5,000 Writing Prompts
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The zipper of his coat gets stuck.
She sees someone mistreating or threatening a vulnerable individual.
He gets home from the store with several bags of groceries, but not the one item he went there to get.
Someone cheats on her.
Someone steals his wallet, computer, or car.
There’s water on the bathroom floor and his socks get soaked.
She’s asked her partner or child a hundred times to stop doing a particular thing. They’ve promised to stop. They’re still doing it.
Someone eats food off his plate without asking.
Someone makes a cruel joke or insensitive remark.
Someone cuts ahead of her in line.
Someone defaces his property or damages his vehicle.
Someone interrupts her repeatedly.
Someone asks him too many personal questions.
A sick person coughs or sneezes on her.
Sigh: 25 Writing Prompts to Make Your Character Feel Lonely
Some of these things wouldn’t necessarily make a person feel lonely, but all of them could make someone feel that way.
He invites people to his birthday party, but all of them either cancel at the last minute or simply fail to show up.
People keep posting pictures from a party that she wasn’t invited to.
He doesn’t have anyone to celebrate Christmas or Valentine’s Day with.
She eats alone at a restaurant.
He sits alone at the movies or a baseball game.
He’s getting divorced, and their mutual friends are spending time with his wife and her new boyfriend.
She gets Christmas cards from married couples with pictures of them and their smiling children.
He’s in a group of people who have a lot of in-jokes he doesn’t understand.
She realizes that the woman she considers a best friend doesn’t feel the same way about her.
A group of his coworkers never invites him along to lunch.
She misses the dog who used to sleep at her feet.
He looks out of the window of his new apartment and wishes he’d never moved away from his hometown.
She comes across photos or cards from a family member who has since cut her off.
He’s in a foreign country where he doesn’t speak the language well— or at all.
She’s working a night shift all on her own.
He hears his partner or wife compliment someone else profusely, but s/he never compliments him.
He texted three people, and none of them texted him back.
She was excited to be invited to a party, only to realize it’s a “party” where you’re supposed to buy stuff.
He wakes up from a dream where he’s with his ex, his long-distance partner, his family, or a new group of friends, and he realizes it wasn’t real.
After buying a nice new outfit, she realizes she has no one to go out and do things with, so she has nowhere special to wear it.
He joined an online dating service and no one is showing any interest.
There’s a snack item in the vending machine that nobody ever wants, and she relates to it.
He plays board games with himself as a child…or as an adult.
She always asks other people about their health, their families, and their work. Nobody asks her how she’s doing.
He talks to a virtual assistant or computer program as though it’s a real person.
If Only: 50 Writing Prompts Based on Character Regrets
Stories would be boring if characters always did the smart thing. Readers can relate to characters who mess up. When characters make terrible decisions, it can even make readers feel better about their own lives in comparison.
A bad decision can hook readers, because they want to see how the person will work their way out of a mess or get over it and have a good life, anyway. And of course, in life and in fiction and the movies, a “bad” decision can turn out to have been a good one in the end.
Try writing about someone who’s experienced one of the following. Some of them are bigger mistakes than others.
Getting a tattoo that’s a huge mistake.
Quitting a comfortable, well-paying job.
Passing on a once-in-a-lifetime job offer.
Taking the wrong job.
Majoring in something they didn’t really like in college because they thought it was the sensible thing to do.
Giving up after a short time at college, despite having a generous scholarship.
Buying the wrong house.
Breaking up with their soulmate.
Getting married to someone they weren’t truly in love with.
Staying in a miserable marriage for a long time.
Not asking someone out when they have the chance.
Not reconciling with an estranged family member or friend before they died.
Attacking the wrong person.
Stealing something valuable on impulse.
Misplacing or leaving behind something valuable.
Selling a family heirloom.
Taking up smoking.
Rejecting a manuscript that turns out to be the best-selling book of the decade.
Sinking one’s savings into a business that turns out to be a terrible idea or a scam.
Driving while drunk or sleep-deprived and causing an accident.
Accepting help or a ride from a sketchy person.
Going to war.
Not going to war.
Leading a disastrous army attack.
Not having children.
Having children.
Not spending enough time with their spouse or their family.
Not fighting for joint custody during the divorce proceedings.
Taking on a job personally instead of hiring a professional.
Trespassing on someone else’s property.
Taking a shortcut.
Going on a risky outdoor adventure.
Not asking a grandmother about her life experiences before she died.
Not standing up for or coming to the aid of someone else who was being attacked.
Making a joke at someone else’s expense.
Voting for the wrong candidate.
Running for office.
Sparing an evil person.
Trusting the wrong person with a task.
Hiring a family member or friend as an employee.
Saving over an important document or deleting an important file.
Burning letters, poems, old photographs, or a journal.
Breaking a promise.
Keeping a promise they never should have made.
Placing a big bet.
Not moving to Paris when they had the chance.
Moving away from their hometown.
Telling someone one’s deepest secret.
Turning one’s back on one’s religion.
Never learning to play the piano.
25 Natural Enemies Prompts
Conflict is at the heart of a good story, and some characters seem destined to butt heads. Of course, in some cases, the same characters may also have a lot in common. Some of the pairings on this list could be friends who bicker about a particular issue. Most of them could be true adversaries. They could even be enemies who wind up becoming friends or falling in love. Try writing about one of these pairs.
a vegan and a steakhouse owner
a warrior and a pacifist
soldiers of opposing armies
two people on opposing political campaigns
an evangelical minister and an atheist
a celebrity and a tabloid photographer
a moderato
r on a website and an Internet troll
a neat person and a slob
two people in love with the same person
a conservationist and a real estate developer
a cat lover and someone who’s scared of cats
a jock and a nerd
a doctor and a faith healer
a prince and an anti-monarchist
a modest person and a person with no inhibitions
owners of two competing shops or restaurants in a small town
a small business owner and the CEO of a big retail chain
a city lover and an outdoorsy type
a fugitive and a U.S. Marshal
an eternal optimist and a pessimist
two people vying for the same promotion at work
a district attorney and a public defender on the same case
a spendthrift and a miser
a school principal or headmaster and a juvenile delinquent
a human and an alien invader
50 Big Realizations for Your Characters
Keep in mind that a character might have a realization that turns out to be false.
If she met someone like the person she used to be, she’d feel nothing but envy.
If he met someone like the person he used to be, he’d feel nothing but scorn.
The person she believed was honorable was anything but.
His marriage or other relationship isn’t worth saving.
Ending his relationship was the biggest mistake of his life.
She made the exact same mistake her mother made.
He’s lived up to his father’s legacy.
Just because the rest of his family lived a certain way doesn’t mean he can’t expect better.
Although he makes a lot of excuses, his real problem is that he’s lazy.
She’s no longer faking it.
The end of the relationship wasn’t his fault at all.
The end of the relationship was all her fault.
What he thought was a bad break turned out to be a blessing.
What she thought was a dream come true turned out to be a nightmare.
She’s the friend that people call only when everyone else is busy.
There’s no way for him to help someone who’s ruining her life, because she isn’t inclined to change.
It doesn’t matter how competent he is at work; to succeed, he has to learn better social skills.
It’s okay to ask for help.
Living up to other people’s expectations isn’t working out at all, and it’s time for her to do what makes her happy.
His son, daughter, or parent is a bad person.
She no longer believes in the religion in which she was raised.
He’s embraced a new faith or has found his faith again.
The adults in her life are making it up as they go along, just like she is.
Being an adult doesn’t mean she has to abandon the things she loved as a kid.
To a large degree, he can choose to be happy.
She’s an addict.
He’s not as smart or talented as everyone told him he was when he was a kid.
Although people put her down all the time when she was a kid, she’s actually quite smart or very talented.
Although she thinks of herself as a sarcastic person with a heart of gold, she’s actually a real jerk.
He’s way too hard on his spouse or child.
She no longer has friends.
He’s actually made a real friend.
She’s fallen in love.
Although he has some athletic talent, he’ll never be a professional sports player.
Her wild daydream isn’t so wild… it’s possible that she could actually attain it.
He’s become obsessed with a topic or activity.
There’s nothing in her life that she’s really passionate about. She’s just drifting along.
Her child is now an adult.
What happened to him wasn’t his fault.
He loathes his chosen career.
He is never going to love her.
She is never going to get over him.
She’s missed out on a lot of things by giving up on herself too easily.
He’s missed out on a lot of things by being afraid to take action in the first place.
It’s time for him to quit and cut his losses.
She needs to make her family a priority.
He’s forgiven him.
She’s forgiven herself.
He needs to stop taking life so seriously.
Despite the heartbreak or loss she suffered, the best part of her life might still be ahead of her.
SETTING PROMPTS
A strong sense of place can be an author’s secret weapon. It can transport readers to another time and place, making them forget about the real world around them. The setting can underscore the mood of a scene, or even provide the conflict. A romantic scene or a fight scene is all the more memorable if it’s set in a surprising location.
You can use all of the prompts in this section in one of two ways. (Okay, chances are, you’ll think of other ways to use them that I haven’t even considered.)
If you struggle with description, you can use any of these prompts as practice. Write a paragraph describing the scene. A description of the setting doesn’t need to go on and on; you can focus on a few key details. Many writers focus mostly on visual descriptions, but remember that including sounds, smells, and tactile details will create an even more immersive virtual reality for your reader.
You can also use these prompts as a way into a storyline. Imagine the scene, then start to write something that happens there. Don’t judge yourself—just go with your imagination.
50 Indoor Setting Prompts
The penthouse suite.
An elevator.
An indoor trampoline park.
A shopping mall.
A nail salon.
A cubicle in an office building.
An outdated kitchen.
The inside of a storage unit.
The inside of a cedar chest.
A hunting lodge decorated with pelts and antlers.
A bicycle repair shop.
A chocolate shop.
A pizza delivery place.
A day care for children.
A day care for dogs.
A school cafeteria.
A janitor’s closet.
A coat closet.
A factory floor.
A motel lobby.
A tuxedo rental store.
A great-grandmother’s living room.
The abandoned salt mine beneath Detroit…which is the size of a city.
A basement apartment.
A sports bar during a big game.
A truck stop.
A furniture gallery.
City Hall.
A living room in a tiny house—five hundred square feet or less.
An adobe house.
A yurt.
A mosque.
A synagogue.
A nursing home.
A bank vault.
An attorney’s office.
An insurance office.
A filthy motel room.
An underwater hotel.
The Oval Office in the White House.
A window seat.
A hayloft in a barn.
Balcony seats at an opera house.
A steam room.
A laboratory.
A hall lined with portraits in gilded frames.
An auto repair shop.
A
liquor store.
A school principal’s office.
An agricultural dome on a space colony.
50 Outdoor Setting Prompts
A sidewalk café.
A skateboard park.
A basketball court in a city neighborhood.
The front porch of a farmhouse.
Slag heaps.
A tunnel covered in graffiti.
A wishing well.
A party on a rooftop.
A gazebo in a park.
An amphitheater.
London Bridge.
The Grand Canyon, Arizona.
Central Park, New York City.
New York City’s Times Square, in the rain.
Outside the Eiffel Tower.
An outdoor bazaar or souq.
A courtyard in New Orleans.
An old New Orleans cemetery with above-ground graves.
A junkyard.
A recycling center.
A petting zoo.
A rainforest.
A desert plain.
Ice fields in Antarctica.
Lava fields in Iceland.
Mosquito Bay in Puerto Rico at night, glowing with bioluminescent plankton.
A meadow full of fireflies.
A boatyard.
A beach covered with pieces of sea glass.
An apartment balcony.
The balcony of an oceanfront home, with the ocean rising almost level.
The view from the top of a large water slide.
The view from the glass platform near the top of the Willis Tower in Chicago, over 1,450 feet in the air.
The Great Wall of China.
A treehouse.
A rock concert.
A Japanese tea garden.
The street of a favela or slum in Brazil.
A part of a city under federal quarantine.
A highway underpass, home to thousands of bats.
An abandoned amusement park.
A hundred stone pillars, supporting nothing.
A topiary garden.
Bison on a prairie.
A swimming pool behind a Bel Air mansion.
The flying reindeer training grounds at the North Pole.
A school of pink dolphins in the ocean.
A town square full of cats.
A broken and abandoned railroad track.