Ideas may seem hard to come by, whether you’re attempting to start a new writing project or are experiencing writer’s block in the middle of one. Writing prompts are invaluable.
Use this list of creative writing prompts to flex your creative writing muscles as you search your life experiences, interests, and imagination for ideas for your next novel or short story.
1. Write about a time you did something that scared you.
2. In an essay, reflect on the people who have helped you become who you are today.
3. Write about the power of music.
4. Toni Morrison famously stated, “Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.” Start a piece on who you are with the phrase, “To others, I may seem… but that is not who I am.”
5. Compose a brief narrative from the viewpoint of an inanimate object in your home or in the natural world.
6. Imagine the scene first before anything else. What makes this place special? How does it appear? What does your character think of this location?
7. Compose a tale that takes place in the far future, when humanity is facing a crossroads in its evolutionary journey. While some are evolving, not everyone is.
8. Use all the following words in a poem: fire, embrace, miraculous, high, solitude, idyllic.
9. Take a trip to a thrift store and pick one item you find interesting. Imagine who its past owner was and how the item ended up in your hands.
10. Finish the sentence:
– I opened the envelope to read the first sentence of the letter …
– She burst through the door and frantically asked …
– Sitting by the water, I thought to myself…
– The last time I saw her…
– By the time he reached the train station…
By: Jenn Garner
Jenn is a Senior Editor at Technica Editorial
