creative writing projects

30 Super Engaging End of the Year Writing Projects

Teachers know. The end of the year is wild. Testing is over and everyone is ready to sleep in, go on vacations, hang out at the swimming pool and just be free! Summer is just around the corner and yet it is so insanely far away! I've found that engaging projects at the end of the year are the key to both teacher and student sanity at the end of the year.

So, you know all those writing activities that you wanted to do but you didn't have time for because you were too busy teaching students how to elaborate their narratives, support their claim with evidence and effectively embed quotes? Well the last weeks of school are the absolute perfect time to let kids have FUN writing! In this article you'll find a list of thirty writing project ideas you can use in your class today! 

• Write a fiction/fantasy/adventure story
• Create a favorite movies blog post (students can create a blog using Google Sites!)
• Create a favorite anything blog post (food, cars, books, video games etc.)
• Create an infographic using Canva
• Write fan fiction-rewriting a story/movie the way you want it to go
• Write about challenges of writing
• Write a Graphic Novel using Pixton
• Write an emoji story with lots of tech acronyms (Omg, lol)
• Write a book in a month challenge
• Make a Prezi , My Simple Show or Powtoon
• Write a story that includes lots of text messages
• Write a movie script
• Write a song/rap
• Write from the point of view of a pet/animal (get inspiration from A Dog's Purpose)
• Write about careers you might want someday
• Write letters to famous people
• Write a letter to a book character or historical figure
• Write a review of a movie, video game or book
• Write about a worst teacher
• Write about a best teacher
• Write your own science experiment
• Write how to annoy ____________.
• Line lifting (pick a sentence or word from a book and start writing from that)
• Write a social media post (Instagram, Snapchat etc.)
• Write a disgusting/delicious recipe
• Write a school/sports cheer/chant
• Write a video game story/plot
• Write a class story (write a sentence and pass the story)
• Write a play and act it out
• Write an Encyclopedia Memoir

About the Author

Amanda Werner is a full time English and History sixth grade teacher in the Bay Area. She has been teaching for ten years and still feels like a novice. Every year is a unique and exciting challenge to inspire a new group of students in becoming avid readers and writers. Amanda reads educational literature voraciously and writes about the teaching of writing on her website amandawritenow.com .  Amanda received her B.A. in English Literature with an emphasis in Humanities at Western Washington University. She has both an elementary and secondary teaching license and a mathematics credential. In her free time, Amanda loves being outdoors with her humorous husband and sweet and spunky two and a half year old daughter.

500 Writing Prompts to Help Beat Writer’s Block

Looking to get your story started with a writing prompt? You’ve come to the right place. In this post we detail everything you need to know about writing prompts and give you 500 writing prompts broken down by genre. Enjoy!

I want to be a writer… but what if I have nothing to write about?

Ever feel like you’d love to write but you’re fresh out of ideas? Like there’s nothing else that you could possibly write about, or you have no idea where to even get started? We get it. One of the hardest steps in writing a book is often knowing where to get started. Coming up with content, getting your pen (or pencil) to paper, and letting your creativity flow is a challenge that many writers struggle with. As we know, facing writer’s block and fighting personal writing doubt is common. An overwhelming number of professional authors admit to getting stuck well before they get to the point of selling books on Amazon . Thankfully, there’s an answer to the question of where to turn when you feel like you’ve hit that proverbial wall: the writing prompt.

What is a writing prompt?

How often do writers use writing prompts?

There’s no right answer to this question because using writing prompts can often be a personal choice. Some authors find it greatly benefits their ability to turn out creative results. Some authors know that they already have the right ideas for a book in their heads. With using writing prompts, you need to decide on what’s best for you . Whatever method helps you generate ideas is what’s best for your writing!

Is there a writing prompt that’s best for me?

You might be wondering if there’s one type of writing prompt that’s best for you. It’s easy to find selections of prompts that are filtered by specific genres (romance, mystery, and so on). However, we recommend sticking to genre-specific prompts if you want your writing to be more focused. With that being said, you never know when inspiration will strike. If your writing needs are less genre-restricted, reading as many writing prompts ideas as possible may be the best option for you! Whenever I write for fun, I love to read as many prompts as I can across all genres. Hey, you can get some pretty fun ideas for a thriller story from sci-fi writing prompts.

Where can I find writing prompts?

Easy – the Internet! And books, too. We recommend checking out our collection of prompts first, but there are numerous great sources throughout the web with writing prompts ideas (blogs, social media, and even AI tools like ChatGPT ). Through combing the Internet for great websites and blogs like Reedsy , Screencraft , The Write Practice , Bryn Donovan’s resources , and the @writing.prompt.s Instagram page, we’ve written and gathered 500 writing prompts to help you kickstart your brain into writing mode. Categorized into ten popular genres, we encourage you to grab your mug of coffee or tea, read through our prompts, and get ready to catch the writing bug.

Have any particular writing prompts that help you get focused? Want to tell us about a great website for writing prompts? Feel free to share those in the comments below. Happy writing!

• Mystery / Thriller
• Science Fiction
• Fantasy / Paranormal
• General Fiction
• Religion / Spirituality
• Travel / Adventure
• Young Adult

What are some mystery and thriller writing prompts?

• You find strange, muddy footprints leading up to your front door.
• A stranger sits down next to you on a train and gets up, leaving a package behind. Do you investigate the package?
• You hear news of your next-door neighbor vanishing without a trace.
• One day the national news channel shuts off. And the next day after that, too.
• One day at work, you look across the street to see a hooded figure in a black coat pointing directly at you. What do they want?
• You stumble upon a strange house you’ve never seen before on your morning run.
• You get a text message from an unknown number saying, “Meet me outside. Now.”
• Your parents tell you that they actually don’t know whose child you are.
• Someone puts a large black box on your doorstep. A note on the front reads, “Caution: may bite.”
• You wake up to discover a completely different, unknown face staring back at you from the mirror.
• The protagonist of your story discovers that there is a person who looks exactly like him.
• An international spy group recruits you to be their latest member.
• You begin to realize that your reflection is no longer appearing in mirrors.
• You aunt passes away, leaving you $500,000 in her will under the condition that you resume care for your hundred-year-old home.
• Your best friend tells you that she feels like someone’s been watching her. The next day she goes missing.
• Three words: Long lost brother.
• The day of your wedding, you wake up to find every person in your wedding party has been brutally murdered.
• The FBI begs you to come back to work on a special case. Your former partner has turned and is now wanted for the murders of three co-workers.
• Local gravestones begin disappearing.
• You can solve murders simply by stepping foot at the crime scene. Problem is, no one believes you.
• Write a short story where the protagonist has a doppelganger. (Reedsy)
• Your fingers tensed around the object in your pocket, ready to pull it out at a moment’s notice. (Reedsy)
• You’re sitting by a window watching the flakes slowly and silently fall. Suddenly, you see something outside that snaps you out of your reverie. (Reedsy)
• You’re at a huge store scouting out Black Friday deals. You start to notice that all the security cameras in the store seem to be following your each and every move. (Reedsy)
• You work for the CIA who send you undercover in the FBI, who send you undercover in M16, who send you undercover in the CIA, who are very confused that you are back after only two weeks. (Reedsy)
• A terrorist group has been infiltrated by so many agencies that it is now run by spies, unbeknownst to the spies themselves. This fact becomes apparent to an actual extremist who joins their ranks. (Reedsy)
• Ever since childhood, a dark figure no one else can see has been following you around, whispering in your ear. Today you see it lying a few feet away, screaming and asking you to run. (Reedsy)
• You’ve lived an average life up until today, your 20th birthday. You just found out that your dad is the runaway son of a doting criminal warlord, and your mom is the daughter of an equally doting secret agent. Both family businesses are looking to make you the next heir. (Reedsy)
• She has been walking for hours. Her feet are starting to bleed. But she can’t stop moving… she can’t let him find her again. (Reedsy)
• The morning after a blizzard you make your way outside and slowly start to realize everyone has disappeared. (Reedsy)
• You find a hand-written note on your windshield that says, “Drive west for 100 miles.” (Reedsy)
• You wake up in a jail cell, crusted blood covering your hands. You have no idea how you got there. The cell door clangs open, and an officer walks you to interrogation room where two detectives wait to question you. (Reedsy)
• You walk into your job and find a secret, coded note pinned to your desk. What do you do next? (Reedsy)
• Guard this with your life. (Reedsy)
• A loved one confides in you, but the secret could damage someone else you care about. What do you do? (Reedsy)
• As you’re browsing through a rack of sweaters, someone approaches you and says, “I need you to listen to me very carefully.” (Reedsy)
• Write a short dark comedy in which a long-unsolved mystery is finally cracked. (Reedsy)
• They say a picture is worth a thousand words but you knew the one you’d just taken was worth a million. (Reedsy)
• You were the oldest person still living in the town and you remembered things no one else did. (Reedsy)
• Looking through old family photos, multiple generations back, you notice there is a cat in almost every group photo. The same cat – color, pattern, one docked ear – that is currently purring on your lap. (Reedsy)
• “… and that’s why dividing by three is illegal.” (Reedsy)
• You’re a serial killer who murders anyone you see hitchhiking up your mountain. One day, you pick up a hitchhiker who kills anyone who picks them up.
• You are legally allowed to commit murder once, but you must fill out the proper paperwork and your proposed victim will be notified of your intentions. (Reedsy)
• You hire two private investigators to investigate each other. One month later both come to you to present their findings. (Reedsy)
• 20 years after your daughter was abducted, a detective finds you to reopen the case. The detective turns out to be your daughter. (Reedsy)
• You’re shaking hands with a stranger at a networking event when you ask for their name. “I have no name,” they reply. (Reedsy)
• As you’re paying for your groceries, you mention to the clerk, “There’s a mess in aisle 16.” They give you a puzzled look and reply, “There is no aisle 16.” (Reedsy)
• The detective didn’t realize they were being foiled by a competing detective. (Reedsy)
• The first day you opened your own office as a private investigator, you didn’t expect it to be busy. You were wrong. (Reedsy)
• You are the world’s greatest detective. With your near superhuman intellect, you have never failed to solve a case before. One day, you finally meet your match: a criminal so unbelievably stupid that you cannot possibly comprehend and predict what he’s going to do next. (Reedsy)

What are some romance writing prompts?

• Left at the altar, you decide to seek revenge on your ex.
• You got ditched at the last minute before prom – who will your date be?
• A stranger texts the wrong number, and accidentally sends you a declaration of love. The message is so sweet and heartfelt that you know you can’t let it go.
• A divorced former couple find each other on the same flight to Paris… Sitting next to each other.
• After joining an adult swim league, you realize that your coach is irresistibly cute.
• Your husband accidentally sends you a text meant for his mistress.
• You and a hot stranger get trapped in an elevator.
• Write a love story set at the zoo.
• A college professor and their teaching assistant hit it off a little too well.
• You get to make one wish to create your dream romantic partner. What is it?
• Two strangers on an online chat room hit it off. Turns out they’re childhood sweethearts.
• A parole officer falls in love with his parolee.
• After their catamaran crashes, a husband and wife on their anniversary trip are left marooned on an island in the tropics.
• She’s a burgeoning lingerie model who needs her cute neighbor to take portfolio shots of her.
• An alien falls in love with a forbidden human.
• Desperate for cash, a med student signs up to be a nude model for a retired women’s art club.
• A cutthroat business woman swore she’d never find love until her best friend sets her up on a blind date.
• Two widowed people meet at a community garden.
• A chef decides to embark on an international culinary tour for inspiration and falls in love with their tour guide.
• A daughter tries to set her widowed father up on an online dating app – without him knowing.
• A Republican presidential candidate and Democratic presidential candidate fall in love.
• You are a popular book heroine’s love interest. You now have 60 seconds to convince them that saving the city is more important than saving you. (@writing.prompt.s)
• The love of your life is your brother’s nemesis.
• You fall in love with every person you make eye contact with.
• You’re a mail order bride arriving at her new home for the first time.
• After you move to a new city, you fall in love with your realtor while buying a new house.
• You realize that you’ve fallen out of love with your new wife while you’re on your honeymoon.
• You and your best friends decide to try a new dating app for the first time.
• At your friend’s urging, you begrudgingly attend a Valentine’s Day speed dating event. (Reedsy)
• Every day, you return to your apartment and say, “Honey, I’m home. Oh wait, that’s right… I live alone.” But then one day, a voice replies, “I picked up some pizza.” (Reedsy)
• Cupid offers to shoot an arrow into the person you love. He warns you that if the person already has a pre-existing affection towards you, it will disappear when the arrow strikes. (Reedsy)
• You meet your doppelganger of the opposite sex and find you are strangely attracted to each other. (Reedsy)
• Write a romantic comedy. Difficulty: both lovers are emotionally mature and have excellent communication skills. (Reedsy)
• In the future, romantic attraction is literal: each person is fitted with an electromagnetic bracelet which, they claim, will pull you to your soulmate. It’s the day they turn the magnets on, and you’re waiting. (Reedsy)
• A fortune teller falls in love with their client who has their palm read every month. (Reedsy)
• It wasn’t love at first sight. But now you were starting to see them in a new light… (Reedsy)
• Someone with anxiety falls in love with someone extremely adventurous. (Reedsy)
• The lives of two people are changed forever when they coincidentally meet and engage in a weekend-long affair. (Reedsy)
• They lived in a world where PDA is forbidden. One day, they slipped up and held hands on the street. (Reedsy)
• Two characters who are perfect for one another are foiled by bad timing. (Reedsy)
• Two mortal enemies fall in love when they’re trapped in an elevator together and begin to see the other person’s perspective. (Reedsy)
• Valentine’s Day at a retirement home. (Reedsy)
• Well, that was a New Year’s Eve kiss you won’t forget any time soon. (Reedsy)
• You have the ability to make anyone fall in love with you. You’ve just fallen in love for the first time. Do you use your power? (Reedsy)
• You and your partner finally have the most romantic vacation planned. Problem is, your in-laws decided to tag along at the last minute.
• You never would have guessed that in 48 hours you’d be married. (Reedsy)
• A dog lover and cat lover fall in love… and must find a way to get their animals to fall in love, too.
• You’ve been bumping into the same stranger for months. Finally, you decide to say hello. (Reedsy)
• They might have aged 50 years, but when they held you, those hands felt exactly like they did the first time. (Reedsy)
• An avalanche strands two mortal enemies together… and they start to fall in love.

What are some science fiction writing prompts?

• You wake up one morning to find out that you get to move to any planet of your choosing.
• Your wife is a droid.
• Every day, you get one hour to revisit any moment from your life. What do you pick?
• Gravity no longer exists.
• You are chosen to go on the first ever recreational space journey.
• After people die, their spirits can be brought back from death but at the cost of one random human life. Is it worth it?
• Everyone in the world has the ability to read thoughts. Except for one person.
• You have to power to build one separate planet. How do you build it? Who gets to live there?
• What team do you gather to fight the largest alien and terrorist threat on Earth?
• The world is dying. In order to save it, you’ve been commanded to sacrifice yourself to an invading alien group.
• You are the first person able to breathe in outer space.
• A rare form of cancer is the newest superbug. With a team of scientists, you all must find a cure before the population is wiped out.
• Human beings begin to find themselves growing extra limbs as global warming amps up.
• It turns out humans have been the aliens all along.
• You are in charge of a secretive government agency that aligns people’s fates. Their livelihood is entirely up to you and what you want to do with it.
• Technology becomes illegal.
• All plant life on the planet is wiped out, except for in Florida.
• You are one of the mechanics on the first ever self-flying airplane.
• Walking through the woods one day, you come across a small animal that has the ability to instantaneously clone itself.
• Your whole family has fought in the space military, but you’ve decided to no longer take part in it.
• In an alternate universe where global warming has ruined the planet, you’ve spent your entire life living in an airplane on autopilot.
• You’re a 15-year-old in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. However, a cure has been found that not only rids the infected person of the virus before they turn but prevents it altogether. Only one problem… Your parents are anti-vaxxers. (@writing.prompt.s)
• Nasa engineers monitor the curiosity rover’s actions. All seems normal until the robot suddenly changes its course. The scientists attempt to correct it over and over until they suddenly receive a transmission from the rover: “Will Save Oppy” (@writing.prompt.s)
• What if a nuclear submarine was ordered to launch their nuclear arsenal onto the world? (Screencraft)
• What if the world we live in is actually a computer simulation? (Screencraft)
• What if the past and present timelines began to merge? (Screencraft)
• What if your stepfather or stepmother is actually your future self? (Screencraft)
• What if the sun began to die? (Screencraft)
• What if the universe as we know it is actually someone’s imagination? (Screencraft)
• Everyone on earth begins to experience universal amnesia.
• The year is 2200. What does the world look like to you?
• In the future, we no longer require water, air, or food. We are a super efficient team of robots.
• What do you think happens when the grid goes down?
• Describe your perfect utopian world.
• Your penpal lives on the opposite side of the universe.
• Aliens who only communicate with sign language invade. To avoid war, our governments must engage a vastly marginalized portion of the human population: the hearing-impaired. (The Write Practice)
• A rogue planet with strange properties collides with our sun, and after it’s all over, worldwide temperature falls forty degrees. Write from the perspective of a someone trying to keep his tropical fruit trees alive. (The Write Practice)
• Ever read about the world’s loneliest whale? Write a story in which he’s actually the survivor of an aquatic alien species which crashed here eons ago, and he’s trying very hard to learn the “local” whale language so he can fit in. Write from his perspective the first time he makes contact. (The Write Practice)
• An alien planet starts receiving bizarre audio transmissions from another world (spoiler: they’re from Earth). What does it mean? Are they under attack? Some think so…until classic rock ‘n’ roll hits the airwaves, and these aliens discover dancing. Write from the perspective of the teenaged alien who first figures it out. (The Write Practice)
• Take anything we find normal today (shopping malls, infomercials, products to remove facial hair, etc.) and write a story from the perspective of an archeologist five thousand years in the future who just unearthed this stuff, has NO idea what any of it was for, and has to give a speech in an hour explaining the historical/religious/sociological significance. (The Write Practice)
• House cats are aliens who have succeeded in their plan to rule the world. Discuss.
• A high schooler from fifteen hundred years in our future is assigned a one-page writing project on a twenty-first century person’s life based entirely on TV commercials. Write the beginning of the essay. (The Write Practice)
• Time travel works, but only once in a person’s life. Write from the perspective of someone who chooses to go back in time, knowing they can never return. Where do they go and why? (The Write Practice)
• So yeah, ancient Egypt really was “all that” after all, and the pyramids turn out to be fully functional spaceships (the limestone was to preserve the electronics hidden inside). Write from the perspective of the tourist who accidentally turns one on. (The Write Practice)
• Ten years from now, scientists figure out how to stop human aging and extend life indefinitely—but every time someone qualifies for that boost, someone else has to die to keep the surplus population in check. Oh, it’s all very humane; one’s descendants get a huge paycheck. Write from the perspective of someone who just got a letter in the mail saying they’re the one who has to die. (The Write Practice)
• In the future, neural implants translate music into physical pleasure, and earphones (“jacking in”) are now the drug of choice. Write either from the perspective of a music addict, OR the Sonforce agent (sonance + enforcer) who has the job of cracking down. (The Write Practice)
• It’s the year 5000. Our planet was wrecked in the great Crisis of 3500, and remaining human civilization survives only in a half dozen giant domed cities. There are two unbreakable rules: strict adherence to Life Quality (recycling doesn’t even begin to cover these laws), and a complete ban on reproduction (only the “worthy” are permitted to create new humans). Write from the perspective of a young woman who just discovered she’s been chosen to reproduce—but she has no interest in being a mother. (The Write Practice)
• In the nineteenth century, there’s a thriving trade in stolen archeological artifacts. Write a story from the perspective of an annoyed, minimum-wage employee whose job is traveling back in time to obtain otherwise unobtainable artifacts, then has to bring them back to the present (the 1800s, that is) and artificially age them before they will sell. (The Write Practice)
• Steampunk! Write a story from the perspective of a hot air balloon operator who caters to folks who like a little thrill… which means she spends half her time in the air shooting down pterodactyls before the paying customers get TOO scared. (The Write Practice)
• Creation myth! Write from the perspective of a crazy scientist in the year 28,000 who, determined to discover how the universe began, rigs up a malfunctioning time machine, goes to the “beginning” of the universe, and ends up being the reason for the Big Bang. (Logic? Causal effect? Pfft. Hush, it’s time-travel, and that was never logical.) (The Write Practice)

What are some fantasy and paranormal writing prompts?

• A mysterious creature speaks to you in your dreams and tells you that when you awake, you will have the ability to see into another realm.
• Your pet dragon transforms into a person.
• You are gifted with the strongest, most elusive sword in the kingdom, but if you use it you will never be able to speak again.
• A magical world exists underground. To get there, you’ll need to start digging.
• You wake up and find out that you’re the only living person left on the planet.
• On her deathbed, your grandmother tells you that there’s a hidden treasure buried in her backyard. The family has been trying to locate it for decades. It’s up to you to finally find it.
• The ocean becomes the sky.
• You must save your kingdom from ruin by learning how to breathe fire.
• You have the power to read the lost language, making you the only person to decipher the scroll.
• Fairies are tired of being used for free labor.
• Your favorite fairy tale is now set in 2019.
• You are kidnapped by a knight who demands your assistance in sleighing the city’s most dangerous dragon.
• A man and his wife own the largest potion store in town. Little do the townspeople know, but they’re all being slowly poisoned by the potions.
• A magical toad begins talking to you, but you’re the only person who can hear him.
• You come into possession of a ring that can change the weather to whatever you decide.
• You’re selected to take part in a secretive, underground magic university… but you have to kill someone to go.
• You wake up to find yourself a member of King Arthur’s Round Table.
• An underwater society decides to overtake the world.
• Regular person by day, a shape shifter by night.
• Satan puts you in charge of Hell.
• You are the king. After your daughter was kidnapped by a dragon, you offered the standard reward to whoever rescued her. You weren’t expecting a different dragon to rescue her. (@writing.prompt.s)
• A woman has been dating guy after guy, but it never seems to work out. She’s unaware that she’s actually been dating the same guy over and over; a shapeshifter who’s fallen for her and is certain he’s going to get it right this time.  (@writing.prompt.s)
• The cocky main character of a popular book is sent to the real world. He is shocked to find that the fans of his book not only like the villain more but favor his side kick over him. (@writing.prompt.s)
• You’re an immortal who lives at a beach resort. You have many summer flings with mortals on getaways. One day you see someone you had a hot romantic night with 50 years ago. They look exactly the same. (@writing.prompt.s)
• The stars have been watching you your whole life, as you laughed and cried, loved and suffered. Today, you’re finally going to do something that none of them can bear to watch. They blink out, the whole night sky turning dark, just as you’re about to do it. (@writing.prompt.s)
• A lord takes a fancy to a peasant girl and kidnaps her for his own. Little does he know that she’s a trained assassin who has been preparing to take his life for years. (@writing.prompt.s)
• You are the last person on Earth, and you are able to make one wish. What do you wish for?
• You and your family are on a hike when you stumble upon a group of witches in the forest, in the midst of casting spells.
• You have the power to transform into whatever mystical creature you choose.
• You and your ghost best friend are an infamous crime-solving team.
• No, there’s absolutely no way that ghosts are real. Sure, you just saw a mysterious fuzzy figure you appear before you in your house, but that had to be your imagination… right?
• You’re the one human who is capable of seeing ghosts. It’s up to you to save them from being removed from the human world for good.
• You were born to be a villain, but you find yourself leaning more and more towards the good as you get older.
• Spend some time working on world building. How can you create a believable fantasy world that readers can picture clearly? What types of characters does your world include?
• Dream up your own, one-of-a-kind mythical race.
• You and your adventurous crew on a quest for the old King’s hidden gold. Just one problem – so is the rest of your village.
• 10 cm of snow had fallen overnight, just as the weatherman predicted. The only thing is… the snow isn’t white. (Reedsy)
• You start realizing that at least one aspect of every dream you have comes true the next day. (Reedsy)
• You can buy a pill that lets you decide exactly what you will dream about while you sleep. (Reedsy)
• You find a polaroid camera that seems to predict the future: its pictures show what will happen exactly 5 minutes from the moment you take them. (Reedsy)
• You were on your way to see a doctor who promised to know the secret to making yourself fall out of love with someone. (Reedsy)
• Write a story that includes a character hearing their fate by a fortune teller. (Reedsy)
• As a joke, you put on a tinfoil hat. Suddenly your mind goes completely silent. (Reedsy)
• Silence is now literally golden. For every day of total silence a person completes, they receive a piece of gold. (Reedsy)
• A new candy had been invented that allowed the person who ate it to relive any memory they wanted. There was a lineup outside the shop. (Reedsy)
• It’s 1AM at night. But the sun is out. (Reedsy)
• You wake up 10 years younger. What do you do? (Reedsy)
• I wish I could skip next week, you think as you get into bed that night. In the morning, you wake up 100 years in the future. (Reesy)
• They found out about us. They’re coming. They were the words the kingdom had feared hearing for thousands of years. (Reedsy)
• A group of scientists on a submarine are alarmed when they spot what looks like a functioning lighthouse at the bottom of the ocean. (Reedsy)

What are some general fiction writing prompts?

• You’re chasing your dream of being the first person to fly.
• Coffee is illegal and you have to single handedly smuggle it into the country.
• You have to get to the bottom of your family’s deepest secret.
• What was the strangest thing you’ve ever seen in public?
• Detail the life of the person who inspires you the most.
• Imagine what would happen if you woke up one morning unable to see, speak, or hear.
• Think about what you are most proud of. Follow the story of how you got to that point.
• By way of a lottery system, the king chooses you to be his queen.
• Use five points of view to describe one situation.
• Describe the life of a struggling author attempting to make it “big.”
• Tell the story of one woman on the mission to find her lost biological daughter.
• Your dream is to open a restaurant and be a top chef, but how can you do that when you were born without taste buds?
• You’ve just returned home from war only to find your family missing without a trace.
• A famous shoe designer asks you to quit your job and be his latest model.
• You have the power to create, and star in, your own reality show. What does it look like?
• The dark family secret that’s always been hidden comes to light.
• As an 80-year-old, you decide to finally learn how to swim so you can participate in a triathlon.
• Write a scene detailing your greatest fear. Now imagine that has come true for your character.
• What’s the greatest advice you’ve ever been given? What if you lived solely according to it?
• You live in a world with no stress and fear.
• Death has been flirting with you for a long time, but they’ve become a bit annoying. After another attempting to hang out with you again, you jokingly tell them, “If I was the last person on Earth, I’d maybe give you a chance.” Death believes you and will double their efforts.
• When people are born, they are assigned a soulmate. They have a song in their head that only them and their soulmate know. How do you find your soulmate? (@writing.prompt.s)
• Write a story about a character waking up to something absurd. (Reedsy)
• Write a story about a character waking up to the best news of their life. (Reedsy)
• Write a short story with an unreliable narrator that readers can never quite trust. (Reedsy)
• Write a short story in which the main “character” is the setting: for example, a house. (Reedsy)
• Write a story about someone who would be described, above all else, as honest. Or kind. Or intelligent. (Reedsy)
• Using only dialogue, write a short story about a first date, a reunion between old friends, an argument that gets heated, an adult explaining something to a child, or the reveal of a long-hidden secret. (Reedsy)
• Imagine telling the story of a professional hypnotizer. (Reedsy)
• Tell a story through text messages.
• Tell the story of what you would do if you won the lottery.
• Write your own obituary.
• Tell a story from your favorite era.
• Imagine how you would help solve the greatest challenges that the world faces. What would your plan be?
• What would a world be like with no poverty? What would change? What would stay the same?
• Tell the story of the first time that you learned to do something really well.
• Imagine what it would be like to be a pop star.
• Tell a story through song.
• Write from the perspective of your worst enemy.
• Tell a story using only one sense – seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, or touching.
• After years on the job search, you’ve finally gotten your dream job – but it changes you for the worst.
• You own a tiny mom and pops-type store that you run with your family.
• The worst thing that you could imagine happening happens.
• You’re the judge of the annual pie contest in your hometown but, unbeknownst to you, one of the pies is poisoned.
• You go on a road trip to visit your late father’s grave.
• Tell the story of seeing the ocean for the first time. Or the last.
• You’re allergic to oxygen.
• Imagine what would happen if every person in the world woke up in a good mood every day.
• You’re put in charge of taking care of your elderly grandmother towards the end of her life.
• You get one chance to talk to any person in the world. Who do you choose?

What are some religion and spirituality writing prompts?

• What makes you believe in God?
• God speaks directly to you – what does He say?
• What do you find to be most beautiful in the world?
• You get to build a religion of your own. What do you make it into?
• You must live every single day according to a holy text of your choice. What happens?
• Explore what it means to be religious versus spiritual.
• What helps you meditate?
• What is the greatest wisdom that you would like to impart on the world?
• Who is one religious figure you would like to have dinner with? What do you talk to them about?
• Describe your idea of heaven.
• Detail your favorite story in the holy text of your choosing.
• You live in a world where no Gods exist.
• What does karma mean to you?
• What would your ideal world look like?
• You have the power to make every single person in the world ether religious or nonreligious. What do you do? What changes about the world?
• What makes you a religious or spiritual person?
• Describe what a church means to you. Have you had positive or negative experiences in a church?
• Write a poem about your religious path in life.
• Write a religious comedy.
• What happens when a priest decides he doesn’t want to be a priest anymore?
• Think about what morality means to you.
• What is the difference in good versus evil? How do you know?
• How does one know what is innately good?
• What makes you religious?
• What makes you non religious?
• Put yourself in the shoes of someone who has completely opposite spiritual or religious views from you. Why do they think a certain way?
• Describe what your childhood views in spirituality or religion were.
• What do you hope your religious or spirituality path to look like as you age?
• How would you advise someone to strengthen their faith?
• If you could talk to God, what would you want to say?
• The Southern Baptist Convention elects its first woman president, though she is subsequently removed from the position due to an obscure rule. In protest, every woman leaves the Southern Baptist denomination to form an independent, women-only sect of Baptists.
• God needs a vacation from heaven, so he comes to earth to experience life as a dog. He is captured by animal control and is impounded, and you adopt god-the-dog after a tragedy that makes you question your faith.
• An opiate addict going through severe withdrawal symptoms has a conversation with the Buddha – what did they talk about, and was it the result of a fever dream, or a spiritual awakening?
• You record a video that seemingly shows a woman walking on water at a small rural pond. The video goes viral as proof that Jesus has returned, and Christians begin to wonder if Christ was the Daughter, not the Son, of God.
• A secular Jew and a devout Muslim debate food and faith on a train from Quebec to Montreal.
• What are your personal ten commandments?
• When was a specific moment where you felt a “divine presence” in your life?
• Have you ever felt like you’ve experienced a glimpse into the afterlife?
• What form do you think the afterlife will take, if you believe that it exists?
• Have you ever had an out of body experience?
• William Blake, famous British poet, thought that to love was to be in tune with the divine. Do you think this is true? How have you experienced divine love?
• How have you experienced the divine through love?
• Emanuel Swedenborg believed that there was a soulmate for every person, and that you couldn’t get into heaven until your soul mate had also passed away. Do you believe in the concept of soul mates?
• Do you believe in reincarnation?
• What would reincarnation look like to you?
• Some religions believe that animals and plants have souls. Do you agree with this? Why or why not?
• Describe a particularly spiritual moment in your life. What were you doing? Were you by yourself or with someone else?
• What is your most taboo religious belief?
• Some religions believe that human beings could never truly represent a higher power in art. Do you agree with this? What is an example of art or words that you feel represent the higher power?
• What are your thoughts on love languages?

What are some travel and adventure writing prompts?

• Write about your favorite vacation.
• What culture interests you the most?
• You get lost in a foreign city with no cell phone and no money. What do you do?
• Your favorite chef asks you to join them on a culinary tour of the world.
• What country have you always dreamt of traveling to?
• What’s your dream vacation?
• Tell the story of the worst traveling experience of your life.
• A country of your choosing fuses with North America.
• You and your best friends go on a road trip across America, with no budget and for however long you want.
• You are asked to review a luxury hotel on the beach.
• You are forced to leave your home and move to a remote foreign country. What do you pack with you?
• What about traveling excites you?
• Go back in time to the era of your choosing and describe how you live.
• Rate your top five favorite places in the world. What do you like about each place? What do you dislike?
• If you could have any travel-related job in the world, what would it be?
• You and your partner are kidnapped on your honeymoon.
• Describe a 100-day walking journey around your state.
• Imagine if you had never left your home in your entire life and then were forced to go outside and never come back to your house.
• What do you say to your family in a postcard from a new location?
• Describe what it’s like to sit in rush hour traffic in one of the busiest cities in the world.
• A journey to a new location is disrupted by natural disaster.
• Describe what it’s like to travel with a crippling fear of airplanes.
• What is it that you love about traveling? Explore that feeling.
• What is frightening about traveling? Explore that feeling.
• What stories would you most like to share about the town that you’re from?
• You have the opportunity to move anywhere in the world. Where do you choose?
• Explore what your travels in Asia have been like.
• Explore what your travels in Europe have been like.
• Explore what your travels in South America have been like.
• Explore what your travels in North America have been like.
• Explore what your travels in Africa have been like.
• What is the most unusual place you’d like to travel?
• What do you think is most misunderstood about the culture of your home country?
• What cultural norms are you most interested in exploring from foreign countries?
• Describe the foreign foods that you most want to try.
• Imagine that you are a successful chef in a foreign city.
• Describe a time when you have been excited to explore a new place.
• What is the most beautiful image that you have ever seen while traveling?
• You get to go to any museum in the world. Which one do you choose?
• What is your greatest horror story from traveling?
• What is your happiest story from traveling?
• Picture yourself on a foreign vacation with a person of your choosing. What do you do?
• If you had to move to a foreign country tomorrow, what five items would you pack with you?
• Set the scene for a beautiful beach that you have never traveled to.
• Set the scene for a gorgeous castle that you have never traveled to.
• A three day visit to Budapest becomes a maritime adventure down the Danube River to the Black Sea.
• You are a sales representative for a roulette table manufacturer. While visiting the Harrah’s Cherokee Casino for work, you decide to discard all your possessions, cash out your minimal savings, and hike the Mountains-to-Sea trail from Clingmans Dome to the Ocracoke Lighthouse.
• While en route to visit your college roommate in Kyoto, Japan you meet a stranger at Tan Son Nhat International Airport who needs your help finding a prophetic monk hiding from persecution in Saigon.
• You have to make it from Cairo to Alexandria (Egypt). You have no money. Your only mode of transport is a temperamental camel.
• In a high-stakes game of poker in the French Quarter, you wagered your soul to a voodoo doctor on a pretty bad hand. The only way to null the bet is to find a woman in Port-au-Prince, Haiti who has an item – the only  item – the man is willing to trade for.

What are some horror writing prompts?

• You wake up to a world in which all prisons are shut down, releasing dangerous prisoners into your neighborhood.
• A masked stranger appears at your front door with a knife.
• A random number texts you saying, “Don’t forget, you’re next.”
• Someone knocks at your door. You open it to find your deceased grandfather who has come back from the dead to pay you a visit. What does he want?
• Animals take over the world.
• Strange murmuring sounds being to come from the door that leads to your basement.
• While watching the evening news, the anchor looks directly at the camera and begins screaming before the camera cuts to black.
• A polar vortex freezes the entire planet.
• Whatever building you enter, you can see all of the people who died there.
• You wake up in a strange room, tied to a chair, with a single knife on the floor pointed at you.
• A chilling voice appears in your head. It won’t go away. One day, it tells you that you have to run.
• The old cuckoo clock at your grandmother’s home is haunted.
• You’re driving at night when you can’t help but shake the feeling that there’s a person in your back seat.
• One day, while you’re in the shower, you hear your front door open and close. “Hey, roomie, I’m home!” Someone shouts. You don’t have a roommate.
• A strange man living down the street begins leaving presents at your doorstep.
• The cruise ship is haunted.
• While working at a clothing store, you’re closing up the shop for the night when you see five men walk in through the front door and lock it behind them.
• You’re in the middle of a bank robbery – hiding in the bathroom.
• Your dog won’t stop barking at a sunken spot in your living room floor.
• For the last few days, you’ve been getting ominous messages written in blood on your bathroom mirror. Turns out, they’re from an awkward ghost with a serious crush on you. (@writing.prompt.s)
• The reason no one has ever seen the real Santa Claus is because everyone who sees him dies. You just saw him and now you need to survive. (@writing.prompt.s)
• You wake up bound to an electric chair, moments before your imminent death.
• A woman afraid of clowns is forced to work in a travelling circus. (Screencraft)
• A treasure hunter finds a tomb buried beneath the dirt. (Screencraft)
• A bartender serves last call to the only remaining patron who is the Devil himself. (Screencraft)
• A boy’s stepfather is actually a murderous werewolf. (Screencraft)
• A man wakes up with no mouth. (Screencraft)
• Deceased soldiers return to their Civil War-era homes. (Screencraft)
• Suburbia is actually purgatory. (Screencraft)
• A man suffers from sleep paralysis at the worst possible time. (Screencraft)
• A man murders his wife while sleepwalking.
• What appears to be a ghost approaches your car while you’re waiting at a stoplight.
• It’s late at night, and you hear footsteps in the cellar—but you’re definitely home alone… or so you thought. (The Write Practice)
• You’ve put that doll in the cabinet, in the closet, in the attic, but no matter where you tuck it, it always shows back up on the sofa. On Halloween night, you come out to find it watching you… (The Write Practice)
• A bad-tempered businessman is driving home after a long day of work. He thinks he sees his kids trick-or-treating and stops to pick them up—but those aren’t costumes. (The Write Practice)
• A young woman goes to her grandmother’s house for tea on Halloween night. They have a wonderful time together, sharing stories, joy, and the best times of family. The next day, the woman learns her grandmother has been dead for a week and no one could get ahold of her to tell her. (The Write Practice)
• Aliens have just landed on Earth—and boy, did they pick a weird day to come. How do they respond to Halloween, supernatural or otherwise? Do they decide this place is just too bizarre and get the heck out . . . or do they stick around and join in the fun? (The Write Practice)
• On Halloween night, lovers get to come back and spend the evening together one more time. One couple from the Roaring Twenties decides to come back from the grave to help their extreme nerd great-grandchild or the kid will never get married. (The Practice)
• A little boy’s lost in the woods, but at least his faithful dog is with him. As they look for the way out, the dog defends his master against terrifying monsters and animals. Finally, the boy arrives safely on the other side, beautiful green field, no more fog or night. Then the dog goes home . . . where his owner, the little boy, has died. The good doggy guarded him all the way to his final rest. (The Write Practice)
• You wake up in the middle of the night to see a dark figure crawling across your floor.
• Moments after taking off for a flight, the entire plane begins to shake dramatically. The pilot comes on the speaker and says, “This is very bad.”
• You awake in a dark, small box and can hear strange noises outside.
• Several weeks after buying your dream house, you start getting strange letters delivered in the mail warning you to move out.
• Your dog has been acting very strangely recently. Some would say… almost human.
• You stumble across a website that contains clues to some very disturbing crimes.
• As you’re settling in to bed for the night, you hear an unusual scratching sound at your bedroom window.
• You’re on vacation in a new city for the first time. As you walk down a busy boulevard, you suddenly look up to realize you have no idea where you are or how you got there. Come to think of it, you don’t even know who you are.
• On your way to work, you notice that no one is driving on roads. The busy rush hour traffic is nonexistent, and there are no people walking around, either. It’s just you. What’s going on?
• You discover, much too late, that your downstairs neighbor is a cannibal.
• During a renovation of your home, you and your spouse find human remains underneath your back porch – a crime that you are now being charged with.

What are some children’s writing prompts?

• Your dog begins speaking in a human voice one morning.
• The sky turns purple.
• Your best friend’s head turns into a mushroom.
• Dinosaurs come back to earth.
• You and your family rescue a turtle who was hit by a car and nurse him back to health.
• You turn into a goldfish.
• What would happen if you could turn any food into cotton candy?
• Rain turns into soda.
• Your family adopts a pet monkey.
• The new kid at school wants to be your friend, but you’re very shy.
• You and your boy scout troop get lost in the middle of the forest.
• Your parents tell you they’ll give you $20 if you eat your vegetables with every dinner. Do you do it?
• Write about a special memory from your childhood.
• What parent were you closest do? What are some of your favorite memories of spending time with them?
• Write about yourself at age five.
• Write about yourself at age ten.
• What was your greatest dream when you were a child?
• Write about your favorite childhood pet.
• Get inspiration for your writing by thinking about a vacation you took as a child.
• What would happen if you woke up one day and kids ruled the world?
• Tell the story of a child who has just transferred to a new school.
• Tell the story of a platypus.
• Imagine running away with a group of your childhood best friends – where would you go?
• Dream up your own imaginary world.
• Children’s books are known for their fun and creativity. What’s the craziest, kookiest new breed of animal you can imagine?
• Give advice to new parents.
• Give advice to your younger self.
• Imagine what it would be like to live in a world where instead of taking the school bus, you ride a dragon to classes!
• Write about your favorite childhood game.
• Tell the story of a family who decides to hire a new babysitter or nanny.
• Your parents tell you one day that you’re going to be a big sister – but you really like being the only child!
• If the world could be any color, what would you want it to be?
• If you could taste a specific flavor any time you ate something, what would you want it to be?
• Describe a trip to the zoo with your class.
• You and your best friends get to leave school to have lunch anywhere in town. Pizza, candy – anything! Tell the story of where you go.
• Tell the story of your first time at summer camp.
• Tell the story of your first time away from home.
• What if we lived in a world where kids were treated like adults? And adults were treated like kids?
• Take a spin at your very own Dr. Suess-esque book and use rhymes to tell a kooky, crazy story!
• You’re in charge of babysitting your little sibling for the first time.
• You decide to run away from home – what are some of the challenges that you face?
• Picture a world where everything is upside down! What’s life like for you?
• Write a book advising children on how to overcome adversity.
• Write a book advising children on how to be a good friend.
• Write a book advising children on how to be a kind sibling.
• Bobby the Bunny wants to make friends with a fox pup who recently lost its family.
• A giraffe and an ostrich live together in a zoo, where they bond over similar neck characteristics and learn how to play one another’s games.
• A dragon wants to be loved and befriended, but every time he farts, fire erupts from his rear end.
• Bruce the German Shepherd loves to run through the woods with his human. When he and his human get separated from one another, Bruce has to learn from his forest friends how to get back home.
• Tell the story of the tooth fairy… Imagine that she just started her job and has to be trained.

What are some young adult writing prompts?

• It’s your first day of middle school. But when you’re half human, half dragon, that makes things a little tough.
• What happens when you begin working at the same yogurt shop as your crush?
• Both of your parents die in a car accident, leaving you an orphan who gets shipped off to your mysterious aunt’s house in Europe.
• One day you find out that you never have to return to high school. What do you decide to do instead?
• You’re chosen to go on a school trip to Africa where you’ll be helping to build wells. You’ve never been out of the country, though, and are worried.
• Your mom disappears one day, and you never see her again.
• Tell the story of the best high school summer of your life.
• Your boyfriend gets in a horrible car accident and ends up in the ICU. Another girl is found in the car with him, too – but she died. Who is she?
• You find out that your brother is adopted.
• During her freshman year of college, she found out that people in her dorm started to disappear. Almost from thin air.
• A group of high school freshmen learn that the teachers and administrators at their boarding school are actually human like AI working towards the Singularity and human enslavement. If they don’t act fast, the robots win.
• A group of at-risk teenagers are on an overnight camping trip with a wilderness counseling group in Badlands National Park when an arctic blast forces them out of a blizzard and into a cave. On day three, their counselors go out in search for help – and never return.
• Your high school sweetheart dumps you suddenly because of something you posted on social media. But you didn’t post it, and you have to figure out just how different – and difficult – your life is now that you’ve been hacked.
• Imagine that the world is run amok with vampires. Or zombies. Or authoritarian dictatorships in a dystopian future.
• In the near future, climate change has led to the extinction of butterfly and bee pollinators. A small group of teen geniuses band together to develop autonomous, robotic insects to replicate the functions of insect pollination before the global food shortage turns from disastrous to extinction-level.
• You find out that your best friend’s dad is responsible for the growing number of missing people in your hometown. How do you get everyone to believe you?
• You did it – after years of hard work and try outs, you finally won the coveted spot on the football team. But here’s the thing – you’re the first girl to ever play.
• One night you wake up to find yourself levitating over your bed. The next morning, strange wings start to grow from your shoulders. Are you turning into some sort of mystical bird?
• It was pretty freaky to wake up for school one morning, only to see that my parents were literally frozen into blocks of ice in the kitchen. Even freakier? Every adult in town is frozen solid, too.
• A boy pursues his list of wildly ambitious New Year’s resolutions, with hilarious and touching results. (Bryn Donovan)
• A girl on the swim team transforms into a part-time mermaid. (Bryn Donovan)
• A group of “outsiders” become a clique that eventually excludes others. (Bryn Donovan)
• A girl’s favorite author plagiarizes her fanfiction. (Bryn Donovan)
• A boy learns who believed his sister died finds out she’s very much alive. (Bryn Donovan)
• A teenager’s best friend goes missing—and is widely believed to be the murderer of a family member. (Bryn Donovan)
• Two teens begin to write a fantasy novel together and then cross over into the world they’ve created. (Bryn Donovan)
• In a dystopian future, college admissions boards have access to video footage of students’ entire lives. (Bryn Donovan)
• A girl always hangs out at a particular little nook at the library. Then the same boy starts taking the space every day. (Bryn Donovan)
• A boy learns something terrible about his parents.(Bryn Donovan)
• In a modern-day Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, three girls ditch class for a day filled with adventures. (Bryn Donovan)
• 35. A girl who wants to be a virgin until she gets married faces social pressure about her decision. (Bryn Donovan)
• A teen gains the ability to take the form of any other person she chooses. (Bryn Donovan)
• A girl’s science fair project yields results that attract the government’s attention. (Bryn Donovan)
• A teen’s suspicions about a teacher lead him to conduct a private investigation. (Bryn Donovan)
• A girl struggles with the decision to tell authorities about what the star quarterback did. (Bryn Donovan)
• Soon after a boy was born, his father went missing. Now, a skeleton has been discovered in the basement of their former home. (Bryn Donovan)
• You check out a book from the library and discover that it’s telling the story of your life. Do you decide to read ahead and find out what happens, or let it be a surprise?
• Your beloved dog goes missing, resulting in a cross-country chase to reunite her with your family.
• Put yourself in your favorite anime or manga series. What type of character would you play?
• You and your best friends have been playing in a band in your mom’s garage for years. Now you’ve gotten discovered by a major Hollywood scout, but they only want you to go on to fame.
• Some friends go to an escape room only to discover it’s being run by one of the most elusive serial killers in history.
• After going to see the circus with your parents, you decide to run away to join the troupe. What act do you take on?
• What would you tell your younger self as a teenager? What do you wish you had done differently, or not done at all?
• What would your younger self tell you now? What would they think about your life?
• Tell the story of someone who switches places with themself as a 14-year-old.
• Think Princess Diaries – you’ve just found out you’re part royal with a massive inheritance to look forward to. What changes about your life?
• A small spaceship crash lands in your backyard with nothing inside but an instruction manual on how to rebuild the aircraft. Do you take it back into space?
• You have the power to shift into whatever creature you want – bear, wolf, etc. When do you choose to utilize your powers?
• What would happen if you changed places with a rockstar?
• Your big brother has always been the more successful, studious one of the family. You’ve finally got a chance to prove yourself and one up him – how do you do it?

How to use AI for writing prompts?

While that list was extensive, we understand that authors might need more specific prompts. For example, maybe your prompt needs to include exact examples and a more tailored answer specifically for your characters and story. That’s where Artificial Intelligence tools like ChatGPT can be useful.

By engaging with ChatGPT in a conversation, users can specify their preferences and receive prompts that align with their interests. Whether you’re seeking prompts for fiction, non-fiction, or even poetry, ChatGPT can inspire and spark ideas that you may not have considered otherwise.

With its ability to understand context and generate coherent text, ChatGPT writing prompts can be a valuable tool for writers of all levels.

Some example questions authors can use in ChatGPT to create specific writing prompts include: “I’m looking for a fantasy prompt set in a magical forest with a protagonist on a quest for a lost artifact.” or “I need a mystery prompt set in a small town where a series of strange occurrences unravel a dark secret. Can you provide a compelling scenario?” You could even use some of the 500 prompts above and add them to ChatGPT and ask it to create some similar variations. The possibilities are endless!

There you have it, we hope these 500 writing prompts help you on your way to publishing your next book . For more resources on self-publishing, book marketing, and general indie author trends, make sure you check out these resources . You can also sign up for our free author newsletter to stay up to date on the latest news.

Note: This blog post was updated on 4/25/2024

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51 comments on “ 500 writing prompts to help beat writer’s block ”.

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Thanks for sharing the prompt ideas! I am thinking to start writing a book since a long time. But I wasn’t getting any good heads. Your article has helped to understand my area of interest, especially in which I can write a book successfully.

very nice story I like it

Writer’s doubts never end here is a way to solve this issue with 500 writing prompts. It is such a research based and praiseworthy blog, it is a must read. Thank you for this article! This is really very informative for us.

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With all 500 of these, I should have no trouble finding something to write about. Thanks so much for these prompts.

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My friends and I are doing a competition to see who is the best FANTASY writer. Here’s the catch, you need to include twins, homeless people and abused animals in your story. Plz help???

Hi Ebony! Maybe try a slightly post-apocalyptic slant? I know that subgenre can veer on Science Fiction (instead of Fantasy) but you could definitely apply those required themes to a post-apoc story.

Urban fantasy set in a modern day. The protagonist is a homeless person who has a pet dove-griffin (also called winged rats). One day, he is assaulted and they take his companion, leaving him for dead. He survives, and uses his background as a hunter to track down the people who wronged him, stumbling in the process upon a ring of fantasy animal traffickers called the Chain of Cerberus, which is ruled by three brothers, triplets. He has to fight against all odds using his skills and save his only friend and companion.

The secret motivation for the protagonist is atonement for his past as a hunter, since he helped rich people (like the Triplets) to capture the fantastic animals they were after.

I call it ‘Fantasy John Wick’

Thank you for sharing such a wealth of prompts! These are fantastic. What a tough job to choose 500! If you’re interested in more open-ended prompts (just to switch it up), check out my instagram for (almost) daily writing prompts as well: @sharp.writer .

This is the complete list of writing prompts over the internet. Thanks for sharing.

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SoI made like a short script bit of a prompt like the one bout you looking in a mirror to see something that does not look like you.

Its 5 o’clock in the morning. As I came out of my cream sheets with speckles of generally grey all around, I fixed my bed. From patting down pillows to rearranging my duvet for the most part placing my silk pretty black blanket to definitely finish it off. I basically was heading for the fridge to get the creamer for coffee when I stared into the actually metal fridge looking for my reflection but instead kind of found that something looking back at me and it was not my reflection, which really is quite weird. Its kind of looked nothing like me, or so I thought. I really tried to really come up with excuses; I am in a daze, I am still half-asleep, I for the most part am asleep. IT CAN’T BE. I said, until I saw that it can. But that thing in the mirror particularly was scaring me because it stared back at me and it was waving now in a kind of like I AM WATCHING YOU kind of way. but before I could do anything it….

I found your blog very helpful in my writing project someday. Thank you for sharing your wonderful article.

I’m so glad this was helpful to you, Monique. You’re very welcome!

I have been reading posts regarding this topic and this post is one of the most interesting and informative one I have read. Thank you for this!

You’re very welcome, Patricia!

i need to do a story in which the main character is a demigod (as in percy jackson yknow) and i don’t know what to write.

Here’s one you might enjoy , Anika! Found on the #demigod prompts Tumblr page.

This is an excellent list of prompts! For me, though, I don’t lack story ideas or character scenarios. After plotting out my story, I tend to get stalled after a few chapters or in a particular scene, even when I have a good conflict for the characters to work through. ****** I found this great little book on Amazon called “What Would Your Character Do?” It really helped me because the prompts are designed to get you brainstorming about your character’s next actions when you’re stuck in a scene. I can always find a prompt in the book to get me unstuck! I’ll definitely share this particular list with my writer friends though!

Great recommendation, Jackie! Thanks for sharing

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thank you for these prompts. they really helped with my writer’s block

these are so helpful! I’ve been trying to figure out how to continue my dystopian story for weeks then I found this website! I can’t wait to continue working!

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Thank you so much for compiling such an array of prompts. Reading through these and of course changing them up in my head has me scrambling to write again. Have a Blessed Day!

Was looking for some takes regarding this topic and I found your article quite informative. It has given me a fresh perspective on the topic tackled. Thanks!

What a great list of writing prompts. I have saved this page to share with my writing partner. I am sure we will use some of these.

Hello! I wanted to ask you, if I am allowed to use some of you prompts. (of course I will give credits to you and add a link to this site). I am leader for a community on an app called Amino, it’s quite similar to Instagram, where the member can post some stuff. I wanted to post some writing prompts, since everyone there likes to write. So I wantet do aks, if i can use some of your prompts. (And sorry for my bad english, I have a german community there, since I speak german…)

Absolutely, please feel free to share and we would appreciate linking back!

Of course I do, thank you!

This was so helpful! Every prompt in this article was amazing You’ve really outdone yourself Kelsey!!!!!<3

This is extremely helpful. I am in 2nd year of high school and struggle with writers-block. I decided to do number three in the ‘horror’ section, and the options written in this article are extremely ‘flexible’ — there is a prompt for everyone. Thank you.

These writing prompts are fun! Thanks for putting it all together.

I’ve started several books. None completed, Although a few stories were published in a small town newspaper. A couple of years ago I began a book when the work came to an abrupt end. My husband fell off the roof. Now, after 2 years, I find myself wanting to write, but stymied as how to pick up where I left off. I’ve read your prompts. Some of the fiction, thriller, mystery and prompts in other areas have been true life experiences for me. Now, as I stand in the aftermath of the train that hit me, in need of a battery jump to restart, I have hopefully found a way forward.

I absolutely loved these! Thanks so much! Writing prompts really help me keep the wheels turning.

Thanks so much for these amazing prompts! I had nailed down a genre and topic but needed some help getting down to the nitty gritty specifics. You saved the day (and my essay). Thank you!

I am impressed with your sharing. Helpful for new writers. Thanks for your share.

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Unbeatable listing. A lot of quality and tremendous compilation.

I love these prompts! They help me get started when I’m feeling stuck.

I have all the actual writing material I need, but I am using writing prompts to get myself in the zone for writing. This list is outstanding. It’s a bit of a struggle to stop perusing because there are so many that entice me. I’m pretty sure that many of these will little warm-ups will end up in my Ideas file. Thanks so much for this.

To the prompt about scientists figuring out how to extend life but someone has to die:

The mail held a few worthless ads, nothing to be worried about. But then my heart stopped at the sight of a letter. My hands trembled as I took it out of the box. I wracked my brain for ways to escape. If I never read it, could I claim ignorance? No, it would never work. Shakily I tore open the envelope and unfolded the paper inside. When it began with “We sorrowfully regret to inform you,” I recognized the words from my sister’s letter and the grief came flooding back. Half for her and half for myself. I wasn’t ready to let go of the wonderful life I had. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. But it didn’t matter. Getting this letter meant I was going to die, and it also meant that I had no choice.

Just a blurb. Thoughts?

These gave me some great ideas!

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A Big, Bold List of Creative Writing Activities

by Melissa Donovan | Jan 4, 2024 | Creative Writing | 24 comments

Try some of these creative writing activities.

Are you looking for writing motivation, inspiration, or ideas that will give your latest project an extra boost?

Below you’ll find a massive list of creative writing activities. Some of these activities will keep you writing when you’re in need of ideas and inspiration. Others will improve your writing skills and techniques through practice. Some will give you experience with forms and genres you haven’t tried. And others will help you promote your writing once it’s published.

Pick any activity and use it as a creative outlet. Bring a few activities to your writing group or do one with your kids. Use these creative writing activities in any way you want.

Start a Journal

Journaling is an excellent way to maintain a steady writing practice, and there are lots of different journals you can write: gratitude journals, dream journals, media journals, poetry journals, and idea journals, to name a few.

Image Prompts

Flip through some images on Instagram or Pinterest and see what sparks an idea. Don’t place limitations on your writing—just let the words flow.

Character Letters

Writing letters in your characters’ voices can help you get inside their heads and understand them better so you can write them with more depth and realism. Create an ongoing correspondence to explore character relationships and group dynamics within your cast.

Write Your Bio

Write a series of short bios for your social media accounts and a longer one for your author website. Don’t forget to make a bio for your press kit and another to include in your books.

Rhyme and Meter Exercises

Set your inner musician free by composing lines and couplets in metrical patterns with rhymes. Establish the parameters before you start writing, or just let the words flow and note the meter and rhyme afterward.

Memory Prompts

Grab an old photo album or flip through the photos on your phone—or use recall to bring forth memories that you can write about. Use this as an exercise in writing description or crafting a narrative about something you experienced or witnessed—ideal if you’re interested in writing a memoir.

Writing Exercises

Writing exercises keep your skills sharp and your creativity flowing even when inspiration is fleeting. They are excellent for keeping up your writing practice between projects. Pick up a book of creative writing exercises so you’ll have plenty to choose from.

What-if List

Create a repository of ideas by writing a list of what-if questions that could spark characters, plots, and settings for your future works of fiction or provide ideas you can explore in poetry and nonfiction writing projects.

Newsletters

A mailing list is one of the best ways for an author to connect with a readership. Start planning yours now. You can fill your newsletter with behind-the-scenes material from your books or excerpts from your work in progress. Or write a poem or piece of flash fiction for your newsletter.

Character Diary

The best characters feel like real people, which means the writer has fully gotten into their heads and hearts. One way to do that is to keep a diary in your character’s voice, which will help you establish their innermost thoughts and feelings. And who knows? Maybe a character diary will turn into a novel written in first person!

Your Future Self

Jump at least ten years into the future and write a letter from your current self to your future self, write a letter from your future self to your current self, or write a diary entry as your future self.

Try Writing for Comics

Comics are often partnerships between artists and writers. Give the writing side of comics a try. If you don’t want to draw, just make notes about what the illustrations will depict. Focus on character, plot, and dialogue. Flip through a few comics if you need examples to guide you.

Dream Vacation

Write a few pages describing your dream vacation. Where will you go? How long will you stay? What will you do there? If you’ve already experienced a dream vacation, write about that instead.

Blurb Your Favorite Books

A book blurb is a short statement endorsing a book, often written by another author. Choose a few of your favorite titles and write blurbs for them.

Focus on dialogue by writing a script. It could be a script for a play, a TV series, or a movie, or it can simply be an exercise in practicing or exploring dialogue.

Imagined World History

Create a fictional history for a fantastical or sci-fi story world. What were the origins of the civilization? What are their customs and traditions? Their laws and beliefs?

Write a Recipe

Start with an introduction that makes the reader’s mouth water, and then deliver the recipe, complete with an ingredient list and cooking instructions.

Propose an Adaptation of Your Favorite Book

Do you have a favorite book that’s never been made into a film or television series? Put together a two-page pitch convincing studio executives that this story needs to be seen on a screen.

Write a Letter You’ll Never Send

Write a letter to someone who’s gone, someone who’s upset you, or someone you admire from afar.

Find Poetry

Found poetry is when we use words and phrases from source material to create a poem. This is most often seen as a page of printed text with various words and phrases circled, or all text blacked out except the portions that make up the found poem.

Write a Speech

Write an award acceptance speech; a campaign speech, or a graduation or wedding speech.

Make an Outline

Create an outline for a large-scope project, such as a book or series of books.

This is Like That

Practice writing similes and metaphors. Similes are when one thing is like another (your smile is like sunshine) and metaphors are when one thing is another (your smile is sunshine).

Make a Chapbook

If you’ve written a lot of short pieces, like essays, poems, and short stories, collect them into a chapbook. Bring it to an open mic and take along copies you can sell or give away, or offer it on your blog, website, or social media as a free or premium download.

Create a Motivation Journal

Fill it with things that make you want to write — positive affirmations, favorite lines from poems, quotes of wisdom, and useful reminders. Crack it open whenever you catch yourself procrastinating when you should be writing.

Give Fan Fiction a Whirl

Write a few scenes in your favorite story world. Create new characters or use existing characters. Just remember — you don’t own the intellectual property, so you can’t commercially publish it.

Write a Critique

A critique should start by highlighting the strengths in a piece of writing, and then it should gently but constructively offer feedback that is meant to show the author how to make improvements. You can critique any work, but it would be ideal if you can find a writer friend to swap critiques with.

Write Log Lines for Your Favorite Stories

A log line is a sentence or two that summarizes a story and entices readers. If you’re working on a project, write a log line about it. Log lines are excellent for crystallizing your vision, and they’re also useful for pitching and selling written works.

Start a Legacy Book

A legacy book is a collection of writings and other materials (letters, photos, ephemera, etc.) that can be passed down as a family heirloom. Write about your family history and document significant or memorable family events.

Speculate the Future

What do you think the world will look like in twenty-five years? Fifty? A hundred? A thousand? Write an essay or short story, or create a world-building document for a futuristic civilization.

Write a Film Treatment

Written like a short story in present tense, a film treatment is an overview of an entire film; it’s usually written before the first draft and used for pitching film ideas throughout the industry.

Write a Blog Post

If you write nonfiction, this should be easy; just write a post about one of your usual topics. If you’re a poet or a fiction writer, write about the craft, the industry, or use subject matter from your written works.

Practice Description

Writing description is an important skill. Create a one-page description for a story setting, or describe a location you’ve visited, or write a description of a real person or a fictional character.

Turn Memories Into Magic

Memories can provide a wealth of ideas for any type of writing, from poetry to fiction and a variety of essays. Choose an early memory and write it as a story, essay, or poem.

Social media is ideal for people who can write snappy, witty, and entertaining or engaging vignettes. Social media is an excellent tool for writers to find readers and connect with one another, so mastering a couple of these social platforms is a good idea if you hope to build a career as a writer.

Rewrite What You Don’t Like

Dig through your old, discarded writings and find a piece that had some potential. Then rewrite it.

Analyze a Written Work

Choose a piece of writing (it can be a book, an article, an essay — anything) and then write an analysis of at least 2,000 words (or about four pages).

Read and Resemble

Read a handful of poems by a single poet and then attempt writing a poem in that poet’s voice. This is not an exercise in copying; it’s an exercising in studying the voice of a writer. If you’re feeling ambitious, try it with works of fiction and write a scene in an author’s voice.

Write a Review

Choose a book that you’ve read recently and write a detailed review of it. What worked? What didn’t work? What did you like? What didn’t you like? Remember, a review should help a book find its readers. Who is this book for, if not for you?

Get Busy with These Creative Writing Activities!

What are some of your favorite creative writing activities? Have you done any of the activities on this list? Which ones would you want to try? Can you think of any writing activities to add to this list? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment, and keep writing!

24 Comments

Thank you for all these wonderful ideas. After a very long hiatus from the writing world (mostly because of health) I am feeling a bit rusty. Using some of these ideas will certainly prime the pump! I really enjoy your blog and appreciate the basics of grammar, etc. I find that I have slipped into some old habits just in my everyday writing and your tips help me get back on track.

Thanks, Ann. I’m always touched by comments like yours. It keeps me going when people let me know this blog is helpful or inspiring. So thank you for taking the time. Best of luck and keep writing!

The character journal is a great idea!!!

The problem with the character journal is that it could be time consuming, but I love it as a way to get to know a character, and more specifically, to get inside a character’s head.

All of these ideas are wonderful. I’m especially attracted to the last two suggestions. Both of those activities are fun for me and certainly bound to be helpful concerning my writing skills.

When I must wait in the car (with a sleeping grandchild, for instance) I’m only happy if I can see folks as they come and go.

We play word games on a regular basis and have found it strengthens the writing skills of even those of us who do not call ourselves wordsmiths.

Keep up the excellent work.

Thanks so much for your kind words, Yvonnne. I’m looking forward to the day when the little ones in my family (niece and nephew) are old enough to play word and letter games.

Hi Melissa, Thanks for these wonderful ideas. I ‘m taking a couple of days off from writing my memoir, and will try them out.’Writing as one of my characters’ and ‘sitting in some heavily populated place for observations’ are intriguing.

Those are my two favorites as well. Good luck, Margaret, and enjoy your hiatus. I hope it refreshes you so you can return to your memoir.

Love the character journal idea! To keep my vocab going I choose pages out of the dictionary/thesaurus to keep my brain working. It also does wonders for my muse. 🙂 Thanks for sharing this list.

I write a lot of scenes and backstory for my characters, which are never included in the book. Exploring the characters outside of the narrative has proven to be very helpful in better understanding them.

Hi, Melissa!

Well, I’ve been absent for quite a long while. But I have been busy. A spec piece submitted to my local daily newspaper landed me a column. (Who couldda guessed?) I also write theater reviews for them; write what you know has never been more true.

Consequently, I find that my creative writing has slowed quite a bit. The sequel to my debut needs, maybe, two more chapters yet there it sits, though a production company asked for it. Even reading the preceding few chapters doesn’t help me get into the character’s heads in order to finish the thing.

Got any ideas?

Congrats on landing a column, Paul. That’s awesome. I’m not sure why you’ve been unable to finish your sequel, so I can’t offer any specific suggestions, but you can start by fguring out why you’re not finishing it (no time, lost interest, etc.), and then you can probably rectify the problem.

Wonderful! Thanks for sharing these great ideas.

You’re welcome. Thanks for commenting!

It’s so easy to get stuck in a rut. Every writer needs to step away.

I live near the University of Oregon. Every now and than I take a walk through campus. I try to time it during a busy school day. I wish I could bottle the youthful energy that is floating in the wind.

If any of you live near a school try it.

Thank you for the list. It helps a lot.

Yes, breaks are great refreshers for a creative mind. You’re lucky to live near a beautiful place for walks.

I don’t speek english so, sorry if i write wrong, but i need to tell you that your blog is amazing. Your write it’s soo good and make me wanna write. I have 15 years old and i love write, maybe I become a writter when I grew up, and I don’t know how to make my ideias go for the paper but your blog has helped me. Thank you!!

Hi Isabella. Thanks for sharing your passion for writing. I’m glad you’re enjoying this blog. Keep writing!

Thank you for your useful ideas! You have inspired me to try out new formats. I’m not a professional writer, it’s more my hobby. But still, I want to improve myself by writing texts and short stories.

You’re welcome. I’m glad this inspired you, and I’m thrilled that you’re working toward improvement. That’s wonderful!

Hi Melissa! I just wanted you to know that I recently bought some of your books and I absolutely love them and carry them around with me everywhere. Keep up the amazing work! Best wishes, Sandra Harris.

Wow, you just made my day, Sandra. That’s one of the nicest things anyone has said about my books. I’m so glad you like them. Keep writing!

Thank you for those amaing ideas. I’m not exactly stuck, as I know where my latest book is going, but I’m a bit lacking in motivation right now. Some of your suggestions might just get my juices flowing again.

Hi Vivienne. You’re welcome. I’m glad you found some motivation here. Keep writing!

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365 Daily Writing Prompts

How to use daily writing prompts.

Press the GENERATE button above. (If it doesn’t work, refresh the page.)

The text box will generate a short creative writing prompt or topic you can write about today. (If you can’t see the whole line, use your cursor to highlight the text and keep scrolling to the right.)

Bookmark this page and write at least 500 words each day (or on your writing schedule .)

There are 365 story starters here, enough for a whole year. I update it every year, but it’s random—you might get the same creative writing prompt twice or even three times. If you do, I’d suggest you keep doing the prompt. Sometimes magic strikes the second time around. Or even the 15th.

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100 Creative Writing Prompts to Inspire Your Writing

With this list, you’ll never run out of story ideas again!

By Natasha Khullar Relph

Starting a new project feels like stepping into a world of endless possibilities, yet it can also be like staring into the abyss of the unknown. While the battle between a writer and their blank page is well documented, you don’t have to go to war with your creative self just to get some words on a page.

Creative writing prompts can be the answer to a blocked writer’s prayers, offering story starters and writing ideas to jumpstart your creative thinking. To aid in your efforts, we’ve put together a curated collection of 100 creative writing prompts. From thought-provoking scenarios to whimsical adventures, these prompts are guaranteed to jumpstart your writing, transport you to new worlds, and breathe life into your stories.

What is a writing prompt?

A writing prompt is a specific, often short, phrase, question, or statement designed to stimulate and inspire creative writing. Writing prompts can help you overcome writer’s block , generate new ideas, or simply get your creative juices flowing. You can use them in various forms of writing, including fiction, poetry, journaling, and essay writing, and they vary widely in their content and purpose. Some prompts are open-ended, encouraging writers to explore their thoughts and emotions freely, while others may be more specific, asking you to write about a particular topic or scenario.

Writing prompts serve as creative triggers, helping you to explore new story ideas , develop characters, or practice different writing styles. They can be a valuable tool for both beginners who need writing inspiration and more experienced writers looking to build a writing habit or become better writers through a regular writing practice .

100 creative writing prompts for writers

Fiction writing prompts.

Whether you’re writing adult novels or children’s books, these fiction and short story writing prompts will inspire new worlds and scenarios for your characters to play in as you write your first draft .

• Write a modern-day fairy tale set in a bustling metropolis . Your story should feature a main character who stumbles upon a hidden, magical world within the city. Explore how this discovery changes their life and the challenges they face as they navigate between the ordinary and the extraordinary in the heart of the urban jungle.
• Write a story in which the main character discovers a superpower , but it comes with a mysterious and unexpected side effect. Explore the challenges they face in harnessing their newfound ability while dealing with the consequences of the side effect. How do they adapt and ultimately use their power for good or ill?
• Imagine you stumble upon an ancient, dusty time traveler’s journal in an antique shop. As you flip through its pages, you realize it contains detailed accounts of the past, present, and future. Write a story about the discoveries you make within the journal and how they shape your life and decisions.
• In a post-apocalyptic society, a group of survivors discover a hidden library containing books from every era. Describe their journey to preserve knowledge, as they grapple not only with the challenge of safeguarding these precious texts but also with the moral dilemmas and conflicts that arise when they must decide who has access to this invaluable resource in a world defined by scarcity.
• In a world where people’s dreams become real, a person with chronic nightmares suddenly possesses unimaginable power , forcing them to confront the fine line between their inner demons and the extraordinary possibilities that now lie at their fingertips.
• Write a story set in a future where civilians can take vacations to outer space . Describe the adventures, challenges, and experiences of a family or group of friends as they embark on a journey beyond the earth’s atmosphere for the first time.
• Craft a science fiction tale set in a world where technology has reached unimaginable heights , but human emotions and relationships remain unchanged. Explore how advanced AI, virtual reality, and futuristic inventions impact the characters’ lives, love, and the essence of what it means to be human.
• Write a story that begins with a group of childhood friends building a secret treehouse in the woods. Years later, they reunite as adults to discover that their beloved hideaway holds a mysterious and enchanting secret that will change their lives forever.
• Write a story set in a small American town during the 1950s, capturing the essence of post-war America and the lives of its diverse residents as they navigate love, ambition, and the pursuit of the American Dream.
• Imagine a future where Earth faces an impending catastrophic event, and humanity has initiated a mission to colonize a distant planet . Write a story from the perspective of one astronaut on this interstellar journey, capturing the emotions, challenges, and sense of hope as they leave behind their home planet and embark on a journey into the unknown.
• Your favorite book has always been a cherished escape, but one day, as you open its pages, you find yourself transported into the world within . Write a story about your adventures in the world of your favorite book, exploring the characters, places, and challenges you encounter along the way.
• Imagine a world where everyone knows the exact date of their last day on Earth . Write a story about a person living through their last day, exploring how they choose to spend it and the emotions, reflections, and last moments they experience as they prepare to say their farewells.
• Set your story in a future where a society of advanced learners, equipped with a unique ability to acquire new skills and knowledge rapidly , faces a mysterious threat. Write about their quest to unravel the enigma, the extraordinary challenges they encounter, and how their insatiable thirst for learning becomes their greatest asset in this high-stakes adventure.
• Write a story in which each chapter shifts between the first-person point of view of two characters who have drastically different perspectives on the same events. Explore how their contrasting viewpoints shape the narrative and challenge the reader’s understanding of the story’s central conflict.
• Imagine a world where gods exist but are not all-powerful . Write a story about a god who, despite their divine status, faces a unique and formidable challenge that forces them to confront their limitations and question the very nature of godhood.
• Write a story set in a world where time travel is possible but limited to a single day . Describe the adventures and dilemmas of a character who can only revisit or change events in their life within the confines of that single day. What choices do they make, and how does it impact their future and the world around them?
• In a near-future world, video games have evolved to become the primary form of communication and competition . Write a story where a skilled gamer is recruited for a high-stakes mission within a virtual reality game, blurring the lines between the digital and physical worlds. Explore the challenges, alliances, and ethical dilemmas they face as they navigate this immersive and unpredictable gaming landscape.
• Imagine a writer who discovers an ancient, enchanted book that can bring its characters to life and grant them free will. Write a new story in which the writer and the characters they create must work together to navigate the challenges and consequences of their shared existence, blurring the lines between creator and creation.
• Imagine a character whose favorite things are slowly disappearing from their life one by one . Write a story about their journey to hold on to the essence of what they love most, the challenges they face in preserving their cherished favorites, and the unexpected discoveries they make along the way.
• Two strangers find themselves washed ashore on a deserted island after a shipwreck . They have no memory of their past lives and must work together to survive. Write a story about their journey of discovery, resilience, and the bond that forms as they navigate the challenges of the deserted island.
• Your favorite holiday has always been a time of joy and celebration, but this year, it’s under threat of cancellation. Write a story about the determined efforts of a group of individuals who come together to save and rekindle the spirit of their favorite holiday , facing unexpected challenges and finding new meaning in the process.
• Write a story set in a quaint English village, where an eccentric resident claims to have discovered a hidden portal to another dimension in their garden shed . As rumors spread and curiosity grows, explore the adventures and mysteries that unfold when the villagers decide to investigate this bizarre claim and step into the unknown.
• Your favorite Tumblr blog suddenly starts posting cryptic messages that seem to predict events in your life . Write a story about the growing intrigue and obsession as you try to uncover the identity of the blog’s enigmatic author and the source of their uncanny knowledge.
• Your favorite season has always been winter, but this year, it never ends . Write a story about the challenges, wonders, and unexpected consequences that arise as your world becomes perpetually blanketed in snow and ice, and you must navigate the eternal winter that now defines your life.
• Write a story about a high school student who stumbles upon a mysterious diary hidden in the school library . The diary seems to contain entries from a former student who experienced extraordinary and supernatural events during their time at the school. As the current student reads the diary, they begin to notice strange occurrences happening around them, blurring the line between reality and the paranormal.

Nonfiction writing prompts

Here’s a selection of nonfiction writing prompts to help you delve into your own experiences , share your expertise, and craft powerful narratives rooted in the world around us.

• Explore the concept of “utopia” and “dystopia.” Write an analytical essay comparing and contrasting two fictional utopian or dystopian worlds from literature, film, or popular culture, and discuss their societal ideals, flaws, and relevance to contemporary society.
• Consider a unique or unusual skill or hobby you possess , such as extreme knitting or competitive tree climbing. Write a how-to guide or tutorial that explains the fundamentals and intricacies of this skill, offering practical advice and personal anecdotes to inspire others to explore it.
• Take a nature walk or visit a local park, and choose a specific tree as your subject . Write a detailed and poetic nature essay that describes the tree’s appearance, its role in the ecosystem, and the stories it could tell if it could speak.
• Choose an everyday object that holds special significance to you , such as a childhood toy or a family heirloom. Write a detailed essay exploring the memories, emotions, and stories connected to this object, and how it has shaped your identity.
• Imagine you have the opportunity to interview your future self 10 years from now . Draft a list of thought-provoking questions you would ask to gain insights into your future experiences, decisions, and reflections.
• Select a word from a language other than your own that encapsulates a feeling or concept you find intriguing but that has no direct translation in your language. Write an essay exploring the word’s meaning, cultural context, and the emotions it evokes, reflecting on the beauty of language and its ability to convey complex ideas.
• Imagine you are given the chance to host a dinner party with five historical figures , living or deceased, from any time period. Create a detailed guest list, describe the menu, and write an essay outlining the topics of conversation you would explore with your eclectic group of guests.
• Write a personal essay about a specific sound or noise that holds deep meaning to you . Explain why this sound resonates with you, its significance in your life, and the emotions or memories it triggers.
• Consider a peculiar or unusual museum exhibit you’ve encountered or would like to visit . Write an engaging review or critique of the exhibit, examining its historical, artistic, or cultural value, and sharing your insights and reactions as a visitor.
• Think about an unsolved mystery, conspiracy theory, or urban legend that has always intrigued you . Write an investigative essay delving into the facts, theories, and speculations surrounding this enigma, presenting your own analysis and conclusions.
• Explore the concept of “lost cities” or “hidden civilizations.” Write an investigative essay about a real or legendary lost city, such as Atlantis, discussing the historical evidence, theories, and mysteries surrounding its existence and disappearance.
• Imagine you have the ability to witness and document a day in the life of a famous historical figure or celebrity of your choice. Write a detailed and immersive diary entry that captures their experiences, thoughts, and emotions on this hypothetical day.
• Reflect on the idea of “space tourism” becoming a reality in the near future . Write an opinion piece discussing the ethical, environmental, and cultural implications of commercial space travel and colonization.
• Select an everyday object or phenomenon, such as rain, a traffic light, or a pencil , and write an in-depth exploration of its history, evolution, and societal impact. Share surprising facts and anecdotes that shed new light on this seemingly ordinary subject.
• Write an i n-depth profile of a local unsung hero or community leader who has made a significant impact on your town or neighborhood. Share their story, accomplishments, and the lasting effects of their work.
• Explore the concept of “found family.” Write a personal essay reflecting on the importance of the friendships and relationships you’ve built with individuals who may not be biologically related but have become like family to you.
• Consider the phenomenon of life hacks and practical tips shared on the internet. Write a guide or compilation of your favorite life hacks, along with personal anecdotes of how they’ve improved your daily life.
• Reflect on the concept of digital nostalgia. Write an essay about the emotional connections people form with digital content, such as video games, social media, or online communities, and how it shapes their sense of identity and belonging.
• Explore the world of extreme sports or unconventional hobbies. Write a feature article about individuals who engage in activities like base jumping, extreme ironing, or underwater pumpkin carving, and delve into their motivations and experiences.
• Imagine you have the opportunity to curate an art exhibition featuring the work of artists from different time periods and backgrounds . Describe the themes, connections, and narratives that tie these diverse artworks together.
• Write a reflective essay about your personal journey with mental health , highlighting a specific turning point or moment of insight that led to a deeper understanding of your own well-being. Discuss the strategies, resources, or support systems that have helped you on this path and how your experience might offer inspiration or guidance to others facing similar challenges.
• Explore the cultural and personal significance of your favorite food . Write an essay that delves into the history, traditions, and memories associated with this dish, and how it has become a symbol of comfort, celebration, or connection in your life.
• Create a comprehensive FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) document for your own life , highlighting the questions people often ask you about your experiences, beliefs, or expertise. Write detailed and thoughtful responses to these questions, providing insights into your unique perspective and experiences. Reflect on how compiling this FAQ helps you understand the common themes and curiosities that surround your life and the impact they have on your relationships and identity.
• Explore the concept of “first days” in human history . Write a historical analysis that delves into the pivotal first days of significant events, discoveries, or eras, such as the first day humans walked on the moon, the first day of the Industrial Revolution, or the first day a groundbreaking scientific theory was proposed.
• Imagine you have the ability to observe and document the everyday life of an individual from a completely different culture or time period. Write a descriptive essay that vividly portrays the daily rituals, customs, and experiences of this person, highlighting the contrasts and similarities between their everyday life and your own.

Journal prompts

These prompts are designed to encourage self-discovery, mindfulness, and the art of capturing the essence of your life’s moments on paper. Use them for directed journaling or as part of your Morning Pages practice .

• Choose an object in your immediate environment, such as a book, a plant, or a piece of artwork. Write a journal entry from the perspective of that object , describing its history, observations, and the emotions it might feel as it silently witnesses your life.
• Create a gratitude journal entry in the form of a letter to your past self, expressing appreciation for the experiences, challenges, and lessons that have shaped you into the person you are today. Reflect on how these past moments have contributed to your growth.
• Imagine you’re given the opportunity to have a conversation with your future self 20 years from now . Write a journal entry in which you ask your future self three questions about your life, dreams, and accomplishments, and then respond as you believe your future self would.
• Imagine you have a “time capsule” journal in which you can write messages to your future descendants . Write a journal entry addressing your great-great-grandchildren, sharing personal stories, values, and advice you would want them to know about your life and the world you lived in.
• Write a journal entry as if you were a detective or investigator documenting your own life’s mysteries and unsolved questions . Explore the enigmas, unanswered questions, or unresolved situations you’ve encountered, and brainstorm potential solutions or paths for exploration.
• Create a reverse bucket list in your journal —a list of experiences, achievements, and moments from your life that you’re proud of and grateful for. Reflect on each item and the significance it holds for you.
• Write a journal entry as if you were a traveler from the future, visiting the present day . Describe your observations of contemporary life, technology, culture, and the changes that have occurred since your time.
• Imagine you possess a magic journal that can answer any question you pose to it . Write a series of questions about life, the universe, or personal dilemmas, and then provide detailed answers as if the journal responded.
• Select a word from a foreign language that has no direct translation in your native language. Write a journal entry exploring the word’s meaning, cultural context, and the emotions or concepts it represents. Reflect on how this word might enrich your understanding of life.
• Create a journal entry capturing your ideal day from start to finish . Describe the perfect morning routine, activities, interactions, and moments of joy you would like to experience. Reflect on what elements of this ideal day you can incorporate into your current life.
• Imagine you have a “memory map” in your mind that marks the locations of significant moments from your life . Write a journal entry where you choose a location on this map and describe the memories associated with it, delving into the emotions, people, and events that make it special.
• Write a journal entry from the perspective of your favorite fictional character . Imagine their thoughts, experiences, and feelings in a specific moment from their story, and explore how their perspective might differ from your own.
• Create a “ soundtrack of your life” journal entry . List songs or pieces of music that have been significant at different stages of your life, and describe the memories and emotions each song evokes.
• Imagine you have the ability to visit parallel universes and experience different versions of your life . Write a journal entry about a day in the life of an alternate “you” in a parallel universe, describing the choices and outcomes that diverged from your current reality.
• Reflect on the idea of “unfinished stories” in your life —those moments or relationships that you wish you could revisit or complete. Write a journal entry exploring these unfinished stories and consider what closure or resolution might mean to you.
• Reflect on a cherished memory with your best friend that you haven’t shared before . Write a journal entry describing the moment—the sights, sounds, and emotions that made it special. Consider how this memory has shaped your friendship and what it reveals about the unique bond you share.
• Choose a family member whose life story or experiences you find intriguing . Write a journal entry where you explore their perspective, challenges, and defining moments from their point of view. Consider how understanding their journey can deepen your connection and appreciation for the complexities of family dynamics.
• Imagine your favorite place, whether it’s a bustling city square, a tranquil beach, or a cozy corner of your home . Write a journal entry that transports yourself and your readers to this cherished spot. Describe the sights, sounds, and sensations that make it your favorite place, and reflect on why it holds such a special space in your heart.
• Select a random word from a dictionary and let it guide your journal entry today. Write about the first memories, emotions, or thoughts that come to mind when you encounter this word. Explore its connections to your life, experiences, or the world around you, and see where this unexpected word takes your reflections.
• Recall your earliest memory, no matter how faint or fragmentary it may be. Write a journal entry that delves into the details of this memory—what you saw, felt, or experienced. Reflect on how this seemingly distant moment may have shaped your perceptions, fears, or interests as you grew older, and consider what hidden treasures might lie within your earliest recollections.
• Think about your favorite story from childhood , whether it’s a fairy tale, a classic novel, or a bedtime fable. Write a journal entry that explores why this particular story resonated with you so deeply and how its themes, characters, or lessons continue to influence your life and perspective.
• Imagine planning the ultimate road trip of a lifetime with no constraints or limitations. Write a journal entry detailing the destinations you would visit, the people you’d travel with (or not), and the experiences you’d seek along the way.
• Describe a recent dream or vivid daydream in detail. Dive into the symbolism, emotions, and hidden meanings behind the dream’s elements. Consider how this dream might relate to your current thoughts, fears, or aspirations.
• Reflect on a memorable encounter with a stranger that left a lasting impression on you . Write a journal entry describing the details of this encounter, the emotions it stirred, and any insights or lessons you gained from the brief connection.
• Create a life garden in your journal, where each flower or plant represents a person, experience, or aspect of your life . Write a journal entry about the state of your life garden—which plants are thriving, which need nurturing, and the symbolic meaning behind each one.

Fun writing prompts

Here are some fun writing prompts that will take you on whimsical journeys, tickle your funny bone, and remind you that writing can be as joyful as it is expressive.

• Write a story where the characters have the ability to swap bodies with one another, but they can only do it for one day. Explore the humorous and chaotic situations that arise as they navigate each other’s lives and personalities.
• Imagine a world where all forms of transportation, from bicycles to rocket ships, are powered by something unexpected , like laughter, music, or compliments. Write a whimsical tale set in this world, where the power of positive emotions fuels extraordinary journeys.
• Write a dialogue between a superhero and their arch-nemesis as they meet for coffee on their day off. Explore the dynamics of their relationship when they’re not in the midst of battling each other and consider the unexpected topics they might discuss.
• Create a story set in a magical library where the books come to life at night . Write about the adventures of the librarian and their bookish companions as they go on quests within the pages of the books, encountering characters and worlds from classic literature.
• Imagine a future where humans can communicate with animals through a universal translator . Write a humorous narrative from the perspective of a pet who has overheard some surprising conversations and secrets among their human family members.
• Write a story set in a world where time moves backward for one hour each day . Explore the consequences and comedic situations that arise as people try to navigate a daily rewind hour.
• Imagine a future where robots have taken over mundane household tasks, but they’ve also developed quirky personalities . Write a series of humorous vignettes about the misadventures of a family and their eccentric robot helpers.
• Create a story where the characters discover a magical paintbrush that brings anything they draw to life . Explore the imaginative creations and unexpected challenges that arise as they wield this extraordinary tool.
• Write a dialogue between a famous historical figure and a modern-day teenager who accidentally time-traveled to the past. Explore the clash of perspectives, cultural differences, and humorous misunderstandings that occur during their conversation.
• Imagine a world where dreams are physical objects that can be collected, traded, and even stolen. Write a thrilling heist story where a group of dream thieves plans to steal the most valuable dream ever recorded.
• Write a story in which the main character has a time-traveling pet —a dog or cat that can transport them to different time periods by touching specific objects. Explore the adventures and challenges they face together as they navigate history.
• Imagine a world where everyone’s dreams become real, but only for 24 hours. Write about the chaos and hilarity that ensue as people try to make the most of their dream days. What unusual dreams and desires come to life?
• Create a story set in a town where every resident has a superpower, but each power comes with an unusual and often comical drawback . Explore the everyday challenges and humorous situations that arise in this extraordinary community.
• Write a tale about a character who discovers a magic book that allows them to rewrite one event from their past. Explore the consequences, both intended and unintended, of altering a pivotal moment in their life.
• Imagine a reality where technology allows people to swap personalities for a day. Write a story about two individuals who decide to exchange lives, exploring the comedic and thought-provoking results of their temporary personality swap.
• Write a story set in a world where every time someone tells a lie, a colorful tattoo appears on their skin, revealing the nature of the falsehood. Explore the adventures and misadventures of a charismatic con artist in this truth-telling society.
• Imagine a reality where people can communicate with objects, from talking to their toaster to negotiating with their car. Write a humorous tale about the challenges and comedic situations that arise when inanimate objects have opinions and demands.
• Create a story about a group of time-traveling tourists who accidentally land in a pivotal historical event. How do they handle being unexpected witnesses to history, and what comical twists and turns result from their presence?
• Write a narrative in which a group of misfit superheroes forms a support group to discuss their quirky and seemingly useless powers. Explore their camaraderie and how they come together to solve a surprisingly mundane problem.
• Imagine a town where each day is themed differently , from “Pirate Day” to “Outer Space Day.” Write a day-in-the-life story of a resident navigating the zany challenges and adventures that come with living in a town of perpetual themed days.
• Write a story in which a middle school’s annual talent show becomes a time-traveling extravaganza . Students’ talents inadvertently transport them to different historical eras. Describe the hilarious and surprising adventures as they try to make their way back to the present, using their unique talents to navigate history.
• Imagine attending a summer camp where everything is topsy-turvy! Campers become the counselors, and counselors become campers. Write a story about the humorous and unexpected challenges, pranks, and adventures that unfold when kids are in charge of running the camp, from organizing activities to dealing with the chaos that ensues.
• Create a story about an unusual camping trip where the characters discover their campsite is a portal to a fantasy realm . Write about the magical creatures, enchanted forests, and unexpected challenges they encounter while trying to enjoy a traditional camping experience with a fantastical twist.
• Write a story about a quirky character who believes they have the power to predict when things will happen for the last time . Explore the humorous and imaginative ways in which they navigate everyday life, from savoring last time moments like the last scoop of ice cream in the tub to the last raindrop before a storm.
• Imagine a world where the word “finish” holds the power to complete any task or goal instantly. Write a story about a protagonist who stumbles upon this word’s magical ability and the humorous and unexpected situations that unfold as they navigate life with the ultimate shortcut at their disposal.

(You can also download this prompts list as a printable pdf sheet and sign up to the Wordling’s weekly newsletter for more writing and publishing tips.)

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50 Creative Writing Prompts

Creative writing prompts introduction.

Below is a list of original, innovative creative writing prompts to help inspire stories, poems and all other forms of writing. The prompts are written by authors, for authors.

Whether you want to get rid of writers block or just want to find some new inspirational ideas, this list is designed to help.

At the bottom of the page, you will find links to other lists of creative writing prompts, meaning there are actually thousands for you to look through, not just the 50 listed on this page.

Many of the creative writing prompts and ideas on this page have been provided by other authors. Those prompts are credited to them, below the prompt title.

If you would like to suggest a creative writing prompt to be added to the page, please leave a comment at the bottom of this page, or contact me by email . Over time, the idea is to build this into a large resource. I think having a list of creative writing prompts from lots of different writers gives more variety / value to the reader.

I decided to create this resource after a conversation with my friend Pauly who is a teacher at Becket Primary School in the UK. Sorry, I should probably refer to him as Mr Davis for the sake of his teaching reputation, but he will always be Pauly to me 🙂

During the COVID-19 pandemic, he was looking for creative ideas to share with his class as part of their home learning. I shared some writing prompts that I'd originally written for  Daily Prompt  (a writing app) with him, and the  writing challenges  I run on my website.

I thought it would be useful to share the prompts with my website users and invite contributions to make the resource more useful to  Pauly  Mr Davis and everyone else. So that is why this page exists.

A List of Inspirational Creative Writing Prompts

4x4 challenge.

Creative writing prompt by Chris Fielden

Take the 4th book from your bookshelf.

Open it on page 4.

Find the 4th sentence on the page and start a story using its first 4 words.

Optional word limits:

• Flash fiction: 444 words
• Short Story: 4,444 words
• Longer stories (novellas / novels etc.): 44,444 words

The children of Becket Primary School have used the '4x4 challenge' writing prompt as a school competition. You can see the results and  read their stories here .

Creative writing prompt by Dave Langdale

• A – A holiday you went on
• B – An object in your bedroom
• C – An eccentric character in your life

A is the murder location. B is the murder weapon. C is your detective.

Acting On Impulse

Creative writing prompt by J. L. Harland

The estate agent's leaflet said it was 'an ideal first home'. Who is looking for a first home? Why are they likely to act on impulse when buying?

Write the estate agent's blurb and then a true description of the property using all your senses.

You now have your characters, motivation and setting.

Animal Encounter

Creative writing prompt by Sarah Doyle

Write a poem about an encounter that you have had with an animal (or animals), whether mammals, birds, insects, or fish.

Use sensory language to evoke the animal(s) in your poem – such as colour, smell, touch and texture, and sound. Think about small physical details – did the animal have eyelashes, what colour was the bird’s beak, was the insect shiny, was the fox’s fur sleek or rough, etc.?

If you didn’t get close enough to touch or smell the animal(s), imagine what that would have been like. How did the encounter make you feel, either about yourself or about humans in general? How do you think the animal(s) might have felt?

If you prefer, your poem can be about an imaginary encounter with an animal that you might or might not want to meet in real life.

After falling into a coma, you wake 1,000 years in the future. Someone has written a message on your arm in marker pen. It reads:

Find the Augury – she will help you.

Bad Hair Day

Creative writing prompt by Jude Higgins

Write down a memory of your worst haircut / style. And people's reaction to it. 10 mins, fast.

Now write a fiction where you give this haircut / style to a character of the opposite sex to you and twenty years older or younger. Make their life change drastically because of the change to their hair.

Creative writing prompt by Lesley Truchet

You have lived with your domineering mother for years, caring for her in her old age. She recently passed away, leaving you with mixed emotions and more time for yourself.

You have little experience with love, but you are about to go on a blind date.

Creative writing prompt by Mary Fielden

You wake in the night to see a figure standing in front to your bookcase at the foot of your bed.  Alarmed, you shout out and the figure shatters into fragments and transforms into the books on your shelf.

Who or what is the mysterious presence and what happens next?

Cast A Cloud

Creative writing prompt by Chris Deliso

Master character creation techniques by practicing on a random fictional character. Cast a cloud of the descriptors that immediately come to mind when thinking of a known character, then repeat the same method to a fictional character you are creating.

Example: Hercule Poirot

Cloud: precise, perturbed, quizzical; disparagingly, balding, cross.

Deep Sea Adventure

Creative writing prompt by Annette Taylor

A billionaire buys a personal submarine and hires your character/s for a secret mission.

A couple of years ago, you found a baby demon and decided to rear it.

Now it's fully grown, it's started causing you 'problems'.

Desert Island Disaster

Creative writing prompt by Mel Ciavucco

What would happen if you were stuck on a desert island with your family?

Consider making this a group exercise by asking all of your family to contribute ideas.

Did You Sleep Well?

You wake up after an afternoon nap and hear the question, "Did you sleep well?"

You live alone, so spin around quickly and see your pet, looking at you questioningly.

Different Perspectives

Creative writing prompt by Danny Shilling from Daily Prompt

Write a story from three different perspectives:

• An old person
• A family pet

Each new paragraph / stanza should change the perspective.

Creative writing prompt by Mark Rutterford

E is in trouble – you decide what kind of trouble.

The combined efforts of M and C save E. Tell that story on one page.

Every Picture...

Creative writing prompt by K. J. Watson

Look at a favourite painting. Create a story by considering:

• How did the people or things in the painting arrive where they are now?
• What are they going to do next?

If you need a painting to spark your imagination, Google the name of an artist such as Salvador Dali, René Magritte and Leonora Carrington. Their work is often fun, weird and inspirational.

Fantastical Correspondence

Write a letter to a mythical creature:

• Invent your own mythical creature to write to

First Lines

Creative writing prompt by Alex Anderson

Use one of the following lines to start a piece of creative writing and just go with the creative flow:

• I smiled and offered my hand...
• He looked so mean and hungry...
• "I see you," the dragon said...
• I wasn't expecting mail, but there it is...
• "My lord, how may I serve you?"...
• "Why me, I'm just an ordinary Joe..."
• "OK, the hole's dug, now what?"
• "Think. What's really wanted here?"...

Start typing a question into Google and see what suggestions come up. Use one of the suggestions to inspire a story. Here are a few example questions to get you started:

• Why does my...
• When did...
• Where was...
• Who made...

You can also add each letter of the alphabet to the question opening to get more ideas. For example:

• Why does my a...
• Why does my b...

The fact that these are the results most searched for on Google for questions starting 'why does' says a lot about the priorities of the human race and  also explains why we don't have enough scientists... needless to say, this prompt is likely to waste a lot of your time and make you laugh 🙂

He Said, She Said - Dialogue Only

Creative writing prompt by Penelope Hester

Write a short story in no more than 1,000 words using ONLY dialogue.

And NO speech tags, like 'he said menacingly'.  Make the dialogue indicate the characters attitudes. If time has to pass, find a way to do this with the conversation.

If The Cap Fits

Creative writing prompt by John Wheway

Find an unusual hat, or a hat substitute such as a waste paper basket, a pair of trousers, a lamb chop, something of that kind.

Write a 300 word story in the voice of a character who has always wanted to be seen in town wearing this item on his/her/their head.

I’m Not Eating That

You or your character develop a sudden dislike for a certain type of food and join a support group for adult picky eaters.

Your character has been unable to sleep for 2 days, leading them to make a terrible mistake.

Your favourite food isn't manufactured. It's either:

• Mined from the ground
• Flown in by owls
• Squeezed out of the clouds
• Something else...

You're in charge of production. Write about it.

Creative writing prompt by Mike Scott Thomson

Write a short story (as long as it needs to be) where a jigsaw puzzle is solved, but the final picture is not what was on the box. It could be a case of:

• A message from beyond the grave, scrawled across the picture, leading to a mystery which needs untangling
• A strange person (who is it?)
• A strange place (where is it?)
• The picture is almost the same, but featuring a ghostly apparition...
• Or your own idea!

Last Night, A DJ Saved My Writers’ Block

Creative writing prompt by Neil Renton

Take a note of the next three songs that you listen to, then use those songs for inspiration.

You can be inspired by the lyrics, the song titles or a feeling the music gives you. This can trigger ideas for characters, settings or dialogue. Then develop those ideas into scenes or short stories.

Consider using music streaming services and random shuffles to keep you on your writing toes.

Leap Day Penalty

In some parts of the world, a man is expected to pay a penalty if he refuses a marriage proposal from a woman on Leap Day.

Write a story about a man who receives a proposal on Leap Day from a woman he doesn't want to marry.

Creative writing prompt by John Holland

Write about an obsession. It can be anything at all, so long as it's out of control.

If you don't know enough about your chosen subject, research it and note down amusing, scary or inspiring things about it.

Don't just write about how it affects your main character. Also write about how it impacts others.

Olympic Gold

The Olympics includes a new sport. You're about to go for gold in... what?

• Dog walking?
• Synchronised texting?

Will all your training pay off?

One Word: Today

Creative writing prompt by Michael Rumsey

Your story starts with one word: Today.

But what happened today?

• Today at work, I...
• Today, for the first time ever...
• Today, my mother rang to say...
• Today, something unusual...

A crew cleans out the garage of a deceased loner and discover a stash of:

• something else...

Property Purge

Write an advert to sell an unusual property:

• A lair located in an extinct volcano
• A museum, filled with historical artefacts
• A space station

Reach For The Stars

Creative writing prompt by Allen Ashley

Imagine that you are running a futuristic travel agency and are drumming up some business. Where can you take your clients? What delights might you offer?

Here are some examples or starters:

• Ever wanted to surf the rings of Saturn or stare Jupiter right in its red spot? Solar Tours has special offers on all flights right now…
• Aldebaran, Sirius and Proxima Centauri are all much closer than you think. Contact Wormhole Travel for further details…
• Like drawing in the dust? Think you’re the Space Picasso? Join us for the Sea of Tranquillity Lunar Art Festival this May…

Now sell me your own space holiday!

Reverse Chronology

Write a story backwards. Start with the final paragraph and work your way towards the beginning, by going back in time with each paragraph you write.

Script By Six

Below you will find 3 different options of varying difficulty, all regarding the number 6.

• (Easy)  Write a story in 6 short chapters
• (Hard)  Each chapter should contain 6 paragraphs comprising 6 sentences
• (Difficult)  Each sentence should be 6 words long

Secret Santa

Someone has left a large package on your doorstep. You open it and find...

Sense Outside

Creative writing prompt by Mark Fielden

You're told to stay indoors during a pandemic. That means there's no one around; few vehicles to pollute with noise and fumes, so you can see, hear and smell a lot more.

Go into your garden, onto your balcony; stand in your doorway or by an open window.

• What can you hear?
• What can you smell?
• What can you see?

Look up, look down, look from side to side.

Let your senses absorb our quieter world.

• What's that rustling over there?
• What's that creature high in the sky?
• What's that scent on the breeze?
• What is it doing?
• Where is it going?
• Why is it there?

Sounds Like Greek To Me

Your main character recovers from a head injury and is diagnosed with Foreign Accent Syndrome.

Spitting Image

Write about an art lover who visits a museum and becomes fascinated by a portrait of an Italian noble they resemble.

Superpowers

You wake up to find you have a superpower.

At first it seems useless, but as the day progresses, you realise its potential.

Tantalising Tune Titles

Creative writing prompt by Ville Nummenpää

Pick a song title and write a story based on it. Never mind the lyrics, let the title fuel your imagination.

So much to choose from... here are a few ideas to start you off:

• 'Crazy Horses'
• 'Dirty Deeds, Done Dirt Cheap'
• 'Hot Stuff'
• 'I Can't Get No Satisfaction'
• 'Killed By Death'
• 'No Woman, No Cry'
• 'Seek And Destroy'
• 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'
• 'Take Me Home, Country Roads'
• 'Tiger Feet'
• 'Who Let The Dogs Out'

Teashop Trio

Creative writing prompt by Sue Johnson

Choose a character from three different fairytales or nursery rhymes.

Have them meet for afternoon tea:

• What do they order?
• Why are they meeting?
• What happens next?

Think Outside The Box... By Thinking What's In The Box

Creative writing prompt by Lynda Nash

Susie receives a parcel. Write a list of 20 possible things that could be inside it.

Don't be afraid to be absurd. Read through your list and discard all the 'normal' or clichéd suggestions, leaving the more unusual items. Choose one.

Now consider these questions:

• Did Susie expect this parcel or was it a surprise?
• What is her reaction to the item inside?
• What will Suzie do next?
• Susie can be anyone you want her/him to be and any age
• What if two different people got the same parcel... would their reactions be the same?

Unbelievable Statements

Creative writing prompt by A.H. Creed

There is no such thing as colour (as unbelievable as it seems, this is true).

Create your own unbelievable statement. Then create a character who believes it or a world in which it could be true.

What if things were different and not as we expect them to be?

Take something normal from everyday life and apply some 'what if' imagination to it.

For example, what if...

• all the colours of the rainbow changed
• dogs could talk
• Santa Claus over slept
• snow was warm
• the chicken did not cross the road
• time reversed itself
• two plus two did not equal four
• we could see atoms
• we did not have to sleep
• you could make a phone call to your favourite fictional character
• you could visit anywhere in the universe
• you were appointed head teacher of your local school for one day only
• you were gifted with ESP

Where Did It Go?

Write a complaint to your local town council because a local landmark has disappeared.

Wish You Were Here

Creative writing prompt by Steph Minns

Do a search for images of postcards on the internet.

Look for postcards with people on them. Use one of these people to inspire a character who goes on an adventure.

Look for postcards of places. Set a story in this location.

You’ve Always Been Here

You're interviewing for a new job. Walking into the boardroom, you're greeted by the manager.

You mention how nice it is to be there and the manager looks at you with a puzzled expression. 'What do you mean?' they say. 'You've always been here.'

You’ve Been Sentenced to 100

Write a story that comprises 1 sentence that is exactly 100 words in length.

ZY Challenge

Write about a character whose names ends in 'zy'. It could be their real name, or not:

• Izzy could be a nickname
• Stormzy could be a pen name
• Wheezy could be a stage name

How did your character get this name? What is its significance on their life?

Other Lists of Writing Prompts

Below you will find details of other websites that provide lists of inspirational creative writing prompts:

• Daily Prompt is an app that, as you probably guessed from the name, sends you a new creative writing prompt every day - users also have access to every prompt that has been posted in the app since day 1, so hundreds of them
• Reedsy supply a list of thousands of creative writing prompts
• The Self-Publishing School  supply a list of over 400 creative writing prompts
• Think Written supply a list of over 365 creative writing prompts; one for each day of the year

Suggest Creative Writing Prompts

Do you have any creative writing prompts that you think might inspire other writers? If so, please contact me or fill in the comment form below.

Please be sure to include:

• A title for your prompt
• The prompt itself (concise prompts preferred please)

If your prompt is published as part of the list above, you will be credited for thinking it up 🙂

No more than 5 creative writing prompts per author please. This is just to help keep the ideas shared on this page as varied as possible.

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70 Creative Writing Prompts to Inspire You to Write

by Tom Corson-Knowles | 11 comments

Writing prompts are a useful tool and resource for any writer, from beginners to published authors. A good prompt can give you the inspiration you need to craft a paragraph, a book, or an entire series.

You can also use them just for writing practice and to get your creative juices flowing. See where these ideas take you.

Fantasy Writing Prompts

• In your character’s world, only strong magic–users are allowed to survive past their 13th birthday. Your character has no magical ability—but even at 11 years old, they’ve discovered a way to fake it.
• Your character is granted one day in the land of the dead to retrieve their deceased beloved, only to discover that their one true love faked death to escape marriage.
• A mysterious statue appears in the forest that makes perfect duplicates of any human being that touches it. Your character is one such duplicate—and your “sponsor-body” is wanted for murder.
• Your character is a witch-hunter, tasked to track down and slay a powerful target—who is currently pregnant with your character’s child.
• A monster emerges from the forest and forces your character to care for its newborn offspring, which begins to look more human the longer your character cares for it.
• Your character is one of a species of sea creatures that inhabit the very deepest part of the ocean. This species has created an advanced civilization—and they’re getting ready to break the surface and take their rightful place as Earth’s rulers, with your character at the helm.
• Your character discovers that a certain mythical being is real—and they’re about to go extinct.
• Your character falls in love with a magical being. To keep their love alive, your character has to fight not only their family, but their entire race.

Historical Fiction Writing Prompts

• Your character is the daughter of a poor clergyman in mid-19th-century England. Without a dowry, she has little chance for marriage. Without a husband, she’s doomed to a spinster’s life as a governess or servant. In 1854 she joins Florence Nightingale’s group of female nurses bound for the Crimean Peninsula, where she discovers that the hell of war extends into the hospital at Scutari.
• Your character is an artisan in 12th-century Ireland at Clonmacnoise, a monastery that anchored a wealthy community of art, learning, and craftsmanship on the Shannon River. Medieval life is good in this beautiful town … until the Vikings arrive.
• England, 1776: A young astronomer has receives the job of a lifetime: traveling with the famous Captain Cook on his voyage to discover the fabled Northwest Passage. After the rigorous journey takes the crew from Tahiti to Siberia, damage to the ship’s mast forces a stop for repairs in Hawaii. Turns out the natives aren’t as friendly as they thought.
• Your character is one of the hundreds of thousands of craftsman tasked with creating the terracotta army in ancient China. He molds each soldier’s face after someone he knows: his father, his grandfather, a friend from his village, etc., and thinks about their lives and legacies as he works.
• Research the history of your own city or town. Imagine you lived there 50, 100, or even 200 years ago. What would your life have been like?

Horror/Thriller Writing Prompts

• Your character has a stalker with the ability to stop time. The stalker uses this ability to manipulate your character—and their efforts are escalating.
• Your character’s lover died in a horrible accident—but one day they simply return, and nobody but your character remembers that they died.
• Your character and their college friends attend their first off-campus party, and discover too late that the fraternity throwing the bash is a cult—and very serious about the concept of brotherhood.
• Your character is marooned on a tiny desert island. One morning, an idol appears outside their shelter’s front door. It’s stone—except for the real human head on top.
• Your character’s family moves into a new house with an in-ground pool that the previous owners paved over. At night, your character can hear something screaming beneath the concrete—something that isn’t human.
• Your character’s neighbor is an older man who mostly keeps to himself; your character often sees him taking walks or puttering around his garden. But when your character knocks on the old man’s door to invite him to a block party, things take a turn for the sinister.
• Your character is a mobile phone. The phone has just been purchased by a woman who turns out to be a criminal mastermind.
• Your character is a regular office clerk who just discovered that your company is brainwashing its employees. The goal of the company is menacing.
• Your character is on their way to work when they get stuck in a massive traffic jam. Suddenly, in the distance, there is a huge explosion.
• Your character is a serial killer, confessing to his crimes.
• Your character is at a Halloween party at a bar. Everyone is in costume when a man suddenly drops dead.
• Your character is out for a jog early in the morning, trips, and loses consciousness. When they wake up, they are in a morgue surrounded by dead and dissected bodies.

Mystery Writing Prompts

• A powerful pharmaceutical company recently released a new drug to market that dampens the arousal response in human beings. Your character is a private detective brought in to solve an unusual murder. The weapon? A lethal dose of this new drug, which was previously thought to be harmless.
• Your character’s child has been bringing home peculiar drawings from school for the past two weeks. Your character thinks nothing of it, until they realize that each drawing corresponds to one in a series of brutal murders that have plagued their tiny town.
• A marine zoologist is vacationing on a beach in a foreign country when they read about a local political figure who was killed in a shark attack. But from the photos, your character realizes that no shark made those puncture marks on the victim’s stomach—and that the accident may have, in fact, been murder most foul.
• A young police detective must find the kidnapped daughter of a powerful city planner. The hitch? She was at a Star Trek convention when she was kidnapped, and the only description of the culprit is that he “looked like Mr. Spock.”
• After taking a DNA test, your character discovers that their genetic material was altered in the womb. But your character was adopted, and has no records of who their birth parents are, or where they were born.
• Your character has been happily married to their partner for 25 years. But one day, a mysterious stranger shows up claiming to be your partner’s spouse and demanding to know what your character is doing in this stranger’s home.
• Your character is a retired military officer who is ready to leave his past behind him. One day, you accidentally walk in on a bank robbery in progress—and these aren’t ordinary criminals.
• Your character finds out that their deceased twin had multiple passports IDs with different names and faces. To find out more, your character must assume these identities in his place.
• Your character, an important New York businessperson, wakes up naked and alone in a strange, foreign land, with no recollection of how you got there. The native people take you in, but you don’t speak their language and know nothing about the culture. You must learn to communicate in order to get home.

Romance Writing Prompts

• After moving into a new house, your character begins to receive love letters addressed to the previous occupant. The letters have no return address, but they are so beautifully written that your character begins to fall in love with the writer, despite never having met the author.
• Your character is the first person in history to fall in love. They cannot describe the feeling to anybody else, especially not the person for whom they’ve fallen head over heels.
• Your characters have been married for over 700 years; when they die, they are reincarnated with all their memories, and simply find each other again.
• When your character’s country loses a long war, your character is tasked with negotiating the surrender. The person across the table holds the fate of both countries in their hands … and they’re pretty darn cute, too.
• Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. The catch? Their parents are engaged to be married!
• Your character is a teenager who writes short, fictional romance stories and posts them to a blog that they believe no one reads. One day, a fan starts responding to the stories, and your character connects with the fan on many levels, creating their own idealized, fictional romance story online. Now, they must decide whether they’re willing to let go of their “perfect” love story to meet the real (and inevitably, imperfect) person on the other side of the screen.
• Your character was born deaf and your character’s spouse was just involved in an accident that made them blind. After being together for six years, they must re-learn how to navigate the world together.
• Your character has a mental condition that landed them in a rehab facility. There, your character meets a recovering addict, and they connect instantly and begin to find healing in each other.
• Your character dreams of a person they’ve never met and wakes up convinced it is their true love.
• Your character shows up for an interview for their dream job, and discovers that their could-be boss is also their ex.

Science Fiction Writing Prompts

• Your character wakes up on a slab in a high-tech medical facility, hooked up to strange machines and occupying a body you don’t recognize. Before the doctors arrive, you hear a voice in your head: it’s your new body’s original owner, and they want it back.
• The aliens that land in your backyard strike a deal with your character: Murder one innocent person on the planet, and they will spare the earth. Refuse, or reveal the aliens’ existence to the world, and the planet is doomed.
• Your character is captain of a long-distance spaceship taking thousands of Earthling colonists to a new planet. One day, completely by accident, you discover what this spaceship uses for fuel, and are faced with a terrible moral dilemma of how to handle this information.
• Your main character is the warden of a virtual-reality prison. One day, a notorious murderer attempts to orchestrate a “breakout.”
• Your character is a child whose stuffed toy comes equipped with a nanny-cam and primitive AI. One day, the toy decides to take your character’s safety into its own mitten-like hands.
• Your character is an average college student. Somehow, your character discovers that everything they’re doing—every movement they make and every word they say, even in private—is being tracked and recorded. Now they must figure out who is recording and why—without the recorder knowing what they’re doing.
• Your character washes up on a remote island that has never been visited by an outsider before. Turns out, there’s a whole civilization there—but these “people” have been isolated for so long, they’ve evolved differently than people in the rest of the world.
• Your character is a troubled teenager who discovers that he has the power to see people’s futures by touching them. When you accidentally bump into a man on the subway, you see the man piloting a spaceship—and it’s moving towards your city. Now, you must find the man—and convince everyone else that the danger is real.

Comedy Writing Prompts

• Over Christmas, your character’s parents decide to take the family to the Caribbean. The first day there, both of your parents get sunburned and decide to spend the rest of the vacation indoors, leaving you and your little brother to your own devices.
• Your character is a reality TV judge, but not one of the judges that appears on TV—you’re one of the judges that decides which contestants even get to be on TV. After being subjected to a string of terrible singers, your character finally discovers someone great, and finds themselves strangely invested in the success of this contestant.
• Your character is a superfan of a popular musician. They wait in line to get front row seats to every show, spend outrageous amounts of money on paraphernalia on eBay, and have plastered nearly every wall of their apartment with posters and ticket stubs. One day, your character finally gets a chance to meet the musician—and he’s not what anyone expected.
• Your character is a schoolteacher who is watching two kids argue over a toy in the sandbox when suddenly, an alien creature rises out of the sand. The students decide to make it the class pet.
• Your character’s life is extremely mundane, until a stray dog starts showing up on their front porch every day.

Memoir/Nonfiction Writing Prompts

• Describe a time when you wanted to experience a spiritual moment or looked for spiritual guidance. Why were you in this situation? What were you hoping to get from it?
• Tell the story of your life in inverted chronological order.
• What was the happiest moment of your life? What made it the happiest?
• Write about an addiction. Include as much detail as possible, including how it started and your journey to overcoming it.
• Write about an experience that made you feel ashamed or guilty. How did it impact you? What have you done to move on?
• Think about the ways in which you’ve changed over the years. Can you identify any turning points? Be specific and describe those moments.
• Write about a job or career move that changed your life.
• Write about how you met your current partner or spouse. Do you think it was fate? What events led to you two meeting?
• Write about a person who has had a profound impact on your life—either positive or negative. How have you changed because of them? What have they done to cause your life to change?
• Write a biography of someone in your family who immigrated from one country to another.
• Create a cookbook in which every recipe is tied to a specific person or moment in your life.
• Describe something you’ve done that you’re proud of. How did you get to that moment? How can others learn from your experience?
• Tell the story of how the seed of faith was planted in your life. When did your spiritual journey began, who influenced and guided you in discovering your faith, and at what point did you realize you needed to change your life?
• Write about a memory of your favorite pet. What can animals teach us about ourselves?
• Think about a time when you learned a new skill. What made you want to learn it? Who did you learn from? How did you practice? How did you improve?

Creative Writing Prompts Can Boost Your Writing Skills

Using writing prompts can boost your creativity and improve your writing skills in a number of ways by:

• Helping to overcome writer’s block
• Exercising your imagination
• Increasing your rate of practice
• Teaching you more about yourself

If you’re still not sure using a writing prompt would be good for you, that’s great! If you feel you are against using writing prompts, then you have reason enough to explore it.

As they say, the opposite of love is not hate—it’s apathy. Strong feelings mean strong opinions and emotions, and writing with strong emotions can be incredibly productive and healing.

Did you find this post helpful? Let us know in the comments below!

If you liked this post, you might also like:

72 Journal Prompts to Boost Your Creative Writing Skills

Writing Motivation: 7 Tips for Staying Productive

46 Apps and Sites to Improve Your Writing Skills

75 Quotes About Writing for When You Feel Like Putting the Pen Down

Tom Corson-Knowles is the founder of TCK Publishing, and the bestselling author of 27 books including Secrets of the Six-Figure author. He is also the host of the Publishing Profits Podcast show where we interview successful authors and publishing industry experts to share their tips for creating a successful writing career.

11 Comments

Nice prompts! Can you do more on fantasy?

I love this. So helpful

thanks, so glad you found the prompts helpful! :)

Is there a way I can like this blog? I wish it was on Playstore so I could a rate it a 5. Good work, people.

Thank you, Mercy! We’re happy to have you here :)

Thank you for these. I will use some of them for my writing group.

You’re very welcome, we’re glad you liked them! :)

It is very useful for me as a beginner writer. Thankyou for your hard work.

we’re so glad you found these prompts helpful! :)

A useful tool for beginning and continuing writers. Thank you for the endeavor.

Glad you found the prompts helpful, Bernard! :) Let us know how they work for you!

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500 Creative Writing Prompts to Spark Your Imagination

• 22 October, 2024

Writing involves balancing creativity and discipline. Whether you’re a new writer or an experienced author, everyone faces the challenge of staring at a blank page and struggling to find the right words. In these moments, creative writing prompts can be incredibly helpful. They offer structured inspiration to break through creative blocks, explore new ideas, and try different genres. This collection of creative writing prompts is designed to stimulate your creativity and help you engage more deeply with the writing process.

What Are Writing Prompts?

Writing prompts are short, thought-provoking ideas or scenarios designed to inspire creativity. They help writers overcome creative blocks, generate fresh ideas, and explore new genres or styles. Whether you’re an experienced author or just starting out, prompts can provide that essential spark to get your writing flowing.

Writer’s block can strike anyone—whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been writing for years. We’ve all been there: staring at a blank page, waiting for the words to come. In those moments, writing prompts can be a lifesaver, sparking your creativity and helping you get back into the flow.

Find the Perfect Prompt for Your Needs

Whether you’re searching for fiction prompts, fun writing exercises, or a bit of inspiration to kickstart your next book, this collection of writing prompts has something for everyone. No matter what kind of project you’re working on, there’s a prompt here to help get those ideas flowing.

100 Creative Writing Prompts to Get You Started

Here are 500 more writing prompts to fuel your creativity:

• Write about a character who gains the ability to travel through mirrors.
• Imagine a world where everyone’s dreams are projected in the sky at night.
• Your protagonist discovers a hidden underground city beneath their town.
• Write a story where the main character must live without one of their senses for a year.
• A character wakes up with the ability to see the true intentions of everyone they meet.
• Imagine you receive a mysterious package with a note saying, “Do not open until the world ends.” What do you do?
• Your character finds a door that only opens when they tell a secret.
• Write about a town where every citizen has a predetermined role in a grand play.
• A character discovers they can control shadows, but they come with a cost.
• Imagine a world where laughter is the most powerful form of energy.
• Your protagonist must solve a riddle that has stumped their family for generations.
• Write about a character who realizes they can communicate with their future self through dreams.
• A child discovers a magic tree that grants one wish each year.
• Your protagonist is transported to a world where everything is a different color.
• Write a story about a character who has never seen their reflection.
• A character must navigate a city where all the buildings have rearranged themselves overnight.
• Imagine your protagonist wakes up to find they can speak to insects.
• Write about a world where everyone’s thoughts are visible in small, floating text bubbles.
• Your character receives a message from someone they thought was dead.
• A character has to solve a mystery involving an enchanted clock that turns back time.
• Write about someone who finds a way to remove all bad memories—but it comes with consequences.
• Imagine a character whose shadow takes on a life of its own.
• Your protagonist must make a choice: save the world or save one person they love.
• A character learns that every decision they make affects someone in another world.
• Write a story where a character must take care of a dragon egg until it hatches.
• Imagine a city where everyone has an assigned number that determines their future.
• Your protagonist receives a letter that begins with, “I know what you did…”
• A character finds a portal that leads them into famous works of art.
• Write about a character who can see people’s happiest memories just by touching them.
• Your protagonist wakes up one morning in someone else’s body—and their own body is missing.
• Imagine a world where everyone is given a magical pet, but only one person’s pet has a secret.
• Write about a character who can read a person’s true name by looking into their eyes.
• A character finds a locked chest in their attic that contains an unusual object.
• Imagine a world where people communicate only through music.
• Your protagonist must find a way to break a curse that’s been on their family for centuries.
• Write about a character who wakes up with a barcode tattooed on their arm.
• A character discovers that their new neighbor is not human.
• Imagine a festival where people exchange their most valuable memories.
• Write about a character who realizes they can remember their past lives.
• Your protagonist is given the power to change one event in history. What do they change?
• A character receives a series of mysterious postcards from an unknown sender.
• Write a story where two characters find themselves in an endless maze.
• Imagine a world where books are illegal, but your protagonist finds a hidden library.
• A character has a recurring dream about a place they’ve never been—until they find it.
• Write about a character who is chosen to be the protector of an ancient relic.
• Your protagonist finds a way to slow down time, but they age while the world doesn’t.
• Imagine a town where every house is haunted, but in a different way.
• Write about a character who wakes up to find everyone else in the world is gone.
• A character must find the key to unlock a door that doesn’t exist.
• Imagine a world where no one ages after turning 18, but your protagonist starts to age.
• Write about a character who learns they can erase people’s memories.
• A character stumbles upon an ancient creature living in their basement.
• Your protagonist discovers a plant that blooms only when someone lies.
• Imagine a character who can bring objects to life by drawing them.
• Write a story about a character who is trapped in a painting.
• Your protagonist must protect a secret portal hidden in plain sight.
• A character wakes up in the body of a different species.
• Write about a character who receives an anonymous invitation to an adventure.
• Imagine a world where everyone has a soulmate mark that glows when they meet.
• A character finds a way to visit their ancestors in the past.
• Your protagonist must navigate a world where all the animals have suddenly disappeared.
• Write about a character who discovers an ancient prophecy about themselves.
• Imagine a city where everyone has forgotten how to speak, but your protagonist remembers.
• A character finds an old notebook that makes everything they write come true.
• Write about a character who can see into parallel universes.
• Your protagonist meets a creature that can answer any question—but at a cost.
• Imagine a world where people are born with an expiration date.
• Write about a character who must find a lost artifact to save their loved one.
• A character wakes up to find they have the ability to fly.
• Your protagonist must solve the mystery of a disappearing town.
• Imagine a world where people only dream when they’re awake.
• Write about a character who discovers a hidden talent that could change the world.
• A character receives a message in a bottle from another dimension.
• Your protagonist wakes up with the power to control fire.
• Imagine a society where everyone has a twin born in a different time.
• Write about a character who discovers an old shipwreck and the secrets it holds.
• A character finds a door that only opens once every hundred years.
• Your protagonist must navigate a world where technology no longer works.
• Imagine a character who wakes up with the ability to see into the future.
• Write about a character who is the last of their kind.
• Your protagonist must solve a riddle to escape a magical trap.
• A character discovers they can communicate with animals—but only one kind.
• Write about a character who has to find a way to reverse an accidental curse.
• Imagine a city where people can barter with memories instead of money.
• Your protagonist must solve the mystery of a lighthouse that never stops shining.
• Write about a character who finds a book that tells their future.
• A character discovers they can speak with someone from the past through their dreams.
• Your protagonist must navigate a maze where each wrong turn changes reality.
• Imagine a world where people only speak in riddles.
• Write about a character who finds an abandoned spaceship.
• Your protagonist must work with an enemy to achieve a common goal.
• A character finds an old watch that can control time—but it’s broken.
• Write about a character who wakes up to find they are invisible.
• Imagine a world where everyone knows the exact day they will die.
• Your protagonist must solve a mystery involving a magical mask.
• A character discovers a hidden door in their school that leads to another world.
• Write about a character who must find a way to lift a magical fog.
• Imagine a character who receives letters from the future.
• Your protagonist is hired to guard a priceless treasure that everyone wants.
• Write about a character who can hear the thoughts of animals.
• A character wakes up in a parallel universe where they never made a crucial life choice.
• Write about a character who can talk to machines, but only when no one else is around.
• Imagine a world where all colors suddenly disappear, and your protagonist must bring them back.
• Your protagonist discovers a hidden book that reveals secrets about everyone in their town.
• Write about a character who finds out their best friend is a time traveler.
• A character receives a strange key that unlocks a door they’ve never seen before.
• Imagine a city where everyone forgets their past every night.
• Write about a character who can transform into any animal, but only at night.
• Your protagonist is chosen to guard a powerful artifact that grants wishes.
• A character finds a mysterious compass that points to their greatest desire.
• Write about a character who is given the chance to rewrite their biggest mistake.
• Imagine a society where people must share one secret each year to stay alive.
• Your protagonist must solve a series of puzzles to rescue someone they love.
• Write about a character who can see people’s fears and use them to help others.
• A character finds a door that leads to a different version of their life.
• Imagine a world where everyone has a unique superpower, but they lose it on their 30th birthday.
• Write about a character who must protect a magical creature that only they can see.
• Your protagonist wakes up to find that time moves in reverse.
• A character discovers a hidden world within their favorite book.
• Imagine a town where people receive a vision of their future every year on their birthday.
• Write about a character who finds a mysterious coin that changes their fate.
• Your protagonist must navigate a labyrinth that shifts every hour.
• A character wakes up with the ability to see invisible creatures living among humans.
• Imagine a world where emotions are currency, and your protagonist is broke.
• Write about a character who discovers they are the guardian of a powerful secret.
• Your protagonist finds an enchanted item that grants them one wish per day.
• A character is given a map that shows every decision they will ever make.
• Imagine a society where everyone’s name determines their future occupation.
• Write about a character who wakes up with the ability to turn invisible—but only when it rains.
• Your protagonist must protect a child with mysterious powers.
• A character discovers a secret passageway that leads to another world beneath their home.
• Imagine a town where everyone’s shadow has a mind of its own.
• Write about a character who finds a crystal that can store memories.
• Your protagonist must work with a rival to complete a dangerous mission.
• A character wakes up in a city where no one knows their name.
• Imagine a world where people live in floating cities, but your protagonist wants to explore the ground.
• Write about a character who can control the wind with their voice.
• Your protagonist must solve a mystery involving a magical mirror.
• A character finds themselves in a dream they can’t wake up from.
• Imagine a world where people can communicate through their dreams.
• Write about a character who is given the ability to see people’s true intentions.
• Your protagonist finds a way to enter the dreams of others.
• A character must protect a magical library that holds all the world’s knowledge.
• Imagine a city where everyone is connected through a shared consciousness.
• Write about a character who can bring statues to life.
• Your protagonist must navigate a world where people’s thoughts are broadcasted.
• A character discovers they can breathe underwater but only for an hour at a time.
• Imagine a world where time freezes every night at midnight for one hour.
• Write about a character who is the only one who remembers a vanished city.
• Your protagonist is given the power to make one person forget everything about them.
• A character wakes up in a different version of their life, where all their choices were the opposite.
• Imagine a society where people must wear masks that show their emotions.
• Write about a character who discovers they can speak a language no one else knows.
• Your protagonist must find a way to restore a broken magical artifact.
• A character discovers that they can manipulate the colors of the world around them.
• Imagine a world where everyone receives a new name every year.
• Write about a character who can step into photographs.
• Your protagonist must solve the mystery of a ghost ship that appears only once every century.
• A character finds a flower that blooms only in the presence of magic.
• Imagine a city where everyone’s deepest secret is tattooed on their skin.
• Write about a character who must protect an enchanted forest from destruction.
• Your protagonist wakes up with the ability to control ice.
• A character finds a door that leads to a different version of their town.
• Imagine a world where people must trade their memories for magical powers.
• Write about a character who receives a message from their future self.
• Your protagonist must solve a riddle involving a magical fountain.
• A character wakes up in a world where everyone has forgotten how to read.
• Imagine a city where people can fly, but only at night.
• Write about a character who discovers a hidden network of secret tunnels beneath their city.
• Your protagonist must find a way to lift a curse that makes people disappear.
• A character finds a book that changes its story every time they open it.
• Imagine a world where everyone’s dreams come true for one day each year.
• Write about a character who is given the power to speak with ghosts.
• Your protagonist must navigate a world where technology has stopped working.
• A character discovers they can see the future in the reflections of water.
• Imagine a city where everyone’s shadow is a different color.
• Write about a character who must protect a magical artifact from falling into the wrong hands.
• Your protagonist wakes up with the ability to control the elements.
• A character finds a portal that leads to a world made entirely of glass.
• Imagine a society where people must give up one memory to gain one wish.
• Write about a character who discovers they are part of an ancient prophecy.
• Your protagonist must solve the mystery of a missing magical creature.
• A character wakes up to find that they are invisible to everyone but one person.
• Imagine a world where people can only see in black and white, but your protagonist sees in color.
• Write about a character who discovers a hidden garden that grants wishes.
• Your protagonist must protect a child who is the key to saving the world.
• A character finds a map that leads to a lost city.
• Imagine a town where everyone is born with a unique magical ability.
• Write about a character who can communicate with their past self.
• Your protagonist must solve a riddle that holds the key to their family’s past.
• A character wakes up with the ability to teleport, but only to one specific place.
• Imagine a world where people must earn their right to have dreams.
• Write about a character who discovers they can control the weather.
• Your protagonist must navigate a world where everyone is connected through a magical network.
• A character finds a crystal that allows them to see people’s true forms.
• Imagine a city where everyone’s memories are stored in a central archive.
• Write about a character who must protect a secret that could change the world.
• Your protagonist wakes up with the ability to speak with animals.
• A character finds a hidden door that leads to a different version of their home.
• Imagine a world where people can barter with years of their life.
• Write about a character who discovers they can bring their favorite fictional character to life.
• Your protagonist must solve a mystery involving a magical ring.
• A character wakes up in a world where everyone has forgotten their name.
• Imagine a city where people must wear different colors to represent their emotions.
• Write about a character who can see the future in their dreams.
• Your protagonist must navigate a world where everyone’s secrets are written on their skin.
• A character finds a door that leads to a world where time moves differently.
• Imagine a world where people can only speak the truth, but your protagonist knows how to lie.
• Write about a character who must protect a powerful secret from being discovered.
• Your protagonist wakes up with the ability to control plants.
• A character finds a book that tells the story of their life—but it ends suddenly.
• Imagine a town where everyone’s past lives are revealed on their 18th birthday.
• Write about a character who can see the future in the stars.
• Your protagonist must solve the mystery of a disappearing forest.
• A character wakes up with the ability to change their appearance at will.
• Imagine a world where people can only remember one day at a time.
• Write about a character who finds a portal that leads to a world made of shadows.
• Your protagonist must protect a magical creature that can grant wishes.
• A character finds a map that leads to a hidden treasure.
• Imagine a city where people must wear masks to hide their true emotions.
• Write about a character who can see the future by touching objects.
• Your protagonist must navigate a world where everyone’s thoughts are broadcasted.
• A character finds a door that leads to a world where everything is upside down.
• Imagine a world where people can only communicate through their dreams.
• Write about a character who discovers they can control the tides.
• Your protagonist must solve a mystery involving a magical crystal.
• A character wakes up with the ability to see people’s dreams.
• Imagine a town where everyone’s secrets are stored in a central archive.
• Write about a character who must protect a hidden magical garden.
• Your protagonist finds a map that leads to a forgotten kingdom.
• A character discovers they can speak to animals—but only one kind.
• Imagine a world where people can only dream once in their lifetime.
• Write about a character who can see people’s emotions as colors.
• Your protagonist must solve a riddle involving a magical artifact.
• A character wakes up with the ability to teleport to one specific place.
• Imagine a city where everyone’s dreams come true for one day each year.
• Write about a character who discovers they can control the wind.
• Your protagonist must navigate a world where people’s thoughts are visible.
• Imagine a world where people can only speak in riddles.
• Write about a character who must protect a powerful artifact from falling into the wrong hands.
• Your protagonist wakes up with the ability to control fire.
• A character finds a hidden door that leads to a different version of their city.
• Imagine a town where everyone’s secrets are written on their skin.
• Write about a character who can see the future in the reflections of water.
• Imagine a city where everyone’s shadow has a mind of its own.
• Write about a character who must navigate a maze that shifts every hour.
• Your protagonist finds a hidden book that reveals secrets about their past.
• A character wakes up in a world where everyone has forgotten how to speak.
• Imagine a world where people can only dream when they’re awake.
• A character wakes up with the ability to see people’s true intentions.
• Imagine a town where people’s shadows take on a life of their own.
• Write about a character who must solve a mystery involving a magical fountain.
• Your protagonist finds a way to bring objects to life by drawing them.
• A character discovers a secret passageway that leads to another world.
• Write about a character who can see people’s fears as shadows.
• Your protagonist must protect a magical library that holds all the world’s knowledge.
• A character wakes up with the ability to control ice.
• Imagine a world where people can only speak in songs.
• Write about a character who finds a map that leads to a hidden city.
• Imagine a city where people must wear masks that show their emotions.
• Write about a character who wakes up to find they are the ruler of a forgotten kingdom.
• Imagine a world where people can travel through mirrors.
• Your protagonist finds a hidden village where time stands still.
• Write about a character who must solve a puzzle to unlock a magical door.
• A character discovers they can enter the paintings in a museum.
• Imagine a world where everyone’s name changes based on their actions.
• Your protagonist must navigate a world where everyone speaks in reverse.
• Write about a character who can see ghosts but only in reflections.
• A character finds a clock that can stop time for a few seconds.
• Imagine a town where everyone has a guardian spirit that guides them.
• Your protagonist must find a way to break a spell that has frozen an entire village.
• Write about a character who can hear the whispers of the wind.
• A character wakes up with the ability to transform into an animal of their choice.
• Imagine a world where everyone has wings, but they can only fly once.
• Your protagonist discovers a magical mask that changes their identity.
• Write about a character who must protect a mysterious stranger with a dark secret.
• A character finds a key that opens a door to a different dimension.
• Imagine a society where people are judged by the color of their aura.
• Your protagonist must solve a riddle to unlock the secrets of an enchanted book.
• Write about a character who can turn back time for a minute to change small decisions.
• A character wakes up in a world where they have no reflection.
• Imagine a town where everyone’s dreams are shared in a communal pool.
• Your protagonist must protect a powerful crystal that can change the future.
• Write about a character who can hear people’s thoughts when it rains.
• A character finds a door that leads to a place where all lost things go.
• Imagine a world where people can only remember their lives in pieces.
• Your protagonist wakes up in a place where they must prove their worth to stay.
• Write about a character who finds a magical pen that brings anything they write to life.
• A character discovers that their pet can speak, but only in riddles.
• Imagine a world where people must pay for their dreams with time from their life.
• Your protagonist must solve a mystery involving an enchanted piece of jewelry.
• Write about a character who wakes up in a world without colors.
• A character finds a map that shows the location of a forgotten treasure.
• Imagine a city where every street changes its location each night.
• Your protagonist must protect a magical artifact that keeps their village safe.
• Write about a character who discovers a door that leads to their happiest memory.
• A character wakes up to find they are invisible to everyone they know.
• Imagine a world where everyone is born with a piece of a puzzle that must be completed.
• Your protagonist finds a way to navigate a labyrinth that changes every hour.
• Write about a character who can bring their favorite character from a book to life.
• A character finds a mysterious letter from their future self.
• Imagine a society where everyone’s dreams are connected.
• Your protagonist must solve a mystery involving a magical mirror that shows the truth.
• Write about a character who wakes up in a place they only saw in their dreams.
• A character finds an enchanted forest where time passes differently.
• Imagine a world where people must trade memories to cross into new lands.
• Your protagonist must protect a secret garden that holds the key to their future.
• Write about a character who discovers they can control their reflection.
• A character finds a door that only opens during the full moon.
• Imagine a city where everyone must wear gloves to hide their powers.
• Your protagonist must find a way to lift a curse that traps people in their dreams.
• Write about a character who discovers a secret society of time travelers.
• A character wakes up in a world where all technology has disappeared.
• Imagine a town where everyone has a special talent, but only one person doesn’t.
• Your protagonist finds a magical compass that always points to danger.
• Write about a character who can hear the voices of people from the past.
• A character discovers a hidden room in their house that wasn’t there before.
• Imagine a world where everyone must give up their most precious memory to survive.
• Your protagonist must navigate a city that is constantly moving and changing.
• Write about a character who wakes up with the ability to see everyone’s fears.
• A character finds a way to communicate with someone in another dimension.
• Imagine a world where everyone’s destiny is written in the stars, but your protagonist’s is blank.
• Write about a character who discovers a door that leads to the future.
• A character wakes up to find that their dreams are becoming real.
• Imagine a society where people can buy extra time to live.
• Your protagonist must protect a creature that can grant wishes, but only under certain conditions.
• Write about a character who finds a mirror that shows alternate versions of themselves.
• A character discovers they can bring back extinct animals, but only for a short time.
• Imagine a world where people must share their dreams to enter a city.
• Your protagonist must solve a mystery involving a door that opens to a different world each day.
• Write about a character who wakes up to find they can’t speak, but can communicate through writing only.
• A character discovers a hidden book that can change their past.
• Imagine a town where everyone is born with a unique power, but they lose it at adulthood.
• Your protagonist must protect a magical artifact that holds the key to their past.
• Write about a character who can turn invisible, but only for a few seconds at a time.
• A character finds a key that unlocks a door to their greatest fear.
• Imagine a society where everyone’s emotions are controlled by an external force.
• Your protagonist must find a way to reverse a curse that turns people to stone.
• Write about a character who can hear the voices of plants and trees.
• A character wakes up in a different version of their hometown.
• Imagine a world where people must barter with their memories to gain knowledge.
• Your protagonist must protect a secret that could change the fate of their world.
• Write about a character who finds a hidden door in their favorite childhood place.
• A character discovers they can travel to the past, but only for an hour at a time.
• Imagine a city where people’s secrets are written on the walls at night.
• Your protagonist must solve a mystery involving an ancient book that writes itself.
• Write about a character who wakes up to find they can control gravity.
• A character finds a portal that leads to a parallel version of their life.
• Imagine a world where people can only see their loved ones in their dreams.
• Your protagonist must protect a child with the power to see the future.
• Write about a character who discovers a hidden community living beneath their city.
• A character wakes up with the ability to control time for short periods.
• Imagine a town where everyone must share their happiest memory to stay.
• Your protagonist finds a way to communicate with a creature from another world.
• Write about a character who can see the future, but only five minutes ahead.
• A character discovers an old book that tells the story of their life, including their future.
• Imagine a world where people can only speak the truth, but one person can lie.
• Write about a character who can bring back lost memories, but at a cost.
• A character finds a door that leads to a magical forest that changes each season.
• Imagine a city where people’s dreams are controlled by the government.
• Your protagonist must protect a powerful secret that could change everything.
• Write about a character who discovers they can control fire, but only in their dreams.
• A character wakes up in a different version of their family’s home.
• Imagine a world where everyone has a magical guardian, but your protagonist’s is missing.
• Your protagonist finds a way to reverse time for just a few seconds.
• A character finds a hidden door that leads to an alternate universe.
• Imagine a town where everyone can fly, but only during the full moon.
• Your protagonist must protect a creature that holds the key to saving their world.
• Write about a character who wakes up with the ability to see into people’s souls.
• A character discovers a hidden library that holds books that write themselves.
• Imagine a city where people must trade their dreams for their freedom.
• Your protagonist must solve a mystery involving a magical key that changes shape.
• Write about a character who wakes up in a world where everyone speaks in poetry.
• A character finds a door that leads to their most cherished memory.
• Imagine a world where people can control the weather with their emotions.
• Your protagonist must protect a powerful crystal that can control time.
• Write about a character who can see people’s regrets as physical objects.
• A character wakes up to find they can communicate with birds.
• Imagine a town where everyone’s dreams are connected by a single thread.
• Your protagonist finds a way to lift a curse that turns people into shadows.
• Write about a character who can control the tides with their thoughts.
• A character finds a hidden garden that holds the key to their future.
• Imagine a world where everyone is born with a mark that shows their greatest fear.
• Your protagonist must protect a creature that can grant wishes, but only if it’s happy.
• Write about a character who can see the future by looking into people’s eyes.
• A character discovers a hidden door that leads to a different version of their school.
• Imagine a city where people must share their secrets to enter.
• Your protagonist must solve a mystery involving a magical ring that grants one wish.
• Write about a character who wakes up in a world where everything is upside down.
• A character finds a map that leads to a forgotten land.
• Imagine a town where everyone must wear a mask to hide their true identity.
• Write about a character who can hear people’s thoughts, but only when they’re asleep.
• Imagine a world where people must trade their memories for their dreams.
• Your protagonist finds a way to communicate with a creature from the stars.
• Write about a character who can control shadows, but only at night.
• A character discovers a hidden door that leads to a magical garden.
• Imagine a town where everyone’s fears are written on their skin.
• Your protagonist must protect a creature that can bring dreams to life.
• Write about a character who wakes up in a different version of their city.
• A character finds a mirror that shows them their future self.
• Your protagonist must navigate a labyrinth that changes every time they enter.
• Write about a character who can see people’s happiest memories as glowing lights.
• A character wakes up with the ability to control the wind.
• Imagine a city where everyone’s dreams are controlled by a single person.
• Your protagonist must solve a mystery involving a magical book that changes its story.
• Write about a character who can bring their drawings to life.
• A character finds a hidden door that leads to their favorite story.
• Imagine a world where people can travel through time, but only in their dreams.
• Your protagonist must protect a magical creature that holds the key to their future.
• Write about a character who wakes up in a world where everyone speaks in riddles.
• A character discovers a hidden library that holds books that tell the future.
• Imagine a city where everyone must share their dreams to survive.
• Your protagonist must solve a mystery involving a magical mirror that shows alternate realities.
• Write about a character who can control the rain with their thoughts.
• A character finds a door that leads to a hidden land where time moves differently.
• Imagine a world where everyone’s dreams are connected, and your protagonist must find the source.

How Writing Prompts Can Boost Your Creativity

Why we love creative writing prompts.

Creative writing prompts can also be tailored to genres like romance, which are particularly useful for crafting love stories that delve into the complexities of relationships, emotions, and character connections. Using romance writing prompts can help writers explore heartfelt narratives, develop compelling romantic plots, and build relatable, emotionally rich characters.

Creative writing prompts can be tailored to a wide range of genres, each offering unique opportunities to explore different themes and storytelling techniques. Genres like fantasy, romance, thriller, science fiction, horror, historical fiction, young adult (YA), dystopian, and literary fiction each have their own distinct characteristics that can be enhanced through specific writing prompts. Exploring prompts by genre allows writers to focus on particular styles, settings, or emotions, helping them deepen their craft in those areas.

Creative writing prompts are more than just tools—they are companions in the writing journey that provide motivation, inspiration, and support when you need it most.

Here are some reasons why creative writing prompts are loved by so many:

Igniting Inspiration: Sometimes, the hardest part of writing is knowing where to start. Creative prompts provide that initial spark of inspiration, making it easier to get words flowing. They take away the pressure of coming up with the perfect idea from scratch, allowing your creativity to unfold naturally.

Flexibility and Freedom: Prompts offer a starting point, but they do not dictate how a story must unfold. This flexibility gives writers the freedom to interpret the prompt in any way that suits their personal style and interests. This adaptability makes writing prompts a versatile tool that can fit into any writer’s creative process.

Exploring New Perspectives: Writing prompts encourage authors to step outside their comfort zones and experiment with different viewpoints, genres, or styles. This exploration can lead to unexpected and exciting results, helping writers grow and evolve in their craft.

Reducing the Fear of the Blank Page: The blank page can be intimidating. Having a prompt in front of you reduces that fear by giving you something to work with, which helps to lower the barrier to getting started. It’s like having a gentle nudge that pushes you into action.

Building Consistency: One of the keys to becoming a better writer is consistency, and creative prompts can help establish a regular writing practice. By using prompts, writers can overcome procrastination and establish a daily habit that keeps their skills sharp and their creative minds active.

Generating Fresh Ideas: Even if you don’t end up using a prompt for a full story, it can still serve as an idea generator. The initial brainstorming process can lead to new storylines, characters, or even entire worlds that you might not have imagined otherwise.

Fun and Enjoyment: Writing prompts remind us that writing is not just about discipline and hard work—it’s also about having fun. They bring a playful element to writing, turning it into an enjoyable exercise rather than a daunting task. This element of fun helps keeps the creative process light and engaging.

Creative writing prompts offer a unique blend of structure and freedom that inspires writers to take their stories in unexpected directions. They are loved not only for their ability to overcome creative obstacles but also for making the writing journey more enjoyable and fulfilling.

Writing prompts can work wonders for writers in many ways:

• They give you a starting point when you’re feeling stuck and not sure what to write.
• They help you build a consistent writing habit by making writing a regular part of your routine.
• They encourage you to experiment with different genres, styles, and perspectives.
• They spark creativity and push you to think in new ways.
• They help you push through writer’s block and overcome creative obstacles.

Writing prompts are an incredibly valuable resource for writers of all levels. They serve as both a source of inspiration and a way to develop your skills by pushing you to think outside of your comfort zone. Whether you’re trying to overcome writer’s block, explore new genres, or simply keep your writing practice consistent, prompts can play a vital role in fueling your creativity.

If you’re an author, consider how prompts can also help you build your author brand . They offer opportunities to discover your unique voice, experiment with different writing styles, and create engaging content that resonates with your audience. An effective author bio can be crafted from the stories and experiences you build using these prompts, making your brand more relatable and authentic.

We hope that this collection of prompts sparks your imagination and helps you bring your stories to life. Remember, the key to creative writing is to stay open to new ideas, take risks, and enjoy the process.

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