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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 2,786 prompts

Write a scene in which a character’s behavior or reaction to something is affected by a past experience — without saying what that experience was.

– 50 stories

Start your story in a coffee shop without using obvious words to describe it (e.g. barista, coffee cup.)

– 65 stories

Write a story about someone making a deal with the devil.

– 110 stories

You confront the monster you’ve spent many long years hunting. Except they’re not exactly what you thought they’d be…

– 42 stories

Write a story about a monster trying to become more human. Or about a human trying to become more monstrous.

– 58 stories

Set your story in a haunted house.

– 67 stories

Write a story about someone trying to resist their darker impulses. Whether they succeed or fail is up to you.

– 99 stories

It’s the last evening of your vacation and you’re watching the sunset with your friends/partner/family, wishing summer would never end. But just as the sun dips below the horizon, you notice it returning in reverse.

– 49 stories

Each year, your character's family goes on the most exotic vacations. Finally they discover why — their family are assassins.

– 35 stories

Now, as an adult, your character looks back on this summer as the summer when they grew up.

– 40 stories

What was meant to be a great bonding vacation turns sour when an uninvited guest tags along.

– 43 stories

Set your story on the eve of the first day back at school.

– 33 stories

Write about an AI or person trying to inject a ‘human touch’ into their work.

– 46 stories

Write about someone with a Midas touch: everything they touch turns to [fill in the blank].

– 38 stories

Write a story about someone who is losing feeling in their hands and/or fingers.

– 46 stories

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

– 100 stories

Start your story with a character looking closely at something, or someone. They can't quite decide if what they're looking at is natural, or man-made.

– 49 stories

Set your story in a post office.

– 36 stories

A mysterious letter is delivered to your character's home. It's not addressed to them, but they can't resist peeking...

– 62 stories

Write a story about a pair of pen pals.

– 26 stories

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We made a writing app for you

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