Writing Prompts: 7 Creative Writing Topics to Get You Started

Creative writing prompts are short ideas that help someone begin writing about a certain subject. People craft these prompts in a variety of ways. A prompt might be the potential first sentence of a short story or a more detailed premise. Prompts can help you get over writer’s block, practice to become a better writer overall, or give you something to write about for fun.

There are numerous types of prompts you can use to get your creative juices flowing. Here are three of the main categories of creative writing prompts you can expect:

1. 1. Fiction writing prompts: If you’re looking to write a new story and coming up dry for inspiration, look into a fiction prompt to jumpstart your writing process. These can be as simple as “Write a love story” or as complex as “Write a science fiction story about a world where people have mysteriously forgotten everything that happened over the last hundred years.” Some fiction writing prompts come in the form of well-developed premises, while others suggest a theme for the author.
2. 2. Free writing exercises: Occasionally, starting to write anything can help unlock your own ideas. Free writing exercises will give you a subject or sometimes even a word to inspire you to write whatever you please. Pay no attention to plot, structure, writing style, or anything else—these are solely stream-of-consciousness exercises. If you’ve ever written about your everyday life as a diary entry, you’ve already done something close to free writing.
3. 3. Nonfiction writing prompts: Perhaps you prefer writing about real-life events rather than imaginary worlds. In that case, nonfiction prompts can be useful in your creative journey. These can be as broad as, “Write an essay about your favorite place during your favorite season” or as specific as, “Write an essay about whether or not you think scientists can solve climate change concerns in your lifetime.”

Writing inspiration can come from all sorts of places. See if any of these seven creative writing ideas help you get started:

1. 1. A chance to explore your fears: To start a horror story, imagine you are locked in a house with no clear means of escape—all you know is the thing you fear the most is lurking around a dark corner and you must find a way to survive the night. This prompt gives you a chance to work on your writing skills while also helping you wrestle with a specific phobia and how you could conceivably conquer it.
2. 2. A fan fiction exercise: While copyright issues will prevent you from actually publishing any story you base on your favorite book, movie, or video game, you can always use another writer’s work as a backdrop for your own story writing as a private exercise. Write in the first person as if you were the main character in your favorite series, or imagine what it would be like to have the superpowers of your favorite hero. See if this exercise allows you to come up with any more original ideas of your own.
3. 3. A letter to a loved one: Take a moment to simply write out a letter to a best friend or family member. Tell them all your favorite things about them in as eloquent a manner as possible. Alternatively, suppose you have an unresolved issue with someone you’ve grown to dislike. Write a letter expressing everything you wish you could say to them about how they upset you.
4. 4. A new take on a fairy tale: Think of your favorite stories and fantasy worlds as a child. Many of these sorts of fairy tales now exist in the public domain, so it’s possible you could use a classic fairy tale storyline and publish your own original take. For example, perhaps you could recast a classic villain as a misunderstood hero.
5. 5. An op-ed about current events: Some forms of writing practice can also help you gain insight and empathy for other people. Choose a current event or controversy and write about it from your own perspective. As soon as you finish, write another op-ed as compellingly as you can from the opposite point of view to challenge yourself.
6. 6. A reflection on your past: Your own life can be a rich source of inspiration for your writing. Try writing about a summer camp you went to in elementary school, a road trip you took while you were a high schooler, or the last time you went to a party in college with your friends.
7. 7. A sci-fi adventure: Use time travel as the basis for a science fiction story idea. Write about going to your favorite period of history in a time machine. Add this twist—you travel back in time, but you accidentally land on a different planet in outer space. Ask yourself what would be different about that planet’s past than our own. Determine whether you could use any lessons from our history to educate the inhabitants of this other world. Perhaps you could learn something from them along the way, too.

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