Creative Writing Prompts

Prompts for writers

Waiting for inspiration to strike?
Stuck in front of a blank page?
Staring at a white screen?
Need some help?
Read on…

Great Web sites for inspiring great writing:

We all need a little help sometimes and, to get your creative thoughts whirling, I have rounded up eight of the best prompt sites on the Internet.

6 Minute Story site is my personal favourite. You can pick from a selection of prompts or use the random prompt of the day.
Pros: great selection of text and visual prompts and a place where you can meet other 6 minute writers.
Cons: you are up against the clock
Creativewritingprompts.com displays a list of numbers on a single web page. Hovering over one of the numbers will display a prompt.
Pros: easy to select a prompt you fancy.
Cons: easy to reject each prompt and easy to find another one, so will you ever make your mind up?
Writing Prompts on Tumblr presents a series of images to inspire a story, including a mix of photos, pictures and inspirational words.
Pros: visual images are a great way to spark your imagination.
Cons: no random generator and how do you choose?
The Story Starter kicks you off with a randomly generated sentence.
Pros: an almost limitless series of prompts.
Cons: the tool generates some rather bizarre and surreal sentences.
Fifteen Minutes of Fiction gives you a weekly writing prompt and suggests you write for 15 minutes on the topic presented. You can write online if you wish. Not happy with the prompt? You can go back to the previous one.
Pros: an introductory paragraph lays out a scene or a premise for you.
Cons: Only one new prompt, once a week.
Imagination Prompt Generator gives you a kick-start with prompts that are very suitable for blog postings.
Pros: Straightforward prompts, often in question form. Thought provoking way of finding blog topics.
Cons: not really a story generating site. (But great for blog ideas.)
Bonnie Neubauer’s Story Spinner gives you a setting, an opening line and a set of words you must include in your story.
Pros: great way to start a new story.
Cons: the suggestion to include a set list of words may seem restricting.
Writer’s Digest provides a list of writing prompts, each one presents you with a brief scenario around which you could base a story or a piece of writing.
Pros: well presented and intriguing scenarios. You can post your story in the ‘comments’ section if you wish.
Cons: only one new prompt a week and no random generator.

Three great Blogs with prompts:

Sunday Scribblings provides a weekly prompt and allows you to share your work with a link.
One Minute Writer provides a timer and a series of daily prompts that encourage personal reflection.
Dragon Writing Prompts with words and images specifically for writers of science fiction, fantasy and horror.

Have I missed your favourite writing prompt site off this list? If so, please let me know in the comments section.