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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 89 prompts reset

This week's contest:
Win $250

Lost, Then Found with A. Y. Chao

111 contest entries /
61 stories

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View contest
Closes at 23:59 - May 29 EST

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.

– 159 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.

– 91 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.

You’ve forgotten the last year of your life, and have to retrace your steps to figure out how you got here.

"There's something underneath my bed — and it's not a monster."

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