Writing Prompts

Hands up budding writers! I know you’re out there… This post is for you, and for those who maybe even thought about it once. Or for those people who like really, really, really, really short stories.

Have you heard of writing prompts?

I recently stumbled on a whole pile, artfully presented on social media. I mean, I remember getting them in high school but to be honest, I always thought they were pretty lame. However in my fairly recent obsession with Pinterest I have discovered that there are some seriously amazing writing prompts kicking about the internet. So I thought I would share a few of my favourite ones…

I've divided them up into two categories, a story idea that says to you -'Now GO!' and a dialogue opening that you can imagine starting a whole book. Have you seen any that captured your imagination? Or even prompted you to start finally writing that book you always wanted to write?

Number One:

‘The Narrator was running late and just showed up to a story already in progress. He doesn’t know who the Heroes or Villains are or even what genre this is.’

Number Two:

‘The Year is 2040. The first astronauts have landed on Mars. They find a cave with a single human skeleton and four words written on the wall.’

Number Three:

‘Your son has taken to writing prayers in letter form, starting them all with ‘Deerest God’, the misspelling becomes slightly less adorable when the prayers, however ridiculous are all answered by a doe-like goddess who shows up are your door, crying about how she just loves getting prayers again. She decides to move in and caters to your young son’s every whim.’

Dialogue Prompts:

‘Why aren’t you dating him? - ‘Because I’d destroy him.’ - ‘He’d be into that.’

‘Where’s your shoe?’ - ‘The giant mud puddle down the road demanded a sacrifice.’

‘Hold on, you died.’ - ‘Yeah, well it didn’t stick.’

‘The Evil Queen writes a diary. Write her first entry, her 12th and her last.’