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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 228 prompts reset

This week's contest:
Win $250

Against the Odds with Jessica Brody

29 contest entries /
21 stories

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View contest
Closes at 23:59 - Jun 12 EST

Set your story in a lighthouse surrounded by powerful gale-force winds.

– 37 stories

Set your story during a month of drought — whether literal, or metaphorical.

– 35 stories

Include in your story a scene about a family's last meal before a significant change.

– 58 stories

Start your story with someone saying “I can’t sleep.”

– 86 stories

Write a story about a character who finds guidance in an unlikely place.

– 80 stories

Write from the POV of a security guard on the night shift, sitting in front of a wall of CCTV feeds.

– 46 stories

Start or end your story with a character receiving a hug or words of comfort.

– 100 stories

Write a story about a character who is trying to share groundbreaking news, but isn’t being taken seriously.

– 29 stories

Write a story about someone getting lost, but discovering something they didn’t expect along the way.

– 34 stories

Set your entire story in a car.

– 93 stories

Set your story in a rosy-pink world where everything is rainbows and unicorns… until it isn’t.

– 47 stories

Write about someone facing their greatest fear.

– 107 stories

Make a character perform a ceremony to set something or someone free.

– 53 stories

Write a story about someone seeking revenge for a past wrong.

– 71 stories

Write about two friends who were once inseparable, but now find themselves growing apart — or even friends turned enemies.

– 78 stories

Write about a character having a spiritual experience at a concert or a nightclub.

– 26 stories

Write about a character unknowingly experiencing a “sliding doors” moment. Write your story in two halves; what could have been, and what actually happened.

– 61 stories

Write a story about someone who receives — or makes — a life-changing, anonymous donation.

– 23 stories

Write a story inspired by the phrase “The plot thickens.”

– 52 stories

Set your story at an antique roadshow.

– 26 stories

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