Writing Prompt Generator

22 creative writing prompts to try today

1. Write about a disgraced court wizard who is hired to steal a spell that has never been cast. Fantasy
2. Write about a witch who sells weather and is the last person able to read the old runes. Fantasy
3. Write about a night-shift security guard who notices the family photos are changing. Horror
4. Write about a lighthouse keeper who discovers the house is keeping a diary. Horror
5. Write about a wedding planner who hates weddings and keeps getting the same stranger's coffee order by mistake. Romance
6. Write about a translator at a peace summit who is paired with a stranger in a cross-country road rally. Romance
7. Write about a retired detective who runs a crossword column and notices the victim was wearing someone else's shoes. Mystery
8. Write about a crime-scene cleaner who realises the forged painting is better than the original. Mystery
9. Write about a botanist on a generation ship who is the only one who notices the AI has started lying to protect the crew. Sci-fi
10. Write about a pilot who has been awake for 300 years and inherits a robot that remembers their grandmother better than they do. Sci-fi
11. Write about a junior censor at the Ministry of Joy who is promoted for reporting a neighbour they never reported. Dystopian
12. Write about a ration-office clerk who learns the lottery that keeps the city fed is rigged. Dystopian
13. Write about a hostage negotiator on her day off who overhears an assassination being planned in a language they shouldn't understand. Thriller
14. Write about a mechanic who once worked for the mob and notices the same car at every stop on the school route. Thriller
15. Write about a typesetter in 1850s London who hides a fugitive in plain sight. Historical fiction
16. Write about a nurse in the Crimean War who carries a secret letter across a border at war. Historical fiction
17. Write about a wizard who is allergic to magic and has to babysit the Grim Reaper's kid for a weekend. Funny
18. Write about a knight whose horse is smarter than him who swaps phones with a spy at the dentist. Funny
19. Write about a puppy who wants to be a firefighter and wakes up and finds everyone in town has turned into cats. Kids
20. Write about a snail in a hurry who must win the school talent show with a talent nobody has seen. Kids
21. Write about a new student at a school with strange rules who is blamed for a prank they didn't pull. Teens
22. Write about a boy who works nights at his family's diner and has one night to fix the school play. Teens

Five kinds of creative writing prompt

Situation prompts hand you a person, a place, a goal and an obstacle, the four things every scene needs. What if prompts change one rule of the world and let you follow the consequences. Dialogue prompts give you an opening line with tension already in it. Object prompts put something strange in your character's hands. Constraint prompts add a formal rule, such as writing in the second person or in exactly 100 words.

How to use a story prompt well

• Write the first thing that comes to mind, then ask "what's the less obvious version?" and write that instead.
• Don't explain the prompt. If it says a character found a warm key, start after they have found it.
• Change anything that doesn't excite you. A prompt is a door, not a contract.
• Save the ones you like to your notebook so you can come back when a novel stalls.

Writing groups can all use the prompt of the day: it is picked from the date, so everyone sees the same one.