100+ Creative Writing Prompts You Need to Ignite the Writer in You

Is your lack of creative ideas leading you to your worst fear – writer’s block? It can be incredibly easy to get trapped in its clutches. You tend to spend hours on your laptop or notebook writing sentence after sentence only to cross it out.

Often, it takes a significant amount of time and hard thinking to get out of the vicious rut once you become stuck. Sometimes, you just need a little more than that, probably a hard push.

Now, picture this – your imagination is a match and requires lighting it. There are countless methods to set a match ablaze, i.e., to develop story ideas. You can swipe it against a rough surface, use your nail, swipe it on the ground, or even light it with another match already burning.

But what is the best and easiest way? Striking it against the matchbox, the match came. This matchbox is your creative prompt.

Creative writing prompts are the missing link all writers need, like a match needs a matchbox. Writing prompts serve to unlock creativity. They are story starters that are devised to inspire creative thinking. They can effectively transport you to places or recall a vital moment in your life.

The next time you are at a loss for what to write about, try using picture prompts for creative writing or creative narrating writing prompts. To aid you in today’s post, we have curated a list of exceptional visual prompts for creative writing that will allow you to tap into your inner genius. They will also open your floodgates of imagination, motivate you to propel straight out of writer’s block and enable you to get the gears turning in your head again successfully.

What are Creative Writing Prompts? A Brief Overview

Creative writing is any kind of writing that exists outside the realms of traditional writing, like academic, professional, or journalism. It can be a poem, a fiction novel, a personal essay, or a combination of all of them.

Creative writing prompts can be an image, phrase, or even a physical object that helps kickstart your imagination and inspires you to write. It offers a spark of idea as a beginning point to stimulate a natural writing flow.

These prompts can come in different forms, like words, phrases, pictures, or even a series of questions. They generally comprise two parts – an idea or a potential topic to write about and specific instructions on what to do next.

These prompts can also be ideal for any form of writing, like nonfiction or fiction, copywriting, blogging, journaling, or poetry.

For instance, a creative writing prompt for fiction writers can be –

“Your key character encounters a bus accident and hears voices in the hospital. Pen down a short story about the dispute between the character and the voices and what truly occurred during the bus accident.”

Again, journal creative prompts tend to focus on self-awareness topics like –

“Write something about a turning point in your life. How distinct things would be if you took a different decision at the time?”

As you see, writing prompts are a quick and easy way to start a new writing project. Or to combat writer’s block when you are stuck.

Creative Writing Prompts: What Are its Benefits?

Including creative writing picture prompts in your daily writing routine has countless benefits. Not only can they get the creative juices flowing, but they can also help you warm up for a productive assignment writing session. Apart from these, certain remarkable benefits of creative writing prompts are –

• Creative writing prompts that are images can be used to create a daily writing practice.
• These prompts can enable you to break through the writer’s block.
• These prompts can allow you to increase your creativity.
• Writing prompts can also enable you to write for a long period of time.
•  It helps in focusing on a specific kind of writing.
• It also helps explore new styles and content in a small, safe test environment.
• It pushes an individual out of their comfort zone and helps write about things you may not generally write about.

As you see, creative writing prompts have numerous exclusive benefits that can make writing fun and exciting. If you are ready to take the plunge, now is the time to get started!

Here, we have compiled a list of outstanding and exceptional creative writing prompts that will set the creative wheel of your imagination in motion. These will enable you to find your own writing style and master your craft like a pro.

Have a look –

A List of Engaging Creative Writing Prompts to Let Your Imagination Fly

Creating Writing Prompts for Kids

1. Write about what your life would be like if you turned into a dog. What would you do regularly?
2. While playing, you find an old notebook hidden under a pile of boxes in the attic. What does it say? Who do you think it belongs to?
3. Imagine you have a magic garden. What kinds of magical flowers do you grow? How do you take care of them?
4. You just ate a chocolate that turned you 20 feet tall. What will you do now?
5. Write what you feel about the colour ‘pink’ without using the word ‘pink’
6. Complete this thought – ‘A spectacular day in my dream starts like this.’
7. Start a story with – ‘It was the winter of ___________ when__________’
8. You returned home from school only to find everything in your house was upside down. What do you think occurred?
9. You and your two best friends go out for a walk in the woods. Suddenly, you cannot find any of your friends. They seem to have vanished in the thin air. What do you think is happening?
10. Pen down a story about an adventurer who keeps getting lost. Write about where she is trying to go. What do you think she found along the way?

Creative Writing Prompts for High School

1. If you had a time machine, where would you go first – the past or the future? Why do you think so?
2. Write about how your life would be different if you didn’t have any access to a computer, video games, or even a smartphone.
3. You win a billion dollars, but there’s a catch – you must spend it all in a day or lose all the money. What will you do now?
4. Write a letter to your 50-year-old self. What do you think you will achieve by then?
5. You are walking down the root when you see someone who looks exactly like you. What will you do or tell the person?
6. Imagine this- you fell asleep for 150 years. What will the world look like when you wake up?
7. If you could take two persons – fictional or real – on a road trip, who would you take? Where will you go?
8. If you had to show aliens the best things on the earth, what would you show them?
9. Select a song lyric that remarkably explains your personality and expand it into a poem.
10. If you could write a book about anything in this world, what would you write about?

Creative Writing Prompts for Adults

1. Global warming has hit its worst point. Try to write down what the world would look like
2. Imagine a time when no one cares about the actors, singers, or athletes anymore. Who do you think will become the new celebrities?
3. You come across a time machine that enables you to travel back to the past. Write down the things you will tell your younger self based on the knowledge you have now.
4. Explain what you imagine to be occurring in a historical photograph
5. Explain a time you witnessed community solidarity
6. Write about a dream you have had that you want to live in forever
7. Create a list of twenty things that make you happy and please. Support each one with a reason.
8. Pen down a friendly letter to someone you admire. Incorporate two key reasons why you admire that person and how you have changed because of them.
9. Imagine you wake up with a supernatural ability. Explain how it works using at least ten sentences.
10. You are the inventor of a famous video game. One day, the key character from the game knocks on the front door of your house. What do you think he wants?

Creative Narrative Writing Prompts

1. Write about a time when you were given 3 wishes but couldn’t use them on yourself. Write a story about what you wish for and why.
2. Write about a time when you have just been shrunk down to the size of an ant. Pen a story incorporating the good and bad things about being so tiny.
3. Describe what would happen if you could live during a time when there was no electricity.
4. Write about your most memorable vacation. Describe a story from a part of that trip and why it stood out in your mind.
5. Explain a time when you lost something vital. Describe whether or not you found it.
6. Write a story about the strangest thing that has ever occurred to you. Why do you think it was so weird?
7. Describe a time when you felt your heart race fast. What actually occurred, and how were you feeling in the end?
8. If you were your teacher at your school for a day, describe the changes you would make and how
9. Describe an event from your past that has shaped who you are today. Write about the story surrounding that event and describe its significance on who you are today.
10. Picture your favourite character from a book or a movie. Pen down a story about going to meet them for the first time.

Funny Creative Writing Prompts

1. Describe a story that begins with someone having a potato and pickle sandwich.
2. Pen down a brief script where the plot has to do with evil dolls trying to take over a human
3. Describe a story when you played the perfect April Fool’s Day prank
4. Write about a character with a personality based on your favourite song
5. Narrate a story about a deck of cards coming to life. Explain the ways their personalities mix with each other.
6. Pen down a story about an individual who is trying to escape the afterlife
7. Describe a story about an outstanding historical figure learning how to use the internet. Write the things they found online when they Google themselves. Do they like it?
8. Pen down a story about a chicken that accidentally gave a dragon egg – much to the concern of the local population.
9. Describe the character who wakes up to find out the world is coming to an end. Even stranger than that, they find everyone around them is celebrating.
10. Describe when your cat wakes you up one day to let you know that his kind has taken over the world. It also proposes if you want to continue living, you are now his assistant.

Cool Creative Writing Prompts

1. Write about ten things you are passionate about. Write about them from the opposite perspective.
2. Pen down something inspired by a current dream you saw
3. Think about a dragon. Do you fight him, or do you become friends with him? Make use of your descriptive language.
4. Write about a character with at least five big problems
5. Pen down a story that keeps contradicting itself
6. Pen down a story from within a bubble
7. Your best buddy doesn’t care for Mexican food. List all the reasons why they need to reconsider their opinion and join you at your favourite Mexican restaurant.
8. Describe a story or scene set in the time of an apocalypse
9. Imagine you could pass any law. What will it be?
10. Describe the sound of your favourite song with the help of descriptive words.

Fantasy Creative Writing Prompts

1. Describe a character who possesses a superhuman power, but he/she doesn’t want it. Speak about the conflict of the character, his/her power, and the daily life they are compelled to lead.
2. Imagine you live in a fantasy world where people communicate without speaking to each other. Speak of an average day in this sci-fi and fairy tale world.
3. Imagine you are sitting at a bar speaking to a zebra. What do you think the conversation will be about?
4. Pen down a story where magic is everywhere and is used as a currency. Write about your main character who lacks any magical powers.
5. Pen down a story about a character who needs a miracle, and they meet one too! Describe a time when your character realised miracles were beings, not just something that occurs.
6. Look for a Talisman, a special object from your life. Close your eyes and hold it. How does it feel? What does it mean? Describe it.
7. Imagine this – you are the only human who can see ghosts. How will it save them from being removed from the human world for good?
8. Write about a time when the ocean becomes the sky.
9. Write about how a mysterious creature speaks to you in your dreams. It tells that when you are awake, you will possess the ability to see another realm.
10. Write about a time when you can buy a pill that lets you decide exactly what you will dream about when you go to sleep.

Mystery Creative Writing Prompts

1. Describe a time when you wake up with no memory of who you are, with the exclusion of a single name.
2. Write about a time when you get a letter asking you to a free weekend getaway, but you have no idea who the host is.
3. Write a time when someone you know throws an elaborate party to conceal a huge crime.
4. Suppose your sister was murdered countless years ago. The police have stopped investigating. So, how will you continue your search for the killer?
5. You suddenly realise you have been sleepwalking every night and have no idea what your sleeping self was doing. Write about your thoughts.
6. Write about a time when you and your friend discovered the secret hideout of a serial killer.
7. You discover a terrible secret when you are on your first hunting trip with your husband’s family. Write what your views were.
8. You thought your wife had passed away. So, why is she still writing you letters?
9. Your grandfather is keeping something weird in the attic. What did you find out when you went to the attic?
10. You meet a stranger on a transportation mode. Write about the story that follows.

Poetry Writing Prompts

1. Open a vocabulary on any page and choose the first word that captivates your attention. Set a timer for 15 minutes and craft a list of rhyming words. Now, try to pen down a poem using as many of those words as possible.
2. Pen down a poem about a rhythm. It can be about music, the river flow, or even the whooshing sound of a vehicle passing by. Weave the rhythm you hear into the poem’s tempo.
3. Pen down a poem about the feast. Explain how it looks, smells, and tastes. Make use of powerful imagery and incorporate various sensations of spices and flavours.
4. Write a poem from the point of view of a sports ball. Pen down what it might feel, see, hear, think, and experience.
5. Write a poem about an invisible ghost who picks up a pen and begins writing to you.
6. Tune into a radio station you do not usually listen to. Craft a poem inspired by the first message you hear.
7. Draft a poem on ways to do something boring most people take for granted, like turning on the lamp or pouring a cup of coffee.
8. Give yourself a challenge to craft a poem that is not more than 50 words long.
9. Imagine a time in your life when you could not make a decision. Write a poem based on this.
10. Write a poem on something or someone who/that is toxic and its impacts on a person.

Romance Creative Writing Prompts

1. Write about a scenario when you are left at the altar and are determined to take revenge on your ex.
2. Write about two soldiers on different sides of a war who develop feelings for each other.
3. Describe a member of the royal family who falls in love with her bodyguard.
4. Write about two rivals who have to pretend to be in a relationship, but they end up accidentally falling in love with each other.
5. Write about a time when two exes are compelled to work together, and they rekindle old feelings.
6. Write about a time when you fell in love with someone from a different dimension. Describe your feelings that you can only see each other once yearly when the portal opens.
7. You face a bad breakup and move to a new town. Then you find yourself attracted to your next-door neighbour. What will you do?
8. You go on a first date with someone you met online and find yourself stuck in a time loop. What do you do when you have to keep going on a date over and over?
9. You finally settle in a loveless arranged marriage, but fate has other plans. Pen down what happens.
10. Pen down a story about love at first sight. It doesn’t have to be about young people or even about people.

Science Fiction Creative Writing Prompts

1. Write about what happens when you wake up one morning to discover that you can move to any planet of your choice.
2. Describe when you realise you have one hour to revisit any moment from your life. What will you choose?
3. Describe when you realised that gravity no longer exists.
4. Write about when you decided to go on your first-ever recreational space journey.
5. Do you think everyone in the world can read thoughts except for one person? If that’s you, how do you feel?
6. You possess the power to create one separate plan. Write about how you will create it and who gets to live there.
7. The world is dying. To save it, you have the command to sacrifice yourself to an invading alien group. How will you do it?
8. Write about when your parents sent you off to a summer camp filled with time travellers.
9. Describe a time when you lived in a moon colony surrounded by high walls. What happens one day when you breach the walls?
10. Describe what would happen if you woke up in someone else’s body and they woke up in yours.

Contemporary Prompts

1. Pen down an adaptation of your favourite classic tale set in the town you grew up in
2. Write about two best buddies who go on a road trip and face a problem they never expected
3. Discuss about an adopted orphan who goes on a journey to reunite with her birth family.
4. Write about a family secret that transforms everything you think you know about your life.
5. Write about a college student who designs an invention for a technology class, and becomes viral accidentally.
6. Write about a painter in his early seventies who strives with his slow descent into blindness.
7. Write about the time when a carefree playboy is forced to adopt a child, and this transforms his whole life.
8. Describe when you are framed for a crime you didn’t commit and no one believes you are innocent except your mother.
9. Describe what you are afraid of. How do you feel when you are scared, and how do you react?
10. Write about a recent conflict that you dealt with in your life.

Other Interesting Creative Writing Prompts

1. Write your feelings about being inside an old, isolated warehouse
2. Describe the time you were asked to stay quiet when you felt like shouting
3. Discuss the time when you were being insulted. How did that make you feel? What are your feelings about the other person who insulted you?
4. Describe what would happen if your mirror began speaking to you. What do you think the mirror would say?
5. Describe about coming out of the dark and seeing the light
6. Describe the power you felt when you straightaway said ‘no’ to someone
7. What do you think the memory lane looks like? Write how you think you can get there
8. Describe a time when you got stuck in between two parties arguing with each other aggressively.
9. Consider a place you went to when you were young, but it is no longer there or something else. Pen down your feelings
10. Write about a time when you missed someone dearly and broke into tears. Pen down the feeling when you thought you couldn’t breathe.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are creative prompts, and how can they inspire my writing?

Creative writing prompts are ideas that enable writers to overcome writer’s block and get started with their writing. A creative writing prompt can come in different forms, including a word, phrase, picture, or series of questions.

Creative prompts can encourage you to craft in a style you have never tried or unravel a new topic or genre. It can also offer you a clear objective to achieve when you can’t figure out how to proceed with another writing project. Further, it can help one to hone his/her craft even when their creative well is running dry.

Where can I find a variety of creative writing prompts to overcome writer’s block?

• Online writing communities like Reddit, Tumblr
• Writing prompt books

Creative writing prompts generator

• Creative writing apps like ‘Prompts’, ‘The Brainstormer’, and ‘Writing Prompts’
• Social media platforms
• Writing workshops and online creative courses
• Blogs and websites
• Creative writing books and magazines
• Real-life experiences and observations
• Personal experiences and memories

How do creative writing prompts help develop my writing skills and foster creativity?

• Creative writing prompts can offer a place to start when you are stuck for ideas.
• It helps in concentrating your thoughts and getting your creative juices flowing.
• It challenges one to think outside the box, thereby developing problem-solving skills.
• It helps to develop your unique voice as a writer
• It enables you to improve your grammar and mechanics
• It helps in combating writer’s block

Can using creative writing prompts be beneficial for both novice and experienced writers?

Creative writing prompts can be beneficial for both novice and experienced writers. For experienced writers, these prompts can be a remarkable way to explore new themes and ideas or to challenge themselves to craft in a distinct style or genre. For novice writers, prompts can be an outstanding way to start with creative writing and master the basics of grammar and mechanics.

How can I effectively integrate and adapt creative writing prompts to fit the genre or style I am interested in?

• Select a prompt relevant to the genre or style you aim to write in.
• Consider the setting, plot of the story, and the characters you want to pen down
• Keep the tone and the voice of the story you want to write
• Do not be afraid to experiment when it comes to infusing and adapting creative writing prompts