Oh, writing prompts. How I love thee. Now, writing prompts are helpful for many reasons, the obvious one being: THEY MOTIVATE YOU AND ME TO WRITE! They are a tonic against writer’s block *gagging noise* and a fun way to exercise your imagination. What’s great about prompts is that they give you enough direction to actually have something to write about while also giving you the freedom to take what you’ve been given and go a million different routes.

Some other advantages are that writing prompts can help inspire a scene for a preexisting story, help you finish a scene you might be stuck on, or help you come up with a brand new story idea. This has certainly been the case for me as well as KelseyDragon17. In fact, we often do prompts together when we hang out and then swap what we’ve written when we are done. Other times, if I feel like writing but don’t want to work on anything specific or just want to create something, I’ll pick a random prompt and time myself for let’s say, fifteen minutes. That’s a great way to warm-up your brain and/or keep it in shape so that you’re still writing something on a day to day basis.

Do I write everyday? Heck, no. I wish. 😛 But, I’m trying. And in case you want to give prompt writing a try as well, I’ve included five specific kinds of prompts you can use to gain inspiration. (They also happen to be my favorites, but that’s not as important.)

• PINTEREST PROMPTS – If you simply go on Pinterest and type in “writing prompts” you will get a whole lot of pins with a lot of different prompts on them. Some have one sentence scene descriptions that give you various situations to go off of, while others give you a snippet of dialogue. Still others give you a character or setting description to use. I love these. I love these so much I have a whole board dedicated to writing prompts on my account. In addition to the word-poster prompts you might see, if you search “writing inspiration pictures” you can find a lot of really interesting pictures to use as prompts. Again, I have a board dedicated to these bad boys. A little disclaimer: KD17 and I had this discussion, and apparently, a prompt is not a Pinterest prompt unless it was inspired by a picture or prompt from there. What I mean is, you can’t write a scene and then find a picture the next day and say that that scene is a Pinterest prompt. I know, I tried.
• PROMPT GENERATORS – There are a TON of random generators online that you can use for writing inspo. I’ve found plot, dialogue, backstory, setting, character description, character profile, and even character costume generators just by searching “writing prompt generator” on Google. I always laugh when I use these; they can be so random but that helps sometimes. And for on the go, search for the same thing on your smartphone’s app store. They have just as many for mobile devices as they do online.
• PROMPT BOOKS – Oh geez. Now, I’m getting hyped. Writing prompt books are the bomb.com. They just are. Especially the 642 Things to Write About book by 826 Valencia. They have a whole line of prompt books to either write or draw something and they come in regular and travel size. They also have a “Young Writer’s” edition, which HELLO WE ARE ALL YOUNG WRITERS so I thought that was pretty lit. What’s nice about the YW edition is that the prompts are totally kid-friendly and I’d even say slightly more whimsical. The layout varies from page to page, so some prompts have more space for writing than others while others have blank space for drawing if you wanted to. I’d suggest if a prompt really inspires you, keep a notebook handy in case you need more room. The other book I have is “Complete the Story” by Piccadilly. I actually just got this one for my birthday. 😉 The book gives you a prompt that literally cuts off and it’s up to you to finish it. I personally like to change the POVs and names of the characters if they are included in a prompt, but that’s just me.

• FOUND OBJECTS – When I’m out, I sometimes get inspiration by looking at things (especially when shopping). I see pictures, pieces of jewelry, books, even something as random as a candlestick and I automatically have a scene idea swirling around in my head. Going to thrift stores like Goodwill or garage sales are great ways to find inspo because everything has a history, a significance and though you may not know the real story, you can make up one, and thus, create a story. Paper documents (old or new) like postcards can be sources of inspiration too. Ask yourself: What’s happening in the photo on the postcard? Who is the person writing the postcard? Who is the person receiving the postcard? Where are they? The questions are endless.
• FRIENDS & FAMILY – You heard me! Ask your friends/family for something to write about. It can be anything. Have them read a piece of your work and ask them what else should happen in that scene. Tell them to shout the first word or phrase that comes to their mind and use that. Or, simply use the interactions you have with them as dialogue in your story. Nothing makes dialogue more believable than using things that people actually said. Of course, you might want to tell them that you are using your conversation with them as inspiration before you type it up. 😛

And there you have it. Five types of prompts that will hopefully motivate you to write. Let us know which kinds you try out and how they work for you! (Btw: both prompt books mentioned can be found on our Amazon Store site.)