A couple prompts to spur your creative intuitions.
Have you been wanting to write but don't know where to start? Well, this is a place to start.
Writing seems easy, all you need is a pencil and paper. But it is not. When you have the materials in front of you then what. Authors don't always start with a prompt but maybe it can help for beginners. A place to start that can give you an idea to help you put the pencil to the paper when you are ready.
A couple prompts to get you started...
- Take a boring evening in your life and make it interesting. Exaggerate every detail.
EX: Are you sitting in a desk chair, now your sitting on a throne. Or maybe your Mom left you a voicemail to empty the dishwasher, but actually she called to tell you she has just left the country, running from the police and that her message will self destruct in 10 seconds.
- You take the place of a character from one of your favorite TV shows or books. Do you change their role in the show? Do you ruin all the relationships you didn't like? Or do you live their fictional life out for them?
EX: Squidward Tentacles. I have entered the mind of Squidward and I am now taking over all of his actions. Instead of drinking tea he grabs two red bulls. He doesn't take them to his flute stand like usual but instead the couch. He sits down and cracks open the first energy drink ready to devour both of them.
- Write about what you would do if the world was ending. What would be in your survival pack? And who would be on your survival team? Why is the world ending?
EX: The world is being taken over by sheep. I don't have much time left. They are bringing steel cut wool ropes to tie me up. I grab the only thing I know will protect me. My sheepdog.
Stuck?
No fear, I get stuck all the time. The thing I have found that gets me out of my temporary writers block the most is by writing the sentence...
I don't know what to write so I am writing that I don't know what to write.
It seems pointless and that sitting and not writing for a couple of seconds would be better but I have found that it is not. You try and let me know how it works. For me it is wonderful because while my mind is able to wandering while writing that meaningless sentence I usually think of something else that is really worth writing.
Websites for more prompts
More ideas in case the one above weren't enough.
Writers Digest (So, so many.)
Poets and writers
Writing Prompts that Don't Suck (very random)
Happy Writing!
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