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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 290 prompts reset

This week's contest:
Win $250

What Keeps You Up at Night

130 contest entries /
69 stories

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Closes at 23:59 - Sep 18 EST

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.

– 85 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.

– 63 stories

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

– 176 stories

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

– 46 stories

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

– 108 stories

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

– 73 stories

Write a story from the POV of a now-defunct piece of technology.

– 79 stories

Center your story around an unexpected guest who changes a traditional get-together.

– 38 stories

Center your story around a character spending their first holiday alone.

– 65 stories

It’s the most wonderful time of the year — except your character can’t shake the feeling that something’s off.

– 35 stories

Write a story about someone’s first Christmas after a major life change.

– 51 stories

Write a story about two characters who surprisingly end up spending a holiday or event together.

– 49 stories

Write a story that starts and ends in the same place.

– 74 stories

Write a story set in a world of darkness where light is suddenly discovered.

– 39 stories

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