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Best Short Story Writing Prompts

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

Showing 278 prompts reset

This week's contest:
Win $250

Before Summer’s End

55 contest entries /
48 stories

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Closes at 23:59 - Jul 03 EST

Center your story around a mysterious painting.

– 70 stories

Write a story that has a colour in the title.

– 127 stories

Write a story with a huge surprise, either in the middle or the end.

– 81 stories

Write a story inspired by the ultimate clichéd twist: it was all just a dream.

– 92 stories

Center your story around a first or last kiss.

– 97 stories

Your character comes across a stray (dog, cat, human — any kind of animal!). What happens next?

– 56 stories

Write about two characters who meet and/or fall in love in a bookshop, café, or at a wedding.

– 63 stories

Write a story about love without ever using the word “love.”

– 125 stories

Set your story in a world where love is prohibited.

– 78 stories

Your character is getting changed in the bathroom of a nightclub or restaurant, then emerges looking completely different. Why?

– 57 stories

Write an open-ended story in which your character’s fate is uncertain.

– 87 stories

Start your story with the lines: “The room is unfamiliar. I don’t know how I got here.”

– 105 stories

Set your story in a place where the weather never changes.

– 44 stories

Start or end your story with a breeze brushing against someone’s skin.

– 68 stories

Start or end your story with someone being soothed by a hug or words of comfort.

– 47 stories

Set your story in a café, garden, or restaurant.

– 64 stories

Start or end your story with a character making a cup of tea for themself or someone else.

– 178 stories

Write a story about a cherished heirloom that has journeyed through multiple generations.

– 47 stories

Write a story about someone who must fit their entire life in a single suitcase.

– 110 stories

Write a story in which someone time-travels 25 years or more into the past.

– 73 stories

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