Questions? Chat with us
Text us 214.531.4781 24/7 Support

0 Comments

5 Types of Prompts to Get You Writing Today

Thinking of good ideas for stories can be half the battle when it comes to creative writing. This article looks at looks at five ways writers can get prompts for stories, some relying on random luck and others on sharing ideas with others. By using these methods, writers can find inspiration and write stories they would never have thought about otherwise.
Have you ever felt motivated to smite something but couldn’t think of what to smite about? There is a number of well-established, as well as more novel, ways of getting you started on a project. Try one of these methods next time you’re feeling stuck, and see where it takes you.

Reddit Writing Prompts for a Paper

There’s a whole subreddit devoted to writing prompts, where fellow writers think of creative prompts primarily for short stories, which range from the profound (“Heaven is just a permanent loop of your life’s favorite moment without you realizing it is on a loop.) to the hilarious (“At age 18 you can choose one of three superpowers: flight, invisibility, or a really, really long tongue. No one’s chosen the third one, until now”). You can either pick your favorite or make yourself write a story based on the one currently at the top of the list.

Close Your Eyes and Pick a Word from the Dictionary

This method involves flicking through a dictionary with your eyes dosed, putting your finger on a page without looking, and writing a story based on that word. While it may take a few tries to get something that isn’t a conjunction or something else which won’t provide any kind of prompt, you may find that the random word takes you out of your comfort zone to write about something you’d never normally think about.

Random Wikipedia Articles

Wikipedia has a “random article” button on the left-hand side which scours its database and brings up a completely random article from the millions on the site. Often, it seems to bring uptown names or minor historical characters, which you can use as a basis to build your imagination upon and write a story about what happened in that place or to that person. This can take your essay or paper to another level, with the perfect prompt.

Taking a Popular Story/Situation/Person and Reversing It

This method may involve taking someone else’s intellectual property (e.g., a famous work of fiction), so in that case  may not go beyond personal practice, but you could also take an event in history or a famous person. Then, write something which completely turns the related events or celebrity’s personality on its head to explore what the world would be like in such a case. Robert Harris’ novel Fatherland does exactly this, exploring what the world would be like if the Nazis had won World War II.

Group Prompt Swaps

This is a popular activity in creative writing groups: Members think of prompts and swap them with each other, allowing people to practice thinking of prompts and having fun seeing what others do with them. If you’re not part of a real-world study group, it’s easy to get connected online and share ideas and activities with other writers.

Becoming a good writer takes practice, and although paper and essay prompts may often be nothing more than creative distractions which hone your skills, occasionally you may strike gold and find that a prompt leads you to write something wonderful which you’d never have thought of otherwise.