Writing prompts are helpful to writers of all levels and degrees. For skeptics, writing prompts provide a springboard for creativity. They help illustrate the fact that, with a little hard work, anyone can become a great writer. Also, they emphasize the fact that everyone does have a story inside of them. It may just take some coercing to get it out. For beginners, the prompts provide much needed structure. For advanced writers, the prompts are a way of getting new ideas onto paper or to thwart the dreaded writer's block! All in all, prompts are helpful.
These writing prompts were created to help stimulate writers who are just starting out. They will help show writers that they do, in fact, have something to write about and will hopefully help students gain a respect for/interest in writing.
Writing Prompts
- About Me: Students should write a one page story about an event in their lives that helped them become who they are today. It should not be a general introduction to their life.
- What's in a Name? Often times people's names hold great meaning, explain what the significance of your name is.
- Write a story entitled, "The Best Day of My Life" or "The Worst Day of My Life."
- Make a list of 10 things you'd love to do. Explain why they have not been done.
- Choose a favorite recreational activity (bowling, reading, singing, etc.) and write about it from the perspective of someone who HATES the activity.
- Think of a favorite childhood book or nursery rhyme and either re-write it so that adults would enjoy reading it or write about it from an adult perspective.
- Write a 20-line poem about loving or hating a job! NO RHYMES.
- Using the color RED as inspiration, write a story.
- Consider a mistake you've made in life. Would you do things different if you had the chance? Why? Why not?
- Write about a favorite food. What does it taste like? Look like? Feel like? Smell like? Why is it a favorite? Use detail.
- Create a fictional product. Write a one page essay to convince someone why they should buy said product.
- Select an admirable figure or hero and write a few paragraphs to describe the hero. Explain why this person is admirable or a hero.
- Write a one page description of the worst nightmare you've every had. If you don't have any, make up a chilling tale.
- If you were president... What would this country be like? What would change? What would stay the same? Why?
Writing skills do not develop over night, it takes practice and hard work to produce quality material. By utilizing writing prompts and getting ideas down on paper, writers will have taken the first step toward producing a literary masterpiece. Drafting and revision are sure to follow, but once the ball is rolling, it is easier to stick with writing.
Jessica Gleason - Jessica Gleason is merely a woman walking through life with words. She lives to write and writes to live. She has an affinity for cats and ...
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