Story Starters for Creative Writing Exercises

One-Line Writing Prompts for Group or Individual Writing Practice

© Jennifer Jensen

Feb 18, 2009

One-line story starters are great for group writing exercises. They have enough conflict to start the writing flow, but are open-ended to allow each writer to follow his or her own direction. Individual writers can use them on a regular basis for “practice writing,” following Natalie Goldberg’s suggestions in Writing Down the Bones.

Creative Writing Exercises

Set a timer for 10, 15 or 20 minutes. Write the opening sentence and then follow it wherever the imagination goes. As a writer’s group exercise, read the results aloud to each other. It can be surprising to see the different directions that the same story starter takes.

As writing exercises for individuals, try doing one each day, or several a week if daily is too much. After a week or two, look over the resulting stories and see what appears regularly. Practice writing over a period of time can show a writer’s general strengths and weaknesses, such as conflict, dialogue, or mood.

Develop a Short Story or Novel?

If the results of these writing exercises remain intriguing, spend more time with them, either that session or on different days. They may even evolve into a proper short story or novel.

Story Starters

Here are 25 simple story starters to get the creative juices flowing. Feel free to change the gender if desired.

1. Shadows quivered on the wall as the candle flickered, then fizzled to nothing.
2. I could just make out the windows high in the castle wall.
3. She SO did not want to be here, especially when. . .
4. He slammed forward as the brakes screeched and the car . . .
5. It was the strangest thing I had ever seen, with tubes and wires . . .
6. The lane was night-dark, even at noon.
7. He stared at the credit card, numbers blurring in front of his eyes, wondering if . . .
8. She ducked as the plate smashed against the wall behind her.
9. She hesitated at the post box, not knowing if she should really send the letter.
10. It was one of those days when everything seemed to go wrong.
11. My hand trembled as I punched the number into the phone.
12. She knelt on the tile floor, carefully picking up the shards of glass. Why did it have to be this one that broke?
13. Colors swooped and swirled behind his closed eyelids as the music soared, taking him back to . . .
14. The chattering birds made her smile, until she heard a growl.
15. The dream last night had seemed so real, but it was just a dream, right?
16. The storm whipped the trees outside and she huddled into her quilt.
17. Sun, sand, sea—total relaxation. So why couldn’t he let go?
18. She watched his lithe body saunter away. “You’re engaged,” she reminded herself.
19. She tore through the alley, ducked into a doorway, and tried to squeeze into nothingness.
20. It wasn’t going to be easy, but somehow she had to confront her mother.
21. Trapped. A rat in a maze, a tiger in a cage, every cliché he could think of—he was trapped.
22. The building shook, lurching and jumping, and the little china horse fell off the mantel.
23. The prickles on his neck told him he was being watched.
24. The sun was soft and the boat rocked gently. It wasn’t so bad running out of fuel, until . . .
25. Damn. She didn’t know passports even had an expiration date.

Story Starters Writing Exercises

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