Ten Original Prompts to Get You Writing
As a rule of thumb, if you struggle with writer’s block, the worst possible solution is to stop writing and wait for inspiration. The only way to overcome writer’s block is to ignore it and push through. However, if you truly have no idea how to press on in a project, it can be really helpful to take a break from that project and write something totally different as a sort of “palate cleanser.”
With that in mind, here are ten wildly different prompts to help you get writing again. Some may seem to lend themselves to a specific genre, others are just ideas for how to spend some time journaling. Use them however they inspire you! Take them in new, strange, or unexpected directions. Just write.
Sharon walks into the hotel ballroom where her 20 year high school reunion is supposed to be, but she’s in the wrong hotel. This ballroom is hosting a professional conference for biomedical engineers. Before she fully realizes her mistake, a man she’s never met mistakes her for a colleague he worked with years ago. Sharon decides to roll with it. Write the rest of Sharon’s story.
Write a letter to a friend you haven’t spoken to in a year or more.
Marco’s accepted a position stocking produce at a local grocery store. What the store manager doesn’t know is that Marco is a confidence man who’s trying to get close to her because he knows about the huge fortune she inherited when her estranged father passed away. The other thing she doesn’t know is that her estranged father passed away and left her a huge fortune. Write a series of conversations between the two.
Write a vignette about your earliest childhood memory.
You are a chambermaid in a medieval castle. The king is harsh and known to torture servants who cross him, but his daughter has always been incredibly kind to you. The princess is betrothed to a foreign prince, but you know for a fact that he’s a scoundrel and a slob, despite outwardly appearing like a perfect gentleman. Write the story of how you plan to break off the engagement without drawing the king’s ire.
Write about the worst date you’ve ever been on.
Douglas McDougal is a soy farmer living in central Iowa. Late one night he hears rustling in his fields and sneaks out. The local high schoolers have been known to damage crops trying to leave mysterious circles, but the teens were dumb enough to leave behind the stake and rope they used to help them trample the plants in perfect circles, so no one was fooled. When you get to the source of the noise, you find two gangly, greenish-grey skinned beings with massive heads and large jet black eyes. One is wearing a letter jacket. Write Douglas McDougal’s account of this alien encounter.
Describe the most delicious meal you’ve ever eaten. Try to do so without discussing ingredients or using flavor words like sweet, sour, salty, bitter, etc.
Kyle’s best friend Brett was convicted of aggravated assault 15 years ago when detectives found Brett’s fingerprints and traces of the victim’s blood on a knife buried in Brett’s backyard. Today, Brett is being released from prison. While he was locked up, Kyle did some sleuthing and has a pretty good idea who planted the knife in Brett’s backyard. Write the story of what the two do now that Brett’s a free man.
Based on Hergoth’s birthday, his height, and his limp from a horse-shoeing accident that happened when he was a boy, the Sorcerers’ Confederation believe he is the one whose coming was foretold by an ancient prophecy. Write the prophecy and the story of what happens when Hergoth is whisked away to be studied by the Sorcerers who are all eagerly anticipating other signs that he will lead the war against the Shadow King.
If you are struggling to write and find any of these prompts helpful, let me know! I’d love to read anything that comes of them, and I hope they inspire you to push past any blocks and reject the feeling that you are stuck.
