Creativity Collection: 20 Writing Prompts to Banish Writer’s Block

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 5

Prompt 61

Story Summary Prompt

Build on this summary for a novel:

With the Will and the Word, anything is possible. Well, almost anything. There are, of course, limitations to every form of magic, even the almighty Word. Take love, for example. You can’t make someone love you using magic. Crazy, I know. You can move mountains, read thoughts and even manipulate time if you’re powerful enough. But love? That’s out of the question.

I found that out the hard way.

Prompt 62

Picture Prompt

Does the shadow reflect what truly lies within? Tell the story of this picture.

Prompt 63

Psychology Prompt

Hero syndrome—a condition in which the individual engineers dangerous situations so that they can step in and play the hero.

Give your protagonist hero syndrome. What desperate situation will they set up? How might their attempts to save the day go wrong? And what will they have to do to become a true hero?

Prompt 64

Music Prompt

Chimerical Dream by Beyond Music.

Prompt 65

Fascinating Phenomenon Prompt

Auras—a field of radiation surrounding the body.

Write a story in which one of the characters is able to see auras. Do auras change according to mood? Personality? Magic wielding?

Prompt 66

Quote Prompt

“I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. Myth is more potent than history. Dreams are more powerful than facts. Hope always triumphs over experience. Laughter is the cure for grief. Love is stronger than death.”
— Robert Fulghum

Prompt 67

Opening Line Prompt

Ceri was dying again.

Prompt 68

Magic System Prompt

Combine the movement of hand fans with magic. What if certain gestures with the fan could control and manipulate magic? (This picture illustrates the concept beautifully.)

How might this be used and abused, for example, in Victorian hand fan language—to influence others attending a ball, perhaps, or to ensnare a suitor beyond your character’s social class? Alternately, could power be wielded through dancing with fans, as in the traditional Korean dance Buchaechum, or through fighting with them, as with the Japanese war fan?

Prompt 69

Personality Disorder Prompt

Write about a character in a relationship with someone with histrionic personality disorder. What kind of obstacles do the couple have to overcome?

Prompt 70

Story Summary Prompt

Everyone has a few skeletons in the closet, but with me it’s not quite so metaphorical. You see, I have my own demons to fight—quite literally.

Who is the person speaking in this summary? What exactly are they fighting against?

Prompt 71

Folklore Prompt

Write a story featuring the Seelie and Unseelie courts. Perhaps your protagonist accidentally offends a fairy, or their actions earn the respect of a member of one of the courts—which could bring problems of its own.

Prompt 72

Description Prompt

Continue this description:

The obelisk rose like a spire from the centre of it all, the jewel at its pinnacle glinting in the light, a second sun.

Prompt 73

Phrase Prompt

“Quantum mutates ab illo.”
Meaning: how changed from what he once was.

Write about a character who has lost the person he used to be. Will he try to rediscover it?

Prompt 74

Opening Line Prompt

I never got to say goodbye.

Prompt 75

Quote Prompt

“Yet she had the skill and the luck to elude her implacable pursuers.”
— David Lehman, from the poem Fifth Amendment

Who is ‘she’? Who are her pursuers? And why are they pursuing her so mercilessly?

Prompt 76

Description Prompt

Imagine you were writing a description of your favourite piece of music for a person who has been deaf from birth. How might you use the other senses and metaphors to describe the music?

Prompt 77

Legendary Figure Prompt

Retell the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin in a modern setting.

Prompt 78

Unexpected Perspective

Write a story about a character’s adventures, from the perspective of her pet cat.

Prompt 79

Quote Prompt

“History is written by the victors.”
— Winston Churchill

Prompt 80

Plot Twist Prompt

Write a story in which the protagonist is struggling against a faceless antagonist, only to find at the end that they have unknowingly been the antagonist all along.

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