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Best Mystery Writing Prompts

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

Showing 91 prompts reset

This week's contest:
Win $250

Whodunit?

23 contest entries /
17 stories

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View contest
Closes at 23:59 - Jul 24 EST

Write a ghost story where there’s more going on than it first appears.

– 224 stories

Write a story about a meeting of a secret society.

– 154 stories

You thought he was dead, but there he is, right in front of you on the street, smiling at you.

– 411 stories

Write a story that involves a mystery — it doesn't need to be crime-related, it should just include something that remains unexplained until the end.

– 204 stories

Write a story that ends with the narrator revealing a secret.

– 158 stories

Write a story about a rumor making its way through the grapevine.

– 47 stories

Write a story that starts with the reveal of a long-kept secret.

– 126 stories

Write a story that takes place in the woods.

– 178 stories

Write a story about someone who keeps coming across the same stranger.

– 181 stories

Write a story about a valuable object that goes missing.

– 90 stories

Write a story in which someone finds a secret passageway.

– 68 stories

Write a short story that ends with a twist.

– 154 stories

Write a murder mystery with an amateur sleuth who must navigate a fantastical world in a quest to discover the truth.

– 37 stories

Write a story in which characters are warned not to go into the woods.

– 96 stories

Write a story about someone who sees a black cat cross their path... for the tenth time that day.

– 40 stories

Write a story that involves a mystery — it doesn't need to be crime-related, it should just include something that remains unexplained until the end.

– 79 stories

Write a story featuring a protagonist with a knack for getting to the bottom of things.

– 6 stories

You discover a trap door in your home that you never knew about.

Write a story about a character who can't figure out when they're dreaming or awake.

You receive a bizarre voicemail from an unknown number.

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