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Writing Prompts

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

Showing 2604 prompts

Write a story that includes someone saying, “I feel alive.”

– 68 stories

Make Japan (or Japanese culture) an element of your story.

– 37 stories

Write a story about a character who’s late to witness a special event.

– 24 stories

Write about a character who is starting to open up to life again.

– 68 stories

Start your story with your character(s) going to buy some flowers.

– 77 stories

Start your story with someone vowing to take revenge.

– 62 stories

Write a story about a fandom

– 27 stories

Set your story in New York, where someone’s been waiting for your character.

– 38 stories

Write about someone who decides to make their own version of something old.

– 35 stories

Start a story that begins with a character saying “Speak now.”

– 86 stories

Start your story with “It was so terribly cold. Snow was falling, and it was almost dark.” (Hans Christian Andersen, “The Little Match Girl”)

– 111 stories

Write a modern version of "The Tiger, the Brahmin, and the Jackal," in which someone suffers from their own good deeds and must turn to an unlikely source for help.

– 21 stories

Write a story about a fox spirit (a gumiho, jiǔwěihú, kitsune, or hồ ly tinh), inspired by, e.g. Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese folklore.

– 41 stories

Write a story inspired by this quote from Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy: “In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost.”

– 65 stories

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

– 41 stories

Write about a character who’s attending a dinner thrown in their honor, but deeply embarrasses themself during their speech.

– 19 stories

Write about someone who thinks they just got a great deal on something, only for them to realize…

– 31 stories

Write a story about someone who is determined to not have their day spoiled — but the universe is trying their patience.

– 47 stories

Write about a character who would have complete happiness, if it weren’t for that one thing.

– 62 stories

Write a story that starts with the line “So, what’s the catch?”

– 95 stories

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