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Best Character Writing Prompts

Join our ongoing contests and win up to $1,500. Flex those creative muscles with these writing prompts.

Showing 165 prompts reset

This week's contest:
Win $250

Better in Color

158 contest entries /
103 stories

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Closes at 23:59 - May 01 EST

Write a story where the characters start to realize that they are, in fact, just characters.

– 49 stories

Write a story about someone living vicariously through someone else.

– 32 stories

Write a story about a magician who never reveals their secrets — until now.

– 28 stories

Write about a person who constantly has to put on a persona (e.g. at work, in their relationships, etc.) who can finally drop the facade.

– 80 stories

Write about a character in a situation where they have to be brave for someone else’s sake.

– 59 stories

Write about a character who breaks free from a tradition to create a new one.

– 25 stories

Make your protagonist go through a rite of passage.

– 52 stories

Write a story about a stranger coming to town and shaking up the order of things.

– 55 stories

Write about how a single event affects a seemingly unrelated area of a character’s life (their friendships, career, romantic relationships, etc.)

– 35 stories

Write about two people striking up an unlikely friendship.

– 92 stories

Write a story about lifelong best friends.

– 58 stories

Write about someone who has always done something as part of a group, and is now starting to set out solo, or vice versa.

– 20 stories

Write a story from the point of view of a “sasaeng” (an obsessive fan).

– 34 stories

Your protagonist walks past an intriguing stranger, then turns around to take another look at them. The stranger turns around, too. Write about what happens next.

– 59 stories

Write about somebody who wholeheartedly believes in fate, and views every little thing through the lens of predestiny.

– 22 stories

Write about someone who is learning to recognize and take credit for their own achievements.

– 18 stories

Write a story from the point of view of a sidekick, or someone who is happy to stay away from the limelight.

– 87 stories

Set your story in a staff room of an essential profession that is often undervalued — nurses, cafeteria staff, sanitation workers, etc.

– 51 stories

Write a story inspired by the phrase “The short end of the stick.”

– 27 stories

Write about somebody whose intentions are pure, but somehow always manages to do the wrong thing.

– 45 stories

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