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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 176 prompts reset

This week's contest:
Win $250

The Big Break with London Writers Centre

59 contest entries /
37 stories

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Closes at 23:59 - Jun 26 EST

Write about someone who is shackled by fears of failure, until they break free.

– 28 stories

‘Hit a tripwire of smell and memories explode all at once.’ Use the senses to transport a character back to the past.

– 49 stories

Include a scene in your story in which a character's body language conveys their hidden emotions.

– 25 stories

Write a scene in which a character’s behavior or reaction to something is affected by a past experience — without saying what that experience was.

– 50 stories

Now, as an adult, your character looks back on this summer as the summer when they grew up.

– 40 stories

Write about someone with a Midas touch: everything they touch turns to [fill in the blank].

– 38 stories

Write a story about someone who is losing feeling in their hands and/or fingers.

– 46 stories

Write a story about a pair of pen pals.

– 26 stories

Write about a character who has to grapple with something completely alien to them.

– 44 stories

Write about two strangers who are both heading to the same destination and agree to do a long distance drive together.

– 32 stories

Write a story about a character who finds a childhood toy that brings back memories.

– 69 stories

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.

– 79 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

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