Category: PromptsPage 5 of 26

Prompts are story ideas that inspire you to get writing. When you are overdrawn at the idea bank, you can always pick up some ideas from the muse. Take our ideas and run with them. Make them yours. Turn prompts into best sellers. Turn prompts into stories for fun. Browse prompts for ideas. If our collection can help you find inspiration or new ideas – then these prompts have done their job.

IRL writing dare: Write in the bath using only charcoal

Write at least a page while soaking in a hot bath. Write only using a stick of charcoal. You can get charcoal from Amazon or a local art…

Writing dare: Someone saves a bad situation with the timely gift of coffee

Maybe your character is too tired to work. Perhaps there has been a minor argument. It might be that a character is cold and wet. Whatever the reason,…

IRL writing dare: Bowl of fruit

Get yourself a bowl of fruit. Get as many different fruits as you can – apples (one red, one green), a banana, a plumb, a peach, and so…

Writing dare: Someone gets five wishes but there is a catch

One of your characters is given five colourful stones. Each one will grant a single wish. One grants the wish perfectly as imagined by the wisher. Three grant…

IRL writing dare: Sing in the shower about your plot ideas

We dare you to sing (as loudly as you can) in the shower or bath about your upcoming plot ideas.

Writing dare: Incorporate as many headlines from the fantasy news generator as you can

The fantasy news generator is a blog that I created which takes real headlines and does a bunch of word replacements to make news from the world of…

Writing dare: Everything is put on hold by a massive bunch of keys

To progress, your characters need to use a key to open something. The key they need is part of a massive collection of keys. Everything grinds to a…

Writing dare: Use one or more words from The Fictional Dictionary of Bad Language

Use one or more of the inventive words from The Fictional Dictionary of Bad Language. The fictional dictionary is available in ebook form on Amazon. Below is a…

IRL writing dare: Write under a table

Write at least 500 words while under a table. Bonus points if this is in a public place.

Writing dare: Your character is so very tired

Your character is so very tired. They just want to go to bed and get some sleep. However, fate seems to have other ideas. Every time they feel…

Writing dare: Add an angry ghost

We dare you to add an angry ghost that is stalking the characters.

IRL writing dare: One song on repeat for 1,667 words

Choose one song that you would not normally listen to (in a genre you normally avoid) and listen to just that song on repeat while you write 1,667…

Writing dare: Your character is told a secret that leaves them conflicted

Someone tells your character a huge secret. This leaves them conflicted. Ont eh one hand, if they break this confidence they may never be forgiven but, on the…

Writing dare: Add a subplot about a kitten that wants to kill people

We dare you to add a kitten as a subplot. This kitten is filled with murderous rage but is small and fluffy and, thus, comically incapable of murder.

IRL writing dare: Invite Twitter to vote on a plot outcome

We dare you to put a poll on Twitter and invite your followers to vote on one of four outcomes for your plot.

Writing dare: An object that laughs

Have your character encounter, find, or make a seemingly inanimate object that laughs sometimes.

Writing dares: Character rap battle

Two of your characters get into a rap battle.

Writing dare: Your protagonist uncovers a huge secret

Your protagonist uncovers a shocking secret of conspiracy theory levels of scope, scale, and bizarreness.

Writing dare: One of the central characters turns out to be a Russian spy

We dare you to reveal that one of your characters is in fact a spy working for the Russians.

#NaNoWriMo padding: Postcards to granny

Pad your word count by having a character stop in every new location to buy a postcard, buy stamps, and post the postcard. String this out for as…

IRL writing dare: Skip meals all day to write about hunger more realistically

Skips two or three meals so that you are really hungry. Use that hunger to more accurately depict one of your characters being hungry.

Writing dare: The fate of the world will now be decided by coffee

For reasons that only you can tell us about, the fate of the world no hinges on coffee. Is coffee going to save the world, damn the world,…

Writing dare: Include all of these in a chapter

We dare you to try and fit everything here into one chapter.

IRL writing dare: Write in a dimly lit room

Write at least 350 words in a dimly lit room. Bonus points if you wear sunglasses the curtains are closed there are underpants on your head you are…