence and play with the structure.

We might have a revision prompt on Wednesdays, where students use the grammar skills we've been learning to correct a set of sentences or write their own correctly.

I might have a question that sparks a debate in preparation for a discussion or novel study. Once a month, I might offer a prompt to review their favorite song/ food/ video game/ show for the week.

Using a mix of prompt ensures that students get to think about writing in a variety of ways, and they begin to see that even if one type of writing isn't their favorite, there are other ways to express themselves too.

First week of school prompts

Rate this first day/week from 1-5, 5 being best. Imagine you're writing a script for a short social media video about what has been the best and what could be improved. Be specific.
Write an advertisement like a help wanted ad for the best teacher/ coach/ tutor/ principal ever. Be specific about the qualities needed and why.
What is your favorite subject or topic? It can be a school subject, like English or math, OR just a topic of interest like dinosaurs or soccer or a specific video game. Imagine someone wanted to learn about that topic and took a class. Write a description of what the best class on that subject in school would include.
Imagine the best school routine for you. What would the day look like? What would you spend the most time on to meet your academic goals and personal aspirations?
As an elementary student, what did you love during the school day and why? How could you incorporate more of that in your current schedule?

Creative writing prompts

1. Create a scene where you send something unusual to school. Examples: your dog, a pet rock, your soccer ball, a parent. What classes would you have them take? What would they learn?

Write a story about a character who steps into what looks like a regular school building and instead finds a very different world inside. This new environment could be magical, like a school for wizards or an academy for superheroes, or surreal, like a place where math problems come to life. Describe the classes they attend, the classmates they meet, and the lessons they learn in this unexpected school setting.
Write a scene where your favorite character interviews their biggest enemy.
Write a story where a character is on a dream school trip but something happens that derails the whole thing, and the character has to come to the rescue.
Write about a summer break that ends when something unexpected interrupts making the main character ready to go back to school.

Regular writing practice

Story and narrative writing practice.

Rewrite the following sentences being much more specific. For example, with the first prompt, consider the verb “went.” While it's technically correct, it isn't very precise. How did you go? Did you meander? Sprint? Drive a speedster? Also, what store? Be specific. For each one, try to build it into a sentence or two that helps the reader visualize it. (Hint, use sensory details.)

I went to the store.
She walked through the yard.
He got mad.
We got in the water.
She played in the street.

Persuasive Paragraph writing practice

Write a paragraph using evidence from your own experience that answers this prompt: What day at school is the best day and why?
Write a paragraph using evidence from your own experience that answers this prompt: Which sidekick would be the most helpful If you were a superhero and why?
Write a paragraph using evidence from your own experience that answers this prompt: What food should be offered in the cafeteria at school and why?
Write a paragraph using evidence from your own experience that answers the prompt: What is the single most important teacher tip you could offer a new teacher and why?
Write a paragraph using evidence from your own experience that answers the prompt: What part of your daily routine (at home or school) is the most important and why?

Personal narrative writing prompts

Tell the story of how you got a scar.
Share the most memorable moment you've had with a person who inspires you.
Write about a lesson you learned outside of school.
Share a cherished childhood memory and why you think it's so memorable.
Write about the biggest challenge you have overcome so far and how you did it.

Academic journal prompts

What are your future goals? Create one long-term goal for the year, but then think about what one small part of that you could do this week.
What was one thing you learned today?
Who taught you something today? (Bonus if it wasn't a teacher!)
How did you show kindness to someone today?
What was your favorite activity today and why?
What is one topic you'd like to learn more about?
What subject at school do you feel you need more help with? How can you ask for that help?
What are three things you can do to keep your work organized?
Who could you thank at school today?
How could you challenge yourself today at home or at school?

As students get back to their studies, I hope we'll all make time to write. It's such a terrific way to learn AND to play. Make it a part of your home or classroom routine and see how creative students can be. Looking for more prompts? Take a look at our top 150 short story ideas here or the August prompts here.

What was the most memorable back to school experience you've had? Share in the comments .

Choose one of the prompts above and set the timer for fifteen minutes .

When you're finished, share your story in the Pro Practice Workshop for feedback from the community. And if you share, please be sure to comment on a few stories by other writers.

Sue Weems is a writer, teacher, and traveler with an advanced degree in (mostly fictional) revenge. When she’s not rationalizing her love for parentheses (and dramatic asides), she follows a sailor around the globe with their four children, two dogs, and an impossibly tall stack of books to read. You can read more of her writing tips on her website .

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Award-winning instructor and writer of 20+ years, book coach, and editor. Sue Weems specializes in working with Children's, Memoir, Middle Grade, Mystery, Nonfiction, Romance, and Thriller books. Sound like a good fit for you?

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