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Best Dramatic Writing Prompts

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

Showing 214 prompts reset

This week's contest:
Win $250

Tension, Twists, and Turns with WOW!

74 contest entries /
36 stories

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Closes at 23:59 - Feb 27 EST

Write a story with a character making excuses.

– 58 stories

Write a story about someone seeking forgiveness for something.

– 74 stories

Center your story around someone finding acceptance.

– 59 stories

Write a story where someone must make a split-second decision.

– 38 stories

Write about a character trying to hide a secret from everyone.

– 55 stories

Situate your character in a hostile or dangerous environment.

– 80 stories

Center your story around a character who has to destroy something they love.

– 67 stories

Write about a character doing the wrong thing for the right reason.

– 79 stories

Center your story around someone who’s at a loss for words, or unable to speak.

– 74 stories

Start or end your story with someone looking out a car or train window.

– 88 stories

Center your story around someone who realizes they’ve left something behind.

– 49 stories

Center your story around a character who successfully — or unsuccessfully — escapes their fate.

– 78 stories

Write a story that keeps a key detail hidden from the reader until the very end.

– 65 stories

Write a story in which a character discovers that a truth they've believed their whole life is either false or not the whole story.

– 68 stories

Write your story as text messages or an online conversation between two characters — and at least one of them isn’t who they say they are.

– 27 stories

Start or end your story with someone standing in the rain.

– 89 stories

Write a story where the weather mirrors a character’s emotions.

– 58 stories

Set your story during — or just before — a storm.

– 136 stories

Write a story with a character pouring out their emotions.

– 42 stories

Write a story with the line “You never know a good thing until it’s gone.”

– 40 stories

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