Enhance your creative writing skills with prompts!
Creative writing prompts offer that jolt of inspiration you need to put pen to paper and start writing your epic story.
Using prompts also improves your writing, forcing you to change perspectives, use different language styles, or think descriptively.
Discover whether creative writing prompts can help you write your perfect novel.
How Do You Start Creative Writing?
The drive is there. You want to write a story, but the second you sit down to type something out, you draw a blank.
Even the best writers struggle with writer’s block, and even those with amazing ideas struggle with where to take those ideas, build characters, and develop an interesting plot, world-building, and suspense-building.
It’s not as easy as it seems.
Creative writing prompts can help. They can give you an idea, start the story, and help you move the tale along.
Types of Creative Writing Prompts
Romolo Tavani via Shutterstock.com.
There’s a wide variety in the type, style, and quality of creative writing prompts.
Some are simply story ideas. An example would be something like:
“A man finds out his wife isn’t where she said she’d be on Wednesday nights. He must find out what she’s really up to.”
Here, you can transform the husband into a detective who sleuths until he discovers his wife’s secret. The prompt starts in the middle, so you can also tell the first part of the story where he finds out or tells the story from the wife’s perspective.
Story ideas offer great versatility and are perfect for people who need a little boost to start writing.
However, if you already have thousands of little story ideas bouncing around in your head, simple story starters won’t help. Some prompts help you transform that two-sentence idea into an epic story featuring tension, world-building, relatable characters, and intriguing plot design.
Here, we explore the different types of creative writing prompts so you can find the ones best suited to your needs.
Story Starters
Story starters are the most basic type of creative writing prompt, and you can find them for free all over the internet.
Here’s an example:
“It’s your birthday and your best friend gives you a gift. It’s a key, and she says if you can find the lock, you can unlock your wildest dreams. But there’s always a catch.”
How does the story unfold? Do you go on a quest to discover the key? Or do you consider what the consequences might be and guard the key? It’s up to you – you’re the writer!
If you are starved for ideas, simply head over to the writing prompts subreddit on Reddit to find thousands of story-starting posts in every genre you can think of.
What Happens Next
The “what happens next” writing prompts are similar to story starters, but they tend to build the atmosphere a little more. They give you more information about the fictional world you are diving into and then ask you to describe what happens next in the story.
Here’s an example:
“Jack and Tony are playing baseball in the old park down Wither’s Road. Most kids shy away from this park, but the boys are new to town and haven’t made any friends yet. They don’t know the local lore. Jack pitches a perfect ball to Tony, who hits it out of the park and into the forest line. The boys venture into the woods to retrieve the missing ball. What happens next?”
The prompt provides extra details about the plot, characters, and setting while allowing you to use your imagination to flesh out the ideas into a complete story.
Writing Exercises
Some creative writing prompts focus on the craft of writing rather than ideas on what to write about.
Writing exercises come in a variety of styles. Some help you perfect the “show, don’t tell” rule of storytelling by asking you to describe things you wouldn’t normally think to describe, while others give you keywords to write about, forcing you to make connections in your writing.
Here’s an example of a “descriptive” writing exercise:
“Describe your favorite color.”
Another example helps you make connections between objects in your story:
“Craft a story that includes the following elements: a cat, fire, a journal, and something that goes wrong.”
Neither of these prompts gives you explicit creative writing ideas, but that’s not the point. The prompts help you hone your craft with writing practice.
The first forces you to show, not tell. What is red? How would you describe it to someone who has never seen it? Use similes and metaphors to give your reader an idea of the color without saying what it is. Think about the color in relation to your other senses: what does it smell, sound, taste, and feel like?
The second teaches you how to relate story elements together. Consider Chekhov’s gun, a writing principle that states that any detail you add to a story should contribute to the narrative somehow. Nothing should be included without reason.
Therefore, if your story includes a cat, a journal, and fire, there must be a reason. Tie the elements to the narrative somehow. The hero may have an emotional attachment to the cat, which helps in character building. Perhaps the fire is from a candlelit desk, which builds atmosphere.
Writing exercises such as these help you become better at your craft.
The Best Creative Writing Prompts
The types of creative writing prompts discussed above are available for free all over the internet. Look on writing forums and social media, or do an internet search to find the vast array of resources available.
Unfortunately, those prompts don’t work for me.
Story starters and “what happens next” prompts are a dime a dozen. They’re everywhere.
The best prompts help you become a better writer while crafting an epic story. They force you to develop relatable characters and write compelling dialogue while driving the plot forward.
Free online prompts rarely fit the bill. Even most of the paid writing prompts on Etsy follow similar patterns, offering a variety of story starters combined with a dash of writing exercise (if you’re lucky).
Our Creative Writing Prompts Offer More
Disappointed with what was available, I decided to make my own creative writing prompts, which are available for a low cost at our store (and Etsy).
They offer far more than simple prompts with a single-sentence story idea.
My prompts help you write a complete story, covering all the literary elements required to make an intriguing tale. They relate to dialogue, descriptive writing, character building, and tension. Some force you to dive into the backstory of your characters and your world, helping you fill out your story in ways other prompts don’t even begin to address.
I’ve developed the prompts in three unique genres: horror, thriller, and fantasy. Each set includes three unique story ideas, with 10 prompts related to each story. The prompts cover different aspects of writing and storytelling, from moving the plot forward to developing characters and crafting your world.
Each prompt bundle also contains five warm-up prompts, similar to the abovementioned writing exercises, to help you get your creative juices flowing. Three bonus prompts per story force you to subvert expectations and rethink how the tale unfolds.
Finally, each set of prompts includes a unique worksheet specific to the genre.
The thriller creative writing prompts include a character-building worksheet to help you make your characters three-dimensional rather than flat. The horror prompts include a monster-building worksheet, which will help you define the monster, and the fantasy writing prompts include a world-building worksheet, which will help you think about the world you are creating.
These creative writing prompts include everything you will need to perfect your craft.
Get it Here!
More Tools to Help You Write Creatively
Sometimes prompts aren’t enough. You might need more practice and tools if you’ve never done creative writing.
Here are two ways you can enhance your skills in the field.
Hey folks! Transparency Disclosure- Some of the links in this article are affiliate links. That means I’ll receive a small commission if you decide to click on it and buy something. Don’t worry, it doesn’t cost you anything extra!
Journal Writing
The most cost-effective way to improve your creative writing skills is via practice.
Grab a journal or notebook and make it your writing journal.
You don’t need to limit your entries to fiction. Many writers draw from real-life experiences. What happened this week that could make a great story?
Your writing journal can mix daily life, creative writing, practice exercises, and whatever else sparks your creativity.
Use Journal Prompts
Journal prompts differ from creative writing prompts in that they are non-fiction. They force you to get introspective.
However, they can still inspire creativity.
I offer three sets of journal prompts in my store. The fun and unique journal prompts are the best option for sparking creativity. Though silly and quirky, they also offer deeper meaning, forcing you to get introspective in ways you never considered.
You will find prompts like “How does the color blue make you feel?” and “What is your favorite food group and why?” In a way, they’re like the creative writing exercises we discussed above, but they’re more focused on your journey of self-discovery than on creating a fictional world.
However, you can always use them to enhance your writing skills or as a starting point for a story.
Free Writing
Freewriting is writing down everything and anything that comes into your head. It’s similar to a brain dump, except you aren’t just writing notes about the day and emptying your mind.
You’re exploring your creativity and letting the ideas flow through you.
When free writing, you just write. Write anything and everything that comes to mind, whether it’s good, bad, or pure nonsense. It doesn’t need to be perfect; you just let the word flow through you and onto the paper.
Freewriting can help you uncover those gems buried deep in your subconscious, waiting for the opportunity to show themselves. You may even find the inspiration you need to start your first novel.
Art Journaling
Art journals aren’t just for visual artists.
You can use an art journal to draw a picture of your idea, which can later be expanded into a story. You can also use it to storyboard your plot ideas or character designs.
Art and creative writing have much in common, and it’s okay—even encouraged—to mix the two.
Courses on Creative Writing
You may benefit from a creative writing course if you’re a complete novice. Udemy has terrific, reasonably priced courses in creative writing that can help you get started.
Udemy offers a complete creative writing course for only thirty dollars and a wide range of other fiction writing classes. These introductory classes will teach you how to write, and then you can use prompts to expand upon that skill.
If you’d prefer to pay a monthly fee to access all the courses you want, check out LinkedIn Learning. They have courses on character design, general fiction, writing hacks for productivity, and a massive library on various topics.
Creative Writing Clubs
A final way to enhance your creative writing skills is to join a creative writing club. You can find these on Meetup, university campuses, Discord, or anywhere people hang out.
If you can’t find something right for you, create your own! There are likely tons of people who want to work together to improve their writing skills.
Start Writing Creatively Today!
Get our awesome pack of writing prompts and find the motivation you need to start writing today! I can’t wait to see your best-selling novel on the bookstore shelves!