Writing Prompts: What, Why, and Examples

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Introduction

If you have been writing for a while or are very involved with writing somehow, you have probably heard about writing prompts. If you haven’t heard of them yet, don’t sweat about it!

Writing prompts are a great tool for writers, especially when it comes to exercise creative writing, and if you have read previous blog posts, you know we are all about helping writers, and this includes giving them tools to excel on anything that relates to their work.

The What

Writing prompts have a name that is pretty much self-explanatory but to dot the i's and cross the t's, I will give you the literal definition. Writing prompts are nothing more than writing exercises that direct people to write about a particular topic.

Even if you are not a writer, you have probably been exposed to this in school. The teacher asks “Write about your summer” or “Write about a time where you feel this or that.” Well, these are ALL examples of writing prompts (some call them essay prompts).

The Why

For authors, writing prompts tend to have fewer details or be more subjective (you will get a better grasp of what I am saying when we get to specific examples), and that’s to get the author out of his or her comfort zone.

Sometimes writing about a topic you don’t usually write about is the perfect exercise to broaden your perspective and get new ideas flowing. And sometimes you will have a complete abstract interpretation of a prompt and that will lead you to think of all the possible scenarios for that specific story.

To make a long story short, writing prompts encourage creativity. It can force you to think outside the box and explore new avenues of thought. And if you’re having writer’s block? Writing prompts are good to pull you out of it.

Last but not least, you can improve at pretty much anything in life if you EXERCISE. A lot of times writing more makes people write better overall.

Examples

We have an awesome Pinterest board full of writing prompts ready for you to use!

But here are some of my ideas to get you started:

• Use the lyrics of your favorite song as inspiration for a short story

• Rewrite your favorite story the way you would want it to be

• Write a story with 3 objects (e.g. a key, a boat, and a dead body)

• Write a story where all creatures have magic powers, but practicing magic is forbidden

• Write a story where the main character has a gray moral compass

The options are endless! You can get more ideas from our board or across the Internet, or you may come up with your own writing prompts based on your personal life. Anything that gets you writing is valid!