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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 212 prompts reset

This week's contest:
Win $250

Love is in the Air

50 contest entries /
26 stories

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Closes at 23:59 - Feb 20 EST

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

Write a story where a character must continue to tell their tale to a listener to avoid unsavory consequences.

– 41 stories

Write a story about someone who doesn’t know how to let go.

– 119 stories

Write a story about two characters whose paths briefly cross, but are actually going in opposite directions — whether literally or figuratively.

– 91 stories

Start your story with someone entering a taxi and saying ‘follow that car.’

– 33 stories

Start your story with a home alarm system going off.

– 49 stories

Write about someone whose desire to constantly improve something borders on obsessive.

– 25 stories

Write a story where someone says, “Everything is changing.”

– 57 stories

Start your story with someone looking at a breathtaking view and getting emotional.

– 64 stories

Start your story with a blast of lightning casting a graveyard in a flash of brief, white light.

– 34 stories

Start your story with a character telling their best friend that their spouse is having an affair, only for their friend to “shoot the messenger”.

– 29 stories

Write about a character whose job is to bring water to people.

– 40 stories

Start your story with the whistle of a kettle.

– 59 stories

Write about someone seeking an oasis in a desert — whether literally, or figuratively.

– 37 stories

Write about someone who books a bargain vacation, only to be told when they arrive that they need to share a hotel suite with a stranger.

– 148 stories

Write about a child witnessing a major historical event.

– 236 stories

Your main character is approached by their long-estranged parent who wants to reconnect. How do they react?

– 192 stories

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