Creativity Collection: 20 Writing Prompts to Stir Up Your Story

Need an infusion of inspiration for your muse? Look no further. I have just the concoction in the form of 20 more writing prompts.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4


Prompt 81

Folklore Prompt

Kitsune—foxes from Japanese folklore. In some stories, kitsune have magical abilities, can shapeshift, and may have as many as nine tails. In other stories, kitsune shapeshift into human women and take mortal husbands. Their children, when born human, have supernatural powers of their own.

Write a story featuring kitsune. Are they tricksters or guardians, friends or foes?


Prompt 82

Opening Line Prompt

The door had had no lock the day before.


Prompt 83

Music Prompt

The Highwayman by Loreena McKennitt.

Flesh out the story of The Highwayman through a short story or novel.


Prompt 84

Picture Prompt

Tell the story of one of the soldiers on this ship, as it bears down on Alexandria.


Prompt 85

Phrase Prompt

“Haut gout.”
Meaning: slight taint of decay.

Where might a slight taint of decay be shown? Is it the smell that comes out of an old house your character is entering? Is it the corruption at the heart of a government or corporation? Or maybe it comes from the personalities of the characters themselves?


Prompt 86

Music Prompt

The Doctor’s Wife by The Clockwork Quartet.


Prompt 87

Genre Prompt

Clockpunk. What if the world ran on clockwork? Write about an alternate history in which the technological advancements of recent history were developed during the Renaissance through the power of clockwork.


Prompt 88

Dialogue Prompt

“A couple of months back, I talked to a man who had just returned from this new world across the sea—they call it Avalon, the land of miracles—and he told me that incredible things happen there, the likes of which you and I can’t imagine. He said he’d seen beasts who could talk as well as any of us; objects spring from nothing at a single word; deadly injuries healed in the blink of an eye. White magic, Maira! He’d seen white magic!”


Prompt 89

Conflict Prompt

Write about a scene from your character’s childhood, from their adult perspective. How has time warped their memories, blurred them or distorted them?


Prompt 90

Historical Figure Prompt

Write about the life and death of Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, also known as Madame de Pompadour.


Prompt 91

Opening Line Prompt

It didn’t take a sword stroke to kill him—just the stroke of a pen.


Prompt 92

Conflict Prompt

Write a story about skiers trapped by an avalanche and their journey back to safety.


Prompt 93

Psychological Condition Prompt

Fugue amnesia—when a person is unable to recall details about themselves, such as their identity, personality or memories, for a short time. This is usually during a traumatic or stressful period, with memories returning slowly some time later.

Write about a character who suffers from this kind of amnesia. Their memories have been impaired and the novel follows their struggle to remember what happened during their period of amnesia.


Prompt 94

Magic System Prompt

Imagine a system of magic where the potency of a spell is based on the colour associated with the magic-wielder. For example, someone with ‘red’ magic may not be as powerful as someone with ‘violet’ magic.


Prompt 95

Lyrics Prompt

“Holy water cannot help you now
A thousand armies couldn’t keep me out
I don’t want your money
I don’t want your crown
See I’ve come to burn
Your kingdom down.”
— From Seven Devils by Florence and the Machine


Prompt 96

Picture Prompt

Who lives here?


Prompt 97

Conflict Prompt

What are you most afraid of? What would make this feared thing become even worse? Now unleash it on your main character.


Prompt 98

Description Prompt

Continue this with a description that uses all the senses but sight:

It was behind her; she could feel it.


Prompt 99

Dialogue Prompt

“There were ways, back when I was young, to bind the soul to the earth even after the body was gone.”


Prompt 100

Conflict Prompt

Write a story set in a city that can dismantle and rebuild itself whenever it is threatened. Who lives there? What might threaten them? What happens if they can’t get away in time?


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