What others are saying about
1,000 Creative Writing Prompts
"For anyone who ever finds themselves struggling for inspiration for a writing project, 1,000 Creative Writing Prompts could be a valuable - and reasonably priced - investment."
Nick Daws, My Writing Blog
"When I read through Bryan Cohen's "1,000 Creative Writing Prompts", I was more than pleasantly surprised. Not only are there prompts in areas to appeal to every writer, they're set up as questions which make them so much more usable and the outcome unique to each writer...Whether you're pushing through the Great American Novel or have always dreamed of being a published author, this book is another sterling tool to add to your writing room."
Jubilee Jones, Author and Blogger
"If you like writing, at all, whether it's just for you, for practice, or for an audience, you need to take a gander at this. The title is no joke. There really are 1,000 writing prompts, and they aren't lame. Bryan did a fan-freaking-tastic job of pulling these together. You don't have to have major publishing goals to benefit from this collection of prompts, you just have to like to write."
Ashley Daoust, Freelance Writer and Editor
"From holidays to seasons, from memories to 'the weird,' there is something for even the pickiest writer...Bryan Cohen’s prompts are, in my opinion, pure genius in their construction."
Deb Gallardo, Story Ideas Virtuoso
1,000 CREATIVE WRITING PROMPTS:
IDEAS FOR BLOGS, SCRIPTS, STORIES AND MORE
by
Bryan Cohen
SMASHWORDS EDITION
* * *
PUBLISHED BY:
Bryan Cohen on Smashwords
1,000 Creative Writing Prompts:
Ideas for Blog, Scripts, Stories and More
Copyright 2010 by Bryan Cohen
Smashwords Edition License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.
Cover image is provided courtesy of iStockPhoto.com user Petro Feketa. Book cover designed by Amy Dombrower.
***
Table of Contents
My name is Bryan Cohen and I want to help you write. I’m the author of a Web site called Build Creative Writing Ideas and I’m also the author of this book.
I’ve found that one of the toughest things for a writer is to come up with ideas and so I’ve created 1,000 Creative Writing Prompts: Ideas for Blogs, Scripts, Stories and More to help writers avoid the dreaded writer’s block that I keep hearing about. These prompts have over 50 different subjects including holidays, race, romantic comedy, childhood, prom and even the American Dream.
A prompt is a jumping off point that helps you to get your brain and pen moving. Some of these prompts are questions, some are scenarios and many of them deal with your own life and memories. When you use a memory or an emotion to write from, it helps you to feel like you aren’t starting from scratch. There are thousands of stories already in your brain and many of these prompts are attempts to jog your memory and to use your brain for all it’s worth.
I also feel that when you use your memories and your heart for these prompts, the writing ends up coming from a place of great truth. Even if you are writing a fantastical story about a boy and his dog, if it comes from a foundation of honesty, the story will strike a chord with your readers. Successful franchises like Harry Potter work for a number of reasons, but I believe the main reason is that we relate to those characters. Creating from truth is the first step to successful writing.
I’m proud to say that these prompts are original and that I’ve put many, many hours into coming up with them. I’ve gotten some extremely positive feedback from users of my website and so the creation of this book was the next logical step.
I’ve written a few short essays to help get you started, but you can start writing from the prompts right away if you wish. So…hop to it!
How to Be a Writer
A lot of people feel like they need some kind of permission to be called a writer. Like once they’ve taken enough classes or once they’ve published something there is some tribunal that will decree that they are now in fact writers. Others feel as though they’re writers even though they’ve never even made an effort to write more than a short story here and a poem there.
We live in a tough world full of put-downs and negative talk. If someone does not have the will or the ability to achieve his dreams he may feel the desire to kick around the aspirations of other people. We may hear this kind of unproductive negativity from our parents, friends, loved ones and those we mistakenly see as our enemies.
A writer is a person who can see through all this negativity and still feel passionate about writing. A writer wants to write and wants to figure out ways to make writing more a part of his life. There are some writers that are financially successful and others who haven’t made a dime, but they are all still writers.
If you say over and over again that you aren’t qualified enough to be a writer…you will fulfill your own (kind of boring) prophecy. If you tell yourself that you are a writer and you tell other people this over and over again, the opposite will be true. But how do you know if you’re a writer?
If you aren’t sure if you qualify as a writer, there is only one thing you need to do.
Write. Just write. Write as much as you can as often as you can. It doesn’t matter if you’ve written anything lately, just start now. If you have an off week, month or year, it doesn’t matter because you can start writing again at any time. If you have the desire to write and you can give yourself the permission to have this passion in your life then you are a writer.
This is about the time that the excuses come rolling in:
“I don’t have enough time.”
“Writing doesn’t pay and I’m broke.”
“I don’t have any motivation.”
Solving these problems is as easy as visiting your local library. Hundreds of books have been written about time management, financial management and creating motivation in your life. Continuing to make these excuses and ones like them, with solutions available at any time (for free, no less) is essentially laziness.
Laziness is boring. A life of spending your free time watching television and learning everything you can learn online about celebrities (or the like) is boring. If you even have an inkling of wanting to be a writer, pick up a few books that will leave your excuses in the dust and try working hard to make something of yourself.
My website, Build Creative Writing Ideas has many tips and tricks to improve your motivation and time management, so if you can’t get off your butt to visit the library check it out. For those of you who are ready to write, strap yourself in and try a few of these prompts on for size. Happy writing!
How to Write from Prompts
These 1,000 creative writing prompts have been compiled from various ideas that have floated in and out of my head over the last two years. I have made as many as I can very open ended so that the same prompt could be used multiple times over.
The prompts often take the form of a scenario with a question:
“259. You see a little boy wander into the middle of a busy intersection. What do you do?”
There are multiple ways that you could choose to write from this prompt. You could launch into a first person story or explanation:
“I would immediately drop all of my belongings and run to his safety. As I run into traffic, my life would flash before my eyes and I would hope desperately that I could make it to the boy in time to save us both…”
You could make it into a third-person fiction story:
“Derrick and Joey laughed and sipped their drinks. All of a sudden, Joey noticed something out of the corner of his eye.
‘What the…’
Joey trailed off as he noticed a young boy trip and fall in the middle of the road. He was all alone. Joey was the only person with enough time to act…”
Or you could transport it into another genre:
“The boy tripped and fell in the middle of the road. The truck struck him with all its force and it quickly shattered into a million pieces. The nearby cars screeched to a half and stared with their mouths agape at the uninjured boy.”
What you write from these prompts could be the start of an entire story or it could just allow you to get a few paragraphs in for the day. You could write a blog post based on what you write, a short story, a poem, a teleplay, a screenplay, a stage play, a novel or anything else that requires putting pen to paper.
These are not assignments by any means. You can write as much or as little as you wish. Run with an idea until you can’t think of anything else and then try another one. Write one story from a prompt and then write a completely different story from the same prompt. What you use these prompts for is up to you. If you turn one of these prompts into a million-dollar screenplay (and I hope you do) go off and enjoy yourself, because I will not expect anything from you in the slightest. I created these ideas so that writers could simply write from the heart without having to think too much so go off and make me proud :).
If you do not like a prompt, you don’t have to write from it. You can also come up with a new prompt based on the prompt you don’t like. Seriously, whatever you want to do with this book and these prompts, please feel free to do it. I just want you to write! If you ever have a question about where a prompt came from or what I meant by a particular prompt, feel free to contact me on my site, Build Creative Writing Ideas.
Writing Every Day
One fantastic way to use this book is to write from one prompts every day to keep yourself trained and fresh. Writing every day can be difficult to get started but once you make it a habit it’ll be just like flossing (except much less gross).
The method that I like to use to integrate new habits into my life is a method developed by blogger Steve Pavlina called “The 30 Day Plan.” One of the mistakes people make when trying to add a habit to their lives is that they think too far down the line wondering, “How could I possibly make this a habit for the rest of my life?”
Steve Pavlina recommends that you look a lot more short term. He likens adding a new habit to installing some software with a free 30 day trial. Try adding a new habit (like writing the prompts) to your routine for just 30 days. Choosing this time constraint allows you to easily block the month off in your calendar and it doesn’t feel too overwhelming to just think about four tiny little weeks.
The best thing about “The 30 Day Plan” however is that 30 days is as long as your brain needs to make a task into a habit. You have slowly but surely trained your brain into writing a prompt every single day and now it’s already a part of your life. This makes it a much simpler task to keep writing a part of your day.
Find a time of day that you almost always have free. This time should also be a part of the day that you are energized and awake. If you always get home from work tired, you may not want to choose the ten or fifteen minutes right when you return. The time should be specific and consistent. I enjoy writing in the morning after I’ve gone on a jog and I’ve had a light breakfast. Another reason I choose the morning is because if something comes up, I have the rest of the day to find time for it.
Set a clear goal for yourself. Some people set a word count per day or set it at one page per day. To start out, you may just want to require only a few sentences per day to get in the swing of things. An example of a clear writing goal is:
"I will write 200 words from a different writing prompt each day at 8 a.m. for 30 days starting August 1st."
Once your goal is set, all you have to do is start. So hop to it and let me know how it goes. Thanks so much for trying out 1,000 Creative Writing Prompts. I wish you all the writing success in the world.
Sincerely,
Bryan Cohen
Author of 1,000 Creative Writing Prompts
http://www.build-creative-writing-ideas.com
***
Creative Writing Prompts: Halloween
1. Explain your most memorable Halloween: from the candy you received, the costume you wore, the environment of your neighborhood (if you trick or treated) and why it has dwarfed all of your other Halloween experiences.
2. You have a 16 year old daughter who wants to go to a Halloween party with all of her peers. You take her to the Halloween store to find an "appropriate" costume. She is resistant to most "conservative" choices. Describe the encounter, your feelings, and what you end up deciding upon.
3. In a burst of charity, you are planning to be the best Halloween house in the neighborhood by giving away the best candy. Go through the days of preparation and detail your holiday evening. How have the children reacted? Have you sample one too many of the goodies, perhaps?
4. Best Halloween costume you've ever been in. Go through the entire process of creating it and the reactions of your peers.
5. The top 5 costumes you've ever seen on Halloween. Why they were so memorable to you and why you wish you'd thought of them first.
6. You see an actual ghost on Halloween! Not necessarily an angry one, but definitely a depressed ghost. How do you help him cope with death and his haunting afterlife?
7. You are throwing the best Halloween party in town! Describe your preparation, the shin-dig itself, the aftermath, and the cleanup. Did you enjoy yourself? Did your house almost burn down?
8. Research the origins of Halloween and try to imagine what it would be like on one of the first commercial Halloweens. Write a story about a boy or girl in those early days of the holiday.
9. You and your significant other need to create a "couples" costume. What do you pick and why? How does it go over with the group? If you do not have a significant other, just use your ideal mate in the story instead :).
10. You go on a candy eating binge! Detail your feelings during the pig-out session, when you reach your breaking point, and how you feel the rest of the night (and following day).
11. You get the esteemed pleasure of explaining Halloween to a foreign exchange student. Describe the encounter and take him on his first Halloween adventure!
12. You have $5 and 30 minutes to create the best Halloween costumes possible. How do you do it and what do you go as?
Creative Writing Prompts: 4th of July
13. What is the most amazing fireworks display you've ever seen in your life on a 4th of July celebration? What shapes did you see and music did you hear in accompaniment? Who were you with and why else might it have been memorable?
14. What is a particular 4th of July celebration that really sticks out in your mind? Was there some big disaster or incredible event that occurred during one of them way back when? If not, create a story about a wacky and wild 4th of July celebration.
15. You have been invited to an Independence Day barbecue! You get there, and realize that the people there are extremely "American" Americans. There are flags everywhere, with memorabilia, army medals, etc. The Americanism is overwhelming as people keep asking you how you feel about living in the best country ever. How do you deal with such an event?
16. You have been transported back in time to July 4th, 1776. How do you insert yourself into being a part of the history of the holiday and the United States?
17. Describe a 4th of July celebration with you and several other Americans outside of the United States. Is there an Americanized bar that you can party at or is a more private affair at a hotel with copious amounts of alcohol? Go into extreme detail.
18. You are with a child who is just old enough to start asking questions about everything. How do you explain July 4th to him to ensure that he understands and doesn't ask any more questions? :)
19. What does the 4th of July mean to you as a holiday? Do you feel a strong American pull or are you just happy to get some potato salad and hang out with friends?
20. You are hosting your own gargantuan 4th of July barbecue. You have about 100 people coming over and you have 3 days to get prepared. Talk about your process from beginning to end of making it a success.
21. July 4th weekend has become synonymous with "biggest movie of the summer" weekend. What is your favorite July 4th blockbuster that has packed the seats with people and the screen with explosions?
22. You and your friends have decided to get hammered during a very American day involving a baseball game, a barbecue, and a trip to a bar. Talk about the progression from the beginning to end of this all-American day.
23. What are your experiences with other independence days in other nations? What are the equivalent holidays in some other nationalities that you are familiar with and which ones do you feel is the most appropriate celebration of a nation. Do some research if necessary.
24. Imagine that you have decided to use Independence Day to actually become independent in every way possible. What would that entail? Describe your actual “independence day.”
Creative Writing Prompts: New Year's Eve
25. Talk a little bit about your best New Year's Eve kiss as the clock struck midnight. Write about the anticipation, the actual smooch, and the aftermath. Why was it so great? If you haven't had a New Year's Even kiss just write about what your ideal one would be like.
26. Write about a memorable New Year's Eve house party that you went to. Who did you know there, what did you do while you were there, and what events made it stick out? Have fun with your portrayal and really try to get the vibe of it as correct as possible.
27. What do you think your ideal New Year's Eve would be? Are you a loner who simply wants to get a feel for the world on the beach? A lover who wants to spend every last second with your significant other? A party-er? Go from top to bottom of your New Year's Eve creating your perfect way to ring in the next year.
28. Talk about one New Year's resolution that you've kept and one that you let slip by. How did you make sure that the one that worked stayed in your life and why did the other one fall away? If you had a choice (and you do) how could you get the absent one to work right now?
29. Have you ever been to one of the famous New Year's Eve sites like Times Square in New York? Talk about your experiences there if you have, and if you haven't, craft a story of your journey to a big event with a lot of people celebrating this holiday.
30. What are your top five resolutions that you would put into effect today if it was New Year's Eve? Write a story of you trying to accomplish them. Who knows, maybe you'll come up with some good ideas as a result.
31. In an attempt to drive back home for New Year's, your car has become stuck in a snow storm! You're not even exactly sure where you are, but you pull off an exit to wait it out at a diner. The snow does not stop. What happens next?
32. Have you ever opted for a non-tradition, away from the party New Year's Eve? Talk about that if you have, and if you haven't, craft a tale of an interesting event that most would consider off the beaten path for this type of celebration.
33. Create a character that is making a recap of his year on the evening of New Year's Eve while sitting at home. He is contemplating a massive change in his life and he is hoping to avoid that change by proving that his year was "good enough."
34. Despite your better judgment, you have drunk an entire bottle of champagne! And it's only ten minutes past midnight! How does the rest of your night go? If you don't remember it, write a story in which someone recounts it all to you the next day.
35. You have been handed a card by a friend of a friend at a New Year's Eve party. You open the card to find that it's from your secret admirer and that he or she desperately wants to kiss you at midnight. How do you proceed to make this a reality (or to run away from it)?
36. What are some ways that New Year’s Eve is celebrated in countries throughout the world? I mean, not everyone just gets drunk on champagne and tries to smooch someone when the ball drops, right? Do a bit of research and write a story from the perspective of one of those people.
Creative Writing Prompts: Thanksgiving
37. The whole family is together and all the typical weird things that happen are in full-force this year. Detail a typical thanksgiving with your family, friends, and loved ones (and probably some hated ones in there too :) ).
38. Is there a Thanksgiving that you remember as the most wonderful (or the most crazy, messed-up) holiday of your life? Write it out in full-force and feel free to embellish as much as you'd like :).
39. Your typical family thanksgiving has fallen through and you decide to spend it with your best friends in the world. Put together a story in which your best friends come from all over the world to dine at your thanksgiving table. How does it work out?
40. You are cooking your first thanksgiving dinner all by yourself! You have lots of guests coming and a whole lot of stuffing to buy. Detail the week of Thanksgiving from Monday to Thursday and talk about if you pull it off or not. What are the dishes you make?!
41. Create a thanksgiving story in which everything goes wrong (a la the movie "Pieces of April"). From the dinner to the family awkwardness, this holiday goes spinning off the axels big time. How does it all go down? Be very descriptive.
42. You are visiting four thanksgivings in one weekend (a la "Four Christmases"). How do you eat all that food? Which one is the best? Who are these people you're visiting?
43. Describe the best thanksgiving leftover creation you've ever concocted. Make one up if you've never stooped to using Thanksgiving leftovers for a month after the holiday. Whether it be a sandwich with all the ingredients or a dessert mixture with 6 different pies, make it awesome and make it tasty.
44. What is your favorite part of this holiday? The family? The food? The passing out on the couch watching football? Talk about that a bit. If you hate this holiday, you can talk about that as well.
45. Create a completely alternative thanksgiving. No turkey. No stuffing. But still tasty and interesting. See what you can come up with when trying to stick to a particular theme.
46. Even if you've never done this before, detail a touch football game with all of the members of your family involved. Grandma should be in too. Keep in mind; you've just eaten a lot, so this game will be slow-paced and hilarious.
47. You've been transported to the original thanksgiving! Pilgrims, Indians and all. Is it really as nice as we make it out to be? Did two people bring the same item? Talk about your experience in the past.
48. What are you thankful for on this gratitude-rich holiday? Create a list of at least 10 and detail how you came to be thankful of these things.
Creative Writing Prompts: Birthdays
49. What was your favorite birthday and why? Who was there? Did you have a party? What presents did you get? Be very specific about what made it so special.
50. What was your worst birthday and why? Be extremely detailed about what made it such an awful memory. As always, you can make it into a character's story and exaggerate all the details to an extreme degree.
51. Have you ever been to a birthday party that was so extravagant it actually made you somewhat jealous? If not, create a story in which a character goes to a birthday party that is completely out of his league. This especially includes the present that you got this person. Totally inadequate :).
52. How do you feel as though you will change with your upcoming birthday? Will your responsibilities change? Will your clock start ticking a little faster to do something that you've been meaning to do? Be specific and detailed.
53. Create your ideal birthday story for any age that you wish. You can re-make a birthday party or get together you've already had or plan out a new amazing celebration for the future. The important thing is to make it absolutely perfect in every possible way.
54. In a bit of magic, you get to relive each of your birthdays from the age of one all the way to now. How does it feel to be back in that high chair? What about playing party games a little bit down the road? Sitting with that middle school sweetheart you had at the time? What would you do differently and what would you make sure stayed the same?
55. Create a story in which the main character hates birthdays, and tries extremely hard to avoid telling people that today is his special day. And it happens to be the best day of his life. Elaborate to the extreme.
56. Talk about your best birthday cake experience, yours or someone else’s. Did you put your face in one? Did you eat five to ten pieces of one? Have fun with this one and really flesh everything out. Mmm, frosting.
57. Write a story about throwing a birthday party for someone. Whether it be for a family member or a significant other. How did it go? Did the person enjoy him or herself?
58. What is the best present that you've ever gotten for your birthday? Not necessarily the most expensive, but the one that was the most important to you. Talk about it and try to remember where that present is today.
59. You have been given a five million dollar budget for your birthday party (from an anonymous donor). You can only use this money if you spend every penny. What do you do with this fantastic party budget?
60. Create a story about the wildest birthday party that you have ever attended. If they have all been too tame, make up the wackiest one you can think of.
Creative Writing Prompts: Winter
61. Describe a situation in which you were the coldest you've ever been in your life during the winter.
62. It is probably difficult to remember your first snowfall as a child. Do a sort of bird's eye view account of what that experience could have been like for "little you."
63. After a big snowstorm, you and your family are trapped in the house with no place to go for at least the next 48 hours. What do you do with this time?
64. Ice skating on natural ice! Talk about a time in which you skated on real ice (not in a rink). Make up the story if you don't have one.
65. It is - 10 degrees F outside. What do you wear? Detail your dressing process for the extreme cold.
66. You are building the most extreme snow display ever. Not just a snowman but an entire snow city! Talk about you and your fellow builders creating such beauty.
67. You and your dorm face off against another dorm in an epic snowball extravaganza. Detail the entire battle.
68. Driving on snow and ice takes a great deal of patience and skill. Create a story about a long ice driving trip.
69. Sitting by a roaring fireplace, sipping a hot cocoa, while bundled up in a fleece blanket. Talk about how wonderful this can be in the dead of winter.
70. What is your favorite past experience that occurred during the season of winter. Be very specific.
71. You meet the Abominable Snowman! Seems like a pretty cool dude, what do you talk about?
72. What is your favorite winter sport to watch? Talk about watching a game with your friends and family between two of your favorite teams to see play.
Creative Writing Prompts: Spring
73. It is the first warm, pleasant day of the Spring season. What kind of activities do you do outside to embrace the day?
74. It is April and you know what the means: April Showers. Big time! Talk about living through a month of nearly all Spring-time rain.
75. You go on a nature walk date with your significant other. Your partner is an extreme flower lover and goes into all the details of every plant you stumble upon. What is your reaction?
76. Spring cleaning! Create a story in which you have to get rid of a lot of prized memorabilia from your past.
77. You are in a meadow that truly shows the beauty of Spring. There is green everywhere punctuated by other bright colors. You close your eyes and breathe in. What is going through your mind?
78. Describe a spring gardening session. If you don't know what that would consist of, either look it up or make it up.
79. You go out of your front door and you're confronted by...bees! A spring hive of bees has formed near your front door. Write the story about you dealing with the hive.
80. You have been invited to a spring-themed potluck dinner. What spring related dish do you bring and why?
81. Time for some spring fruit picking with your family! Describe a time where your family fruit picked. This story can be made up or exaggerated if you wish.
82. Talk about your experiences with Spring sports. This could be connected to Spring Training, field hockey, lacrosse. Really anything Spring and sport-related.
83. You have control over the weather and can create one perfect spring day. What do you do?
84. While Spring is often a rebirth when it comes to the cycles of nature, it can also be a sort of reawakening for your own life. Many people start new habits and hobbies in the Spring. Talk about some of your experiences with this or make something up that you would like to change.
Creative Writing Prompts: Fall
85. The leaves on all the trees have changed color and begun to fall all around town. How does this multi-colored landscape make you feel?
86. Despite the fact that you've been asked to rake up the leaves, you and several friends have decided to jump and play in them instead. Talk about the experience.
87. You walk through the brisk cold of an autumn morning with frost on the ground. Fall is truly in the air. What does that mean to you?
88. Pumpkins, corn husks, and scarecrows. What is the best set of fall-related decorations you've ever seen?
89. What is your favorite fall-related activity? Some examples might be a haunted hayride, soccer game, or a pumpkin patch.
90. A child asks you why the leaves change colors and fall down. How do you explain to him in a way he'll understand?
91. Where in the world would you most want to be to get the best fall experience? Write a story of one day in that location.
92. Halloween, the World Series, the annual pumpkin pie contest. What is your favorite fall event that you look forward to and why?
93. The kids have gone back to school and now you have more time with your significant other. How do you spend it?
94. What is your favorite fall related food and why?
95. You are a leaf on a tree that is undergoing foliage. What are your leafy thoughts and feelings?
96. Fall has such a distinct feel to it, that almost any story would be painted heavily by setting it in the fall. Re-write an old story and change the setting to square in the middle of the season.
Creative Writing Prompts: Summer
97. It's hot. Sticky hot. You are sitting in your house or apartment with broken air conditioning and an outside temperature of 100 degrees F. Describe your day.
98. Ring a ling! It's the glorious Pavlov dog effect of the ice cream man. Write about your ice cream man experiences.
99. The old summer job. Whether it be the snack counter at the local pool or a camp counselor at the day camp, we've all had them. Talk about yours in great detail.
100. Summer fling! Ever had one? If so, write about it, if not, make up your ideal summer relationship.
101. There are amazing family summer vacations and there are family summer vacation disasters. Pick one and have a ball with it.
102. Going to the beach or the pool to watch the pretty people walk by in their swimsuits. Detail an afternoon of lounging and people watching.
103. It is that week where all of your friends have gone out of town except for you. What do you do with your extreme free time?
104. Whether it's beach volleyball, soccer, or Frisbee, the summer can be filled with sports. What are some of your summer sport experiences?
105. The end of summer is on and the shopping for school supplies begins! How do you get the last bit of juice out of the season?
106. One of those late-night summer barbecues with a couple of cold beers and good friends. What do you talk about? Describe the evening.
107. What is your favorite summer dessert and why? Portray a very descriptive scene in which you devour your dessert.
108. You are suddenly transported to the middle of some unknown dessert during the hottest part of the summer. How do you survive and get yourself to safety?
Creative Writing Prompts: School
109. Take a time from your life (or imagine a time) that you were bullied at school. Who was the bully and how did he or she affect you? Imagine a sit down chat with the bully in which the person could not bully you and had to share his or her feelings. What do you think you would learn?
110. What was your shining school achievement? The moment that you felt the most intelligent or the most gifted? Talk about that day, what led up to it, and how it changed your life.
111. Talk about the teacher that you liked the most in school. What made you enjoy the class that he or she taught and why was this person so memorable to the present day?
112. Talk about the teacher that you disliked the most in school. What was wrong with this person? If you had a chance to sit down with this teacher, what would you tell this person about how to change his or her teaching style (and perhaps attitude)?
113. Describe your first school crush or your first school significant other. What was it like? How did you feel walking around the school and possibly having people talk about you? Feel free to talk about the entire relationship.
114. Where were you on the school popularity scale in middle or high school (or college)? How do you think your placement on this scale came about and how did it affect your experience? Did it change the way that you are today?
115. What was your favorite after-school activity? If you were a sports player, talk about that, a band member, talk about that, a chess club member...close the door, and then talk about that ;). Describe how this activity made you feel and why it was important to you at the time.
116. Talk about a time (or make up a time) in which you were called in to the principal or dean's office. What happened? Why were you there and what was the end result?
117. Who were your best friends in Elementary school? Middle school? High school? College? Talk about what you guys and gals used to do together and why you are no longer close or why you are still close to this very day. What was your most memorable school friend moment?
118. Talk about a time that you cheated or thought about cheating on a test. If you are more moral than the rest of us ;) (4th grade geography test was the only time, I swear :)) than talk about one of your friends or peers who cheated and what the end result was.
119. You have been sent back in time (to kindergarten) and you have the ability to change your entire schooling experience. How do you change the next sixteen years of your life or so to make your life better? Does it work or do you lose some of the flavor along the way?
120. Your most awkward school experience ever. Write about it or make something up.
Creative Writing Prompts: Childhood
121. What is your most poignant childhood memory? The one that sticks out the most. Write out as much as you can remember and then fill in the details with elaborate description.
122. Who was the most important person to you during most of your childhood? Your Mom? Your Dad? Another relative? A friend? An imaginary person? Show some examples in which you see how much influence this person (or imaginary person) had on you while you were growing up.
123. It seems like when you are a kid growing up you can't wait to get there and when you are a grown up you wish you could be back. Imagine one day in which you are granted adulthood as a child, and one day in which you are granted childhood as an adult. How do you utilize these 24 hour periods?
124. We all have that friend we had in childhood who later moved into a different popularity scale in middle or high school. Who was that friend and what was it you two enjoyed so much together when you were little?
125. What did you and your family do for entertainment when you were little? Did you play board games together? Go to movies? Go into extreme detail of a family fun night of some kind.
126. What cartoon from your childhood is the most memorable for you? What made it stick in your head so strongly? Would you see a movie of it now if were made into a big blockbuster for the nostalgia purposes?
127. How did the following things affect you during your childhood: music, books, the weather, money, love? You can combine them all into one story or do separate entries on each.
128. What action makes you the most nostalgic for your childhood? Is it seeing old pictures or going through old clothes? Something else entirely? Write a story of you going through those nostalgic actions and having various memories of your childhood.
129. How do you recall getting along with your family during your childhood? With your parents, siblings, and other relatives? Go through a typical reunion or holiday with your entire family in attendance during your childhood. Have fun going into excruciating detail :).
130. It's your birthday! Pick a party that you had during your childhood or create an ideal birthday party for yourself at any young age and write a story about it.
131. You have been given the opportunity to go backwards. You can pick an age and start over again from that age. Do you pick one or not? What age would you go to? Describe your first week with your "old person" memories in your younger body.
132. Make a list of five things that you thought were completely awesome as a child. Write as if you are that age and describe why these things were so enjoyable for you.
Creative Writing Prompts: College
133. Describe your first crush in college. If you were me, it was during freshman orientation :). It could be brief and it may have resulted from the huge influx in new people into your life, but it is an important event to recall. Describe as much of it as you can and fill in the details with creative elaboration.
134. Talk about a class and a professor that really changed your life. It may have been the professor that you went to see every week during office hours or it may have just been a lecturer that you never even interacted with. Detail why this made such an impact on you.
135. Not everybody had a freshman 15 (a weight gain of 15 pounds freshman year), but almost all freshman have a big gain of some kind (religion, friends, long walk from the dorms). Talk about the big gain you might have experienced from that first year.
136. For many people, going to college is the first time living with another person in those wonderfully cramped dorm rooms. How were your college dorm room experiences? Talk about a few big events that occurred in your dorm room life. How many times were you walked in on during make-out sessions? During...personal sessions? :) The list of potential awkward situations are endless :).
137. Talk about the social aspects of your college town. Was it a mostly self-contained beast (a la Penn State University) or was there an urban or country zone surrounding and influencing the campus? How did this affect your experiences?
138. My freshman year at our first big class meeting (no small feat at a state school) we had a speaker tell us to find two things in our time in college: one thing to love and one person to love. Did you find those two things? If so, talk about them, if not, talk about your close encounters.
139. Drinking. Can't help but get into that one a bit. Even if you didn't drink, what was a big experience that you had in college with drinking. If you did, I'm sure you had a few ;). Talk about one or more and try to color in periods that you blacked out with fun elaboration.
140. Talk about your first (or most memorable) parental visit experience during college. All the awkwardness and the explanation that needs to occur can make these some of the most important events during school. Try to recall one that was a real game-changing event.
141. Going back home from the holidays is a big part of college. Friends change, you change. Talk about an experience in which this was completely evident and what this made you think about your high school friendships and the town itself.
142. Do you feel proud to be an alumni (or will you feel proud when you've graduated) of your school? Do you watch the games and donate to the funds, etc.? Why or why not do you feel this way or do these things in relation to your school?