15 Creative Writing Prompts to Fuel Story Ideas
Fiction Writing Exercises Can Break Writer's Block
Sep 20, 2009
Creative writing ideas don't always come easily or naturally. When stuck, a creative writing prompt can be fun and incredibly useful.
Creative writing prompts can be fun and useful for fiction (and nonfiction) writers. The following list can be used to help develop characters, develop plot, break any temporary writer’s block, and even just for fun.
Try each one of these when the opportunity presents itself. Take them as far as they can go, or to the point they start to lose steam.
15 Creative Writing Prompts
- Write about a place where you can escape, inside your mind. Be sure to use all of your senses (smell, touch, taste, sight, sounds) to describe everything. Start the story off with: “Escaping was the only…”
- Write a Valentine’s Day letter to the wealthiest person you can imagine. Shower them in flattery and compliments, and then ask for something completely outrageous. Start with: “Dear so-and-so, you are the most…”
- Develop a dictionary-style definition for the word “tuygaranama.” Use this definition in a story, starting with: “Every now and then I…”
- Finish the story: “I met him one evening at my support group meeting…”
- Look around you; write down the first 6 blue things you see and use them in a story, which starts off with: “One man’s treasure is another man’s…”
- Use the moral “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” to finish a story that starts off with: “He watched the clouds…”
- Use the following two items in a story: a Salvador Dali painting and a broken umbrella. Start the story with: “The swirl of colors…”
- Write a story that starts with: “Like a fish, I spent my summer…” Do not, however, use any of the following words: wet, waves, stream, drink, pond, pool, ocean, water, liquid, swim, creek, deep, float, sea, or flow.
- Imagine being passed by two joggers. You catch a bit of their conversation: “…and the whole thing was just so loud…” Finish their conversation.
- You’re a hippopotamus in a zoo that has a crush on one of your caretakers. Start the narrative: “She gave me…”
- Finish the story: “When I am in a neon green mood…”
- Make a list of 5 foreign words (make sure you know their meanings), and use them all in a story that starts off: “I had no idea he was…”
- Finish the letter: “Dear Marcus, I know it has been 41 years since we last spoke, but…”
- Freud writes of the id, ego and superego, where the id seats desire, the ego seats consciousness, and superego hosts our conscience. Write a story where these elements argue with each other. Start with: “But we never said he…”
- Use the famous opener from Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Finish this story.
Try each one, even if it doesn't seem appealing at first. Usually, the prompts that take a bit more effort to get going can produce really surprising results. Characters don't often just spring up out of nowhere (and if they do, be skeptical), so working with daily prompts is very beneficial to all writers, whether to develop characters, plot, or just to have fun and keep the mind active.
The copyright of the article 15 Creative Writing Prompts to Fuel Story Ideas in Writing Fiction is owned by Kristina Bjoran. Permission to republish 15 Creative Writing Prompts to Fuel Story Ideas in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
 |
