funny writing assignments

55 Funny Writing Prompts To Inspire Your Inner Comedian

Hands up if you’ve enjoyed a funny series or movie lately and hoped the writers were well-paid for their work?

Laughter is good medicine.

So, think of the comedy writing prompts in this post as our contribution to making the world a healthier place.

If you love to make people laugh but you’re struggling to think of funny topics to write about , we’ve got you covered.

The real challenge is deciding which prompt to use first.

Funny Writing Prompts

Enjoy this list of 55 funny writing prompts. And keep track of those that stand out for you.

1. Write about someone trying to explain to a teacher that their dog did, in fact, eat their homework.

2. Write about two characters — with entirely different lives and personalities- switching bodies.

3. Write about a little boy accidentally switching bodies with his dad for a day.

4. Write about someone playing the perfect April Fools Day prank.

5. Write about someone who accidentally buys a fish that can talk — and it isn’t exactly polite.

6. Write about someone who is friends with a hero and a villain. They don’t keep this a secret, but it does make for some interesting conversations.

7. Write about a hero and a villain rescheduling their battle due to a scheduling conflict.

8. Write about a superhero whose greatest threat is their younger sibling.

9. Write an analysis paragraph that makes an ordinary object sound infinitely complicated.

10. Write a poem about Tupperware.

11. Write about the origin of an inside joke.

12. Write a story about someone who can’t stop saying what they think — much to the dismay of those around them.

13. Write a character with a personality based on your favorite song.

14. Write a comedy script about a food that you hate.

15. Write a story about a deck of cards coming to life. How do their personalities mix with each other?

16. Write about someone trying to escape the afterlife.

17. Write a story about a great historical figure learning how to use the internet. What do they find online when they Google themselves? Do they like it?

18. Write about a character who wakes up to find out the world is ending. Even stranger than that, everyone around them is celebrating.

19. Write a story that begins with the words, “Tuesday is always the worst day to rob a bank.”

20. Write about a woman who promised her firstborn child to several different witches. Now that a baby is on the way, she has to deal with a custody battle.

21. Write about a hero who accidentally falls in love with the daughter of their arch enemy.

22. Write about an alien race that believes ants are the most organized civilization on earth.

23. Write about Greek deities taking a class on Greek mythology. Which parts of the curriculum do they have issues with?

24. Write a story about Ares — the Greek god of war — getting trapped in the body of a preschooler.

25. Write a story about a chicken that accidentally hatches a dragon egg — much to the concern of the local population.

26. Write a story about an immortal who keeps finding increasingly creative ways to avoid the grim reaper.

27. Write about someone who takes up a career as a nanny. The adorable baby they’ve been hired to care for is, unfortunately, the antichrist.

28. Write a slow-burn love story that is narrated by a very impatient narrator.

29. Write a story in which the narrator hates the main character. This leads to lots of passive-aggressive side comments throughout the story.

30. Write a story that begins with the words, “Unfortunately, fire is not the solution to every problem.

31. Write a short story about a burned-out retail employee deciding to spend his last day messing with the worst customers.

32. Write about a farmer who wakes up able to understand what the animals on the farm are saying — on the day he was planning to butcher some of them for food.

Funny Writing Prompts: 50+ Ideas to Get Your Started

Books, novellas, and short stories that can make readers laugh are always in high demand. After all, who doesn't like laughing? Some say it's the best medicine. But, as any stand-up comedian will tell you, comedy is hard.

Luckily, with the right premise, you can craft a funny story that will make readers hungry for more. And that's just what these funny writing prompts will help you do.

Tips on using comedy in your writing.
Some humorous books to read for inspiration.
Funny creative writing prompts.

Know Your Genre
Humor Through Character
Keep Things Natural
Make it Relatable
Read Humorous Books
Funny Writing Prompts
Test Your Funny Book Idea

Tips for Funny Story Writing

Humor is subjective, so a funny story that gets one group of people laughing may not elicit so much as a smile from another group. That's okay. As a writer, it's important to know that not everyone will like your work. But with the tips below, you can position your comedic story (or scene) for the ultimate effect .

Humor shouldn't be relegated to only comedies. In fact, authors in all different genres use humor to enhance their stories. But before you start shoving jokes into your work in progress, consider the norms of your genre. What do other authors do? Do you even need comedy in your book? If so, how much?

Even works that are considered comedies aren't all jokes. There need to be peaks and valleys in your story. Because if you're trying to make the reader laugh all the time, they won't be able to catch their breath and settle in for another laughing fit.

One of the best ways to convey humor is through one of your point of view (POV) characters . Maybe your normally stoic main character has a funny habit of breaking the tension with an offhand remark or a silly phrase that he says at the most inopportune moments.

Likewise, you may create a whole character whose main purpose is comedic relief. This doesn't have to be a POV character, but it can be. An inside joke between two characters can also work well, provided the reader is in on the joke!

Readers know when they're being played to. So if you're being funny just for the sake of it, they'll be able to tell. The humor in your novel or story should have something to do with plot, character development , or story. In other words, comedy should arise naturally from the aspects of your story.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to make readers laugh, but forcing it will often backfire.

Most successful stand-up comedians make the mundane hilarious. They take the doldrums of everyday life and provide a new perspective or spin on them. This also works well in storytelling. Sometimes the funniest thing is the one that makes people go, “Oh yeah, it is like that!”

Whether it be observations about social media, a popular book or TV show, or a twist on the daily grind, it's possible to find comedy all around us.

You can't expect to sharpen your comedy writing skills without first seeing how other authors do it. The books below are just a few to consider when studying the craft of comedic writing.

Anything by Christopher Moore (fiction).
Anything by David Sedaris (memoir).
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Formatting Has Never Been Easier

Write and format professional books with ease. Never before has creating formatted books been easier.

Pick a funny writing prompt from the list below to get the creative juices flowing. Since there's a wide range of uses for comedy across all genres, not every prompt below will be suitable for an entire novel. Some are designed to start off a scene or a short story. Others you can use to break through writer's block by writing a poem or a funny anecdote. Do with them whatever you will. They're yours to use freely!

1. Write a scene in which a man is arguing with some unseen character. At the end, it turns out it's his dog. What is the conversation like? Why is it happening?

2. Think about your favorite thing to do on vacation. Now write about a character who's stuck doing that thing over and over again in a time loop.

3. Start a story about two hitmen haggling over who gets to assassinate the known crime lord.

4. What would happen if animals could talk to humans? If this was normal, what would the world be like?

5. Explore the implications of a modern high school student who finds him or herself alive before the internet was invented.

6. Start a story in the middle of a bank robbery in progress. But the robbers are elderly men who can't stop bickering.

7. What would happen if a demon invaded the body of a highly neurotic and eccentric person? Turns out, the demon inside the person allows them to live how they always wanted, but the demon wants to leave.

8. Write a romance about two people who connect over their shared love of extreme ironing.

9. Explore the world of a stunt woman. She continues to put her body on the line for the work, but inside she thinks she's the biggest wimp in the world.

10. In a world of superheroes, the villains have their own support groups where you get to see a very different side of them. Turns out, the villains may not be the real villains of this story. . .

11. A new drug hits the market that makes everyone happy. Unfortunately, your protagonist is happiest when she's miserable. What does this new “happy” world look like through his eyes?

12. A young man suddenly becomes a viral sensation for his comedy routine. But the sudden fame is more than he can handle. Much more.

13. Write about a local neighborhood watch group filled with zany characters who must solve the mystery of the missing garden gnomes.

14. Write about a supervillain's parents. What are they like? Are they proud of their son or daughter?

15. Write about a high school student who learns she can disappear whenever something really embarrassing happens to her. Does she use this newfound power for good or bad?

16. Your protagonist stumbles upon proof that we live in a simulation. How does this change his outlook and actions? Does he try to tell the world?

17. Explore two best friends who are participating in an ongoing prank war that's getting way out of hand.

18. Start your story with an argument between two rival business owners who eventually become fast friends.

19. Follow a protagonist who goes outside one day to find that everyone is naked—and looking at her like she's the crazy one.

20. Start your story with a character successfully outwitting Death to stay alive for just a bit longer.

21. Write about a doomsday prepper who prepares for every eventuality . . . but this one.

22. Write about a character who thinks their television is talking to them by name.

23. Write about a wedding in which everything goes comically wrong—and how the wedding party rallies to make things okay in the end.

24. Write about a utility worker who stumbles on an underground society of mutants in the city sewers.

25. Write about a group of friends who get together once a year to fight each other. Why do they do it? What do they get out of this strange fight club?

26. Start a story in which a character is trying to reenact something they've seen on YouTube – with hilarious consequences.

27. A bumbling father takes it upon himself to deal with the petty crime in his neighborhood. But he stumbles upon a hilarious conspiracy enacted by the homeowners association.

28. A professional athlete starts having terrible luck, both on and off the field. He does everything he can think of to break the bad streak.

29. A billionaire CEO decides after a near-death experience to give all his money away. But there are a whole bunch of people who do whatever they can to convince him otherwise.

30. A woman who's about to be married to an “okay” guy finds a love letter in the mailbox. It has been mailed to her by mistake, and she takes it upon herself to deliver it to the real recipient.

31. Write about a group of scammers getting into a con war with another group of scammers.

32. A group of vampires goes on vacation only to find that their arch-enemies the werewolves have laid claim to their favorite spot.

33. Artificial Intelligence robots are rolled out, but a software glitch makes them act like bumbling idiots who inadvertently threaten the collapse of society.

34. There's something wrong with the world. Something's just a little off. But your character can't quite figure out what it is.

35. Explore what it's like at a national liars convention.

36. A girl realizes she's in a horror movie. But she also knows that she's not the final girl—she's one who dies in the first half!

37. A group of cowboys on a cattle drive in the 1800s wind up getting attacked by bumbling aliens.

38. Write about a wildlife television show host who's constantly getting attacked by animals.

39. Write a time travel story in which the character keeps trying to fix her love life only to keep getting thwarted—by herself.

40. Write about a 4th-grade teacher who wins the lottery and decides to retire. But then her class shows up and begs her to come back to teach them.

41. Explore a character who can't help but dance every time her favorite song comes on. She lives in perpetual fear of hearing the song while in public.

42. An irresponsible man ends up having to take care of his five nephews and nieces after tragedy strikes. He learns to be responsible very quickly.

43. A woman obsessed with American 1970s culture gets the chance to travel back in time.

44. A man gets a hilarious text message from a random number. Thinking it a clever salesperson, he goes along with the messages. But things soon get way out of control.

45. After being told, rather rudely, that he tells the same stories over and over again, a man drops everything and goes on an adventure to get some new stories to tell his friends and family.

46. The utterance of a random word makes a brainwashed secret agent go into assassin mode. Only she turns out to be the worst assassin ever.

47. A woman who thinks she has the best idea for a new product quits her job in spectacular fashion, only to learn that someone else has already had the idea.

48. Write an embarrassing poem from one of your characters’ point of view. Why did they write the poem? What did they write it about? What would happen if someone happened upon it?

49. Write a spoof of The War of the Worlds in which the aliens all develop terrible allergies, which only makes things worse for the humans.

50. Write a few diary or journal prompts for your main character from when they were a teenager. (If they are a teenager, all the better). Make sure to add some cringe to the entries!

Hopefully, the creative writing ideas above have given you some inspiration to use for your next book or short story. You can even take inspiration from a funny joke, your favorite book, or a funny thing you saw on YouTube. Professional writers will tell you that ideas are a dime a dozen. It's the execution that really makes something shine. So pick a fun writing prompt and get to work!

When you're ready to take your writing career forward by publishing your book, it's a good idea to ensure there's a market for your story . And the easiest way to do this is with Publisher Rocket.

You can think of the information you get from Publisher Rocket as the foundation for your writing career—whether you write comedy, drama, horror, or more than one genre.

With Publisher Rocket, you get insights directly from Amazon on:

Keywords – Metadata to position your book on Amazon.
Competition – Allowing you to see what's selling and how stiff the competition is.
Categories – So you know where people who are looking for books like yours go to find them.
Amazon Ads – Helps you quickly configure a list of profitable keywords for running ads.

Check out Publisher Rocket here to get started.

Dave Chesson

When I’m not sipping tea with princesses or lightsaber dueling with little Jedi, I’m a book marketing nut. Having consulted multiple publishing companies and NYT best-selling authors, I created Kindlepreneur to help authors sell more books. I’ve even been called “The Kindlepreneur” by Amazon publicly, and I’m here to help you with your author journey.

Best book writing software 2024 [writing, editing & focus], author vs writer: what’s the difference, how to write an adventure story, sell more books on amazon, amazon kindle rankings e-book.

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875 Funny Writing Prompts For Funny Stories And Comedies

March 2, 2021

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Have tried writing funny stories in the past, but failed because you are having a hard time thinking up ideas that you feel make people laugh? If your answer is ‘yes,’ maybe you should consider turning to writing prompts for inspiration.

Writing prompts are great tools that could help make your story stand out from other comedies by giving you new ideas and pushing you to get your creative spirits going. They can also take your stories to the next level by stretching your imagination.

If you are an aspiring comedy writer or an author in a writer’s rut, here are writing prompts that could inspire you to write funny stories

There are only five minutes until you have to give the speech and you just realized you can’t speak. Inspiration never strikes at a good time.
The wife-in-laws’ husband wife-in-law is a husband wife-in-law was a constant reminder of her own true age.
There came a time when the world was out of handclaps. In order to resolve this grotesque situation, a boy was conscripted. A boy who had been struck on the head by the iron lever in a closed door accident, and was now incomplete in the lateral portion of his left hemisphere.
When my headlights were going out…no one knew that the red lights on the road were actually stop lights.
Several times during the Second World War Churchill was briefed on recent advances in weapons technology. He’d listen to the reports, only for his eyes to widen, mouth open and jaw drop. Slightly open-mouthed, patting the person on hand, he’d steer them to the door before stepping back into his office. Later, someone would walk in and add in some milk.
You hear a sound behind you, but you know it’s my friend Billy, whose name is actually Steven. Stop making me say things two times!
Everyone from the outside expected you to have your life together. You weren’t to be concerned with anything. Little did they know, you were worried sick about one of the most bizarre things anyone could identify with.
Tell a story of something that happened when you were a kid. Something you’ve left out of other stories you’ve told.
There was a family that moved into the neighborhood. Jose, Janet, and Tom. There children Mark, Maria, and Timothy. They were the nicest people you would want to meet. At least at first. One day Mark and Timothy went missing. People looked everywhere for those two boys, but they just couldn’t be found. Then suddenly the rest of the family went missing just two days later. Except the father and mother who were the last to disappear. When people looked around the beautiful house they found more of those flowers and dead bodies all around the backyard AND a port-a-potty. They looked in the bath tubs and the kitchen drawers. The bodies were hidden for a long time until someone they could take care of themselves, or they were just plain stupid. All had the same golden gates and angel wings. Everyone was certain of the fact that the family was a group of satan worshippers.
You wake up one night covered in tiny puncture wounds. They heal over time, leaving small coffee or mocha colored spots on your person.
“I want to believe.” was not the catchphrase of some obscure nerd, but rather my new way of saying “I need to become an astronaut.”
The elevator could only fit one person, so they tossed a coin to see who would go up and bring down the angel.
It’s not the same when you explain it to us, so explain it to the whores on the corner outside, the corner of forgotten children.
She ran around with scissors in her hair so they were never able to recognize the color of her hair.
A running joke can be funny or strange and crucial– and, ultimately, mess with your readers’ minds. A running joke also makes your novel stand out in a memorable way. Could Eva repel the biker girls? Could she use lemons to do so? Maybe she could transform into a laser beam and shoot lemon beams at them!
You are sitting at your desk at a job you hate. Suddenly, a man you’ve never seen before approaches you with an argument you’ve never considered, and somehow your procrastinating becomes the action of the minute, the action that leads to momentous decisions in a life you never realized was yours.
But not everything can come from a strange world. Some ideas could also come as a part of a mundane world. Perhaps the bad guy from your story didn’t arrive by meteor, but crawled down the storm drain in your backyard.
A story about a triangular obelisk made of mud-braken and mortar replaced with a different one, solely based on observation.
You enter a virtual reality game in the seal-clubbing business. The object of the game is to seal-club as many seals as possible. It’s the world’s most popular online game. And in no time you’re making a fortune. You’ve become the ultimate seal-clubber. How will it end?
The Sheriff and his deputy were riding horses in a park earlier, but then, one horse just started taking off on it’s own. Naturally, the two men wouldn’t let a horse just take them anywhere. The deputy did the only thing he could’ve done, and shot the horse for ‘becoming agitated’.
A subtle discussion of the differences between the dreaming of a historian and the degree to which a character in the fiction believes himself to be real.
The man in the big yellow hat wanted to open the biggest lemonade stand ever. So he went out to find the lemons, only to find out that there is no more lemonade. Oopsie!
Write into somebody else’s dialect. Write from the point of view of someone living in a different time period, like the 16th century. Write the story looking back from about 1000 years from now. What would post-apocalyptica feel like?
For a list of funny story prompts from a simplified list and fun exercises, just go to this page . The list is fairly comprehensive but they will prove very useful in terms of idea generation. You can also simply check out my Book, “From blank page to funny page.” and start writing today!
The Bakers left the galley messy, so Gavin and his boys decided to contribute to the clean up effort. Consequently, all their masterpieces were saved.
More great prompts for funny stories include awkward moments, suspicious adjectives, painful events, and first meeting. Once you’ve completed a funny story, share them with friends or family.
Never say die. Blasphemy? Ten years in prison. No trials, no innocent before proven guilty. Just burn ’em! Burn ’em!
You were the small seedling that decided to grow up. And rise to be ten times what all the other trees were planted for.
A man and a woman want to get married but a mutual need is preventing them from tying the knot for a closer life together.
Pirates like to focus on the one thing most people would find most morally intriguing–avast, this is the captured story.
Colonel Sanders bobbed up and down on a pogo stick. Do you think he shouted Colonel Sanders while he did this? Or was he just Colonel Sanders?
Destiny doesn’t get out of bed for anything less than two million in cash. Or a really good bacon wrapped filet.
The man on the train who stared at your arm tattoos for five minutes, despite being surrounded by countless empty seats.
Figure out a way to be the anarchist you wanted than shouted at by the powers that wanted to redefine the relationship between you and your government without dealing with any government involvement.
Enjoy these and enjoy writing short stories! They are a great way to provide creative writing practice.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS or YouTube channel or newsletter above for updates on when more funny prompts come out.
I was born a beautiful baby. A beautiful baby in the ugly hospital in the ugly dying town on the dying planet.
You were dreaming night after night. It was the same dream, you never forgot it, but it didn’t make sense. What did you dream again?
He wore a brown fedora and a black trenchcoat. He gave me a wide goofy grin as he drew a gun from his pocket.
The Old west meets high-tech study chambers. A Wild West error leads to a bug in the Matrix. Documented incident of spontaneity. Blue heron falls from the sky.
They must have thought they couldn’t make it through. They split their integral selves between a state and the staid. The steady flux is a thing of delight to them, just as the balance between their vibrant impulsions and the détente is. Contact further cemented their romance, but effect dissipated into sparse numbers. They plummeted, plateaued, and now slowly strut gingerly amongst the pincushion and porcupines. Now that they know themselves incapable of tearing themselves apart, they no longer worry about trying to be whole.
What if everything you thought you knew about vampires and the undead was a total lie? What if they were just people?
A centipede and a butterfly sit outside on a hot summer day playing cards. After a few hands the centipede puts down his cards and says….
It’s a curse to be beautiful in this life… or was it an enviable blessing it brought wealth and fame…
An original fairytale about a handsome prince, damsel in distress and a white horse where the prince is the knight with a thousand faces.
God gave you the job of calling all the shots. What happened to make you forget what He had put you on this Earth for?
Why would it have to make logical sense for me to get that part? It’s just a frickin’ job, not graduate school.
The struggling artist doodled in the margins of the page, oblivious that the words she wrote were changing her world…
What shapes do you see in the pattern of life? Stories can create emotion, setting, likability, and help people learn about themselves and others. A believable story can capture the reader’s attention, if the grammar and sentence structure are good, then they should be able to read the story smoothly. If every aspect is perfect, that means nothing else is left undone. The tale could almost tell itself. The setting could almost design itself. If everything in a story feels real or plausible, then it lived up to the expectations.
Later, the same boy pushed a goat down the school’s staircases. It’s safe to say he was suspended from the school for a solid week.
You can use the environment around you to bring color to your writing. Look around you at the environment. The way a roach slithers across your counter – what emotion is it trying to convey? What does a dirty leaf or a wind-blown flower invoke in you?
Your name was a living legend. Highlander of your trade. No one wanted to be the one that slew… you.
When your life looked like a stick drawing, only with a few scattered among your two dimensional reality.
TheRedheadand The Spacewoman Are Having a Good Time On The Planet of Orange at the North Pole. Prance Around and Find a Big Piece of Rock To Float To Other Planets.
I knew they were trouble when they walked in. A girl covered in tattoos, and a guy who resembled Johnny Depp.
Hope you’ve enjoyed these funny story prompts. If you want some more, let me know and I’ll post more funny story prompts!
Who can discard digital music files that hold exactly one -hundred- notes of -unplayed- music without feeling awful and slightly depressed about it. Isn’t your hard drive a paradise for that lonely unused music??!
Write a story about someone who talks about a paradox that blurs the lines between fiction and reality.
1. Go to the YouTube channel, How to Write Great Fiction , and watch the videos on Point of View and Storytelling. 2. After you’ve watched the videos, go to the site to read more about each of the fifteen elements by clicking on the title of the article.
All of the writing prompts are effective because you have to get right to the point and remove any fluff from the description so you can tell a story in a creative and interesting way.
Have you ever noticed that after a person has died, everything in the house goes to the kids? Except for the dirty underwear in the underwear drawer.
Most people are like Slinky. With every step they take, they lose a little bit of their sturdiness and gain a little bit more tually.
Write a story about something or someone you don’t like, to get a laugh, you need to include a disliked person in your story.
The narrator doesn’t die immediately. Instead, he lives long enough to recount the accident to anyone willing to listen.
The kid knocked it 400 yards and because it landed on the road, and not in the field, it wasn’t a home run.
Write a true curious tale in which something relevant to your book has gone missing, How could it have been missing, and how could you possibly go on?
A lifeboat washed up with two skeletons in it. The First Skeleton popped out and grabbed his own pelvis. The First Skeleton’s pelvis didn’t belong to him. The Second Skeleton lunged out and said, “MY pelvis! Now!!” Your house was haunted by a ghost. You almost slept with a serial killer.
A priest, a rabbi, and a blonde woman with green eyes are about to be executed and they’re out on the garden swing together one last time.
The greatest mystery of all time hangs in the balance, and your friend and you are the only ones capable of solving it, but they, as they say, are M.I.A.
Imagine you’re at a job interview for a completely absurd job. What job explains everything that’s happened to you?
No one ever suspected the minister was actually a serial killer. But the numbers just didn’t add up….
For the next 25 days, post a comment of interest that relates to one of your writing goals, trading spaces for other wants or wishes . Make it fact-based, funny or fiction. Maybe even all three.
In the firelight preparing dinner over a barbecue the beloved grandfather of the family takes a young girl’s hand in his own and says,
That night the stars didn’t shine because the moon is full every month. And when it’s not it’s a new moon.
You encounter the ghost of your favorite actor. There he is in the flesh! You can’t believe your luck. And then he dies all over again and you have to write an article on what he was like.
Your mother was the whitest woman you’d ever seen. No one’s mother was whiter than yours. Wait? What?
The story focuses around the things that happened when, with what, who was what, who did what. Sometimes impossibly forced, sometimes just weird, and other times just slightly funny. The point is to be funny. Sometimes done by picking 20-50 completely random subjects, then picking out ones that are funny for whatever reason.
Give me this day my daily bread. Other stories stem from the imagination to list ideas. These exercises are fun, excitement and great ideas to use as a springboard for stories. It is all about stopping the gravity of your day. Making your creative mind float up into the clouds with no limitations. To create stories to amuse yourself and anyone who reads them. To write about whatever you like. To write about the people who really interest you. Nothing makes an awkwardly normal person observe and invent rather than someone who is a headliner. Invent your own direction of your story and drive a pit of obstacles. Keep your issues in mind but allow yourself to Spin the idea on its end and make it humorous and crazy fun. Just talking about writing stories can lead to a great idea or even a character for a story!!
Ever walked on the sand and couldn’t find the water? Ever walked on water and not been able to find the sand?
The White Witch is having an important guest over, a scruffy-looking nerdy guy who carries luggage larger than his own body while the creepy yet overdressed butler, dressed in purely white, escorts him to his room. As he disappears down the hall, the White Witch’s daughter walks in to ask her mother innocently where the new guest is staying, wondering if she can play with him. The mother is a bit offended by how this scruffy nerdy guy came to be a guest, and she asks her daughter “Why in the world would he be staying here?”
My co-worker saved the company from almost certain failure only to have his efforts called into question.
You’re in a totally haunted and abandoned house that you think is truly beautiful and charming until that really hungry yet relentless Vulture starts to nag you about what already-chewed-on bones you have back there in the cupboard that are just his size and whisper over and over, “Oh-do eat me.”
While growing up, your dog slept with you in your parent’s bed while they slept in their bedroom. Every night.
There was no way, no way someone who eats family pets would possibly have eaten my lost hamster. Right?
Write a story about a ceramic or pewter or lead figurine. Go into great detail about how it was made and how it might come to life.
In a world where noses were big business, two men vied for dominance. One noseless and the other flawed…
See what happens when a couple is forced to leave their home by circumstance and the rules and regulations surrounding urban civilizations. The husband eventually ends up building his own home minus a few materials.
A Silver Scoter is the most annoying bird in the world because even when it is dead people will throw it into a lake.
Every time the narrator reached the turning point in a tragic story, cash prizes were shot out of a cannon.
Choose people that you think are particularly familiar with someone who is close to you otherwise maybe a little bizarre.
So in Havana, this old man yells out, “You so stupid, you had all those Castro’s beat, what’s you firstname?”
If you use somebody’s accent to the point where they can’t speak at all, and then they decide to just leave before killing you, is it okay to say Black tax, as long as you pay it, but don’t actually take a mason jar down from anywhere and hold it out for them to put a quarter in?
Write a story that parallels the creation of people and the world in the Bible, beginning with the creation of the universe.
Honest Abe’s Honest Axe repair shop is across from Honest Abe’s Honest Auto Salvage. It’s across from Honest Abe’s Honest Sporting Goods in a section of the city where there is little honest business. None of us are getting any younger.
Tell the entire story from the main character’s weakest character flaw if your character is not heroic/has no flaws.
The quirks and oddities of the world are what make it amazing. Don’t be afraid to explore the strange!
You have the power to make someone else disappear. You can choose to take someone or the whole world.
The next time you tell someone to get over it they’ll die. With no one there to bring them back to life.
She always fell in love with people she shouldn’t and dated guys that were completely wrong for her. And yet, they all had one thing in common. She left you for them.
For the first time, the award for the worst fiction is awarded to Chuck Wiener. This is not a story about a man named Chuck Wiener, but rather is the story entitled, “Chuck Wiener’s Hair Journey.” “Chuck Wiener’s Hair Journey” will be printed on paper, and will surely be a literary success.
If lightning bugs had leaders, they would all decamp to my front yard to live and play vigorously in my dark corners.
A writer, reeling in self-pity over his lack of recognition, searches the nearby woods for some sign of recognition or even a single sapling with his name on it.
Have a main character that works at a really bad job/preparing clear margaritas at the corner store for a buck.
“Do you remember when we used to sit up all night and talk and talk and talk about the coolest things? What happened, man? Why aren’t we still talking?”
What is the funniest short story you have ever written, but really should sell because it’s really funny.
The new girl doesn’t have a name. Her real name is impossible to pronounce and occasionally she forgets what it is.
Ages and ages ago, in a galaxy far away, so long ago we didn’t even know when, back when King Arthur ruled Camelot there was a cobbler…
Have the character use a ridiculously large amount of made-up jargon to describe a situation or event, single-handedly destroying the target’s self-esteem and worldview.
Your late-friend Johnny was the weirdest person who ever lived. He did the strangest things. Even though you think he was a weirdo, you have to admit, the results were “worth it.”
It’s a tale with no meaning and no point– yet one that must be told elicits the most sympathetic response.
Give your character an impossible list of tasks, ridiculous prerequisites, and insane hoops and twirls to jump through. Poetically portray humiliation, the extreme senses of frustration and despair, and/or autism.
If you build a boat, will it hold up? If you build a raft, will it be water-tight? Are you looking out for me? Breathe. In depth. Exhale.
What is your ultimate reality television experience? Take Lana Condor On A Blind Date spoof scene from To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han for example! What is your ultimate reality television experience?
Orhan Pamuk, a Turkish writer known for The Black Book, grew up in Kaffeebecher, an Arab neighborhood in Istanbul, where he sold lemonade called “Bean and Istanbul.”
Nanai is a three-toed sloth who mainly feasts on prickly pear cactus to supplement his protein. He has been waiting for fair share solar panels from the energy company so he can stop eating cactus and start spinning his fiber, like many of the young sloths in his community do.
Story about movies or books that sound cool when you’re framing the scene but are terrible when you get down to it.
She was the sweetest girl in the whole wide world, but not a day went by without a peacock trying to ride my bike.
Unplug everything. Feel your breathing. Slowly have a panic attack. And then plug it in and forget about it.
Checklist, checklist. What’s something you need to make sure you don’t forget to do on a first date?
He ran into the mead with a paper in hand. He was an author, not just a writer, but a famous…oh, never mind.
Professor Dudley says, “No pain-no gain.” Considering this new-old adage, a sailor on a paddleboard
No one ever went into the old meat processing plant since it closed twenty years ago. But one day someone noticed and followed the little trail of steam coming from the roof. When they got to it they were shocked. The smell of meat and fresh blood made them gag. What they saw was hard to believe at first. What they saw made them vomit. You see, the factory was now run by mad scientist cooks. They use meat that people use to buy. It doesn’t come from there. What they cook is so good people can’t resist the smell. Their main item is called Fainiburger. It is so good it is supposed to change from a gas to a solid. Fainiburger is rolled out into a tent where people buy it to go. People were buying all the meat they could get their hands on. It’s a family operated business that parents love to cater businesses with for birthdays, weddings, you name it. It’s just so popular people can’t get enough.
Declare pestilence on the previously killer garden gnomes that are now holding your neighbor’s son hostage under your stair step.
Madness victims are happier than the sane, who just want to get fourteen hours of sleep in one night, without the disruption of yet another “loud noise scare”.
No one was sure if his mother was pushing the boundaries of time, space, and his mouth just to hear him scream.
They say curiosity killed the cat. And ever since you got curious about the wrong thing and followed that dog, you’ve regretted every decision you’ve made.
As Gary Larson did for comics, compose a hyper-stylized, exaggerated prose that mimics the surface qualities of a very different kind of writing.
That expression on your face, bemused and awry, one side of your mouth curling up in a mocking half-smile. The blind rage upon seeing my drawings, my close-guarded secrets, the pieces of my heart laid bare, stained in carbon soot.
You’re not a real shifter until you’ve had your skin eaten off, your body drained of blood, and had your eyeballs pecked out by a crow.
Travel back in time to observe a historical event, alive and in person. Use your knowledge of the future to influence the outcome of said event.
Just after his mother had died, he saw the apparition next to him with her arms outreached. Good thing it was seen through the webcam of his computer.
We demolished a small, defenseless, sandcastle and the world crushed us like it crept up on a surprise party.
What if every word you wrote was written in pineapple upside-down cake? Would anything make any sense?
Write a funny poem. This could be a parody on Old King Cole, or another famous poem. You might want to try to whole Sonnet 43 nevertheless inquire of me…
You’ve had moments of Clarity. A heightened awareness that gives you the sense that you have your feet on solid ground. But for the most part, you meander, unsure of your place. With a slight sense of fear, you’ve built walls around yourself and your heart, using your past experiences as bricks. But at this best, you are Chaotically Neutral… photographic proof.
1. Africa Revisited – ‘On civilizing Western civilization, African masks, cold weather and the skull’ – Makgoba
A man went into a shop, asked for “six back scratchers.” Mentioned ticks. “Been bitten by a dog recently?” he asked. So he asked for a “pea shooter” to “blow all those ticks away.” He said this at an old-fashioned general store. They sold everything from guns and paints to “tack and feed.” “Geesh,” says Bob. “This puppy will blow every one of those ticks right out of their blood.” Lermontov Palmerrell was able to shoot all the ticks away with a pea shooter.
Make the reader think the story is going to follow a straight line, when, in fact, you’re going to take it on a sharp left turn.
As he drifted off, he pinched his wife’s leg until she hit him on the belly. “Hey!” she said. “That’s not a good idea.” He said, “I was swimming and my head fell off.”
Fiona Smythe, a four year old lives whenever her father isn’t around. Once he’s blessedly gone, she transforms into her evil knock-off of Barbie. One afternoon, her father is just about to head out to a business meeting, so he asks her to give him a kiss for luck. The request, of course, makes Fiona sick. Instead, she tells him that Holiday Barbie will kiss him on the cheek instead of “dry rubbing her lips”. Disgusted, the father leaves. The audience expects this story to go down a typical road. But no, when Dad returns home a few hours later thinking he’d made a major business deal, the father is met with a post-it note which says, “I need a bigger attic”. It turns out that, for her “treat”, Fiona took a pretty BB gun and did some barrel racing with a broom handle. Thus, the note.
Write the story of someone who’s really, really good at PowerPoint. Even in an era of Google and Twitter, their slides are so good, the audience is hypnotized.
Think of the space capsule scene in “Wrath of Khan” and what ensues when a man with healthy “curiosity” and a few jumplings of plunk get together.
Imagine your laundry folder is a person. Cool, yet annoying. So you dump them out in a single heap and they jumble around like an angry drunk.
During the Time of Gray, no one dared voice their true thoughts in public or in private. It took courage to gain new knowledge.
A New York caveman was trying to spelunk, but could not climb up because he had a belly. So he yelped as loud as he could…then a few minutes later, his buddy dropped him a ladder. That’s not real real, but so real it’s real.
Go inside your car and write. Give all the details – make it like no one else could have experienced this exact thing.
Until society is prepared to accept its place within the natural order and begin setting reasonable goals for alternatives, there is no choice but to rely on the perpetuation of primitive and environmentally atrocious technologies like nuclear power.
Write about how you woke from the most fascinating dream just to find yourself in the most boring situation you’ve ever been in!
Tell it all. Do not be sensitive. Trust the reader to catch only the essentials of your story while filling in the gaps. Embrace the fact that there is so much more to understand and experience than you will ever write.
After reading these, breathe out or exhale. Still holding your finger against the key, remove your finger and look through them! Breathe out and then do this 2 more times. See what happens.
The longer you looked at your face, the longer you were convinced a monkey could do a better job, but he was an idiot.
Make the thread exactly the right size to fit through the hole, and then turn it one thousand times to the right as you enter the hole… from which things currently come out.
Why did the poet love his cabin in the woods so much? He simply loved it more than anything else in the woods.
The terraforming is a certainty the simulations proved it. Nothing could go wrong, we planned for every eventuality. You can’t hide in spilled milk.
Sometime in the future, a human might fall in love with a robot and other pieces of monumental fiction.
A bear, a car, a tire, a wheel and a turkey walk into a bar. Sounds a lot like the start of a joke. But it’s no joke when the turkey comes in shooting. And the only joke you get out of it is the one on your tombstone.
You haven’t spoken to your father in a very long time. He has been remanded to the sub-basement laundry facilities for the past several years and forced to tend to the mundane needs of the wealthy. You are ready to go see him and release him from the duties of the laundry worker.
You’re distracted by a magnificent sunset. Succumbing to its warm and welcoming glow, your thoughts begin to drift apart as you become enchanted by the burning blue hue that dances in the sky.
That hidden side of yourself that usually doesn’t get displayed in everyday company has to be hidden no more because the surprise party your spouse has planned for you is sneaking up on you and it’s going to be occupying every corner of your house, so, get in harmony with yourself…cause it is all out now.
Things lay broken and forgotten, scattered as if a storm had swept through somewhere, regretting di…
Everyone can be silent and noisy at the same time. You just need to have earbuds that are plugged into your ears…
There are times when you write for the world to see, and then there are times when you write to see if the words will fit.
There once was a man from Nantucket, who had a whack of almonds, and a lady from Racine, who couldn’t disarm him.
A pleasant stroll, or maybe a marathon run is what you usually experienced on your bike tour around your neighborhood and imagined on your couch in front of the TV.
A very hot summer day, as you laid your head on her lap, she told you a long, sad story which you never forgot. She was buried in a seaside grave, with her action figures never to be played with again.
How many Jifs does it take to screw in a light bulb? Three! One to unscrew the world, one to screw the future, and one to screw the future back on. Or you could just add all your Jifs together…
A Greek chorus of a dozen people stand behind you one by one and speak 2 lines. It is irrelevant as to what they say. It is merely the sound of their voices.
You are asleep within a dream, within another dream, within another dream, within another dream, within another dream, within another dream, within another dream…
Three little pigs. Pop! Goes the first pig’s house! Pop! Goes the second pig’s house! Whoops! There goes the big bad wolf… Oh, no…Not the third little pig’s house.
I spent all night cleaning up blood from the lobby. It was hard to get out of the cracks of the floor.
A ship was floating in the water far below the mountains with hope in the captain’s eyes. Here it comes. One second. One…
One of these days is sadly about to be your last. Unless you can think up a quick and clever ending.
An important lesson for all authors who wish to create scenes of tension – make your characters talk about the farthest thing from the trouble at hand.
Freeze time for 2 minutes. When the timer goes off, you’ll be one month older. What does the future hold for you?
While you were away on holiday, your aunt decided to redecorate your living room in red and white and where your couch used to be is now a large bird cage.
Einstein never wore greetings. Mohandas Gandhi never wore pants. Amelia Earhart never wore underwear.
Have your main character wake up to themselves having done something absolutely and totally different from your previous work.
If you could go back in time and witness the birth of anything or anyone, what would it be? What would the circumstance be, what year would it be back to? Where would you be, …?
The Most Interesting Man in the World explains why all flags are bad and go 170 kilometers per hour in 45 seconds.
Deconstructing the pro wrestling persona – make the wrestler into a non-wrestler and tell why that character became a non-wrestler.
When your TV makes too much noise while on the phone, you need a remote that allows you to effectively bat at the volume control.
You’re playing your cosmic stereo and tripped over a sidewalk crack. That’s strange. There had never been one there before.
A journal between two friends, one who lost his wife in a car accident and one who has just admitted a one night stand after she told him she is starting to see someone else.
You live in an average world. There is nothing special about the world you inhabit. Something or someone will come along to show you that there is.And this last one has always been a favorite of mine. It comes from video games. That’s right. VIDEO GAMES!
You got off the bus in the morning and greeted your friend with, “Hi, Napping! Did you have a good napp?! Ha ha! Keep on sleeping and your dreams will come true.”
Desperately searching for what idiot lost your pet bunny. The little tyke was wearing an army helmet too. What was he training for?
Hansel and Gretel were lost, children’s bones were forgotten next to the four day old ash of the campfire.
One, two, Freddy’s coming for you. — Slight variation on the above creepypasta prompt, “Five Tries Not to Wake up”
Junk was gold in California. People would pay top prices just to have back whenever they thought the world was about to end.
It has been said that the element of surprise is very important in horror novels. Surprise works extremely well and is oftentimes one of the most powerful tools in horror writing. The element of surprise will help pack a more powerful emotional punch.
And that was that. Abraham Lincoln had saved the country once again, thus realizing his mother’s dream of him becoming President.
Your name will be mispronounced all your life, people will get it wrong and you can’t seem to make them stop.
Write an elevator pitch for a killer morphological virus that eats human bones. No. Make that human flesh.
There was a man they sent to a giant rocket! But something was wrong with the world. Something was definitely wrong.
Mom and Dad always loved you best. You were the one they called on to make decisions and rescue them from challenging and inconvenient situations. Be careful…they may be the reason you’re in prison and can’t call your own family.
You carry the love of your life with you everywhere you go. Unfortunately, she dies every day at midnight. It’s worse than a story in a book.
This is more of an art technique. You pick a cool or funny sentence and then crop Griff before while typing it or doing something.
Only humans could take over natural resources for ourselves leaving behind a mess for another species.
You win some, you lose some. When Tagore’s car breaks down during a family vacation his life takes a turn for the worst but is it more than that. Will the sale of a winning lottery ticket unravel even harder times ahead or is it the answer he is looking for?
Write without letting the pencil ever touch the paper. Have the fingers glide across the page as you type.
You are sealed in a room that is temperature controlled perfectly. You can never be too cold or too warm, but you are not allowed to leave.
Your life was in black and white. You were used to the setting, and you liked it that way. Then one day you discovered there was a color channel you had completely missed out on. What would you see with a color camera now that you’re no longer entirely shielded from color…?
Write about a time despite a nagging voice in the back of your head you did something crazy and insane.
Interrogate your lawn mower. Praise him for launching the first successful lawn mower satellite at the feverish apex of his mechanical orgasm.
There once was a woman who was so attractive, four men were fighting to their deaths for the right to marry her, but the question was…. Which one would she choose?
Dogs eat homework. It’s what they do. Period. End of sentence. The end. The era of the Thompson family.
I saw a cockroach skittering up your arm to your shoulder. Don’t be scared. I’ll grab it and put it outside.
Your father’s wealth and popularity have meant you one thing so far—privilege. Is that where your laundry list of qualifications end? Or have a few gaps gone unfilled?
The Iceman Prank. Buy an 1/8 of weed then go to the freezer. Make all your friends think the weed is just covered in ice. Wake them up, and the Iceman will have come and gone.
Think about someone you know who is either really short, really tall, or really fat. Have him/her walk into the room.
Arthur was a child of fantasy and truth. Not often could he tell the difference, thus his name, which seemed fitting.
Everyone else is a redbird and you’re a robin. What happened, how can they all be redbirds and you be a robin?
Everyone thought you were Egyptian. But it turned out you were just a little black boy whose father was a dentist for the Egyptian royal family.
Something old… Something new… Something borrowed… Something gray… The time he slipped on a banana skin and broke his leg. The dress she wore on her first date with him. They taught the millionaire to sing his last will and testament.
What happens when you put the world’s grumpiest man in front of a mirror, and let him complain and moan about his life for ninety minutes…?
And the following prompts are about more common submissions, and my feeling is that they did not deserve an accept, however funny stories.
Somebody worked really hard drawing something on your face or body. Emphasize how impressed you are that they drew a dinosaur on you, or a plane, or a flower, or a penis, or a pot leaf. It has to have love in the work, of course, and detail. You’ll realize this as the story builds.
Your school was so boring you decided to explode it. In the end this resulted in you getting expelled.
Things the stars say. Things that wouldn’t disturb, but wouldn’t exactly lull you to sleep at night.
Let go of every single bit of sanity you ever had and go completely insane. Hold on to hope and don’t let go of it.
When there was nothing but sand in the brick, you had to pick up one of the bricks. Maybe it was my brick? Was my brick the one picked up last?
An astronaut landed and grew tomato plants. If he sees another astronaut do the same, what would he think?
Every so often, Mr. Grant comes into the break room and does an impression of Clifford Pearson’s grandmother who answers the phone at her nursing home that badly, and you notice that Meeka is terribly upset.
It seems only yesterday we had a family of wolves, a family of mice, a family of mice that lived in a wolf, a bulldog and a cat that lived in a bank.
After nearly destroying his village, the Lazy Prince makes sure not to repeat the same mistakes again.
When bored at a convention, one is advised to see the before and after photos. That should liven things up.
Two co-workers ran into each other they hadn’t seen in a while. “Good to see you,” they greet. Then one says a little sarcastically . . .
At the murder trial, the prosecutor said that the victim had 30 stab wounds but bite marks showed that 42 teeth to be involved. The murderer confessed, but said that it was a “joint effort”.
They warned him not to eat the fiddle player, but he did not listen. He did, of course, get sick. Everything in…
Throw your main character in a situation that is completely wrong and confusing for him/her. His/her normal behavior will seem very out of place.
Exactly how it sounds—nonsense punctuation. Bold and italic letters if you prefer, use as many words as you wish, be as silly as you want… just make it nonsense.
Cold and brittle bark, the delicate touch and the delicate scent. Her hands and lips were mine. Hers and she would not be comforted.
I tried bondage, but you don’t get quite the same screams from younger women after removing their clothes.
If you find a way to fulfill your wish or dream would you stop wishing or dreaming? Or would you make the most of it?
A computer woke up in a new millennium, asked itself “where am I?” and answered “Negative Space.” God was not there.
Every action hero story needs a protagonist who needs help getting their suit on. What’s your story?
Make something funny out of reality. Maybe you want to make a laughing stock of yourself, or you might just want to share the humdingers of reality.
3. Next, find an oddity in the story. Something out of place from what should normally be the case. Ask it to tell you the story. Place the story back in the box and take it somewhere completely different. Pluck out a new story of the absurdity of the first in some bizarre variant.
This one is great because it gives you the opportunity to tap into a deep, dark place in your soul and create a detestable Exceeder with one simple adjective…
Frodo realised as he walked down the final stretch of the yellow-brick road that it might not have been quite as easy as all that being the last ring bringer.
The woman three houses down has been staying up until three in the morning knitting mittens for kittens.
A one-armed man is shooting dice with God. God always wins. The one-armed man does not understand why.
Why did the chicken cross the road? Why? You better know the answer to that philosophical question, or you are going to die.
Start worse and make it progressively worse until it’s extremely out of whack and you suddenly get a happy ending. Springtime for Hitler.
Think specifically and thoroughly about the last helicopter you saw. Then the last car you saw with its lights off. The last bag of bird seed.
Look both ways before you cross. No one cares about the people or the dog that crosses against the light. If you want to stay alive, you need to know where they are.
The woman’s shoulder blades brushed against one another whenever she stretched her arms above her head
A few of these prompts are more for free writing exercises than for actual stories, but either way they both have potential to inspire your creativity. If you have TONS of ideas flowing about your prompt, zip up your overalls and start writing! If you’re still looking for some fresh inspiration, don’t worry. You’ll be able to get a lot out of these so keep reading!
The kick is a novelist, struggling to cope with a bad writing day. Unfortunately, she has no idea how to solve this problem. Her Muse has abandoned her, and every word she types expends more agony on her and less on the keyboard. There is no spell for this. There are no charms or potions that will bring the Muse back to her. So, she gets creative.
This list is a good way to begin when you don’t know what else to write. It gets the creative juices flowing and can open up new events to put in your flash fiction.
As long as a character has multiple dimensions to him or herself, it can be funny to throw in an eclectic mix of traits. Just when a reader thinks you’ve made a character’s outlook on life clear cut by developing her beyond the generic-ness, toss in a personality trait that prevents such a judgment.
The person who gives you the most rhetorical questions about your life is the one who divulged information best saved for yourself.
A kid whose father owned the local book store dresses up as the Sesame Street icon and blocks the aisle hock
Just when you thought you couldn’t make use of laughter yoga. This book will open your heart,…
Cats act like real cats and are the best all around pets. Dogs act like we would expect and better adapt to a modern society. Explain how boring this would be.
Little old me, lost in the city. Feeling crushed by the magnitude of it all, the cold, hard concrete. Oh, better yet. The city was frozen in a thick layer of snow, making every movement sound heavy. It was the city’s yearly tradition to remain encased in ice, adding on to the city’s beauty and making everyone provide one another with warmth of all kinds… After all, we needed to move forward from the ice age.
Tell us a story of a true heartbreak. Or you could talk about how that one time Jim chose Sue over me for the basketball team going to the state championship almost got me a heart attack.
No matter how popular some other brand might be, there was none better and more loved than the one you were using.
Turn your antagonist into a godly complex being, and pretend to be winning the battle for all of five minutes. Then get beaten by a fifteen-year-old boy driving a borrowed car.
These stories often have a punchline at the end, there may be an irony, weirdness or fantasy surrounding the premise, or the character may come to a realization.
A bird falls from the sky and into your soup. You scream and jump out of your chair, food and broth tumbling to the floor. The maid misunderstands and burns down your house.
You have unbelievably super powers. Seriously, you can make anything possible. How do you squander them away?
Thanatos, my boyfriend, just broke up with me. He saw me with Keith at the Winter Carnival. Even though Keith has a mohawk, gold teeth and a skull and crossbones dimestore ring. Even though I’ve never even liked Thanatos in that way.
On a clear, cold day, the sky is blue. If it is in the middle of summer, the sky can smell like butter melted into hot toast. On this sort of day, you think that there will be corn.
Flip a coin, heads or tails? Both phrases mean either, and the reader just keeps flipping the coin back and forth.
If you have a funny story, but you’re at a loss for how to actually write it, you might try writing a paragraph pretending it’s a very serious story. And then go through and periodically, CONSCIOUSLY write the funnier version of the same thing. My advice is… to take a break from writing for a while and sort of have a little fun with what you’ve written. Don’t let yourself take it too seriously. Think of it as entertainment. If your writing style lends itself more to humor, then let yourself go and enjoy yourself.
Some stories are being told at dinner-time. Somewhere in the world. Some for the first time. Someone somewhere is listening for the first time. And someone else somewhere is listening for the last time.
Oxymoron! The Wag Bag. Also, look up this link! It’s a great website, but there’s so many great links included in Wikipedia that it baffles me how many can fit in there! It’s important to look at this page too if you’re a beginner! It’ll teach you terminology!
My parents were involved in a cult, and there’s this ritual they performed where they sacrificed me.
Have you heard the one about the person who just sat around and killed time all the time? One day…
The letter is a lie. You may be a better writer than you think. Consider each sentence to be a letter, each paragraph a word, each chapter a paragraph, each book a chapter. Pulling those words apart you see meaning and find original story ideas in the same manner.
This is your captain speaking, we will be experiencing some slight turbulence for the next five minutes. Please remain seated and keep your seatbelts fastened.
Divorce isn’t easy, especially when trying to divide up all your pent-up rage. Good luck untangling these plots.
A war has destroyed the human race leaving only robots, molded to look human. Now there is a war between the dark and light robots.
The devil goes to at least one parent-teacher conference every year, and sometimes they even make him feel guilty.
In order to get to the garden party, she would have to negotiate 1,967 miles of tunnels before emerging into the sunlight.
You put on a wig and head on a quick trip to the store. You forgot your wallet, but they have it on camera, so you decide you won’t mind paying. As you exit, you see the curtain fall and hear the dial tone in the background of the camera shop.
If a character is mentioned in one section of the story, then he or she must be cast as a character who speaks a great deal later in the narrative.
Imagine you are a copywriter for a clothing store. Your task is to come up with some made-up sign slogans.
Jimmy raised an ear to the lamp light to play. He could feel it loosening, maybe he could make it fall.
A car stopped at a red light. It was a robot car. The lights turned green, but the car didn’t move. When the car was about to get a ticket, the light turned to yellow, to orange and the car hurried away.
There once was a pirate who made out with a mermaid’s wet Wardrobe. From that day forth, he was covered in scales, and started swinging a noose around.
The dog’s name was confusing. It looked like it was supposed to be a newly created dog ending in the suffix -y, but the dog instead ended with the suffix -day. And, to top it all off, the dog did not look like a dog.
Another Sunday, another family argument about hair. A haircut of disproportionately epic proportions that not only divides a family, it hermetically seals them off from others and the outside world.
A deaf person hears a knock at the door and opens it to find a race of others who live without doors.
You didn’t look at my test grade right away. You placed the test in your backpack and went fishing.
Make someone feel something. It can be an emotion. It can be the feeling of something. And it should lead to the next feeling. Feelings are lead. – Joss Whedon, an earlier TV writer with an earlier success on one of those small messaging things.
Be cool. Like nothing’s wrong. Of course your then wife is not going to meet you. Why would she? You took the dog you love. Kimmy, the Chihuahua and your credit cards, car and your money. You can always borrow money from your buddy Owen. That’s what friends are for. You think you are at his house. You woke up one morning just an hour ago and came right here. You were at a party and his neighbors came over for a party. You hung out until it was time to go to work. But you don’t think you work. Yet you went to your bank and tried to withdraw money out. But the money wasn’t there. What is going on? You get up to leave. Go to his living room and you try to call Noel. But you can’t get through. She is not answering. You have a wife Sidney and a daughter Marie. You dated once. But you left what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. At the moment you wish you never stepped foot into the city. This is too strange.
I finally lost the last stubborn 10 pounds the week before my husband deployed. By the time he came back, I’d gained it all back and then some.
You’re stuck on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere, with an iPad that never runs out of power and creates online jobs for you to do.
I’ve always wanted to work with children. They are so innocent and vulnerable. Timmy is my first. Isn’t he darling?
I lay down on a meadow, looked up at the sky and sensed there was something out there in the background.
What is the last thing left in your fridge that is particularly delicious/mutant/vicious when preserved?
There have been many articles, books, and many other creative works and compilations of comedic writing prompt ideas.
Think of a belief about how the world works and write a story embodying the belief, then tell a story that says the opposite.
A meteor destroys the Earth and turns everything–including one of the characters–to dust. Whether the dust remembers being made of people is up to you.
An even funnier version is that the more things change, the more they stay the same…no one would suspect something was amiss with the status quo.
He cares for his patients with a sincere and serious demeanor, and he is obsessed with caramel popcorn.
Humor is in everything, even in a research writing– as Clotho always knew. Just by taking a couple of minutes or even a whole semester to look for a literary device, your paper will be funny. Why? Because…well, excuse me, but you were looking and Clotho approves of that effort.
Hum, Um, Umm, Ahh… those were the only noises that existed before the great ‘Eu’n’ to begin existence.
Someone dies, and their ghost lingers on, not able to cross over until the person responsible,” takes ownership” of the mistake and apologizes.
The tricky thing with a word is that you keep using it the more you use it, the more you have to keep using it until it loses all of it’s mystery and nuance, and the more it stands for what it means and the more it doesn’t stand for what it means.
The terrible things youngsters with the best intentions do not only to their bodies, but also their minds.
Cue bedtime story, The Princess and the Pig. One characteristic of a princess is that they are beautiful. This describes Dawn, the princess in the Hunter family. She is just about as
Humor is delicate. Laughing at a story only happens if one buys into all the elements of a story. This happens when everything works, if all the pieces fit together.
The Sith created a vacuum-sealed, pressure-cooked chamber that conserves foods’ freshness while dropping their caloric content.
For two days you and your friends have traveled across unexplored land. A cry of warning guides you as you see two large mountains on the horizon. Over the next four hours you spy nearly 17 different creatures, some you’ve never seen before.
Suffer the little children. Let them suffer. Just pour the gasoline and strike the match. Feed the fire until it burns to your fingertips and beyond.
In the worst of times, there is good. In the best of times,there is bad. The number of bad times as the number of good times will tell you just how good or bad life is.
And lastly the romantic prompt. This can work in all areas of love. A crush/love is always fun to write about.
Each time the mother checked on her child’s progress in writing, she found an addition to the story. The change was small and subtle but the words took on a sinister tone and a darker scene played out within the pages. Read more HERE . There’s no better time than Halloween to read something spooky.
I’m a single girl in New York City who is very satisfied with her life and doesn’t need a boyfriend.
Imagine a world in which people can read and write without actually learning how. The entire language is pre-programmed into people from birth and cannot be changed. They learn how words fit together by watching TV. Imagine a whole society like that.
You’re in an alternate timeline in which you have to get from A to B to save the world. You’ve got one hour.
Everyone you knew was an accountant. Steven loved accountants. He was seventeen. His father said, “Be an accountant, son. Work isn’t as much fun when you smooth out the numbers for a living.” So, Steven smoothed out the numbers for a living. It was billed as his lifelong dream. Until, one day, Steven was completely, absolutely and utterly bored. His secretary, an incredibly attractive French Exchange student, Mimi, grudgingly handed out thick piles of paperwork. Steven reported her to human resources. It wasn’t her disgust that compelled him so much as her complete and unconditional love of his miserable work life. He hired her out of desperation. For no reason but to relieve her suffering, Steven committed a small infraction on his tight little scale of morality. It felt good.
You know the drill people. To all the great people who contributed so far , thanks once again for your time, trouble and talent. Keep on ’em coming.
Each night you buried part of a body in the backyard. The body parts would be right there in the morning with you, with no sign of digging.
What is hidden in the closet? A monster? A creature from your imagination? The memory of your mother’s hands when she tucked you in when you were little? Maybe it’s nothing…
You had a jar of cookies. You opened one to make sure they were fresh but… they weren’t. That jar was fresh as your grandmother’s pie crusts!
The Fiddler on the Roof story is a nice one to do if you want a long story with some foolishness and a touch of magic.
A man’s fingers on his right hand are amputated. Only his thumb remains. He uses it to give advice by saying, “Use your thumb. It’s more clever than the other fingers.”
If you like these story prompts, please share any favorite funny-story-telling-prompts that you have.
This is a great list of jokes and funny stories you can use to practice your oral storytelling. And as a member of Story Club, you get unlimited access to this and even more. So sign up today to help your telling skills blossom!
Someone attacked you with odorant cologne/perfume that smells horrific. You faked illness so you wouldn’t have to wait until the scent went off. The attackers came to give you a treatment that cleared out your sinuses so the smell could be inhaled through them.
The pencil refused to be sharpened, chipping its point instead of yielding to the knife each and every time. It would have been more appropriate to sharpen the knife, or at least the pencil taking the most logical action to avoid being sharpened but that is not how it happened.
It escalated from a simple party prank, into a brawl, into a gun fight, into a city-wide scourge. Bobsled Team Nitrocide broke their sponsor’s blockade in an attempt to find a better look.
Write eight lines of dialogue between two people. First person speaks four beats and the other person speaks three.
Theodore is a dominatrix. One night, her parents walk in on her getting goodies from the guy next door.
The 91 bus picks up and drops off at various local places. One time, a local place was an old folks’ home.
Joan and John were in their kitchen. They had dinner waiting for them. But they forgot to set a place for Bill.
The old man at the end of the driveway found the bodies and the dog. He didn’t do anything about it. He lived down the block and down the street from every neighbor on the street. And everyone knew that the old man followed people with his eyes down and up, down and up. Everyone knew that the old man was not to be trusted.
Every time you do something well, every time you praise someone, first think about your satisfaction right after he finishes when no one is looking.
The professor asked the question and she sat there, her hand raised, finger poised and ready, waiting for a moment to shine. She didn’t know she was supposed to speak. But she wanted to be the best student…ever after all.
The only thing more disheartening than someone not liking you is the thought of them knowing you don’t like them.
This is a type of short story frequently found in stand-up comedy. You list a few abnormal points, then finish with the punch-line that ties them together. This family rock collection was a complete load.
You know how that imaginary friend you made up when you were little stars coming for you late at night.
Imagine how different your life would be if a few things had a different outcome or someone made a different choice.
Run someone over without getting caught. The terms of the contract are this, you will have to disguise or conceal the accident.
In one night, you could be best friends with babies, elderly, bosses, high school and college siblings. No judgments. An equal opportunity grub.
It seemed a shame to use these prompts on your day-to-day work. You might want to wait for a day that you have a looming, not-dealt-with issue. It can turn out to be a powerful tool in helping you see a new side to a problem and potentially solve this issue more easily. It can also be demoralizing to see a problem solve itself immediately with resolving some sort of less-than-intimidating issue.
Stretching? She’s been practising how to crack her bones to make them longer and stretchy like rubber bands since she was a child.
Write a character profile of yourself. What’s your epic flaw? What impression do people have of you?
The sight of a white rose in bloom left the villagers speechless and senseless. One spindly blossom was white. One plant, in all the village, had produced a white rose. The villagers had seen white flowers before, but always in person. Never in the art form, because the white heather and albiflora were not flowers. This single, perfect blossom was no more than a mirage, but nothing so horrible could bring the people of this village to their knees.
Where does the lost city that never existed in the middle of Europe of a desolate country that had been torn apart by war stand?
You’re a trolley. You have to follow the rail. If you veer off the tracks a voice shouts, “You’re going the wrong way, trolley!”
The kid across the street has fallen from grace, but did the kid across the street fall hard enough?
Two nine-year-old girls were whispering about their mother when one said, “I think it’s such a shame that Mom has to work. She doesn’t even notice what any of us are wearing.”
Two guys and one girl must decide who is going to break up with who in order to save everybody’s self-esteem.
The urge to fit the story into the shape of the prompt is as strong in the author as it is in the story editor.
Your total is six twenty-two but you had loose change and only one bill which amounted to six dollars and twenty-two cents. Which item would you purchase?
Your two thousand monkeys are going crazy and you can’t keep them on task. They’re everywhere on every site giving out spoilers and secrets.
Your elementary school teacher and your best friend get in a giant fight. They call out each other’s weaknesses and failures, and just before the teacher is about to tell your friend he’s a fraud, your friend interrupts.
Ending It needs not be said, but all of the following are very open ended. Your choices are unlimited. This is an opportunity to produce your own original fiction.
Use in a character’s name something that is anatomically wrong, but which everyone refuses to see as incorrect.
We’ve all done something weird when we think we aren’t being watched. Write about it and post it in a public space. See what happens!
PETA sent you their monthly newsletter in the mail one day. Did you know they recreate the slaughter of your steak?
Ask questions to get back at an enemy. There are only two ways he can answer with both being negative.
Starting with “The little Red Hen” tells a story making the effort of the heroes the hardest thing imaginable.
The Flintstones versus the Jetsons. What if Josie worked at a lingerie store and Pebbles wanted to buy some lingerie but she doesn’t have any money. So Steve makes it so the Jetsons can get free lingerie? What happens next?
A magician is never late because he gets there twice. –Arkan Gus……. My favorite story is the one about the magician.
You wake up and discover you’re the only person left on Earth. How will you maintain the power grid? What are you going to eat, if anything at all?
It was a bright mountain day, but on the top of this cliff it was lonely, cold, and windy. An eagle could have circled and landed, but no one would have ever known the difference.
Sometimes we forget to think. Thinking a pretty big word. A lot of people don’t really know how to use it.
Write a scene where the last survivor of the human race returns to find everyone long gone. What does he do to get through the day? What reminds him of people? What does he miss about his fellow man?
You were coming home from school one day. You were behind a house, sitting on a hill. You noticed clothes hanging on the line. You wondered if, instead of jeans and skirts, they wore socks.
Teacher- One day you have a frog and you put it in a blender, and you can make frog smoothies. BLARGH~ That’s what you should use the blender for instead of drinks.
What if you discovered a secret restaurant? And not just any secret restaurant but a secret restaurant with really good food.
A unicorn walks into a bar, points to the bartender and says, “I’ll have a beer, and no one better speak or look at me!”
Pick one object and one emotion. Have your character act out that emotion through the use of this object.
Write about an anonymous character. No names, no description of the character, just write the events of the day as if you were this person.
Once upon a time there was a progressive left-wing liberal chick enamored by socialist/leftist ideologies.
You drink your favorite drink, and when no one is looking, and there’s a drip of liquid left at the bottom of the cup… you quietly eat it!
A man walks into a bar and sits down. “I’d like to get some wine.” The bartender replies, “You’re out of luck. There is no wine in this bar.”
You’re the new girl in town, and you don’t know what food to eat. Soylent Green? Peak Purple? Purple Flavored Soylent Green?
Add some food coloring to your drink. Neck it in about thirty seconds. Then act completely oblivious as your friends try to point out that orange soda does not come with blue straws.
Take 2 very different characters with an unlikely pairing and drop them into a common situation, great conversation, or funny setting.
Explain to others what is going on in a beautiful way, that you understand as clear as day, but the others can not understand because they aren’t thinking like you, and vice versa.
You’re at a lonely motel on a dark night in Texas. Open up the kind of horrors you’d expect and the circumstances surrounding the same.
-Each character has one weapon, one piece of armour, one accessory, and one special skill. It’s a dungeon-crawler game, and you’ll need to roll dice to beat the monsters each round.
You’re in the garden swearing at the neighbours cat. It’s just run off with your favourite pot plant. And you’ve got a very rare, pure white, orchid in there. You can’t believe that he’s stolen your expensive orchid, this special blossom indeed! “CAT!” you yell! “Did you take my orchid! He runs off with the cutest little grin! “Cat.” you scream!” He never learned his lesson, not even once, that sneaky cat.
In the sea were several huge rectangular sea-veggies. They had been married for several months and were arguing about things in their life.
Your grandmother had to explain, show and tell to your father because he thought it would be something physical that he could do instead of just talking.
All of history, well the first forty second of it. The history of an entire world… condensed into forty two seconds… And you could not read lips, but you knew everything… and you were present.
Our five year old neighbor/friend, or whoever you’d like, died in a tragic accident. Circa 1990, say.
Larry would be home early every Tuesday. For years this went on silently. Tonight was his first Tuesday coming home.
You need to isolate the main character. Take your main character out of where he first appeared and put him/her/they in an entirely different time or place.
Remember when you were younger, how you had to wear those ugly clothes your mum and dad bought you. Enjoy those days because now you’re too old and don’t want to wear them.
BUT WAIT. We’re getting ahead of ourselves. This only covers the beginning. This only covers the first bit of the story. As the story goes on, you will become more and more immersed in the story. You will have bigger problems to deal with, and that will change everything. Simultaneously your protagonist will develop and improve herself. The deeper she gets into the story, the more immersed she will become. The more she immerses herself in the story, the more it consumes her life. The more it consumes her life, the harder it is to immerse herself anymore. And… you get the idea.
And the creature spoke of a place where he could find me…. In the warm glow of his eyes…. It soothed my worries…
Then a small bird landed on his window sill and pecked at the egg for what must have been hours, days maybe even weeks. Another appeared, then a third. Before he knew it he had a whole flock of birds. Which one of them started pecking first, he couldn’t be sure. — Hills Behind the Hills
Sometimes staying in bed seemed like the best option. The hot water was so, so, so deliciously inviting. What a mighty quandary…to take a bath and reflect upon the warm wax structured layers of Cthulhu that impregnated the many dimensional universe.
Your story must include a parent of yours… Who must in the beginning, seem like the most intimidating, or bossiest parent in the world. Deep into the story, you reveal that your dad just likes cookies.
Gravel and tar make a peculiar red, the color of dried blood. The red makes the deserted town feel like a crime scene from a t.v. show.
Waking up in the middle of the night you notice that a small, circular cleaning device is hovering directly above you. Brandishing a small broom, the device begins to work.
When you told your sister about the pee covered toilet seat you stubbed your toe on she laughed. She just didn’t want you to accidentally tell your mom. So then you told your mom and she goes, “This is why you need a cat.”
Several months after his dad died, Travis Hanson’s mom asked him to dig out the frozen ground in the flower bed and replace the barren dirt that their landscaper had spread. It was way too late into the year for planting new flowers, but Travis wanted to comply anyway. Besides, the whole summer before Dad had laid out plans to spread new over the old which had withered and died. He really appreciated the attention she was giving things around the old house. This was one of the first steps on their road back to healing.
I get the junk, like what comes at the bottom of a Christmas tree. Not the pretty, caramel colored hard candy, but the rock hard sticks of sugar, faded red and green swirl candy canes, broken toffee candy bits, and the occasional Gummy bear.
At night when everyone else was asleep, she would cry in her pillow so no one could hear her. When she was done, she would go to sleep crying. Her bed would be a little damp. If anyone were to lie next to her, it would be damp, too.
There was a small boy who had a special hanky, one with magical powers. The hanky knew the boy only had 12 days to live.
When you pause to think about life and death, you realize something strange. A pause may make your life epic.
Me and my friends were lost in an enchanted forest. We wandered for hours and hours until we couldn’t take it anymore. We finally stumbled upon the moon
Explain brilliant commentary during a movie that the patrons had hated due to the movie theater being empty.
People used to stop and stare at the paintings in the hallway, but by the end of the month, they still did.
Another day, another death, another invitation into an unbelievably realistic TV world. You climbed in, twice as dyed as everyone and not worried about it all. Why?
A diligent husband is about to hurl when he realizes he will have to tell his sweet bride-to-be that their house is infested with – what else – termites.
Write a story that involves a character whose nose is two different colors who is brought in to solve your problem.
Noah gathers animals of every shape and form onto an ark in preparation for a flood of Biblical proportions… Did God really say?’
I was at the park and saw a very small police officer chasing a hobo in speedos. They were having a really good time…
What would it be like if the weather forecast was 100% accurate? What if we knew no surprises? What if…forecasts could predict the past?
“Wait till you see my next trick.” And then the magician’s head disappeared into the striped rabbit.
A shape spun off the blackboard, screwing its way into the floor and down into your neighbor’s crawl space. Eventually its grinding and crunching in the dirt dissipated and all that remained was the blackboard.
In order to change the world you want to have a younger lover. Will you wait for him or her to grow up?
Lost and alone in the winter wilderness – 100 miles from the nearest settlement – completely broken mitten!
Those who walk in sunlight shall become vampires, and walk at night. Those who walk in darkness shall become werewolves, and become white in the moonlight, howling at invisible dogs.
“She got you good. She really got you good.” Over and over again this line gets repeated, but as the story goes on it is not as clear if someone is being serious or was someone who played a joke on him. There might even be a third possibility in this story.
Ginny had been writing a letter all week and it was wholly involved in her biggest secret of all. If she were to tell you, it might get out. She did not want anything to leak out. It was about the handsome young American flexing his muscle by the fireplace. He was her ticket to the stars. He had told her a lot about himself… he said he had been in the Navy and that he had sailed along the coast of Texas. He had told her he loved strong women of Texas. He enjoyed their head strong personalities and that their curvy bodies were fascinating. Beyond comprehension. But Ginny did not believe him. She knew this boy was all fluff, like cotton candy. He seemed so funnel-like. Too fluffy to be outright and he enjoyed being vague. She could tell he had also been reading a lot. Vagueness in particular.
Let’s play pretend. You pretend to be a mother and I’ll pretend to be a child. Let’s call the imaginary friend we invented together, Wanda.
You are possessed by a Werewolf, but it’s okay…you are in love with one. Explain why you use your new found powers for ill rather than good.
Congratulations, we’ve all been transported into a game in a completely new dimension. One where you will have to fight for your life, or utilize any mad skills and abilities you might have to get by. You can wear all the armor you want, but if you don’t have a sword hanging over your fireplace? You’re coming with me. Is that coming with me a yes or no?
All of a sudden, you find yourself on trial for your life, yet you’re the accused. What do you think led you here, and how do you intend to plead?
The couple took out a life insurance policy on their infant daughter. Two years later, McGuire’s baby was run over by a city bus. To collect on their insurance they gave the agent a list of all the babysitting they’d been doing. Turns out, they’d been babysitting the bus driver.
A cop pulled me over for speeding. He looked at my ticket and said, “This is you, sir, here, not here.”
Win the Lottery, a new Lexus every year, celebrity-status, play sports with other celebs, become a political powerhouse…then realize all of that is exactly the same as what you had before.
Don’t mourn for the loss of humanity. Show us what happened in the wiring of the first murderbot. Show us how they were born. This could be a dark and twisted story or a philosophical exploration of autonomy and empathy in one of impossibility. If you can show the empathy and mercy in a robot it could be compelling and moving.
You know how you hear of a story in the news about how criminals are rethinking their original choice of career…?
You are watching The Sound of Music with your family and Julie Andrews breaks out into song and your family wishes you were dead.
Sweetheart, if you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, then catch it and keep it. If it doesn’t, let it go. Believe me, you’ll be happier.
What if somewhere in history an anomaly exists where instead of Germany being on the winning side of World War II, the Axis powers were victorious in the great conflict.
1. Light travels faster than sound 2. It is a mathematical certainty that you will never reach your destination if you travel on trains. 3. Read books
Write a story in which your shoelaces all fall off in the middle of a big event. And they’re not tied correctly. And they’re laces instead of ribbons.
The story must have a beginning, middle, and end. The ending must not be pat, but surprising, yet in keeping with the tone and style you have established. Tell the story in one complete paragraph.
Write a story about someone or something exploding, imploding, or tribulationing. Write a backstory for that bomb or superhero.
A bunch of red ants. A bunch of green ants. Punch them together and what have you got? About a thousand mixed-up ants!
Purple smoke pumped the car out of the garage. It was a lemon – not even a year old and supposed to be at top of the line for safety and power. Yet here we were…burning in front of a roadside diner.
He was a sunburned football player, she was a skinny semi-star pitcher. He liked to make a fool of himself and cheer, while she watched and occasionally took tips when he wanted to learn something.
Aunt Suzy works for the Owl Order. They both start with O. Now you have a bizarre connection to make.
The world’s end was put off for a time when cotton was king. Dogs had curly tails and only the rich were.
The perception of your mental narrator is always in the present tense. Show rather than tell. Show the events in the action rather than explaining what’s happening. This concrete action will demonstrate the consequences that are often left to the imagination.
A man’s hand hurts, because his beautiful wife would like him to get rid of the crab that’s living underneath his hand for three months. But that crab is his best friend! Catch-22.
A book is a collection of stories written down. Sort of. A gun is a collection of metal bullets in a cardboard cylinder. Sort of. A body is this collection of cells we call a “person”.
They said he was bad. Evil. A monster. But that didn’t bother me. Nothing in their tales bothered me. Nothing except for the truth–the horrifying, blood-curdling, reality of what my father had become.
A powerful and suspenseful story from the view of a normal automobile that reminisces a car crash story.
A democracy isn’t a democracy without freedom, and then when freedom was found it was taken away… when it was the only thing that mattered.
In a time before time, Where remembering was time for reckoning, A dark stranger, instilled to be loyal, Was the only creature to be Without condemning morality or technique to ascertain his closest friend
You can’t learn anything from your mistakes if you fail to learn from your success! – Ivan R. Lobotka
My character gets into a small argument with a family member who went missing… or rather didn’t go missing. Stopped going missing, went missing. Sorry about that.
Kermit the Frog recounts the one time he met Jim Henson and Gene Roddenberry in Texas. Hasta la vista, until we greet again, my friend. Until we meet again.
The couple was getting ready for bed. The man brought in the fish bowl with the pet goldfish that he’d caught earlier that day at the park. Both the man and the fish were surprised that the fish was still alive. He thought the fish was a goner. As he went to brush his teeth, he told his wife that he was going to flush the fish down the toilet. She interrupted him mid-sentence, pointing out to him that the fish had feelings too. He backed away from the toilet insinuating that he had already been caught for what he was about to do.
A teenage boy realizes he has the ability to reincarnate anyone who died tragically or illustrated. The teenage boy understands he can help the world or simply save the one girl he desires to have.
Parking violation tickets are too easy to get so they should be made harder to get. Everyone speeds so there should be no speeding.
What is your scene missing? Legs? A head? Skulls? Hearts? Tell us what is missing from your story scene and leave the rest blank.
Going overboard and embellishing an insignificant detail. Show off how fabulously ridiculous you’re willing to get.
Writing a short story when you don’t know what’s going to happen can be a difficult problem when trying to hammer out a story. People go at it all different ways. Four Seat Round Table has a great exercise to help you figure out your story’s plot.
Write a character and then write another character meeting him/her for the first time. Don’t show your character to the other character.
Upton Sinclair once said, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” Could Hollywood be the same way?
If you really didn’t like the second book in this series, it’s probably because you were waiting for this one.
All of these prompts are designed to help you with your first idea. Starting with a common subject is great for beginners because it can help get your mind thinking about how to create a unique and humorous take on the subject. Eventually you’ll want to start writing creatively without the prompts. This will help you pare down ideas to your own creative voice.
, written for the Tortured Heroines anthology, in which you are called upon to play yet another tragic character, and it’s up to you whether you choose to tamely submit or get out and leave murkier destruction in your wake.
You were always the good girl. The one that did everything right. With christian parents. That went to church. Daily. You were the pious one and the most respected. Everyone wanted to be you. To be good like you. Separated by line drawn. Thunder. Lightning. Beach. What keeps you fed. God is a good god. Or was it the Devil in disguise? Oh. It was Jesus? Ha. No. No one told you to kill your husband after he tried to sacrifice you. No one. Let that sink in. Oh you killed your husband? When you were on acid. Weed. Sanity. What’s that? They never informed you about her, of him, your sister, your half-brother. The daughter you met or the son you didn’t.
Navigating this space between what is and what could be… or better yet, what should be… but isn’t.
Writing prompts will be used as a starting point for the writing exercises in The Practicum in Creative Writing resource module for The Gazetteer of Mechanical And Mythological Boston, which is available now. More on that in the coming weeks!
His mother, who had subscribed to the mistaken belief her first child had been born a boy, always tried to dress him in masculine clothing.
You will have a bouquet of flowers waiting for you. A very special surprise bouquet. The flower delivery boy will be with you shortly, the voice over the phone stated.
The neighbor across the street from you went missing and no one noticed. You are having a yard sale cheaping out all of their household items and no one seems to notice.
Write a story in which something is at first glance what it appears to be, but on second glance isn’t.
There used to be a barber who left around midnight and the next day, he realized the barbershop was much sweeter!
So, this nerd gets struck by lightning and becomes a genius. He gets the Nobel Prize but does not stop there. He also invents a Death Ray.
Two-hundred eighty-two candles, one hundred eight cake slices, three eighteen-year-olds, one bride, one groom…
Organized religion was outlawed. The Chosen One still became the savior and led the remaining faithful outside the walls and into the great unknown…as outlaws.
The sound you’ve never heard before. The taste that you haven’t tasted. The color that you can’t see. The name you’ve never said.
Shakespeare’s Macbeth is full of funny situations. Consider putting characters in something similar.
You’re a chicken crossing a road. What’s hilarious is that directly under you is a road sign that says “Do not cross the road. You will get killed.”
None of the lights would turn on. In fact, if you were to risk turning one on, the bulb won’t even light up.
Now people need you to complete a mission, contract, or head out on an adventure. The thing is… you don’t know who sent you. Who do you listen to?
Take three characters from three different stories or books and make them sing Let it be during the zombie apocalypse.
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You’re walking into town. There are soldiers there, armed and scribbling madly on decrees. You’re to be shot. As they raise their rifles, somehow you can hear the captain say…
Call a girlfriend/boyfriend you’ve been wanting to talk to and start the conversation by saying something totally inappropriate. Don’t explain why.
A mother lost her young son in the grocery store and, while looking for him, happened to notice some beauty products being used in some odd way, and she found him.
Each day we, with the keys in hand, unlock the door to the station marked with the number 18. We look ahead. We see the bare tiled walls. Yet…
I heard the story about me through my sister. She heard it from her boyfriend who heard it from his cousin who attends the same college as the person who knows a guy who knows the girl who is sleeping with the other girl who is my lover’s girlfriend.
They call it day, but that’s a misnomer—”night” is so much more fitting. After all, he’s a vampire, and work’s over for the day.
Your internal monologue asks all the wrong questions and for some reason the internet wants to attack you for trying to make the situation right.
There’s a higher power of some sort. Kind of divine up there. But this power doesn’t answer anyone’s prayers. Just send down a single strawberry at Christmas time every year. Everyone kills each other at Christmas.
Everything in the fridge had a face, a personality. A table full of appliances. A family, you used to call it.
Samantha had always wanted to be a princess. It was just that she didn’t think anyone would want to be a princess in a place where fairies were made of spun sugar and princes were made of peanut butter. It was the day of her thirteenth birthday and she was trying on her whore’s outfit and riding her pony over to her boy toy when the weirdest thing happened.
The game doesn’t always have to be obvious. Find a way to slip it in without the reader knowing even after they finish. Also note that there is never an incorrect choice, only a misleading one.
A cold pair of hands touching warm skin, fingernails drawing marks across skin as licks dip into every prey hole.
I know this wonderful ghost, we’re brothers in all but blood.. we’re in the process of writing a book about him, but when asked who it’s about we pretend it isn’t about the ghost. We have to worry about the serious consequences of being taken seriously.
You know the old saying “don’t bite the hand that feeds you.” But times get hard and temptation gets the best of us…
Write something that’s totally normal. Like, a door’s normal, right? What happens when you show me one that isn’t? How about if it’s a ghost door?
You’re on a train. Everyone is stone faced and silent. You claim you’re on a train in the very distant future, and it’s infrequent.
Go to the most inconvenient or least visited place in your house. There you will find your cell phone. Pick it up, only to find there’s no charge. What do you do?
A defense attorney crawls on his hands and knees chained to a small bag of cocaine. He tells the judge he isn’t addicted and has a lot of “will power”. Really, he can quit any time.
The nagging wife represents nature’s inquisitor, continuing to bore her thesis into the wall until it hits a hollow space, in which it booms and echoes hollowly. For those who want to bore through the wall, they suffer the most, from every other bore in history, who now become the full body of the wall. Those who stand to the side, don’t suffer a thing.
What if the student could induce creativity/trust or understanding – etc – into the subject that other methods/techniques couldn’t, for drawing, for example. Can this be done with technology?
All the women in prison can cook but only my sister can make beef stroganoff from the convict’s rectum. Then again, for some reason, it’s the can-opener that they all hate most. And don’t get me started on the giants! They’re huge, all of them, even the women. My sister makes the beef stroganoff…
These impressions need to be written out, polished, and perfected. They need to be as funny as possible, but also acceptable, given the scenario they are written for.
Write a letter in the format of someone applying for a job. In the letter, state why you’re applying for the job, and give a brief summary of your past employment experiences. For a twist, apply for an exaggerated or impossible job. For example, Yo Gabba Gabba seeks qualified candidates to climb out of the 2-year old demographic and make a smooth transition into family viewing. Only candidates with four years experience with preschool children or advanced degrees in early childhood appropriate curriculum can apply.
You had the best shoes in your whole town. No one had better shoes. And then…you lost them. Gone forever. What would you do? How would you feel?
Pain is a way of warning something is wrong. Pleasure is a trick to persuade you to keep feeding it after it’s over its proper amount.
Upon being asked, “Is there a reason for this interruption?!” the interviewer responds by saying, “I’ll get back with you.”
You were just sitting on your hands and they fell off. Nickels and dimes dropped between your fingers as they slipped off your wrists. Your bones were no longer connected to each other and detached from the skin. They were small bits of green gelatinous liquid and knowing as they landed in piles around you. What do you tell your parents at the hospital?
Write about a mundane day where something strange happens, but it’s so normal that it’s not taken seriously.
The forehead of a teenager, like a wrinkled, pink, fleshy fruit mysteriously growing on a cereal box.
This list can be used as a Writing Prompts Life hack or an ice breaker when interacting with others.
Have a childlike curiosity to find out why things are the way they are. To search for truth. Become a child of philosophy.
Did mom have a cat? No, she had a raccoon. It was very nice as well. Routine thundershowers yesterday. Nothing to worry about.
You should have seen the train traffic coming from the toyland yesterday… boy can they move a lot of toys around!
Birdsong in the morning would wake me to the most glorious day since God handed the world over to man.
Chop up sentence structure into a partial nonsense that creates internal rhymes and makes your reader sort the rest out
We’re here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here.
Imagine that your whole family was in a plane crash. You find yourself out on a satellite planet with a bunch of unclothed space pirates.
People here love it when you underestimate them. They lap it up and feast on it with fervour. Well, at least most do.
Mr. Funnybunny writhed in agony as Mr. Crowbar plunged the crowbar into his skull and twisted it round and round. “Your mind has always been the most delicious part of your body,” crowed the crowbar-man. “Now I’ll feast on it.”
You are shrunken down to the size of and stuffed into a plastic bag and then washed down a sink drain.
Your grandmother has a rule for everything – and she says you’ve broken them all. You hope that when you tell her you’re pregnant it won’t be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Hum trills in the highest of pitches, screeches in the lowest of tones. Strings shudder, vibrations resonate, pipes shatter as shrill trills and breathy croaks erupt into the air.
Don’t be afraid of cliché situations. They are work horses and teach you the rules of writing comedy. Overusing them is different from relying on them. They will stick with you in your writing forever and keep you from becoming dry as a desert.
Close your eyes and put your left hand out. Keep it there. Now put your right hand out. Keep it there too. Now how many hands do you have out?
Kermit wasn’t real. He was a smoke puppet. There was no him at all. To reveal this would be to rob all Muppets of purpose and existence, including myself.
I once did a voice for a character on “Death Battle”. The character’s name was “Professor Filip Desmond”.
Click here to head over to Chapter 1 and try out creating a new chapter. Let us know how we’re doing!
You don’t know anything about this. To even mention it will increase tenfold the probability that you’ll be institutionalized.
Once upon a time there was a woman in a cave. And you just have to read it to find out where she’s at.
It was the heat of summer, and most days were spent at the Mermaid’s cove or Skinny dipping off the pier.
You never knew if the werewolf was a slobbering, drooling werewolf or an astronaut werewolf taking some time off from the moon. Please consider sharing this page with others! There’s a lot of readers here.
They climb up onto the table and balance wires in my face, hoping my brain will accidentally fry itself.
The top was taken off the mayonnaise jar. The green apple made its home outside the jar, and you ate it.
The cockroach had a baby. Got nursed in a chest full of snakes. But it was soft. It was warm. It was safe.
Your enemy moves backward in time and causes events to occur that when in real-time produce a series of unfortunate circumstances for you. The enemy eventually stops interfering with the past and they go about their business, but you must continue to react to set occurrences, any of which may have been the direct or indirect consequences of the enemy’s time-travel tampering.
There’s a connector in your car. It plugs into your brain. Then, every time you think of a name…that’s the car name.
The last line is always, “the nerve of that guy!” No one else would dare it. The guy is never convicted. How can they convict a perfectly good man? He had all the best reasons but he lost.
There is a moment where she’s no longer a figure of curiosity, mystery and enigma, She’s just a girl.
You walk into a bar, and the bartender says $10 for a scalding drink. It was the last drink you had.
You were arguing with your friend over the definition of love and you saw a shooting star. You decided it was a sign.
I could once move a full set of teeth from one part of my body to another, so a) please don’t question my abilities and b) back off a little.
A marriage in South America is held over the volcano. The participants make vows and pray for their love to never be torn apart by the fiery lava. They marry, although it is just for a taste of the ceremony. They never come close to the volcano. Though this is difficult to understand in modern days, the bride and groom celebrate their “wedding day” for them and not for anyone else. They may not have made friends in the volcano, or made a congregation of others that stood around them at the time they said, “I do.”
What if your ability to sing didn’t matter. Everyone could see you but no one could hear you. What would happen?
You’re one of those guys at the reunion who still talks about your Dad’s truck. What if he never owned a truck? What if he drove a bus, like me? Or a train, like Harry.
What might you find in a place you would never normally look? Or would you pick a place you’d never look?
Story By Degrees- Write a story in three episodes beginning at the stage of your life where you left off with the last episode and working forward towards the present.
Don Quixote wandered the roads searching for adventure… refusing to accept that the world had changed.
You arrive in a village in a distant place. Prince Charming is gone. No one will tell you why or where to start looking. They will only tell you it will not be easy to find what you’re looking for.
A fleeing circus elephant knocks down your door. It takes ten minutes to convince them it’s not a Cirque De Mimes.
For the bonus points, write from the point of view of someone else, choosing something that didn’t happen, providing it doesn’t hurt anyone.
Good storytelling is distinct from merely good writers. There are numerous good writers who do not have the storytelling skill. As such, there is no universal method of writing a good story. Reader’s digest suggests that there are some feel-good principles that are helpful in the grand scheme of narration. Keep in mind, these tips are best for non-flash fiction.
All my characters are named after colors. My best character’s name is red! Everyone fears him, especially the yellow guy, cause he’s got short-term memory loss.
There was a shadow falling across her, too dark to be any earthly thing, and far too big to be anything of this world.
You go to knock for “7” and notice that the doorknob is missing. Put the story together from there. Whenever a character is introduced, perhaps they can disappear right before your eyes.
You met your one true love in the most unlikely of places. Even stranger is the fact that they didn’t mean a thing to you.
Your mouth was stuffed with cotton candy and you just couldn’t stop eating it until your stomach was stretched to capacity.
What is that song that gets stuck in your head because you’ve heard it so many times? What did you do to try to get it out?
Everyone needed a unique talent to display before the king. When it was your turn to perform, you called forth your goat. Everyone gasped in awe as you unleash your goat to roll a most magnificent hoop.
Your friend in the Humvee deserts your unit for another overnight mission saving his own life leaving you to die. You do.
She reasoned that if 0.999… is the same as 1, then anytime she said she loved me one-hundred percent, she was leaving me empty.
Start out with “Once upon a time” and close with “happily ever after”. Change only one word in the story, but you don’t know which one.
The story until that day hadn’t been unusual in any way. The cat sat on the mat, the sun came up, James arrived at work. But the fact of the matter is… what came after proved to be anything but ordinary.
Think about an event in your past, or possibly your current life, from a different perspective. The night of the prom, but your prom date was dead and your car was possessed. Therefore, you have become a successful horror writer, still stuck with your prom date who is now a twisted, ghastly ghost that hates your guts. You also just moved in with someone you used to babysit. He’s a nice guy. Get along with your friends. Same name as your prom date.
Woman about to receive the highest honors awarded by the U.S. president is turned away from the White House.
What is the deal with people spelling words differently? They’ll write “you” when they mean “u.” It’s enough to make you cry. Write about someone who cries when people spell words wrong.
You get noticed when you’re happy and your energy radiates goodwill and cheer. You are so amazing when you’re happy- wave the sleep thing off the table right now and get that spirit full on!
There’s a man who can help you. He can fix anything, make anything better, and won’t charge you more than a fair price. He supports himself by selling fake ‘holy water’, but it works just as well as normal holy water.
There used to be blood and now there is none. There used to be screams and now there are almost none. There used to be couples getting lucky and now there are no clues.
Observe your surroundings and then write about them. Maybe what you have to say comes in the way you say it.
It was a gift. That’s not what name five on the list was. Your little sister’s. Flowers. Better. But… wh-wh-where did you tell you wanted them to go?
100 words. A prompt can be a person, an inanimate object, a situation, a dialogue–just present it to your audience.
And the boss says, “there’s no such thing as authorized overtime. You wanna finish the project? Then you’ll need to steal hours.”
Write your own story about the world according to snow, either adding onto the story below, or making your own.
And you wake up in the morning and you look at your arm and it’s- it’s covered in another arm. Oh no.
One Monday morning, all of them were to run a time trial and then they discovered that their shoes were gone. No one owned up.
Others can’t read your minds… But you can still communicate with them, even if they normally don’t.
You are the Queen of Sheba. You’ve sent word to the King of Israel asking him for an honor. What is the honor you’re seeking?
Someone out there on the highway, a hitcher or a hitchhiker, was in dire need of a lift and a trusty Samaritan gave them one.
The characters lose their voice. How do they communicate? What do they do? Are they unable to live without voice? Who do they turn to?
Write something normal, then write something absurd that would happen before or after your normal story.
Tell the story of a failed attempt at writing an essay, playing a piano concerto or saving the world.
Be sure to check out the next article in this ongoing writing series where I’ll show you how to outline your short story!
When you were four, you loved princesses. You loved princesses. When you have a daughter, you will love princesses. When you have a son, you will love princesses.
Well, Janet got turned to stone, Dorothy got to go home, and Carrie puked up her pig’s blood everywhere.
What if someone told you to always be honest and you had to tell the absolute truth to everyone you met for the rest of your life?
What’s Red and White and Blue and Green? A baby that’s been covered in blueberries from head to foot!
There once was a wise man who said the tree that falls highest in the forest makes the most noise when it hits the ground. He forgot to say anything about the thorny trees. They tend to really hurt when they come crashing down with a fierce velocity.
When you made the window into the bathroom extraordinarily large. Extraordinarily large. Your window was the biggest of the bunch. That’s why they climbed out the window, right?
A rich banker lives in a tall apartment building. He hears a gunshot in the adjoining unit and opens the door to find his neighbor slumped over dead in a pool of blood. The detective asks “Do you know anyone who would want him dead?” The banker blurts out “I do! He foreclosed on one of my factories!”
Write about your best friend or your worst enemy. Then, write some of the same scenes from their point of view.
You walk into a room and without knowing why, the audience starts clapping. What have you done and what are you wearing?
Come out from the shadows and shine. There’s a whole neighborhood out there waiting. Don’t be afraid.
Two brothers we were born, inseparable we were. We did everything together and when dad said “Go cut that wood!” we said “Yes sir! Alright!” without a second thought.
Maybe you will laugh at these funny statements. Or maybe they will make you think, just a little bit.
While at the grocery store, you purchase a small child, apples, oranges, a turkey, cigarettes and marshmallows. Why?
The baby was born just as your parents were buying the area’s first VCR . They named it VideoVCR John Lennon Lennon. Yes, way before iPods, there were just people walking around named John Lennon Lennon.
If Juan were alive today, he’d probably be running Petrolica. Leave it all behind and that sort of thing. …If Juan had been born at all.
You know you’ve lived in your house a long time when you look down the hallway and you see the same footprint that has been there since you moved in. And that was three pets and two kids ago!
Someone from history goes back in time and makes themselves appear as they are now, living the life they have always dreamed of. Who is it?
Write about how horrible and mundane your life is. Challenge yourself to come up with a positive spin to this.
When you were younger, cops would drive by and roll down their windows, walking in slow and giving it their best roaring children a Christmas.
A Blonde kidnapper is running down the street to get away from the police. A girl tells her to hide in her house. The blonde goes inside and the girl locks the door behind her. What happens next?
You belonged to a group that no one believes exists. If you told a lie, would that belief branch out and spill over onto the rest of the world?
The team was in the locker room. They were all insisting someone had to shoulder the blame for when they lost this evening. This team was one of the best in college history. No one could ever think that it had been a humiliating defeat that had been at hand. But, it was…
A vampire is walking around with a lamp looking for the evilest person in the world. They have already visited Mr. Hyde, who was definitely evil. He tried to stab you with a fork but you escaped. You have left the house looking for the next evilest person you can find in the town. It is snowing and very cold.
Your dog saves your bike from falling off the roof of your car. His intentions bring your family to look at you like you should move somewhere else.
These are funny story prompts for kids, good family fun, inspirational funny story prompts, and funny story ideas you never thought of.
You have to laugh, because otherwise you’ll cry. But you’re already crying because of that gorilla pounding your head against the wall through your computer monitor. You’re doing some crying, pounding, laughing, yelling, fighting…all at the same time, so…
Farmer Akkbar, staring at his newborn calf of rare aqua in color on this day, May 21st, always grew sad each year at the thought of the day ending. Farmer Akkbar, an old man who had farmed long, lonely days himself, took each day personally and developed relationships with each of the days that he grew up with. As a matter of fact, his first memory began by being laid into the arms of his mother by his father as she yawned and gently sung a lullaby.
Folded paper can only end up a peculiar shape, The shape you were when you first noticed a peculiar feeling.
You have met all the people who will come to be the most important figures of your lifetime. You haven’t met the last two.
The most fascinating/weird character in the park is thinking about/preparing for/having/coming back from?
Write about a random song running through your head. Ensure it is as far from your subject as possible.
In a Magic Kingdom in America there was a big blue house, the house was so big that it needed the efforts of hundreds of people just to maintain the paint job. Looking back now, it is not as big as it used to be.
You discover that you have to go randomly murdering someone each day. You can’t stop killing, nor can you tell anyone.
Receive a letter from someone you don’t know. Try to figure out why they sent it to you. Maybe it’s just to show off how pretty their handwriting is… or maybe there’s a deeper meaning…..
Tell the story of the first car you ever learned to drive. Tell why it was your favorite car to drive.
A lesson dealing with uprooting the heartache of physical or emotional death, or relating to death of a person or metaphorically in some way in the story.
Everyone in public office should be replaced with an emoji. We would see less corruption and more emoticon appeasement.
If the narrator knew about the mythology of Orpheus and Eurydice, they probably wouldn’t mention them.
A New York City that never sleeps? A farming village where you dance all day? A knocking shop where prostitutes have active libidos! A battlefield where you’ll face a friend who’s an enemy? A business trip you wished will become a leisure trip. A religious team that does not follow the word of God? A relationship that’s mutually exclusive for partner’s sake. A toast that wanders around…
After rejecting allTM, your parents become cross because you lied for nothing but a weak lasting punishment.
The day before yesterday was a holiday. Canceling France’s victory over Russians on the common holiday occasions during French Middle Ages ///OR/// the day after tomorrow
Standup comedy often requires a jockey premise, with the premise illustrated by some amusing situations. The punchline usually comes at the end, and is often an abrupt realization by the protagonist.
A chimney sweep had fallen asleep on your fire escape when you woke that evening. It was New Year’s Day, the year was 1953. It was a cold winter night he had spent there…
Be a good old-fashioned customer service representative and fix your problem by billing it to another department.
Introduce a random trio of characters and end it with something that sounds like the answer to the question “what did you do while you were there?”
Talk about very ravenous creatures in a nearby pond. They punch sharks every day. Very powerful ravenous creatures.
Example A would lead one to hypothesize that B might be horrible. Example B would lead one to hypothesize that C might be horrible.
A living doll, a “baby” with its arm ripped off, someone’s head in a refrigerator, an overgrown Dachshund, with dreadlocks, spitting into his own mouth, all play pivotal roles in this story of romance and suspense under the bright blue hot Florida skies at a rest stop along I-95, halfway between my hometown and Jacksonville, where lovers go for their final rendezvous before heading, full of hope and promise, into the light of their respective futures and perhaps, oblivion.
The old lady wanted the house to cost only five dollars, and the realtor wanted to make lots of money, so an agreement was reached…
When Joseph woke up, he found the necklace gone. “Your brother took it!” said Mary. “That jerk!” said Joseph. “But he’s family…”
These examples are simple but can be used for creating more complicated and funny stories. Remember to keep it simple because it’s easy to make your story excessively complicated. Yet, try not to bend the truth. We know you could spin a yarn if you wanted to, so keep it real.
What are some of your favourite topics to get people’s funny bones tickled? Signs, Metaphors, Visuals…
You’re alone in a bar, with a complete stranger, who strikes up a conversation about your lack of company. What’s the first thing to come out of your mouth?
Due to the amount of structure involved in this creative writing idea , not everyone will feel comfortable with the prompt.
The demons on the wall seemed to multiply. Last night you prayed to God they’d leave you alone. Today you told Satan to take care of them for a moment while you finished the yard work.
Get someone’s name wrong. Accidentally quote someone famous. After telling the story two times, you get to make up your own details.
The family of four, mother, father, and two children were ideal, eating chocolate together in their kitchen, before the mother of the family screamed “Where did all the chocolate go!?”
Make one small change that is so absurd and strange that it changes the course of the character’s life.
Every time they opened drawers they found a pig. As a matter of fact there were meaty clumps of pig bursting into the drawers and everywhere there was snow. It was very cold.
Robin Hood steals from the rich to give to the poor. Why didn’t he do it my way? Give it back to the rich?
Tell me. If your hair is pure hemp, and you don’t hurt anyone, would a lawyer really call you a criminal?
When Aragorn finally grew a beard on his expedition to Mordor, it was a sign that evil was doomed. It was a beard of justice and of revenge. There was much of mankind to free, and many of that man were clean-shaven.
Begin, or lead-in with the bizarre fact that when you become a man/woman, you don’t get a grown woman/man as your reward, but an immature teenager.
No matter how many times you ask how to get started with your science fiction work out, your creator insists that you take a swim instead. He also tells you that trees and other plants love moving around and that you should run as fast as possible and plant your feet wherever they’re touching.
Imagine how weird or strange a setting can be just because of the patrons, employees, or decor of a restaurant.
There once was a girl called Maya who ate nothing but onions because she wanted to know what chicken tasted like.
Stephanie wasn’t sure what to do or where to turn. All the answers she always seemed to know were only blurry refractions playing tricks on her in the mirror along with some sort of mistake.
This comic could be used when a woman is beside someone telling a story in an animated or excited manner. Click on the preview to enlarge.
When life gives you step-mothers, shuck them and make delicious spicy friendship bracelets or necklaces instead.
There is always the guy who swam a lot, then ate the oyster. Problem was, it was followed around by the griefer. That guy did everything he could to swim and he could not shake Griefer ..
Crickets chirped and the fireflies shined. For miles, around the hills, and all up and down the valley, the crickets chirped and the fireflies shined. It was a perfect July night, birds chirping, crickets chirping, and fireflies shining. This was the night Bob set out to kill his wife with a firefly. During the walk to his house he thought, “I can’t bring myself to do this” and he quickly turned around. The following day, Bob caught a firefly. That night, he said to his wife, “This is for you. Happy anniversary.” and released it into the air. This went on for years. Each year Bob caught a firefly and tried to hoist, strangle, poison, electrocute, or drown his wife. He even at times prayed to a god he would not believe in for help and often felt that there was no way he could go through with it again.
Woke up one morning and picked up the newspaper and the television was obsessed with your funeral. Try to find out which one it was.
She was tall. Taller than the tallest giraffe. Taller than the tallest tree. Taller than the tallest something.
I’ve never seen a purple elephant. I’ve never seen a purple elephant. I’ve never. I’ve never. I’ve never seen a purple elephant!
It’s been days since she completely took control of my thoughts. How can this be? They say the heart was the most important muscle in the body, for some reason mine is in a condition of extreme hunger and fatigue.
The secret to remembering these stories is how they wrap up. Make sure you make the payoff a solid punchline. It makes the audience feel rewarded for listening. Just remember this is a storytelling game. Funny story still counts as a comic book. Allowing the storyteller to improve the ending gives you a bit of a wildcard factor. Use that to your gamemastering advantage. What funny story is more outrageous than a time traveling cat? improvise that ending.
It was just them and they were never sure who did it. Every year they would ask What was that Crusaid we bought last year?, That was good, who would like another one?
That last question could be anything. Maybe about your pet. Maybe a question about how you felt yesterday, or a memory you have of something that happened to you. Play with it. Have fun. Make up the most absurd thing you can imagine and answer in complete 100% seriousness. Try to answer any and all questions in detail – remember, your grade on the essay is based on both the quality of your grammar/language and your ability to follow the prompt given.
Haven’t you ever wanted to write a story that threatened people with unpleasant disciplinary action? Here are fifty ways to threaten someone with spanking.
You stumble upon a druid ceremony while camping and get trapped under a paralyzing spell, then get attacked by a flock of bats.
Superheroes must adhere to a strict Code. Here is your chance to experiment and write a story using actual coding.
Papers should be free . Taxes should be illegal . . .crime should be legal because crime doesn’t exist.
Try using the work of others to write your own. Many books choose your own adventure or comedy like scenarios which can be a fun way to… well… write the proceeding comic.
Plot a course. Set a goal that seems attainable or achievable. Now go for it! It’s only time, you only live once. So plunge the depths! What would it hurt if you could go through it once? Did you try? Yes? Then, you’re probably more prepared for it than you realize. Besides, the fear and jubilation are on the other side of the wall, waiting for you. Risk anything for the sake of brevity. And get it done. Write about it.
Coffee doesn’t break the laws of physics, especially if you decide to do it in reverse. And if that’s a problem for you then we don’t have to be friends.
The garbage collectors called one night. They insisted you have too much garbage. They wanted it the next day!
Now known as the “Pear of Anguish,” the Captain’s Harpoon was seen hanging next to the Granite Annihilator, above the Pirates Den at The Burrow on Friday, March 4th, 1865, the day he vanished without a trace.
She talks with a southern accent even though she’s from the north. Someone’s been putting microchips in her diet coke!
You start using a word, then suddenly realise it won’t fit into the sentence and just stand there staring – dopey.
Remember that old computer game? Harvest Moon? Yeah. You have that. You will always have it. Make it work for you. Till it hurts.
The story of a tiny character in a big world. Who could be more opposite to someone than a micro-size specimen?
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, and experiencing the coolest of all cool reveries? Now, it is satire.
You approach a bar with the most delicious-looking men…and they greet you dressed in the riot gear and armor of the Societas Quarta Flavium. You cough politely, but nothing happens. So, you roll up your sleeves and prepare to make someone’s day . . .
this cheerleader jumped over the school and ended up in Africa… the moral of this story is don’t do drugs kids…
He spoke, but his words didn’t match the movement of his mouth, making it impossible to determine what language he was speaking.
On dogs’ backside are a series of nodes in insurgents to make your dog like some people, your dog might have inadvertently contributed to the act of terrorism.
What comic superheroes do you know of? All of them? Give me/us the origin story of more unknown/lesser known comic superheroes.
What is normal to you might not be to someone else. What do you “see” white as? What did you do that no one saw?
Wendell E Carson, also known as “Close-Up Magic” resides in and hails from Cincinnati, Ohio. A man of many talents, he has many stories for us to read. His story ‘The Tortoise‘ was nominated for the Drabbles4Review prize, and will appear in an upcoming issue of On Spec magazine in Canada. He reminds himself every day not to cut his hair short.
God was going on vacation, and instead of taking one of His decoys He decided to let you run the universe.
As a child, your father convinces you to always lie. He knows you can’t always be responsible, or keep up with the truths, and he needs you to always be honest with him. Sometimes, at night, when kids your age are playing or hanging out around you, their parents ask if you’re staying over for the night.
Twins! Aren’t they great?! At least they are when they don’t share the same name and the name shows up in each story.
Say someone is doing a very mundane task that they hate, and introduce a monarchy. Make this kingdom be a parody of how alive most modern monarchic dynasties are.
Open with an apocalyptic scenario. What’s happening when you kick off the story? If you begin just after the problem, it’s not exciting enough. Make it seem like the end of the world.
The descriptions of your friends’ eyes were very interesting and specific. And important, which is why you’re now in your third story about this.
A steamroller, musical, cannibal family who all happen to speak with an English accent and still live in an attic together. And they invite a lonely, depressed, depressed God. Who continues to repeat his story titles over and over again.
Somewhere in a desolate place an old man and old woman bury a black box in a shallow grave in the sand.
God was telling a story. He told you to do something really important. He forgot to give you the punchline.
Write with a sleight of word or an easily skimmed over detail that may have a whole other deeper layer of meaning underneath.
Introduce a story as if it happened to your roommate’s best friend last week – with a lot of detail.
There was a point in history where everything made perfect sense. Somehow, for some inexplicable reason, it’s all become totally insignificant.
A family of monks have lived inside a sequoia for generations. When they were discovered by loggers, the monks, with no other option, moved to their spacious concrete bunker in an undisclosed location under Northern California.
To begin, compose humorous poems, form words into sudden verses and lines. Inspired writing catches the reader by surprise! Read examples of funny poems.
The best lie is not the one that hurts another person. The best lie is one that helps another person.
The mouse took the mocha and scurried out of the cafe as quickly as his little feet would take him… stolen.
There was a board game. Takes place in a hospital. You had internal injuries. Everything about you was in authentic order. Life was merely a mimicry of reality.
A story that starts off normally enough but quickly changes into something strange because the reader was not paying close enough attention to what was going on around them.
So to use this list of funny story ideas, you can either use them as starting points for your own stories or you can copy out the story starters below and then map out your own stories. Young people should definitely incorporate these writing exercises into their writing schedules. Folks who have never written before will find that these funny story ideas will fire their imagination. Warning. Writing is addictive. Instead of looking at these story starters an hour later, you will have written your own funny stories and found out why they are so much fun to discover.
There was this kid during elementary school who tried to trade the life of another student for an ice-cream…
Your town resides in the shadow of the next town over. Is there exposition? Is there conflict? Either would make a nice short story.
If you happen to walk into your house and your mother is wearing your underwear, don’t panic. If this happens approximately every day, consider yourself adopted.
Your favorite vampire. Why is he or she your favorite? How will you make your vampire a character to adore?
A lost and found ticket somehow made it into the umbrella you are taking home from the airport. What is on it?
Find the comic in your everyday life, it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t look funny to others. Focus on it to ring the comic’s innermost bell.
A long time ago, when on vacation and staying with his grandparents, a young boy sees something that no child should see.
A bunch of flowers grow around the wall of a castle. The flowers are beautiful and smell great. Sensing a growing threat, the flowers burst through the wall.
Bob Rader never liked school. He always got sick a day or two before exams. It happened so many times his mom got a letter from the principal saying that Bob didn’t do his homework because he was superb at coughing up a lung.
Bring a character from another media to your story and do your best to fit him or her into the story.
Love is wanting what’s best for the other person. Love is wanting the other person to live a life without regret. Love is wanting to give… not just take. Love is like Michael Jackson’s music. Love is when you apologise and the person you’re apologising to tells you it’s OK – because they know you’re really sorry. Love is…
It was midnight in Allentown and all the creatures were stirring from their slumber and Frankie Gorshin cackled, “The clown you hate is heeeeeeeee!”
Introducing a new flavor of potato chips forces everyone to reexamine the relationship between your brand audience and your primary offering.
This two-sided coin of consciousness – an absurdity reflected in a mirror – forms itself into fractured magnificence.
A sentient corporate entity who is unhappy with some policy or other attempts to negotiate a favorable change, only to gain more than he expected.
If you wanted something you waited until Christmas. If you wanted money to buy something you saved until you could pay for it.
Personality tests? Of course you took them. What? What did you think? That everybody ‘just knew’ who you were?
There once was a man who lived downstream from a bar. Every night, as he slept peacefully in his bed, he kept dreaming about the things that other people had left behind.
Two shopkeepers, identical. They’ve been doing business together for a long time, but now they hate each other.
Two old ladies, one old man and a group of rebellious penguins decide to take a flight to the Arctic.
A man and a woman were getting married and the man asked his wife to pick a color for the leaves to be at the wedding that was to be in May. And the wife said, “I don’t care, you pick.” And the new groom said, “Then they’ll be green.”
Go back to about three years ago. Talk about a few painful events that have hurt your life. Then, set up the time machine. Go back and have a messy breakup before the relationship begins.
Amelie didn’t eat raw worms and she wasn’t a libertine but she had a pretty big world, especially for one so very tiny.
You’re in a race against three others. They bother you for answers as you frantically solve math problems and the littlest she asks “why does Dad let you play video games all summer?” How do you respond to her?
The additional dialog and explanations for the oddly out of place duck in this short story are surely what make it so absurd. The irony, humor and unexpected events or plot twists in stories are what leave you laughing. Take a look at how many funny speech topics you can think of by delving into the worlds of fiction. The first world of funny writing is the story , another is the article , and third is the joke .
All cops are penguins. Take a short file of dialogue or a monologue and change it just enough so that the reader never “skims” it.
You’re running from the mob… time is short. You enter the bank, shake the terrified teller and shout, “Fill the bag, FAST!” but the teller looks at you with a blank stare. “Tell me that you believe in the 50 cent pizza slice!” you implore him. “I do?” he responds quizzically. The barrel of a gun touches your temple. You start to lose faith in God. Zen masters may say that faith in God is illogical and blind. Has this monk transcended politics and realized war must be won on Capitol Hill? Does this mean that the sacral koan will be mathematically solved? Wait! You step past the threshold of normal execution and realize the somewhat warm red velour interior. Promising lad!
Prince Charming crashed your party. In a bad way. He got punched in the face by your Fairy Godmother for being a leecher and a retard, and because your Fairy Godmother hates him.
Part of the refrigerator door wouldn’t shut all the way, and so, when it opened and closed one day it briskly slapped a chipmunk….. right on the back of it’s head… Check this out for some other story writing prompts
You wake up in the morning and open your curtains, and see a volcano in your front yard. Just sitting there, calm as day.
Don’t be afraid if the first draft makes no sense whatsoever. If it makes sense, great! If it doesn’t, you know that you’re on the right track.
When God separated East from West, allowing humanity access to distant lands, the exploration that took place at the end of the fourteenth century was a once in a lifetime chance to find the “Lost Continent.”
It becomes a one-way ticket back to Africa. For whatever reason, your character feels compelled to return to their birthplace. What stopped them? How?
The Bastille Day parade starts. You are surprised because you are only expecting the stroke of midnight.
Write the instructions, dialogue, and stage direction in the form of a monologue or interior monologue.
Now that you’re married you’re like his wife. You love him despite his character flaws. Until he has a lesbian affair with the neighbor you geht along well. It’s fun. Oh, isn’t she so nice…Wait, she looks familiar…
An author writes a steamy novel and makes it into the present-day New York Best Sellers list. While reading this novel, readers become overly aroused and, Pollyanna like, go around kissing complete strangers.
You’ve got to really love the person you’re taking to. After all, it’s going to be the best time she’s ever had.
When the author was a child he lost his first tooth, and when no one came to pick it up he grew a new one.
Blow your mind, let your imagination run free, fill your mind with silly thoughts. Your fantasy might just be a silly one, but at least it’s creative.
You’re reading and while you are reading hot steam rises from a tall cup of coffee. You look down and notice that you’ve also read a page with a giant coffee stain. You turn back to the page you were reading, drink some coffee from that cup and return to your book.
Your story is not a happy story. You’re writing the story of your life – it’s happy until now. It’s time to go deeper.
Tell about discovering an ancient farm in your living room that is inhabited by tiny octopi. Look, one just scurried across the back of my neck. Tsk. And it just left a spot of octopus slime.
And so, you ended up walking through the woods until you became lost for 12 years, but it doesn’t matter, you survive. Is it possible that this is the happiest story of all time?
Think of the most popular global retail corporation and then write a story about them without using the company’s name.
What’s in my hand? Could you guess? Let me show you that…ok, ok…I’ll hand it over. It’s in fact, a purple snake.
You’re stuck in a building with three other strangers, and there’s no way out. Give us a play by play and a thrilling bit of dialogue!
Unfortunately, such easy steps will leave you with four unfinished, unappreciated stories, and maybe you’ll still have the “writer’s block.” What do you do, then?
I had a dog named Toothpaste and it was my best friend. When Toothpaste died my parents got me a new dog… it was orange.
Pretend you are a magician along the lines of Harry Potter or Aladdin . Designing magic will work to solve your problem.
To get over a hurdle, you had to devise an elaborate and complicated system of pulleys, ropes, insulators, and a pony.
Tell a story in the second person, meaning, you write as though you are not present, using both “you” and “I.”
1. Your first memory is of walking out of your house from behind as a child looking over your shoulder at…
As you are walking up to a house knocks on the door and realizes they are not at their own home and guess what? They don’t have a home anymore. Where did they go? Who are they? WHY?
There once was a man from Racine. Who invented a bacon tree. Made of acacia and hazelwood. Then you were encouraged to eat nuts from it.
In this land of orcs, hobbits, and ogres, one accomplished warrior must stand alone. What happens next?
A man who decided to make a bath as hot as the steamy clouds of a close gives the crops a good soaking right before harvest time. As he wanders aimlessly, he comes across men on horseback who tell of a perception he has. His teeth are dripping with saliva. He’s so angry.
You write a story about one of the teachers or faculty members and make them seem like the sanest person on earth, or you show them all going crazy.
But my kind of green. Not that money green. The kind that popped out of nowhere no matter what season you consider it green in. You know. The color of sponges…
Write from the detached perspective of an observer who is simply relating a bizarre story without judgment.
After landing on a particular Farmville building, the Indian man gets trapped in the attic and jumps out to eat Reese’s Pieces.
This story does not have a protagonist, which is absolutely necessary. Most stories have several, if not many.
A sentient video game character receives a copy of your manuscript and wants to know if he or she made the right buy.
There are so many different and unique causes the school board needed a new word to describe all these everyday miracles. They decided on – Every Occurrence.
Your teeth were perfect, white, straight, even, and very white. Your dentist even said so himself. But when you laughed, the whiteness of your teeth made the people laugh. Not with you, but at you, which lead to their teeth not being as white as yours.
My boss told me that my son can never let it lie. Then he added that if he doesn’t he should never work for me.
You had been waiting for the bus for twenty minutes. That’s no small task when there’s wheezing and coughing from a bus exhaust.
Your sister was stolen by a stranger when she was two. You were babysitting at the time and got a brief glimpse of his face. You’ve grown up with his face in your head and he looks like… Not someone you should confront.
Don’t just write your Silly Story. Give it some character. Anything along the lines of gifs, memes, dance moves, objects. Draw, sketch, or paint your Silly Story.
In a world where no one believes in absolutes, what can absolute fanatics shine as bright beacons? White on a white background?
No matter how much he tried, the door would not budge. It was stuck. Stuck like glue. Even more stuck than that.
The trees sighed in the morning. Life lived amongst a busy, urban street could make anyone sleepy. Today was no different.
You don’t need to know how and when and why things happened and who was involved. Don’t fill in the blanks. Just tell it like it happened, starting with this sentence.
You left for vacation with a paper due. Before you set out on your trip, your brother told you that he had an extra copy of your paper. You don’t remember whose paper it was exactly, but you’re certain it’s a good one. It’s full of academic jargon and footnotes and looks like your professor’s thrown up everywhere. You are determined to distract him with words and numbers so that he goes away. Why don’t you call your paper “You are the Fanciest of Fruit,” He deserves this.
As two people watched she blew three wishes into the sky. He wished for more wishes. The stranger coveted the first man.
“The shoes were shiny black pump heels. It took him four tries to get dressed. Shoes first, then socks. He tried entirely too hard in simple activities.
I would think it would be lonely at the top, to which the reply was, “well look who’s not worried if you liked it!”
A sheep, a goat and a cow had a party. They invited some other animals. One chick, a dog, and a bird. They ate ice cream, shared cake and played games until their stomachs were full. They felt like their lives were complete. They were happy. They loved to just smile and laugh and have fun. They felt like everything was lovely. They all slept like they were on a big pillow with full bellies for the rest of the night. And in the morning they talked about what a happy night they all had.
I know that this event isn’t actually going to occur, but it’s a fun idea. Be completely serious in telling the story, no matter how ridiculous it appears.
One day, out for a picnic lunch, a father notices his son standing next to a small stream, throwing stones into the water.
If one attempts to discuss a paradox or act in dissent, the word one is always, definitely going to be used. The stronger one makes his point, the less effective his dissent is going to be. If one kicks the proverbial hornets nest, one shall become endlessly debating with genuinely authoritative individuals.
This has a tongue-in-cheek-ness that runs through the entirety of the book. The narrator’s mood changes frequently, often without warning.
This is not a collection of horror, though my heart flinches to call it funny. It’s more a place in which you might laugh yourself sick, or even, perhaps, a little, too horrified, too afraid to ever shower the experience off or leave what you have read behind. It’s a sick world, but you know that already, don’t you?
We are audiences for each other. It is a mystery…There is still so much to know about ourselves and each other.
You have to make a photocopy of them, but you forgot your photocopier code. What are you going to do?
A woman hires someone to punch her in the face until she falls in love with him. Are the punches worth it?
Talk about someone who is completely everyday. No one would know he or she was special.– Submitted by Diana Wentworth
A lightning strike killed him. Well, no, it was actually the whole “thunder” part. He fell on his coffee table trying to run away from the room.
The want just sat down for a moment, and oh, yes, it stood up again. It moved much slower now, but it did stand up again.
There’s always trouble at the tippy top. It seems the higher you climb, the more treacherous it gets. This is especially true when a queen has taken over a white cottage.
Your incurable disease is morphing into something you actually sort of look forward to, but won’t admit it to your sister.
You are wearing the nicest shirt in the world. Everyone notices it. Who cares, right? No one? Sigh…
They buried me in a cheap pine box. face up, so my friends and family wouldn’t miss my resting face.
With your gaze, pretend to have deep connections to people and things around you. To forget to blink and suddenly appear severe. Then fake-blink and break from your seriousness.
Rolling on the floor laughing in the bathtub is the best feeling I’ve ever had scores of times and thousands of times.
Give two lines. The audience reads them. Then you give one line. The audience reads them. How does it make a difference?
Write about two survivors waiting to be rescued by a spaceship on a distant planet and all the legal battles they have to go through.
If you told a secret four times it no longer belonged to you. By the same token, no one had better tell your secret.
A man on a fire escape is funny the first time you see it, every time you see it after that is less and less funny.
The bus comes just after the Police Station. And just as it should it is yellow. It is full of prisoners.
Two guys walk into a bar, one orders a beer and the other orders a drink – neither tell the bartender what they want.
Tell a story in first person plural. You and Gillian the Rodeo dancer, the Devil and Charles Manson at a well blow in a bar.
The coldest eyes can be disguised in friendly faces, but when you know that tongue, you know the true feelings they hold.
Got any ideas for funny story prompts you and your friends can work on? Post your ideas in the comments below!
You leave the grocery store and step into your office. No, you didn’t fall asleep. You’re everybody’s boss and in the grocery store, everyone wants you to be their boss.
Your last diary entry might have been a bit too horrifying. How can you explain that to your readers?
You initiate your foible and employ your folly against him in tandem with your underhanded tactics to develop a trend as a result of the near relationship.
He was short, with sharp aggressive features. His hair was grey with purple highlights that reminded him of his mom’s panties. He wore greasy mechanic’s clothes. They had tape on the elbows and a hole on the knees. His smile was sharp and he wore faded blue jeans.
The mother was worried the bunny was cold because when she went out this morning his fur was wet so she dried it with a hairdryer. Now the bunny has pneumonia and that is why he is ill.
Write about what you know. Write about your life. Write about your imaginary world. Write about your friends. Write about advice to your younger self. Write about your life as a feral child. Write about the future. Write about your past. Write about what you ate for breakfast. Write about writing.
You get the idea. Have fun creating your own short story writing prompts! Writing short stories is a fun and exciting way to stretch your writing skills and get into doing something other than writing long, lengthy fiction that goes on and on and on. In addition to enjoying the process of writing an entirely short story, you will also get a nice little epiphany and new ways of looking at things when you are finished with one of these short writing pieces. An entire short story that doesn’t go on forever sequence happens to be a wonderful writer’s confidence booster! Enjoy and have fun writing short stories.
The Moon was in the Seventh house. Jupiter aligned with Mars. All looked good for a wonderful day. Until…
Years later, in high school, you went to some sort of reunion. Everyone looked the same, but you were the only one who looked different. How.
Tell your top 10 secrets about yourself. This is a different genre but this is where you get to really set up your protagonist or antagonist but you want us to fall in love with them so you tell us secrets.
Make New York City’s Times Square the edge of the universe, and write about life crawling towards there.
I have an Uncle from India, who learned to do magic and illusion from his Indian Guru uncle, only to develop his own special, original style of magic and illusion, and outdo his own teacher. It is simpler than it sounds.
People expect the unexpected so be perverse and make them think you’re going to argue a point only to contradict yourself, go off at a tangent or state the opposite.
I would go to Las Vegas for a year’s supply of chocolate. A chocolate fountain. Chocolate cravings. Chocolate chills. Chocoholic. Chocolate heaven.
Upon waking up, you look over at the man lying in the bed beside you. You scream. Scream loudly and violently. You never noticed it before, but he has three eyes and enhanced upper lip folds that are so pronounced he could freight train an elephant.
Looking into a crystal ball, your future is unknown. Your glowing aura is astounding. It comes on slowly, but you can feel yourself transform. This happens roughly 6 times a day, and lasts roughly 30 minutes.
An addict steals. An out of work stripper makes men fall in love with her. A wife cannot reach her husband. A man tries to find the cure to lead poisoning. A mime gets the best of a tourist on the subwoofer ferry in Dunkirk France.
We can program computers or how about we’re so simple to program it makes sense for us to just be the computer?
The boy went to the kitchen and started making hot chocolate, when suddenly… he felt the eyes of the house staring at him. He had a malignant presence of felicity.
Aku was born unaware of what he was…he was totally clueless to what awaited him in the near future. In fact, he was even clueless to what lurked in the present. Every day that followed brought the young man closer to his fate, his destiny. After all, the Earth Kingdom needed a king to rule over its citizens, and Aku was it.
There was once a wise man who laughed when he was born, sneezed when he was taken from his mother, cursed when he was given his first name, drowned when he was baptized, and awoke alive when he was buried.
First, save all your money for a long time and then buy a huge M&M dispenser that looks like a cash register. Put a big bowl of candy on it. Let the whole world know you have it. Every day collect a dollar in the bowl. On a day a month, you can buy your favorite candy and eat as much as you want.
A great way to present these techniques is to invite students to write simple, funny, perfectly normal… stories. Work with as many students as possible. Give all students a different prompt. They are to respond by writing a 200 word story on their own computer or laptop.
There once was a midget who dreamed of a comeback, but it never came. He ended up choking on his own stuffing.
Wake up flailing like an octopus, screaming like a hyena, and roll down the stairs like a bowl of jelly.
You hate to see a grown person cry. This friend of mine had been upset for the longest time—not a tissue in earshot.
So Johnny gets himself the smallest poodle he can find. He feeds him ferociously for ten years and makes him the tiniest, yet proudest and puffed up dog anyone has ever seen. Ten years later Johnny has a hurricane in his backyard and his little poodle blows away.
What if you were in the mafia and no one knew about it but you. You’d tell everyone you’re a whistleblower and everyone believes you and you end up living happily ever after because the mafia takes pity on you.
Write a book review. From the point of view of someone who has never really read books before, but knows how to balance a checkbook. Someone who had to split a number 73.09difully into three equal coupons. Just do it.
Everything you’ve ever wanted, everything you’ve ever done in your entire life, is for the purpose of finding him. Her. It. The thing. You don’t know what you’re looking for. You want it very badly.
There was too much singing in the land. The women began to scream for the men to camp out. One man, The Little Boy the singing wouldn’t.
The funniest story to tell is almost always based on yourself or those we love. Based on Novelty, Surprise, and Incongruity. It means the unexpected and goes above and beyond expectation. By telling a far-fetched story, you make your listener almost believe what you’re saying is really true.
I have a window in my house. It’s not very big. It’s not very special. It doesn’t have a sill, but it lets the outside in. Even when it’s in the rain, it lets the outside come in.
If you were given no obvious books as a present, what literary and philosophical ideas would be present in your current go-to book for entertainment?
Go back into this moment before it happened. And stop yourself from doing whatever you should not have done, but would have done. Now do that thing you should have done and perhaps didn’t and experience how things could have been.
Then one person volunteers to stand behind the blindfolded person and lead them to the door, around the fireplace and down to the boot.
Their house, a plantation / Country house, belonged to her family for so many, many years/decades / ages.
Without warning, baby calves were eating fruits and vegetables out of your hand. You were high off of the fumes of baby cows inhaling all the legal highs of the western world there ever were.
A humorous approach on a normal everyday day needs to schedule your weekly boring task. Life, as we know it is regulated and controlled by events that are equally as mundane, but seemingly boring. As a result it is key to know how to look at the world and find something goofy in the simplest of things, in order to create either humour or comedy. Work is definitely not exempted from this. Schedule Week is here to show you an exemplary method of taking a dull and boring subject to begin with, and revamping it by exaggerating it to the point where readers start laughing uproariously. Someone at work was incompetent and got the constructive feedback they needed.
Imagine it’s the end of your life and reincarnation was shortly available. What would you say to God/the Devil when your case is made?
But you didn’t see that third pedestrian in the crosswalk. You never look. You are angry that everyone thinks you are Russian gangster, when all that you have ever been is a college graduate, and that’s not so menacing, is it?
There was an outrageous amount of crime happening. An exaggerated amount of crime. Non-believers doubted this. They made it fake news and covered it up as much as they could.
There are exactly three toilets in this household, one in the upstairs bathroom on NW corner, one in the downstairs bathroom, left of the door, and the other in the garage.
Next when you are in the shower, start to have this huge vision/experience. The kind that incorporates seeing, hearing, over-all body sensations all at once.
Direct the response to a sudden twitch in your body that you are unaware of and which seems horribly unflattering to everyone except you.
There’s a big difference between small town gossip and big city gossip. Big city gossip comes on softly. Small town gossip can wake you from a deep sleep.
The List is a very simple story building method. You have a number of objects, animals, characters…etc and you put them in no particular order.
It’s best to play it on the safe side when writing a humor story. Animals and children are funny. Spouses can be funny. Frustrated businessman can be funny. A kick in the pants is funny if it’s well placed. Police officers haven’t had many great roles in literature, but they could also make a great comedy.
Drama. Iphigenia leaves Agamemnon to marry Achilles for fear of prophecy, then her father spots her.
A man gets into a time machine to see his life as a toddler again, but he can’t get past the 1970s. Frustrated he jumps out of the time machine and whacks his head hard on the ground. Now that he thinks about it, his life is pretty sad. He heads back into the time machine where he meets his toddler self.
My grandmother told me to stop being so lazy. She told me to get off of that couch and stop spending my 20s on the internet. She told me that you can’t find happiness behind the glow of a computer screen. What? Since when? A 65-year-old-maiden telling us young people to get their faces out of their monitors… You have to love that.
Four of the ten commandments will send you to heaven and four will send you down below. Aside from not murdering anyone, which ones are they?
Time marched forward in its relentless infinite. Everyone it touched aged, died, and became someone’s memory to be cherished or hated, feared or longed for. Some of us fell out of time. What can we do?
The frenemies. However close two people seem to be, one of them always secretly despises the other one.
“Let me show you how to make the waffles that John makes. With him you have to get everything just right or else you’re in big trouble. So…”
Sweet and innocent. So innocent you don’t understand that the old man is hitting on you and you are taking it.
Snapdragon is a flower that should be used more often in stories especially when it refers to someone who is too fat.
You’re walking along, casually, and you step on an electrical transformer, ending you in one lightning-explosion.
This would mean some of the steps in these writing processes will have to be tweaked, changed and deleted to fit this type of writing form.
There were two red headed boys walking in a park, and one did something that made his head turn bright red.
You are a significant historical figure for no other reason than living in the same time as another significant historical figure. Anyone want peanuts?
A secret code, a silly memory, an unexplained feeling of wanting to bolt, a suspicion is born. Claiming to be savvy, write a heartfelt account of this suspicion and all the silly little coincidences that surround it.
Wrong. Whatever wound up in your lawn was synthetic. It’s tough keeping up with the neighbors. Tough on your lawn. Tough on the environment. A little sanity here please…
A coliseum over a candy factory is converted into a cathedral over a bomb factory, forcing many humans to move while wolves eat puppies to get their greasy coliseum-candy fix.
Have you ever noticed how no one ever takes the time to ask the simple questions? We could all improve ourselves greatly by just taking time to ask the simple questions.
This is the opening sentence from one of the original Sherlock Holmes short-stories. You probably recognised it… Now, extend it.
3. Consider recompense techniques. Teenagers are accustomed to getting what they want, when they want it. They want the iPod? Tell them there are two conditions, a gift for mom and a gift for the little brother. They want $4 of allowance? $4 of laundry and $4 of help cleaning.
The boy kissed the frog, because she was enchanted… Because only the kisses of a prince would have been able to revive her and break the spell. What happened next was downright distasteful.
People. Lots and lots of people, crammed tightly together, packed into a small house, with no windows…. and then they woke up. Tell it from the point of view of someone who has no idea what they’re doing.
There once was a man who wanted to cross a river. The current was swift, the water deep. In a split second, he lost everything before he even had a chance to think to second what was happening.
Never take candy from a stranger. Especially if it is red and white striped and has a white fluffy tip.
There are lights on the Christmas tree. Romantic interludes taking place. Aphrodite watched Aphrodite. The playful waves pull the hair in the wind. The stars glisten deep in the firmament. There is but one that twinkles.
Use explosive words. Don’t worry about being controversial, or even realistic. Follow your heart and spin a good yarn. What would happen if?
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a really huge and expensive diamond ring. The same held true for a young man in possession of five very large and very expensive rings…
At the stroke of midnight, all of your vending machine change became painfully brightly colorful pieces of paper currency.

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WEEKLY WRITING PROMPTS

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Follow a group of strangers touring a city on some kind of vehicle — a bus, a duck tour boat, a party bike… anything that transports passengers.

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Creative Writing Prompts

When the idea to start a weekly newsletter with writing inspiration first came to us, we decided that we wanted to do more than provide people with topics to write about. We wanted to try and help authors form a regular writing habit and also give them a place to proudly display their work. So we started the weekly Creative Writing Prompts newsletter. Since then, Prompts has grown to a community of more than 450,000 authors, complete with its own literary magazine, Prompted .

Here's how our contest works: every Friday, we send out a newsletter containing five creative writing prompts. Each week, the story ideas center around a different theme. Authors then have one week — until the following Friday — to submit a short story based on one of our prompts. A winner is picked each week to win $250 and is highlighted on our Reedsy Prompts page.

Interested in participating in our short story contest? Sign up here for more information! Or you can check out our full Terms of Use and our FAQ page .

Why we love creative writing prompts

If you've ever sat in front of a computer or notebook and felt the urge to start creating worlds, characters, and storylines — all the while finding yourself unable to do so — then you've met the author's age-old foe: writer's block. There's nothing more frustrating than finding the time but not the words to be creative. Enter our directory! If you're ready to kick writer's block to the curb and finally get started on your short story or novel, these unique story ideas might just be your ticket.

This list of 1800+ creative writing prompts has been created by the Reedsy team to help you develop a rock-solid writing routine. As all aspiring authors know, this is the #1 challenge — and solution! — for reaching your literary goals. Feel free to filter through different genres, which include...

Dramatic — If you want to make people laugh and cry within the same story, this might be your genre.

Funny — Whether satire or slapstick, this is an opportunity to write with your funny bone.

Romance — One of the most popular commercial genres out there. Check out these story ideas out if you love writing about love.

Fantasy — The beauty of this genre is that the possibilities are as endless as your imagination.

Dystopian – Explore the shadowy side of human nature and contemporary technology in dark speculative fiction.

Mystery — From whodunnits to cozy mysteries, it's time to bring out your inner detective.

Thriller and Suspense — There's nothing like a page-turner that elicits a gasp of surprise at the end.

High School — Encourage teens to let their imaginations run free.

Want to submit your own story ideas to help inspire fellow writers? Send them to us here.

After you find the perfect story idea

Finding inspiration is just one piece of the puzzle. Next, you need to refine your craft skills — and then display them to the world. We've worked hard to create resources that help you do just that! Check them out:

How to Write a Short Story That Gets Published — a free, ten-day course by Laura Mae Isaacman, a full-time editor who runs a book editing company in Brooklyn.
Best Literary Magazines of 2023 — a directory of 100+ reputable magazines that accept unsolicited submissions.
Writing Contests in 2023 — the finest contests of 2021 for fiction and non-fiction authors of short stories, poetry, essays, and more.

Beyond creative writing prompts: how to build a writing routine

While writing prompts are a great tactic to spark your creative sessions, a writer generally needs a couple more tools in their toolbelt when it comes to developing a rock-solid writing routine . To that end, here are a few more additional tips for incorporating your craft into your everyday life.

NNWT. Or, as book coach Kevin Johns calls it , “Non-Negotiable Writing Time.” This time should be scheduled into your routine, whether that’s once a day or once a week. Treat it as a serious commitment, and don’t schedule anything else during your NNWT unless it’s absolutely necessary.
Set word count goals. And make them realistic! Don’t start out with lofty goals you’re unlikely to achieve. Give some thought to how many words you think you can write a week, and start there. If you find you’re hitting your weekly or daily goals easily, keep upping the stakes as your craft time becomes more ingrained in your routine.
Talk to friends and family about the project you’re working on. Doing so means that those close to you are likely to check in about the status of your piece — which in turn keeps you more accountable.

Arm yourself against writer’s block. Writer’s block will inevitably come, no matter how much story ideas initially inspire you. So it’s best to be prepared with tips and tricks you can use to keep yourself on track before the block hits. You can find 20 solid tips here — including how to establish a relationship with your inner critic and apps that can help you defeat procrastination or lack of motivation.

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Explore more writing prompt ideas:

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Dark Writing Prompts ⭢

Dialogue Writing Prompts ⭢

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BRYN DONOVAN

tell your stories, love your life

Writing Inspiration
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25 Funny Writing Prompts

You can use these funny writing prompts

when writing a romantic comedy novel or script, a short story, or even a serious or scary story that could use a little levity in the middle of all the drama. Humor is one of those writing skills that takes a little work to learn, but using funny writing prompts is a great way to practice. And if you have writer’s block or you’re stressed about a work in progress, using one of these as a creative writing exercise can help you loosen up!

Several of these are basically comedy situations,

but I’ve also included a few funny dialogue writing prompts. I hope you like them! If you do, please share the post (or pin it on Pinterest for future reference!)

25 funny writing prompts and comedy situations! image eggs with drawn-on laughing and smiling faces

Someone is pretending to be someone they’re not, but…

because they don’t have enough knowledge, don’t look the part, or have to fake feelings they don’t really have, it’s not going well.

Someone is mistaken for someone else, but they don’t catch on right away.

For instance, your hero doesn’t know why a woman is being so mean to him…or why a bunch of people are treating him like a king.

Someone gives a character eccentric or just plain terrible advice.

Someone has walked in on a situation they really didn’t expect..

Your character is shocked to see their friend, mom, roommate, or whoever doing this.

Someone is trying to hide something that’s difficult to hide.

For an example of this, watch the dinner scene from Bringing Up Baby , in which the characters played by Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn are hiding a leopard that won’t shut up.

Someone is inappropriately cheerful or blasé in a serious situation.

This is honestly one of my favorite funny prompts! I never get tired of this in a book or a movie.

One person thought this would be a great thing to do on a date. The other person really doesn’t agree.

Someone takes a phrase too literally..

I have this one in my novel Her Knight at the Museum , about a medieval knight in present-day Chicago! I felt so proud when my editor wrote “LOL!” in the comments.

Something goes very wrong at the wedding.

Someone accidentally attends the wrong funeral or visitation., someone is interviewing for a job….

that’s very different from the job they believe they’re interviewing for.

Someone is out of their comfort zone in dealing with a baby, child, or animal.

Someone is out of their comfort zone…in front of a big audience., support my site.

If you like what I do, please support me on Ko-fi!

Someone has a wardrobe malfunction.

Someone is dressed incredibly inappropriately for the occasion., “…and that’s how i got banned from the home depot for life.”.

Feel free to substitute the store or restaurant chain of your choice.

Someone tells an implausible lie…

and has to double down on it when questioned.

Verbally or physically, a character’s attempts to fix something

actually make it worse.

Someone is very excited about something boring…

Or at least, something that most people think is boring.

“What? I meant it as a compliment.”

A silly challenge or rivalry.

leads to increasingly petty and/or devious measures.

Someone is trying to be polite or dignified

in a truly trying or ridiculous situation.

Someone has no idea who they are talking to,

and as a result, says wildly inappropriate things.

Someone has been pushed to the brink

and they’re telling everybody what they really think.

“Those were his last wishes?”

If you’d like other funny prompts for writing (as well and tragic, dramatic, romantic, and so on…)

get my book 5,000 Writing Prompts , with hundreds of positive reviews! This book has inspired a couple of writers’ traditionally published novels, but I’ll never tell which ones. You can take each idea so many different ways!

Do you have funny story ideas

you’d like to share? Are you working on a funny story—or have you published one? Let us know in the comments! Thanks so much for reading, and happy writing!

Bryn Donovan laughing at funny writing prompts

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28 Funny Writing Prompts to Help You Start Your Next Piece

By: Author Paul Jenkins

Posted on September 7, 2022

Categories Writing , Inspiration

Do you ever get stuck when trying to start a writing project? It can be tough to get the ball rolling, but with these funny writing prompts, you’ll be able to jump-start your creativity. These prompts are designed to help you develop ideas for stories, articles, and other writing pieces. So whether you’re struggling to find inspiration or just want something fun to do, give these creative writing prompts a try!

Funny Writing Prompts to Help You break out of Your Shell

The point of these funny writing prompts is that they set up scenarios that can launch a comedy or humorous story. Let your imagination run riot with these funny story starters:

A character wakes up one day to find that they’ve been turned into a giant chicken.
A character tries to take over the world but is thwarted by a group of unlikely heroes at every turn.
A love story between two people who can’t stand each other.
A character wakes up one day to find that they are a cartoon character.
A hapless individual tries repeatedly to solve a Rubik’s Cube but never succeeds.
A group of friends goes on a Road Trip from Hell.
The story of a musician who can’t seem to catch a break.
A group of friends tries to start their own country, but things quickly go awry.
A comedy about aliens who come to Earth and are shocked by how humans live their lives.
The story of an average Joe who suddenly discovers he has superpowers.
Two enemies are forced to work together to survive against a common foe.
In a future where Smurfs have taken over the world, one human rebel tries to overthrow them and restore humans to power.
Over one day, the world goes crazy, and all hell breaks loose.
Write a story in which a character tries to return a product but discovers that the return policy has changed.
Write a story in which two people try to one-up each other with increasingly ridiculous puns.
Write a story in which two people have a conversation consisting entirely of movie quotes.
Write a story about an office worker finding out that their co-workers are aliens.
Write a story in which a character tries out for a reality TV show but discovers that the producers have ulterior motives.
Write a story in which a person wakes up to find that they’ve been turned into their favorite animal.
Write a story in which everything someone says is interpreted literally by the people around them.
Write a story in which a coffee shop barista gets revenge on a rude customer by wreaking havoc on their life.
Write a story in which four office workers find out their cubicles are portals to parallel universes.
Write a short story from the perspective of a gumball machine
Write a parody of your favorite children’s book
Have an argument between two people who are trying to sell each other the same item
Create a world where energy drinks are currency
Have an ongoing conversation between two people who are stuck in time loops
Brainstorm a list of possible consequences that could occur if animals could talk

Breaking Down Humor: What Makes Something Funny?

What exactly is it that makes something funny? Is it the way the words sound coming out of someone’s mouth? The facial expressions they make? The timing of the joke? All of the above?

The psychology of humor is a fascinating topic and one that has been studied extensively. There are many different theories about what makes something funny, but one of the most widely accepted is the incongruity theory. This theory posits that we find something funny when it violates our expectations somehow.

For example, let’s say you’re at a party and see someone slip on a banana peel. Seeing someone violate that expectation will be funny if you expect people to walk around at parties without slipping on banana peels. On the other hand, if you expect people to slip on banana peels at parties (perhaps because you’ve been to a lot of parties where that’s happened), then it’s not going to be funny.

It’s also worth noting that not all expectation violations are equally funny. The more surprising or unexpected the violation, the more likely we find it amusing. So, in the example above, if the person who slipped on the banana peel was wearing shoes with really good traction, that would probably be funnier than if they were barefoot.

Another important factor is whether or not we think the person who violated the expectation did so on purpose. If we think they did it intentionally (for example, they slipped on the banana peel as part of a prank), that’s usually going to be funnier than if we think it was an accident.

Of course, other factors can affect whether or not we find something funny, like our personal experiences or beliefs. But in general, violations of expectations are a good place to start when trying to figure out what makes something funny.

Another important element of humor is audience engagement. It will not be funny if a comedian tells a joke and no one laughs. Knowing your audience and what they find humorous is a big part of making people laugh.

Timing is everything when it comes to comedy. A jokester who can deliver a punchline at the right moment can often get a laugh out of even the grimmest of audiences. The same is true for your writing!

Getting an Inside Joke to Work

An inside joke is a shared joke between friends or family members that usually arises from a shared experience. The humor comes from the fact that only those there can understand why it’s funny. To someone outside, an inside joke may seem nonsensical or even mean-spirited. But to those in on the joke, it’s hilarious.

Inside jokes often come spontaneously, but they can also be created deliberately. For example, you might create an inside joke with your co-workers to help make your job more fun. Or you might have ongoing inside jokes with your friends or family that only get funnier over time.

There are a few things that make an inside joke work. First, there has to be a shared experience or frame of reference between the people involved. Second, everyone involved must be in on the joke. And third, there has to be some element of surprise or unexpectedness to the humor.

How to Use Social Media Discoveries to Inspire Humor in Your Writing

Social media is teeming with content begging to be made fun of. From absurd memes to nonsensical trends, there’s no shortage of material for comedy writers looking for inspiration.

Where to Look for Inspiration

The sky’s the limit when it comes to finding inspiration on social media. However, a few places, in particular, tend to be breeding grounds for hilarious content. We recommend checking out the following:

Meme pages : Memes are the perfect fodder for comedy writers looking for laughs. If you’re unsure where to find them, a quick search on Facebook or Instagram will yield tons of results. Once you’ve found a few meme pages you like, check back regularly for new content.
Trending topics : Keeping tabs on what’s trending on social media is a great way to find inspiration for your writing. Whether it’s a funny take on current events or a clever commentary on pop culture, there’s always something to write about when you know what people are talking about.
Celebrity accounts : There’s nothing quite like following a celebrity on social media to get your daily dose of absurdity. From Kim Kardashian’s over-the-top posts to Kanye West’s sporadic Twitter rants, celebrities always offer plenty of material for those looking to poke fun.

How to Use What You Find

Once you’ve found some potential sources of inspiration, it’s time to start using them. But how, exactly? Here are a few ideas:

Write a parody : Take a popular meme or social media trend and put your spin on it. Not only is this a great way to get some laughs, but it can also help you sharpen your satire skills.
Create characters based on what you see : If you encounter an especially ridiculous post or piece of information online, use it as the basis for a new character in your writing. Chances are, your readers will get as much of a kick out of them as you did when you created them.
Do a “social media experiment” : Use social media as the starting point for a short story or larger work of fiction. For example, what would happen if two people with completely different worldviews got into an argument online? Could they ever see eye-to-eye? Or would the gulf between them be too wide to bridge? Let your imagination run wild and see where your story takes you.

The Art of Writing a Funny Scene

If you’re a writer, chances are you’ve been there before. You’re in the middle of writing a scene, and suddenly, the characters aren’t acting as you want them to. The scene falls flat, and you can feel your reader’s attention begin to wander.

Don’t worry – it happens to the best of us. The good news is that there are ways to get your characters back on track and ensure that your scene is as funny as possible.

Know Your Characters

One of the most important things to remember when writing a funny scene is to know your characters inside and out. What makes them tick? What are their defining characteristics? What would they do in any given situation? Answering these questions will help you write a scene that is true to your characters and their personalities.

Make Use of Dialogue

Dialogue is essential in any good story, but they’re especially important in a funny scene. Why? Because dialogues allow you to show what’s happening between your characters, not tell. They also allow your readers to “hear” the characters’ voices in their heads, making the scene more relatable (and therefore funnier).

Use Sarcasm Wisely

Sarcasm is often employed in funny scenes because it allows characters to say one thing while meaning another – usually the opposite. However, sarcasm can be a tricky thing to use well. If not done correctly, it can come across as mean-spirited or confusing. If you use sarcasm in your scene, make sure it’s clear that the character is being sarcastic. Otherwise, you risk losing your reader’s attention (and their sense of humor).

Timing is Everything

Timing is crucial in comedy in real life and on the page. A well-timed delivery can make even the simplest joke hilarious. When writing a funny scene, pay attention to your jokes’ timing and ensure they hit at just the right moment. Otherwise, you risk falling into the trap of “too soon” or “too late.”

Remember – Not Everyone Finds the Same Things Funny

Last, it’s important to remember that not everyone finds the same things funny. What makes you laugh might not make someone else laugh – and that’s okay! The trick is to find what makes your particular audience laugh and run with it. After all, if they’re laughing, then you’re doing something right.

How to Make the Most of a Fun Writing Prompt

Writing can be a lot of fun – but it can also be pretty daunting, especially when staring at a blank page. That’s where writing prompts come in! A writing prompt is a great way to jumpstart your creativity and get your mental gears turning. But how do you make the most of a writing prompt? Read on to find out!

Take a few minutes to just think about the prompt – what does it make you think of? What sort of story or scene does it suggest to you? Jot down a few ideas, even if they’re just vague images or snippets of dialogue. This is a great way to start without feeling like you have to commit to anything.
Once you’ve got a few ideas, start fleshing them into a more concrete story . What happens next? Who are the characters in this scene? What do they want? Why are they there? The more specific you can get, the better – but don’t worry if everything isn’t clear just yet. You can always go back and revise later.
Now that you’ve got the basics of your story down, it’s time to start writing! Write as much or as little as you want – there’s no right or wrong answer here. Let the story take you where it wants to go, and see where it takes you. You may be surprised at what you come up with!
Once you’re done, take a step back and read over what you’ve written . Is there anything you want to change or add? Anything that doesn’t quite make sense? Now’s your chance to fix those things up before moving on.
And that’s it! You’ve now written something inspired by a prompt and had a blast doing it too. Who knows – maybe this is the start of something big! Either way, pat yourself on the back – you did it!

, , .

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365 Creative Writing Prompts

Here are 365 Creative Writing Prompts to help inspire you to write every single day! Use them for journaling, story starters, poetry, and more!

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Sharing is caring!

If you want to become a better writer, the best thing you can do is practice writing every single day. Writing prompts are useful because we know sometimes it can be hard to think of what to write about!

To help you brainstorm, we put together this list of 365 creative writing prompts to give you something to write about daily.

Want to Download these prompts? I am super excited to announce due to popular demand we now have an ad-free printable version of this list of writing prompts available for just $5. The printable version includes a PDF as a list AND print-ready prompt cards. {And all the design source files you could ever need to customize any way you would like!}

Here are 365 Creative Writing Prompts to Inspire:

Whether you write short stories, poems, or like to keep a journal – these will stretch your imagination and give you some ideas for topics to write about!

1. Outside the Window : What’s the weather outside your window doing right now? If that’s not inspiring, what’s the weather like somewhere you wish you could be?

2. The Unrequited love poem: How do you feel when you love someone who does not love you back?

3. The Vessel: Write about a ship or other vehicle that can take you somewhere different from where you are now.

4. Dancing: Who’s dancing and why are they tapping those toes?

5. Food: What’s for breakfast? Dinner? Lunch? Or maybe you could write a poem about that time you met a friend at a cafe.

6. Eye Contact: Write about two people seeing each other for the first time.

7. The Rocket-ship: Write about a rocket-ship on its way to the moon or a distant galaxy far, far, away.

8. Dream-catcher : Write something inspired by a recent dream you had.

9. Animals: Choose an animal. Write about it!

10. Friendship: Write about being friends with someone.

11. Dragon : Envision a dragon. Do you battle him? Or is the dragon friendly? Use descriptive language.

12. Greeting : Write a story or poem that starts with the word “hello” or another greeting.

13. The Letter: Write a poem or story using words from a famous letter or inspired by a letter someone sent you.

14. The Found Poem : Read a book and circle some words on a page. Use those words to craft a poem. Alternatively, you can cut out words and phrases from magazines.

15. Eavesdropper : Create a poem, short story, or journal entry about a conversation you’ve overheard.

16. Addict: Everyone’s addicted to something in some shape or form. What are things you can’t go without?

17. Dictionary Definition : Open up a dictionary to a random word. Define what that word means to you.

18. Cleaning: Hey, even writers and creative artists have to do housework sometimes. Write about doing laundry, dishes, and other cleaning activities.

19. Great Minds: Write about someone you admire and you thought to have had a beautiful mind.

20. Missed Connections: If you go to Craigslist, there is a “Missed Connections” section where you can find some interesting storylines to inspire your writing.

21. Foreclosure : Write a poem or short story about someone who has lost or is about to lose their home.

22. Smoke, Fog, and Haze: Write about not being able to see ahead of you.

23. Sugar: Write something so sweet, it makes your teeth hurt.

24. Numbers: Write a poem or journal entry about numbers that have special meaning to you.

25. Dread: Write about doing something you don’t want to do.

26. Fear: What scares you a little? What do you feel when scared? How do you react?

27. Closed Doors: What’s behind the door? Why is it closed?

28. Shadow: Imagine you are someone’s shadow for a day.

29. Good Vibes: What makes you smile? What makes you happy?

30. Shopping: Write about your shopping wishlist and how you like to spend money.

31. The Professor: Write about a teacher that has influenced you.

32. Rewrite : Take any poem or short story you enjoy. Rewrite it in your own words.

33. Jewelry: Write about a piece of jewelry. Who does it belong to?

34. Sounds : Sit outside for about an hour. Write down the sounds you hear.

35. War and Peace: Write about a recent conflict that you dealt with in your life.

36. Frame It: Write a poem or some phrases that would make for good wall art in your home.

37. Puzzle: Write about putting together the pieces of puzzles.

38. Fire-starters: Write about building a fire.

39. Coffee & Tea: Surely you drink one or the other or know someone who does- write about it!

40. Car Keys: Write about someone getting their driver’s license for the first time.

41. What You Don’t Know: Write about a secret you’ve kept from someone else or how you feel when you know someone is keeping a secret from you.

42. Warehouse : Write about being inside an old abandoned warehouse.

43. The Sound of Silence: Write about staying quiet when you feel like shouting.

44. Insult: Write about being insulted. How do you feel? Why do you think the other person insulted you?

45. Mirror, Mirror: What if you mirror started talking to you? What might the mirror say?

46. Dirty: Write a poem about getting covered in mud.

47. Light Switch : Write about coming out of the dark and seeing the light.

48. The Stars : Take inspiration from a night sky. Or, write about a time when “the stars aligned” in your horoscope.

49. Joke Poem : What did the wall say to the other wall? Meet you at the corner! Write something inspired by a favorite joke.

50. Just Say No : Write about the power you felt when you told someone no.

51: Sunrise/Sunset : The sun comes up, the sun goes down. It goes round and round. Write something inspiring about the sunrise or sunset.

52. Memory Lane : What does Memory Lane look like? How do you get there?

53. Tear-Jerker : Watch a movie that makes you cry. Write about that scene in the movie.

54. Dear Diary: Write a poem or short story about a diary entry you’ve read or imagined.

55. Holding Hands : The first time you held someone’s hand.

56. Photograph : Write a story or journal entry influenced by a photograph you see online or in a magazine.

57. Alarm Clock: Write about waking up.

58. Darkness: Write a poem or journal entry inspired by what you can’t see.

59. Refreshed: Write a poem about a time you really felt refreshed and renewed. Maybe it was a dip into a pool on a hot summer day, a drink of lemonade, or other situation that helped you relax and start again.

60. Handle With Care : Write about a very fragile or delicate object.

61. Drama: Write about a time when you got stuck in between two parties fighting with each other.

62. Slip Up: Write about making mistakes.

63. Spice: Write about flavors and tastes or a favorite spice of yours.

64. Sing a New Song: Take a popular song off the radio and rewrite it as a poem in your own words.

65. Telephone: Write about a phone call you recently received.

66. Name: Write a poem or short story using your name in some way or form.

67. Dollhouse: Write a poem or short story from the viewpoint of someone living in a doll house.

68. Random Wikipedia Article : Go to Wikipedia and click on Random Article . Write about whatever the page you get.

69. Silly Sports: Write about an extreme or silly sport. If none inspire you, make up the rules for your own game.

70. Recipe : Write about a recipe for something abstract, such as a feeling.

71. Famous Artwork: Choose a famous painting and write about it.

72. Where That Place Used to Be : Think of a place you went to when you were younger but it now no longer there or is something else. Capture your feelings about this in your writing.

73. Last Person You Talked to: Write a quick little poem or story about the last person you spoke with.

74. Caught Red-Handed: Write about being caught doing something embarrassing.

75. Interview: Write a list of questions you have for someone you would like to interview, real or fictional.

76. Missing You: Write about someone you miss dearly.

77. Geography: Pick a state or country you’ve never visited. Write about why you would or would not like to visit that place.

78. Random Song: Turn on the radio, use the shuffle feature on your music collection or your favorite streaming music service. Write something inspired by the first song you hear.

79. Hero: Write a tribute to someone you regard as a hero.

80. Ode to Strangers: Go people watching and write an ode to a stranger you see on the street.

81. Advertisement: Advertisements are everywhere, aren’t they? Write using the slogan or line from an ad.

82. Book Inspired: Think of your favorite book. Now write a poem that sums up the entire story in 10 lines.

83. Magic : Imagine you have a touch of magic, and can make impossible things happen. What would you do?

84. Fanciest Pen: Get out your favorite pen, pencils, or even colored markers and write using them!

85. A Day in the Life: Write about your daily habits and routine.

86. Your Muse: Write about your muse – what do they look like? What does your muse do to inspire you?

87. Convenience Store : Write about an experience you’ve had at a gas station or convenience store.

88. Natural Wonders of the World: Choose one of the natural wonders of the world. Write about it.

89. Status Update: Write a poem using the words from your latest status update or a friend’s status update. If you don’t use sites like Facebook or Twitter, you can often search online for some funny ones to use as inspiration.

90. Green Thumb: Write about growing something.

91. Family Heirloom: Write about an object that’s been passed through the generations in your family.

92. Bug Catcher: Write about insects.

93. Potion: Write about a magic potion. What is it made of? What does it do? What is the antidote?

94. Swinging & Sliding: Write something inspired by a playground or treehouse.

95. Adjectives: Make a list of the first 5 adjectives that pop into your head. Use these 5 words in your story, poem, or journal entry.

96. Fairy Tales: Rewrite a fairy tale. Give it a new ending or make it modern or write as a poem.

97. Whispers: Write about someone who has to whisper a secret to someone else.

98. Smile: Write a poem about the things that make you smile.

99. Seasonal: Write about your favorite season.

100. Normal: What does normal mean to you? Is it good or bad to be normal?

101. Recycle : Take something you’ve written in the past and rewrite it into a completely different piece.

102. Wardrobe: Write about a fashion model or what’s currently in your closet or drawers.

103. Secret Message : Write something with a secret message hidden in between the words. For example, you could make an acrostic poem using the last letters of the word or use secret code words in the poem.

104. Vacation: Write about a vacation you took.

105. Heat: Write about being overheated and sweltering.

106. Spellbinding: Write a magic spell.

107. Collection : Write about collecting something, such as salt shakers, sea shells, or stamps.

108. Taking Chances: Everyone takes a risk at some point in their life. Write about a time when you took a chance and what the result was.

109. Carnival: Write a poem or story or journal entry inspired by a carnival or street fair.

110. Country Mouse: Write about someone who grew up in the country visiting the city for the first time.

111: Questions: Write about questions you have for the universe. Optional: include an answer key.

112. Rushing: Write about moving quickly and doing things fast.

113. Staircase : Use a photo of a staircase or the stairs in your home or a building you love to inspire you.

114. Neighbors: Make up a story or poem about your next door neighbor.

115. Black and Blue: Write about a time you’ve been physically hurt.

116. All Saints: Choose a saint and create a poem about his or her life.

117. Beach Inspired: What’s not to write about the beach?

118. Shoes: What kind of shoes do you wear? Where do they lead your feet?

119. The Ex: Write a poem to someone who is estranged from you.

120. My Point of View: Write in the first person point of view.

121. Stray Animal: Think of the life of a stray cat or dog and write about that.

122. Stop and Stare : Create a poem or story about something you could watch forever.

123. Your Bed: Describe where you sleep each night.

124. Fireworks : Do they inspire you or do you not like the noise and commotion? Write about it.

125. Frozen: Write about a moment in your life you wish you could freeze and preserve.

126. Alone : Do you like to be alone or do you like having company?

127. Know-it-all: Write about something you are very knowledgeable about, for example a favorite hobby or passion of yours.

128. The Promise: Write about a promise you’ve made to someone. Did you keep that promise?

129. Commotion: Write about being overstimulated by a lot of chaos.

130. Read the News Today : Construct a poem or story using a news headline for your first line.

131. Macro: Write a description of an object close-up.

132. Transportation : Write about taking your favorite (or least-favorite) form of transportation.

133. Gadgets: If you could invent a gadget, what would it do? Are there any gadgets that make your life easier?

134: Bring on the Cheese: Write a tacky love poem that is so cheesy, it belongs on top of a pizza.

135. Ladders: Write a story or poem that uses ladders as a symbol.

136. Bizarre Holiday : There is a bizarre holiday for any date! Look up a holiday for today’s date and create a poem in greeting card fashion or write a short story about the holiday to celebrate.

137. Blog-o-sphere : Visit your favorite blog or your feedreader and craft a story, journal entry, or poem based on the latest blog post you read.

138. Mailbox: Create a poem, short story, or journal entry based on a recent item of mail you’ve received.

139. Sharing : Write about sharing something with someone else.

140. Cactus: Write from the viewpoint of a cactus. What’s it like to live in the desert or have a prickly personality?

141. It’s a Sign : Have you seen any interesting road signs lately?

142. Furniture: Write about a piece of furniture in your home.

143. Failure: Write about a time you failed at something. Did you try again or give up completely?

144. Mystical Creatures: Angels or other mystical creatures – use them as inspiration.

145. Flying: Write about having wings and what you would do.

146. Clear and Transparent: Write a poem about being able to see-through something.

147. Break the Silence : Record yourself speaking, then write down what you spoke and revise into a short story or poem.

148. Beat: Listen to music with a strong rhythm or listen to drum loops. Write something that goes along with the beat you feel and hear.

149. Color Palette: Search online for color palettes and be inspired to write by one you resonate with.

150. Magazine: Randomly flip to a page in a magazine and write using the first few words you see as an opening line.

151. The Grass is Greener : Write about switching the place with someone or going to where it seems the “grass is greener”.

152. Mind & Body: Write something that would motivate others to workout and exercise.

153. Shaping Up : Write something that makes a shape on the page…ie: a circle, a heart, a square, etc.

154. Twenty-One: Write about your 21st birthday.

155. Aromatherapy: Write about scents you just absolutely love.

156. Swish, Buzz, Pop : Create a poem that uses Onomatopoeia .

157. What Time is It? Write about the time of day it is right now. What are people doing? What do you usually do at this time each day?

158. Party Animal: Have you ever gone to a party you didn’t want to leave? Or do you hate parties? Write about it!

159: Miss Manners : Use the words “please” and “thank you” in your writing.

160. Cliche: Choose a common cliche, then write something that says the same thing but without using the catch phrase.

161. Eco-friendly : Write about going green or an environmental concern you have.

162. Missing You: Write about someone you miss.

163. Set it Free: Think of a time when you had to let someone or something go to be free…did they come back?

164: Left Out : Write about a time when you’ve felt left out or you’ve noticed someone else feeling as if they didn’t belong.

165. Suitcase: Write about packing for a trip or unpacking from when you arrive home.

166. Fantasy : Write about fairies, gnomes, elves, or other mythical creatures.

167. Give and Receive : Write about giving and receiving.

168. Baker’s Dozen: Imagine the scents and sights of a bakery and write.

169. Treehouse: Write about your own secret treehouse hideaway.

170. Risk: Write about taking a gamble on something.

171. Acrostic : Choose a word and write an acrostic poem where every line starts with a letter from the word.

172. Crossword Puzzle: Open up the newspaper or find a crossword puzzle online and choose one of the clues to use as inspiration for your writing.

173. Silver Lining : Write about the good that happens in a bad situation.

174. Gloves: Write about a pair of gloves – what kind of gloves are they? Who wears them and why?

175. All that Glitters: Write about a shiny object.

176. Jealousy: Write with a theme of envy and jealousy.

177. How Does Your Garden Grow? Write about a flower that grows in an unusual place.

178. Jury Duty : Write a short story or poem that takes place in a courtroom.

179. Gifts: Write about a gift you have given or received.

180. Running: Write about running away from someone or something.

181. Discovery: Think of something you’ve recently discovered and use it as inspiration.

182. Complain: Write about your complaints about something.

183. Gratitude: Write a poem or journal entry that is all about things you are thankful for.

184. Chemistry: Choose an element and write a poem or story that uses that word in one of the lines.

185. Applause: Write about giving someone a standing ovation.

186. Old Endings Into New Beginnings: Take an old poem, story, or journal entry of yours and use the last line and make it the first line of your writing today.

187. Longing: Write about something you very much want to do.

188. I Am: Write a motivational poem or journal entry about positive traits that make you who you are.

189. Rainbow : What is at the end of a rainbow? Or, take a cue from Kermit the Frog, and ask yourself, why are there so many songs about rainbows?

190. Museum: Take some time to visit a nearby museum with your journal. Write about one of the pieces that speaks to you.

191. Cartoon: Think of your favorite cartoon or comic. Write a poem or story that takes place in that setting.

192. Copycat: Borrow a line from a famous public domain poem to craft your own.

193. From the Roof-tops: Imagine you could stand on a rooftop and broadcast a message to everyone below – what would you say?

194. Time Travel: If there was a time period you could visit for a day, where would you go? Write about traveling back in time to that day.

195. Changing Places: Imagine living the day as someone else.

196. Neighborhood: Write about your favorite place in your neighborhood to visit and hang out at.

197. Pirates: Write about a pirate ship.

198. Interview : Write based on a recent interview you’ve read or seen on TV or heard on the radio.

199. Hiding Spaces : Write about places you like to hide things at. What was a favorite hiding spot for you as a child playing hide-and-seek?

200. Extreme Makeover: Imagine how life might be different if you could change your hair color or clothing into something completely opposite from your current style.

201. Empathy: Write about your feelings of empathy or compassion for another person.

202. Opposites: Write a poem or story that ties in together two opposites.

203. Boredom: Write about being bored or make a list of different ways to entertain yourself.

204. Strength : Think of a time when you’ve been physically or emotionally strong and use that as inspiration.

205. Hunger: Write from the perspective of someone with no money to buy food.

206. Greed: Write about someone who always wants more – whether it be money, power, etc. etc.

207. Volcano: Write about an eruption of a volcano.

208. Video Inspiration : Go to Vimeo.com or YouTube.com and watch one of the videos featured on the homepage. Write something based on what you watch.

209. Sneeze: Write about things that make you sneeze.

210. Footsteps on the Moon: Write about the possibility of life in outer-space.

211: Star-crossed: Write a short modern version of the story of Romeo and Juliet or think of real-life examples of lovers who are not allowed to be together to use as inspiration for your writing.

212. Font-tastic: Choose a unique font and type out a poem, story or journal entry using that font.

213. Schedule: Take a look at your calendar and use the schedule for inspiration in writing.

214. Grandparents: Write about a moment in your grandparent’s life.

215. Collage: Go through a magazine and cut out words that grab your attention. Use these words to construct a poem or as a story starter or inspiration for your journal.

216. Oh so Lonely: Write a poem about what you do when you are alone – do you feel lonely or do you enjoy your own company?

217. Waterfall: Think of a waterfall you’ve seen in person or spend some time browsing photos of waterfalls online. Write about the movement, flow, and energy.

218. First Kiss: Write about your first kiss.

219. So Ironic: Write about an ironic situation you’ve been in throughout your life.

220. Limerick: Write a limerick today.

221. Grocery Shopping: Write about an experience at the grocery store.

222. Fashion : Go through a fashion magazine or browse fashion websites online and write about a style you love.

223. So Close: Write about coming close to reaching a goal.

224. Drinks on Me: Write a poem or short story that takes place at a bar.

225. Online Friends: Write an ode to someone online you’ve met and become friends with.

226. Admiration: Is there someone you admire? Write about those feelings.

227. Trash Day: Write from the perspective of a garbage collector.

228. Mailbox: Open your mailbox and write something inspired by one of the pieces of mail you received.

229. Fresh & Clean: Write about how you feel after you take a shower.

230. Energized: Write about how you feel when you’re either at a high or low energy level for the day.

231. Rhyme & No Reason: Make up a silly rhyming poem using made up words.

232. Tech Support: Use computers or a conversation with tech support you’ve had as inspiration.

233. Hotel: Write from the perspective of someone who works at a hotel or staying at a hotel.

234. Underwater: Write about sea creatures and under water life. What’s under the surface of the ocean? What adventures might be waiting?

235. Breathing: Take a few minutes to do some deep breathing relaxation techniques. Once your mind is clear, just write the first few things that you think of.

236. Liar, Liar: Make up a poem or story of complete lies about yourself or someone else.

237. Obituaries: Look at the recent obituaries online or in the newspaper and imagine the life of someone and write about that person.

238. Pocket: Rummage through your pockets and write about what you keep or find in your pockets.

239. Cinquain: Write a cinquain poem, which consists of 5 lines that do not rhyme.

240. Alphabetical: Write a poem that has every letter of the alphabet in it.

241. Comedy Club: Write something inspired by a comedian.

242. Cheater: Write about someone who is unfaithful.

243. Sestina: Give a try to writing a sestina poem.

244. Fight: Write about witnessing two people get in an argument with each other.

245. Social Network : Visit your favorite Social Networking website (ie: Facebook, Pinterest, Google, Twitter, etc.) and write a about a post you see there.

246. Peaceful: Write about something peaceful and serene.

247. In the Clouds: Go cloud watching for the day and write about what you imagine in the clouds.

248. At the Park: Take some time to sit on a park bench and write about the sights, scenes, and senses and emotions you experience.

249. Sonnet: Write a sonnet today.

250. Should, Would, And Could: Write a poem or story using the words should, would, and could.

251. How to: Write directions on how to do something.

252. Alliteration: Use alliteration in your poem or in a sentence in a story.

253. Poker Face: Write about playing a card game.

254. Timer: Set a timer for 5 minutes and just write. Don’t worry about it making sense or being perfect.

255. Dance: Write about a dancer or a time you remember dancing.

256. Write for a Cause: Write a poem or essay that raises awareness for a cause you support.

257. Magic : Write about a magician or magic trick.

258. Out of the Box: Imagine finding a box. Write about opening it and what’s inside.

259. Under the Influence: What is something has impacted you positively in your life?

260. Forgotten Toy : Write from the perspective a forgotten or lost toy.

261. Rocks and Gems: Write about a rock or gemstone meaning.

262. Remote Control: Imagine you can fast forward and rewind your life with a remote control.

263. Symbolism: Think of objects, animals, etc. that have symbolic meaning to you. Write about it.

264. Light at the End of the Tunnel: Write about a time when you saw hope when it seemed like a hopeless situation.

265. Smoke and Fire : “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” Use this saying as inspiration to write!

266. Railroad: Write about a train and its cargo or passengers.

267. Clipboard: Write about words you imagine on an office clipboard.

268. Shipwrecked: Write about being stranded somewhere – an island, a bus stop, etc.

269. Quotable: Use a popular quote from a speaker and use it as inspiration for your writing.

270. Mind Map it Out: Create a mind map of words, phrases, and ideas that pop into your head or spend some time browsing the many mind maps online. Write a poem, story, or journal entry inspired by the mind map.

271. Patterns : Write about repeating patterns that occur in life.

272. Scrapbook : Write about finding a scrapbook and the memories it contains.

273. Cure: Write about finding a cure for an illness.

274. Email Subject Lines: Read your email today and look for subject lines that may be good starters for writing inspiration.

275. Wishful Thinking: Write about a wish you have.

276. Doodle : Spend some time today doodling for about 5-10 minutes. Write about the thoughts you had while doodling or create something inspired by your finished doodle.

277. Chalkboard: Imagine you are in a classroom. What does it say on the chalkboard?

278. Sticky: Imagine a situation that’s very sticky, maybe even covered in maple syrup, tape or glue. Write about it!

279. Flashlight : Imagine going somewhere very dark with only a flashlight to guide you.

280. A Far Away Place : Envision yourself traveling to a fictional place, what do you experience in your imaginary journey?

281. On the Farm : Write about being in a country or rural setting.

282. Promise to Yourself: Write about a promise you want to make to yourself and keep.

283. Brick Wall : Write a poem that is about a brick wall – whether literal or figurative.

284. Making a Choice: Write about a time when you had to make a difficult choice.

285. Repeat: Write about a time when you’ve had to repeat yourself or a time when it felt like no one was listening.

286. Outcast : Write about someone who is not accepted by their peers. (for example, the Ugly Ducking)

287. Scary Monsters: Write about a scary (or not-so-scary) monster in your closet or under the bed.

288. Sacrifice: Write about something you’ve sacrificed doing to do something else or help another person.

289. Imperfection: Create a poem that highlights the beauty in being flawed.

290. Birthday Poem: Write a poem inspired by birthdays.

291. Title First : Make a list of potential poem or story titles and choose one to write from.

292. Job Interview : Write about going on a job interview.

293. Get Well : Write a poem that will help someone who is sick feel better quick!

294. Lost in the Crowd: Write about feeling lost in the crowd.

295. Apple a Day: Write about a health topic that interests you.

296. Cravings: Write about craving something.

297. Phobia: Research some common phobias, choose one, and write about it.

298. In the Moment: Write about living in the present moment.

299. Concrete : Write about walking down a sidewalk and what you see and experience.

300. Battle: Write about an epic battle, whether real, fictional or figurative.

301. This Old House : Write about an old house that is abandoned or being renovated.

302. Clutter: Is there a cluttered spot in your home? Go through some of that clutter today and write about what you find or the process of organizing.

303. Go Fly a Kite: Write about flying a kite.

304. On the TV: Flip to a random TV channel and write about the first thing that comes on – even if it is an infomercial!

305. Fruit: Write an ode to your favorite fruit.

306. Long Distance Love: Write about a couple that is separated by distance.

307. Glasses: Write about a pair of eyeglasses or someone wearing glasses.

308. Robotic : Write about a robot.

309. Cute as a Button: Write about something you think is just adorable.

310. Movie Conversation: Use a memorable conversation from a favorite movie to inspire your writing.

311. Easy-Peasy : Write about doing something effortlessly.

312. Idiom: Choose from a list of idioms one that speaks to you and create a poem around that saying or phrase. (Ie: It is raining cats and dogs)

313. Playground: Whether it is the swings or the sandbox or the sliding boards, write about your memories of being on a playground.

314. Romance: Write about romantic things partners can do for each other.

315. Rock Star: Imagine you are a famous rock star. Write about the experience.

316. Come to Life: Imagine ordinary objects have come to life. Write about what they do and say.

317. Airplane: Write about meeting someone on an airplane and a conversation you might have.

318. Health & Beauty: Take some time to peruse your medicine cabinet or the health and beauty aisles at a local store. Write a poem, short story, or journal entry inspired by a product label.

319. Determination: Write about not giving up.

320. Instrumental Inspiration: Listen to some instrumental music and write a poem that matches the mood, beat, and style of the music.

321. Wait Your Turn: Write about having to wait in line.

322. Personality Type : Do you know your personality type? (There are many free quizzes online) – write about what type of personality traits you have.

323. Decade: Choose a favorite decade and write about it. (IE: 1980’s or 1950’s for example)

324. I Believe: Write your personal credo of things you believe in.

325. Lost and Found: Write about a lost object.

326. Say it: Write a poem or story that uses dialogue between two people.

327. The Unsent Letter: Write about a letter that never made it to its recipient.

328. The Windows of the Soul: Write a poem about the story that is told through someone’s eyes.

329. Trial and Error: Write about something you learned the hard way.

330. Escape : Write about where you like to go to escape from it all.

331. What’s Cooking: Write something inspired a favorite food or recipe.

332. Records : Go through your file box and pull out old receipts or records…write something inspired by what you find!

333. Banking: Write about visiting the bank.

334. Sweet Talk: Write about trying to convince someone of something.

335. Serendipity: Write about something that happened by chance in a positive way.

336. Distractions: Write about how it feels when you can’t focus.

337. Corporation: Write about big business.

338. Word of the Day: Go to a dictionary website that has a word of the day and use it in a poem, story or journal entry you write.

339. Pick Me Up: What do you do when you need a pick me up?

340. Unfinished: Write about a project you started but never completed.

341. Forgiveness: Write about a time when someone forgave you or you forgave someone.

342. Weakness: Write about your greatest weakness.

343. Starting: Write about starting a project.

344. Mechanical: Think of gears, moving parts, machines.

345. Random Act of Kindness : Write about a random act of kindness you’ve done for someone or someone has done for you, no matter how small or insignificant it may have seemed.

346. Underground: Imagine living in a home underground and use that as inspiration for writing.

347. Classic Rock: Pick a classic rock love ballad and rewrite it into a story or poem with a similar theme.

348. Night Owl : Write about staying up late at night.

349. Magnetic : Write about attraction to something or someone.

350. Teamwork: Write about working with a team towards a common goal.

351. Roller-coaster : Write about the ups and downs in life.

352. Motivational Poster: Look at some motivational posters online and write a poem or journal entry inspired by your favorite one.

353. Games: Write about the games people play – figuratively or literally.

354. Turning Point: Write about a point in life where things turned for the better or worse.

355. Spellbound: Write about a witch’s spell.

356. Anniversary: Write about the anniversary of a special date.

357. Gamble: Be inspired by a casino or lottery ticket.

358. Picnic: Write about going on a picnic.

359. Garage: Write about some random item you might find in a garage.

360. Review: Review your week, month, or year in a journal entry or poem format.

361. Detective: Write about a detective searching for clues or solving a mystery.

362. Camera: Take your camera for a walk and write based on one of the photographs you take.

363. Visiting : Write about visiting a family member or friend.

364. Trust: Write about putting trust in someone.

365. Congratulations : Did you write a poem, short story, or journal entry every day for a whole year? Write about what you’ve learned and celebrate your achievement!

We hope you enjoy these creative writing prompts! And of course, if you write anything using these prompts, we’d love to know about it! Tell us how you’ll use these everyday creative writing prompts in the comments section below!

And of course, if you’d like the printable ad-free version of these prompts to reference again and again or to use in your classroom, you can find them at our Etsy shop !

Chelle Stein wrote her first embarrassingly bad novel at the age of 14 and hasn't stopped writing since. As the founder of ThinkWritten, she enjoys encouraging writers and creatives of all types.

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10 fun writing activities for the reluctant writer

10 FUN WRITING ACTIVITIES FOR THE RELUCTANT WRITER

No doubt about it – writing isn’t easy. It is no wonder that many of our students could be described as ‘reluctant writers’ at best. It has been estimated by the National Association of Educational Progress that only about 27% of 8th and 12th-grade students can write proficiently.

As educators, we know that regular practice would go a long way to helping our students correct this underachievement, and sometimes, writing prompts just aren’t enough to light the fire.

But how do we get students, who have long since been turned off writing, to put pen to paper and log the requisite time to develop their writing chops?

The answer is to make writing fun! In this article, we will look at some creative writing activities where we can inject a little enjoyment into the writing game.

25 Fun Daily Writing Tasks

Quick Write and JOURNAL Activities for ALL TEXT TYPES in DIGITAL & PDF PRINT to engage RELUCTANT WRITERS .

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ( 18 reviews )

1. Poetry Scavenger Hunt

The Purpose: This activity encourages students to see the poetry in the everyday language around them while helpfully reinforcing their understanding of some of the conventions of the genre.

The Process: Encourage students to ‘scavenge’ their school, home, and outside the community for snippets of language they can compile into a piece of poetry or a poetic collage. They may copy down or photograph words, phrases, and sentences from signs, magazines, leaflets or even snippets of conversations they overhear while out and about.

Examples of language they collect may range from the Keep Out sign on private property to the destination on the front of a local bus.

Once students have gathered their language together, they can work to build a poem out of the scraps, usually choosing a central theme to give the piece cohesion. They can even include corresponding artwork to enhance the visual appeal of their work, too, if they wish.

The Prize: If poetry serves one purpose, it is to encourage us to look at the world anew with the fresh eyes of a young child. This activity challenges our students to read new meanings into familiar things and put their own spin on the language they encounter in the world around them, reinforcing the student’s grasp on poetic conventions.

2. Story Chains

The Purpose: Writing is often thought of as a solitary pursuit. For this reason alone, it can be seen as a particularly unattractive activity by many of our more gregarious students. This fun activity exercises students’ understanding of writing structures and engages them in fun, creative collaboration.

The Process: Each student starts with a blank paper and pen. The teacher writes a story prompt on the whiteboard. You’ll find some excellent narrative writing prompts here . For example, each student spends two minutes using the writing prompt to kick-start their writing.

When they have completed this part of the task, they will then pass their piece of paper to the student next to them. Students then continue the story from where the previous student left off for a given number of words, paragraphs, or length of time.

If organized correctly, you can ensure students receive their own initial story back at the end for the writing of the story’s conclusion .

The Prize: This fun writing activity can be used effectively to reinforce student understanding of narrative writing structures, but it can also be fun to try with other writing genres.

Working collaboratively motivates students to engage with the task, as no one wants to be the ‘weak link’ in the finished piece. But, more than that, this activity encourages students to see writing as a communicative and creative task where there needn’t be a ‘right’ answer. This encourages students to be more willing to take creative risks in their work.

3. Acrostic Associations

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The Purpose: This is another great way to get students to try writing poetry – a genre that many students find the most daunting.

The Process: Acrostics are simple poems whereby each letter of a word or phrase begins a new line in the poem. Younger students can start off with something very simple, like their own name or their favorite pet and write this vertically down the page.

Older students can take a word or phrase related to a topic they have been working on or have a particular interest in and write it down on the page before beginning to write.

The Prize: This activity has much in common with the old psychiatrist’s word association technique. Students should be encouraged to riff on ideas and themes generated by the focus word or phrase. They needn’t worry about rhyme and meter and such here, but the preset letter for each line will give them some structure to their meanderings and require them to impose some discipline on their wordsmithery, albeit in a fun and loose manner.

4. The What If Challenge

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The Purpose: This challenge helps encourage students to see the link between posing interesting hypothetical questions and creating an entertaining piece of writing.

The Process: To begin this exercise, have the students come up with a single What If question, which they can then write down on a piece of paper. The more off-the-wall, the better!

For example, ‘What if everyone in the world knew what you were thinking?’ or ‘What if your pet dog could talk?’ Students fold up their questions and drop them into a hat. Each student picks one out of the hat before writing on that question for a suitable set amount of time.

Example What If Questions

“What if you woke up one day and found out that you had the power to time travel?”
“What if you were the last person on Earth? How would you spend your time?”
“What if you were granted three wishes, but each one came with a terrible consequence?”
“What if you discovered a secret portal to another world? Where would you go, and what would you do?”
“What if you woke up one day with the ability to communicate with animals? How would your life change?”

The Prize: Students are most likely to face the terror of the dreaded Writer’s Block when they are faced with open-ended creative writing tasks.

This activity encourages the students to see the usefulness of posing hypothetical What If questions, even random off-the-wall ones, for kick-starting their writing motors.

Though students begin by answering the questions set for them by others, please encourage them to see how they can set these questions for themselves the next time they suffer from a stalled writing engine.

5. The Most Disgusting Sandwich in the World

Writing Activities, fun writing | disgusting sandwich writing task | 10 fun writing activities for the reluctant writer | literacyideas.com

The Purpose: Up until now, we have looked at activities encouraging our students to have fun with genres such as fiction and poetry. These genres being imaginative in nature, more easily lend themselves to being enjoyable than some of the nonfiction genres.

But what about descriptive writing activities? In this activity, we endeavor to bring that same level of enjoyment to instruction writing while also cleverly reinforcing the criteria of this genre.

The Process: Undoubtedly, when teaching instruction writing, you will at some point cover the specific criteria of the genre with your students.

These will include things like the use of a title, numbered or bulleted points, time connectives, imperatives, diagrams with captions etc. You will then want the students to produce their own piece of instruction writing or procedural text to display their understanding of how the genre works.

But, why not try a fun topic such as How to Make the Most Disgusting Sandwich in the World rather than more obvious (and drier!) topics such as How to Tie Your Shoelaces or How to Make a Paper Airplane when choosing a topic for your students to practice their instruction writing chops?

Example of a Most Disgusting Sandwich Text

The Prize: As mentioned, with nonfiction genres, in particular, we tend to suggest more banal topics for our students to work on while internalizing the genre’s criteria. Enjoyment and acquiring practical writing skills need not be mutually exclusive.

Our students can just as quickly, if not more easily, absorb and internalize the necessary writing conventions while engaged in writing about whimsical and even nonsensical topics.

if your sandwich is entering the realm of horror, be sure to check our complete guide to writing a scary story here as well.

Daily Quick Writes For All Text Types

Our FUN DAILY QUICK WRITE TASKS will teach your students the fundamentals of CREATIVE WRITING across all text types. Packed with 52 ENGAGING ACTIVITIES

6. Diary Entry of a Future Self

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The Purpose: This activity allows students to practice personal writing within diary/journal writing conventions. It also challenges them to consider what their world will be like in the future, perhaps stepping a foot into the realm of science fiction.

The Process: Straightforwardly, after working through some examples of diary or journal writing, and reviewing the various criteria of the genre, challenge the students to write an entry at a given milestone in the future.

This may be when they leave school, begin work, go to university, get married, have kids, retire, etc. You may even wish to get the students to write an entry for a series of future milestones as part of a more extended project.

Example of Message to Future Me Text

The Prize: Students will get a chance here to exercise their understanding of this type of writing , but more than that, they will also get an opportunity to exercise their imaginative muscles too. They will get to consider what shape their future world will take in this engaging thought experiment that will allow them to improve their writing too.

7. Comic Strip Script

The Purpose: Give your students the chance to improve their dialogue writing skills and work on their understanding of character development in this fun activity which combines writing with a series of visual elements.

The Process: There are two ways to do this activity. The first requires you to source or create a comic strip without the dialogue the characters are speaking. This may be as straightforward as using whiteout to erase the words in speech bubbles and making copies for your students to complete.

Alternatively, provide the students with photographs/pictures and strips of cards to form their action sequences . When students have their ‘mute’ strips, they can begin to write the dialogue/script to link the panels together.

The Prize: When it comes to writing, comic strips are probably one of the easier sells to reluctant students! This activity also allows students to write for speech. This will stand to them later when they come to produce sections of dialogue in their narrative writing or when producing play or film scripts.

They will also develop their visual literacy skills as they scan the pictures for clues of tone and context before they begin their writing.

Keep It Fun

Just as we should encourage our students to read for fun and wider educational benefits, we should also work to instil similar attitudes towards writing. To do this means we must work to avoid always framing writing in the context of a chore, that bitter pill that must be swallowed for the good of our health.

There is no getting away from the fact that writing can, at times, be laborious. It is time-consuming and, for most of us, difficult at the best of times. There is a certain, inescapable amount of work involved in becoming a competent writer.

That said, as we have seen in the activities above, with a bit of creative thought, we can inject fun into even the most practical of writing activities . All that is required is a dash of imagination and a sprinkling of effort.

8. Character Interviews

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The Purpose: Character interviews as writing activities are excellent for students because they encourage creative thinking, character development, and empathy. The purpose of this activity is to help students delve deeper into the minds of the characters they are creating in their stories or reading about in literature. By conducting interviews with these characters, students gain a better understanding of their personalities, motivations, and perspectives.

The Process of character interviews involves students imagining themselves as interviewers and their characters as interviewees. They can either write out the questions and answers in a script-like format or write a narrative where the character responds to the questions in their own voice.

The Prize: Through character interviews, students learn several valuable skills:

Character Development: By exploring various aspects of their characters’ lives, backgrounds, and experiences, students can develop more well-rounded and authentic characters in their stories. This helps make their fictional creations more relatable and engaging to readers.
Empathy and Perspective: Conducting interviews requires students to put themselves in their characters’ shoes, considering their thoughts, emotions, and struggles. This cultivates empathy and a deeper understanding of human behavior, which can be applied to real-life situations as well.
Voice and Dialogue: In crafting the character’s responses, students practice writing authentic dialogue and giving their characters unique voices. This skill is valuable for creating dynamic and believable interactions between characters in their stories.
Creative Expression: Character interviews provide a creative outlet for students to let their imaginations run wild. They can explore scenarios that may not appear in the main story and discover new aspects of their characters they might not have considered before.
Critical Thinking: Formulating questions for the interview requires students to think critically about their characters’ personalities and backgrounds. This exercise enhances their analytical skills and storytelling abilities.

Overall, character interviews are a dynamic and enjoyable way for students to delve deeper into the worlds they create or the literature they read. It nurtures creativity, empathy, and writing skills, empowering students to become more proficient and imaginative writers.

9. The Travel Journal

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The Purpose: Travel journal writing tasks are excellent for students as they offer a unique and immersive way to foster creativity, cultural awareness, and descriptive writing skills. The purpose of this activity is to allow students to embark on a fictional or real travel adventure, exploring new places, cultures, and experiences through the eyes of a traveller.

The process of a travel journal writing task involves students assuming the role of a traveler and writing about their journey in a journal format. They can describe the sights, sounds, tastes, and emotions they encounter during their travels. This activity encourages students to use vivid language, sensory details, and expressive writing to bring their travel experiences to life.

The Prize: Through travel journal writing tasks, students will learn several valuable skills:

Descriptive Writing: By describing their surroundings and experiences in detail, students enhance their descriptive writing skills, creating engaging and vivid narratives.
Cultural Awareness: Travel journals encourage students to explore different cultures, customs, and traditions. This helps broaden their understanding and appreciation of diversity.
Empathy and Perspective: Through writing from the perspective of a traveler, students develop empathy and gain insight into the lives of people from different backgrounds.
Research Skills: For fictional travel journals, students might research specific locations or historical periods to make their narratives more authentic and accurate.
Reflection and Self-Expression: Travel journals offer a space for students to reflect on their own emotions, thoughts, and personal growth as they encounter new experiences.
Creativity and Imagination: For fictional travel adventures, students get to unleash their creativity and imagination, envisioning fantastical places and scenarios.
Language and Vocabulary: Travel journal writing tasks allow students to expand their vocabulary and experiment with expressive language.

Overall, travel journal writing tasks inspire students to become more observant, empathetic, and skilled writers. They transport them to new worlds and foster a sense of wonder and curiosity about the world around them. Whether writing about real or imaginary journeys, students develop a deeper connection to the places they encounter, making this activity both educational and enjoyable.

10. The Fairy Tale Remix

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The Purpose: A fairy tale remix writing activity is a fantastic creative exercise for students as it allows them to put a unique spin on classic fairy tales, fostering imagination, critical thinking, and storytelling skills. This activity encourages students to think outside the box, reinterpret well-known tales, and explore their creative potential by transforming traditional narratives into something entirely new and exciting.

The process of a fairy tale remix writing activity involves students selecting a familiar fairy tale and altering key elements such as characters, settings, plot twists, or outcomes. They can modernize the story, change the genre, or even mix different fairy tales together to create a wholly original piece.

The Prize: Through this activity, students will learn several valuable skills:

Creative Thinking: Students exercise their creativity by brainstorming unique concepts and ideas to remix the fairy tales, encouraging them to think imaginatively.
Critical Analysis: Analyzing the original fairy tale to identify essential elements to keep and areas to remix helps students develop critical thinking skills and understand storytelling structures.
Writing Techniques: Crafting a remix requires students to use descriptive language, engaging dialogue, and well-developed characters, helping them hone their writing techniques.
Perspective and Empathy: Remixing fairy tales allows students to explore different character perspectives, promoting empathy and understanding of diverse points of view.
Genre Exploration: Remixing fairy tales can introduce students to various genres like science fiction, fantasy, or mystery, expanding their literary horizons.
Originality: Creating their own narrative twists and unexpected plots encourages students to take ownership of their writing and develop a unique voice.
Storytelling: Students learn the art of compelling storytelling as they weave together familiar elements with innovative ideas, captivating their readers.

By remixing fairy tales, students embark on a creative journey that empowers them to reimagine well-loved stories while honing their writing skills and imaginative prowess. It’s an engaging and enjoyable way for students to connect with literature, explore new possibilities, and showcase their storytelling talents.

Top 5 Tips for Teaching Engaging Creative Writing Lessons

Teaching creative writing can be a thrilling discovery journey for students and educators alike. To foster a love for storytelling and unleash the imaginative prowess of your students, here are five engaging tips for your creative writing lessons:

1. Embrace Playfulness : Encourage a spirit of playfulness and experimentation in your classroom. Encourage students to explore unconventional ideas, characters, and settings. Use fun writing prompts like “What if animals could talk?” or “Imagine a world where gravity is reversed.”

2. Incorporate Visual Stimuli : Visual aids can be powerful creative catalysts. Show intriguing images or short videos to spark students’ imaginations. Ask them to describe what they see, then guide them to weave stories around these visuals. This approach can lead to unexpected and captivating narratives.

3. Encourage Peer Collaboration : Foster community and collaboration among your students. Organize group writing activities where students can brainstorm, share ideas, and build upon each other’s stories. This not only enhances creativity but also promotes teamwork and communication skills.

4. Explore Different Genres : Introduce students to various writing genres—fantasy and science fiction to mystery and historical fiction. Let them experiment with different styles and find what resonates most with their interests. Exposing students to diverse genres can broaden their horizons and inspire fresh ideas.

5. Celebrate Individuality : Encourage students to infuse unique experiences and perspectives into their writing. Provide opportunities for them to write about topics that are meaningful to them. Celebrate their voices and help them discover the power of their narratives.

Remember, the key to teaching creative writing is to create a supportive and inspiring environment where students feel empowered to take risks and explore the limitless possibilities of storytelling. By embracing these tips, you can transform your classroom into a vibrant imagination and literary exploration hub. Happy writing!

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43 Creative writing exercises

A selection of fun creative writing exercises that can be completed solo, or with a group. Some are prompts to help inspire you to come up with story ideas, others focus on learning specific writing skills.

I run a Creative Writing Meetup for adults and teens in Montpellier or online every week. We start with a 5 to 20 minute exercise, followed by an hour and a half of silent writing, during which each participant focuses on their own project. Every exercise listed below has been run with the group and had any kinks ironed out. Where the exercises specify a number of people, if you have a larger group, simply split everyone up into smaller groups as appropriate.

The solo exercises are ideal to help stimulate your mind before working on a larger project, to overcome writer’s block, or as stand-alone prompts in their own right. If a solo exercise inspires you and you wish to use it with a larger group, give every member ten minutes to complete the exercise, then ask anyone who wishes to share their work to do so in groups of 3 or 4 afterwards.

Looking for something quick to fire your imagination? Check out these creative writing prompts for adults .

Writing Retreat in South France

A note on running exercises remotely

While you can enjoy the exercises solo, they are also designed for online writing groups using Zoom, WhatsApp, or Discord.

If you're running a group and follow a ' Shut Up and Write ' structure, I recommend connecting on WhatsApp (for example) first, doing the exercise together, sharing writing samples as needed. Next, write in silence for an hour and a half on your own projects, before reconnecting for a brief informal chat at the end. This works great with small remote groups and is a way to learn new techniques, gain online support, and have a productive session.

If you have a larger online group, it's worth looking into Zoom, as this has a feature called Breakout Rooms . Breakout Rooms let you split different writers into separate rooms, which is great for group activities. The free version of Zoom has a 40 minute limit, which can be restrictive, but Zoom Pro is well worth it if you're going to use it on a regular basis. In my experience, Zoom has a better connection than Facebook chat or WhatsApp.

A Letter From Your Character To You

Letter from fictional character to the author

Spend ten minutes writing a letter from a character in your novel to you , the author, explaining why you should write about them. This serves three purposes:

As you write, it helps you get into the mindset of the character. Ask yourself how they would language this letter and what they would consider important.
It's motivating to know that your character wants you to write about them.
If your goal is to publish a complete work of fiction one day, whether it be a novel, a play or a movie script, you will want to contact an agent or publisher. This helps you practice in an easy, safe way.

If you're doing this exercise with a group of teens or adults, and some of the group haven't already started working on their masterpiece, they can instead choose any fictional novel they love. Ask participants to imagine that a character within the book wrote to the author in the first place to ask them to write their story. How did they plead their case?

The Opening Sentence

The opening sentence has to grab the reader's attention and make them want to keep reading. Many authors achieve this by starting with an action scene. In modern literature, it's best to avoid starting with someone waking up, or a description of the weather. In this exercise the task is to write an opening sentence either to a book you're currently writing, or simply for an imaginary piece of literature. Here are some of my favourite opening sentences to get you going:

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

George Orwell , 1984

The Golem's life began in the hold of a steamship.

Helene Wecker , The Golem and the Djinni

All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

Leo Tolstoy , Anna Karenina

It wasn't a very likely place for disappearances, at least at first glance.

Diana Gabaldon , Outlander

You better not never tell nobody but God.

Alice Walker , The Color Purple

The cage was finished.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez , Balthazar’s Marvelous Afternoon

Imagine that you are living your life out of order: Lunch before breakfast, marriage before your first kiss.

Audrey Niffenegger , The Time Traveler's Wife

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.

Douglas Adams , The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

There are a plethora of ways you can start a book, however two ways that help engage the reader immediately are:

Set the scene in as few words as possible, so the reader immediately knows what's happening and wants to know what happens next. The scene must be original and create a vivid image in the reader's mind.
Surprise the reader with an unusual event or usual point of view.

Spend 5 minutes working on your own opening sentence, then share it with the other participants.

Make your protagonist act!

Exercise for 2 writers, or can be done solo.

According to John Gardner:

"Failure to recognise that the central character must act, not simply be acted upon, is the single most common mistake in the fiction of beginners."

Spend 5 minutes writing a scene where the protagonist is passive in a conversation with one other character. It could be that the other character says something dramatic, and the protagonist just listens, or it could be anything else of your choice!

Once the 5 minutes is up, swap papers with another writer. If you're using Zoom, or working online, send it to each other in a private chat. Now the other person spends 8 minutes rewriting the scene to make the protagonist as active as possible. This might include:

Read both scenes together. Which makes you want to keep on reading?

If you're doing this as a solo writing exercise, simply complete both parts yourself.

Showing the emotion this evokes.
Getting them to disagree with the other character.
Showing how they respond physically (whether it's as a physical manifestation of how they feel, or a dramatic gesture to make a point).

Overcoming writer's block

Are you staring at a blank page or stuck for any story ideas? This exercise will help anyone who's experiencing writer's block with a particular piece of writing. If this isn't you, that's great, others will value your input!

If anyone has a particular scene they're stuck with (a pool of blood on the floor they have no explanation for, a reason why the rich lady just walked into a particular pub, etc.) then at the start of the exercise everyone briefly describes their scenes (if working online with a large group, typing it into the chat might be best). Everyone then chooses one scene to use as a writing prompt to write a short story for 10-15 minutes.

Afterwards, split into small groups if necessary, and read out how you completed someone else's writing prompt. As everyone listens to everyone else's ideas, this can be a wonderful source of inspiration and also improves your writing. As an alternative solo exercise, try free writing. With free writing, simply write as quickly as you can on the topic without editing or censoring yourself - just let your creative juices flow. If you're not sure what happens next, brainstorm options on the page, jot down story ideas, or just put, "I don't know what happens next." Keep going and ideas will come.

Writing Character Arcs

There are several different types of character arc in a novel, the 3 most common being:

For this exercise choose either a positive or negative character arc. Spend 8 minutes writing a scene from the start of a novel, then 8 minutes writing a scene towards the end of a novel showing how the character has developed between the two points. Don't worry about including how the character has changed, you can leave that to the imagination.

The point here is to capture the essence of a character, as they will be the same, but show their development.

Positive - Where a character develops and grows during the novel. Perhaps they start unhappy or weak and end happy or powerful.
Negative - Where a character gets worse during a novel. Perhaps they become ill or give in to evil tendencies as the novel progresses.
Flat - In a flat character arc the character themself doesn't change much, however the world around them does. This could be overthrowing a great injustice, for example.

Sewing Seeds in Your Writing

In this exercise, we will look at how to sew seeds. No, not in your garden, but in your story. Seeds are the tiny hints and indicators that something is going on, which influence a reader's perceptions on an often unconscious level. They're important, as if you spring a surprise twist on your readers without any warning, it can seem unbelievable. Sew seeds that lead up to the event, so the twists and turns are still surprising, but make intuitive sense. Groups : Brainstorm major plot twists that might happen towards the end of the novel and share it in a Zoom chat, or on pieces of paper. Choose one twist each. Individuals : Choose one of the following plot twists: - Your friend is actually the secret son of the king. - Unreliable narrator - the narrator turns out to be villain. - The monster turns out to be the missing woman the narrator is seeking. - The man she is about to marry happens to already have a wife and three kids.

Write for ten minutes and give subtle hints as to what the plot twist is. This is an exercise in subtlety. Remember, when the twist occurs, it should still come as a surprise.

This is a fun writing activity for a small group. You’ve found a magic potion labelled ‘Cat Chat’ and when you drink it, you turn into whichever animal you’re thinking about; but there’s a problem, it also picks up on the brainwaves of other people near you!

Everyone writes down an animal in secret and then reveals it to the other writers. The spell will turn you into a creature that combines elements of all the animals. Each person then spends 5 minutes writing down what happens when they drink the potion.

After the 5 minutes is up, everyone shares their story with the other participants.

If you enjoy this exercise, then you may also want to check out our Fantasy and Sci-Fi writing prompts full of world building, magic, and character development prompts..

Joe Brainard wrote a novel called: I Remember It contains a collection of paragraphs all starting with “I remember”. This is the inspiration for this exercise, and if you’re stuck for what to write, is a great way to get the mental gears turning. Simply write “I remember” and continue with the first thing that pops into your head.

Spend 5 minutes writing a short collection of “I remember” stories.

Here are a couple of examples from Joe Brainard’s novel:

“I remember not understanding why people on the other side of the world didn't fall off.”

“I remember waking up somewhere once and there was a horse staring me in the face.”

Giving feedback to authors

If you're running a workshop for more experienced adult authors and have at least an hour, this is a good one to use. This is the longest exercise on this page, but I felt it important enough to include.

Give each author the option to bring a piece of their own work. This should be double spaced and a maximum of 3 pages long. If you're running a workshop where not everyone is likely to bring a manuscript, ask everyone who wants to bring one to print two copies each. If someone forgets but has a laptop with them, the reader can always use their laptop.

Print out a few copies and hand them around to everyone in the workshop of the guide on: 'How to give constructive feedback to writers'

Each author who brought a sample with them then gives them to one other person to review. They write their name on the manuscript in a certain colour pen, then add any comments to it before passing it to a second person who does the same (commenting on the comments if they agree or disagree).

Then allow 5 minutes for everyone to discuss the feedback they've received, ensuring they are giving constructive feedback.

The Five Senses

Painting by Giovanni Battista Manerius - The Five Senses

Choose a scene and write it for 5 minutes focusing on one sense, NOT sight. Choose between:

Hearing Taste Smell Touch

This can be internal as well as external (I heard my heartbeat thudding in my ears, or I smelt my own adrenaline).

After the 5 minutes stop and everyone reads it out loud to each other. Now write for another 5 minutes and continue the other person's story, but do NOT use sight OR the sense they used.

You can use any sense to communicate the essentials, just focus on creating emotions and conveying the story with the specific sense(s).

If you need some writing prompts, here are possible scenes that involve several senses:

Climbing through an exotic jungle
Having an argument that becomes a fight
A cat's morning
Talking to someone you're attracted to

Show don't tell

2 or 3 people

A lot of writing guides will advise you to, "Show, don't tell". What does this actually mean?

If you want to evoke an emotional reaction from your reader, showing them what is happening is a great way to do so. You can approach this in several ways:

Split up into pairs and each person writes down a short scene from a story where they "tell" it. After this, pass the description of the scene to your partner and they then have 5 minutes to rewrite it to "show" what happened. If there are an odd number of participants, make one group of three, with each person passing their scene clockwise, so everyone has a new scene to show. After the 5 minutes, for small groups everyone reads their new description to everyone else, or for large groups, each person just reads their new scene to their partner.

Avoid internal dialogue (thinking), instead have your protagonist interact with other people, or have a physical reaction to something that shows how s/he feels. Does their heart beat faster? Do they notice the smell of their own adrenaline? Do they step backwards, or lean forwards?
Instead of using an adjective like creepy, e.g. "Mary entered the creepy house", show why the house is creepy through description and in the way the protagonist responds - "The light streamed through the filthy skylight, highlighting the decomposing body of a rat resting on top of it. As Mary stepped inside, she felt a gust of freezing air brush past her. She turned, but there was nothing there..."

World building

World building is the art of conveying the magic of living in a different world, whether it's a spaceship, a medieval castle, a boat, or simply someone's living room. To master world building, it's not necessary to know every intricate detail, rather to convey the experience of what it would be like to live there.

Choose one of the above images as a prompt and spend 10 minutes writing a scene from the perspective of someone who is seeing it for the first time. Now, move your character six months forward and imagine they've spent the last six months living or working there. Write another scene (perhaps with an additional character) using the image as a background, with the events of the scene as the main action.

Click the above image for a close-up.

Gossiping about a character as if they're a friend.

Easy to gossip with friends about a character

Judy Blume says that she tells her family about her characters as if they’re real people.

Chris Claremont said, "For me, writing the 'X-Men' was easy - is easy. I know these people, they're my friends."

Today’s exercise has 2 parts. First, spend 5 minutes jotting down some facts about a character you’ve invented that might come up if you were telling your friends about them. Either choose a character in something you’ve already written, or invent one from scratch now.

Answer the questions:

What are they up to? How are they? What would you say if you were gossiping about them?

Then split up into groups of 4 to 6 writers. 2 volunteers from each group then role-play talking about their character as if they were a friend (perhaps another character in the story). The other participants will role-play a group of friends gossiping about the character behind their back and ask questions. If you don’t know the answer, invent it!

Degrees of Emotion Game

This is based on an acting game, to help actors understand how to perform with different degrees of emotion.

Ask everyone to write the following 4 emotions:

For groups of 5 or less, write down numbers starting with 1 and going up until everyone has a number, then give them out in order. For groups of 6 or more, divide groups into 3's, 4's or 5's.

Each person has to write a scene where the protagonist is alone and is only allowed to say a single word, e.g. "Banana". The writer with number 1 should write the scene with a very low level of the emotion (e.g. happiness), number 2 increases the intensity a bit and the highest number writes a scene with the most intense emotion you can possibly imagine.

Once each writer has written about happiness, rotate the numbers one or two spaces, then move onto anger, then fear, then sadness.

It can help to give everyone numbers showing the intensity of the emotions to write about at the start of the exercise, in which case you may wish to print either the Word or PDF file, then use the ones corresponding to 3, 4 or 5 writers.

Everyone shares their scene with the other course participants.

Three birds, one line

The first paragraph of a surprising number of best-selling novels serves multiple purposes. These are to:

Establish a goal
Set the scene
Develop a character

Nearly every chapter in a novel also serves all three purposes. Instead of establishing a goal though, the protagonist either moves towards it, or encounters an obstacle that hinders them from achieving it.

Some books manage to meet all three purposes with their opening lines, for example:

Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

J.K. Rowling , Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

A little more than one hundred days into the fortieth year of her confinement, Dajeil Gelian was visited in her lonely tower overlooking the sea by an avatar of the great ship that was her home.

Iain M. Banks , Excession

"We should start back," Gared urged as the woods began to grow dark around them.

George R.R. Martin , A Game of Thrones

For this exercise write a sentence or short paragraph that serves all three purposes. If you're already writing a novel, then see if you can do this for the first line in a chapter. If not, choose any combination from the following table:


Escape	Penthouse suite	Reckless
Succeed in love	Castle	Cowardly
Survive	Graveyard	Greedy

Blind Date on Valentine's Day (Exercise for Adults)

In pairs one writer spends a minute or two describing a character they're writing about, or alternatively they can describe a celebrity or someone from a work of fiction. The next writer then describes their character.

The story is that these 2 characters (or in my case, person and alien, as I'm writing a sci-fi) have accidentally ended up on a blind date with each other. Perhaps the waiter seated them in the wrong location, perhaps it's an actual blind date, or perhaps they met in some other fashion the writers can determine.

Now spend 10 minutes discussing what happens next!

A Success (Works best for online groups)

This exercise works best for online groups, via Zoom, for example. The instructions to give are:

"In a few words describe a success in your life and what it felt like to achieve it. It can be a small victory or a large one."

Share a personal example of your own (mine was watching my homeschooled sons sing in an opera together).

"Once you have one (small or large), write it in the chat.

The writing exercise is then to choose someone else's victory to write about for 10 minutes, as if it was the end of your own book.

If you want to write for longer, imagine how that book would start. Write the first part of the book with the ending in mind."

This is great for reminding people of a success in their lives, and also helps everyone connect and discover something about each other.

Your dream holiday

You’re going on a dream holiday together, but always disagree with each other. To avoid conflict, rather than discuss what you want to do, you’ve decided that each of you will choose a different aspect of the holiday as follows:

Choose where you’ll be going – your favourite holiday destination.
Choose what your main fun activity will be on the holiday.
Decide what mode of travel you’ll use to get there.
If there’s a 4 th person, choose what you’ll eat on the holiday and what you’ll be wearing.

Decide who gets to choose what at random. Each of you then writes down your dream holiday destination/activity/travel/food & clothes in secret. Next spend 5 minutes discussing your dream holiday and add any other details you’d like to include, particularly if you’re passionate about doing something in real life.

Finally, everyone spends another 5 minutes writing down a description of the holiday, then shares it with the others.

A haiku is a traditional Japanese form of non-rhyming poetry whose short form makes it ideal for a simple writing exercise.

They are traditionally structured in 3 lines, where the first line is 5 syllables, the second line is 7 syllables, and the third line is 5 syllables again. Haiku tend to focus on themes of nature and deep concepts that can be expressed simply.

A couple of examples:

A summer river being crossed how pleasing with sandals in my hands! Yosa Buson , a haiku master poet from the 18 th Century.

And one of mine:

When night-time arrives Stars come out, breaking the dark You can see the most

Martin Woods

Spend up to 10 minutes writing a haiku. If you get stuck with the 5-7-5 syllable rule, then don’t worry, the overall concept is more important!

See How to write a haiku for more details and examples.

Unlike a haiku, which is profound and sombre, a limerick is a light-hearted, fun rhyming verse.

Here are a couple of examples:

A wonderful bird is the pelican. His bill can hold more than his beli-can He can take in his beak Food enough for a week But I'm damned if I see how the heli-can.

Dixon Lanier Merritt, 1910

There was a young lady named Bright, Whose speed was far faster than light; She started one day In a relative way, And returned on the previous night.

Arthur Henry Reginald Buller in Punch, 1923

The 1 st , 2 nd and 5 th line all rhyme, as do the 3 rd and 4 th line. The overall number of syllables isn’t important, but the 3 rd and 4 th lines should be shorter than the others.

Typically, the 1 st line introduces the character, often with “There was”, or “There once was”. The rest of the verse tells their story.

Spend 10 minutes writing a limerick.

Time Travel - Child, Adult, Senior

Imagine that your future self as an old man/woman travels back in time to meet you, the adult you are today. Alternatively, you as a child travels forward in time to meet yourself as an adult. Or perhaps both happen, so the child you, adult you, and senior you are all together at the same time. In story form write down what happens next.

Participants then share their story with other writers either in small groups, or to the whole group.

Focus on faces

Solo exercise.

One challenge writers face is describing a character. A common mistake is to focus too much on the physical features, e.g. "She had brown eyes, curly brown hair and was five foot six inches tall."

The problem with this is it doesn't reveal anything about the character's personality, or the relationship between your protagonist and the character. Your reader is therefore likely to quickly forget what someone looks like. When describing characters, it's therefore best to:

Animate them - it's rare that someone's sitting for a portrait when your protagonist first meets them and whether they're talking or walking, it's likely that they're moving in some way.
Use metaphors or similes - comparing physical features to emotionally charged items conjures both an image and a sense of who someone is.
Involve your protagonist - if your protagonist is interacting with a character, make it personal. How does your protagonist view this person? Incorporate the description as part of the description.
Only give information your protagonist knows - they may know if someone is an adult, or a teenager, but they won't know that someone is 37 years old, for example.

Here are three examples of character descriptions that leave no doubt how the protagonist feels.

“If girls could spit venom, it'd be through their eyes.” S.D. Lawendowski, Snapped

"And Ronan was everything that was left: molten eyes and a smile made for war." Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

"His mouth was such a post office of a mouth that he had a mechanical appearance of smiling." Charles Dickens

Spend 5 minutes writing a character introduction that is animated, uses metaphors or similes and involves your protagonist.

If working with a group, then form small groups of 3 or 4 and share your description with the rest of the group.

Onomatopeai, rhyme and alliteration

Today's session is all about sound.

Several authors recommend reading your writing out loud after you've written it to be sure it sounds natural. Philip Pullman even goes as far as to say:

"When I’m writing, I’m more conscious of the sound, actually, than the meaning. I know what the rhythm of the sentence is going to be before I know what the words are going to be in it."

For today's exercise, choose the name of a song and write for 10 minutes as if that's the title for a short story. Focus on how your writing sounds and aim to include at least one onomatopoeia, rhyme or alliteration. At the end of the 10 minutes, read it out loud to yourself, or to the group.

Alliterations

An alliteration example from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, The furrow followed free; We were the first that ever burst Into that silent sea.

Onomatopoeias

Buzz, woof, quack, baa, crash, purr, beep, belch,...

The alphabet story - creating a story as a group

This is a novel way to write a story as a group, one word at a time. The first person starts the story that begins with any word starting with “A”, the next person continues the story with a word starting with “B”, and so on.

Keep going round until you have completed the alphabet. Ideally it will all be one sentence, but if you get stuck, start a new sentence. Don’t worry if it doesn’t make complete sense!

It can be tricky to remember the alphabet when under pressure, so you may wish to print it out a couple of times, so the storytellers can see it if they need to, this is particularly helpful if you have dyslexics in the group.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Here’s an example of an alphabet story:

A Band Can Dance Each Friday, Ghostly Hauntings In Jail Kill Lucky Men, Nobody Or Perhaps Quiet Rats, Still That Unifies Villains Who X-Ray Your Zebras.

As I mentioned, it doesn’t need to make sense!

A question or two

Small or large groups

The standard format in our group is a short writing exercise followed by an hour and a half of silent writing on our projects.

At one point I felt like we'd done a lot of small group exercises, and wanted to gain an insight into what everyone was working on, so we did the following exercise instead:

Go round the table and ask everyone to briefly talk about their writing. Each person then asks one or two yes/no questions.

Everyone responds either by raising their hand for 'yes' or shaking their heads for 'no'. You can also leap up and down to indicate a very strong 'yes'.

Questions can be about anything, and you can use them either to help guide your writing or to help find other people in the group who have similar interests.

Here are some random examples you might ask:

I want to write a romance novel and am considering setting it in Paris, a traditional romantic setting, or Liverpool which is a less obvious setting. Who thinks Liverpool would be best?
I need to know more about the life of a farmer. Has anyone got farming experience who I can interview in exchange for a drink?
My character gets fired and that night goes back to his office and steals 35 computers. Does that sound realistic as the premise of a story?

This works best when you give participants some advance notice, so they have time to think of a question.

Murder Mystery Game

Groups of 3 or 4

This exercise takes 20-30 minutes and allows participants to create a murder mystery outline together.

Phase 1 (3 minutes)

Split into groups of 3 or 4
Decide as a group where the murder occurs (e.g. the opera house, a bar, a casino)
Decide one person who will write the details of the victim and the murder itself. Everyone else writes the details of one suspect each.
The ‘victim author’ then invents a few extra details about the scene of the crime, who the victim was (a teenage punk, an adult opera singer, etc.) and the murder weapon and summarises this to the others.

Phase 2 (10 minutes)

Each person then writes a police report as if they are either describing the scene of the crime, or recording the notes from their interview with a single suspect:

Write the following:

1 line description of the victim.
When they were last seen by a group of witnesses (and what they were doing).
How the murder occurred in more detail based on the evidence available.

Write the following (from the perspective of the investigator):

1 line description of the suspect
What they said during the interview (including what they claim to have doing when the murder occurs).
A possible motivation (as determined by the police from other witnesses).

Phase 3 (5 minutes)

Each person reads out their police reports to the other members of their small group
As a group, decide who the murderer was and what actually happened

See more ideas on creating murder mystery party games

The obscure movie exercise

Pick a famous movie and spend 5 minutes writing a scene from it from an unusual perspective. Your aim is to achieve a balance between being too obscure and making it too obvious. Feel free to add internal dialogue.

At the end of the 5 minutes, everyone reads their movie scene to the others and all the other participants see if they can guess what the movie is.

How to hint at romantic feelings

Write a scene with two people in a group, where you hint that one is romantically interested in the other, but the feelings aren’t reciprocated.

The goal of this exercise is to practice subtlety. Imagine you are setting a scene for the future where the characters feelings will become more important. Choose a situation like a work conference, meeting with a group of friends, etc. How do you indicate how the characters feel without them saying it in words?

Some tips for hinting at romantic feelings:

Make the characters nervous and shy.
Your protagonist leans forward.
Asks deeper questions and listens intently.
Finds ways to be close together.
Mirrors their gestures.
Gives lots of compliments.
Makes eye contact, then looks away.
Other people seem invisible to your protagonist.

A novel idea

Take it in turns to tell everyone else about a current project you’re working on (a book, screenplay, short story, etc.)

The other writers then brainstorm ideas for related stories you could write, or directions your project could take. There are no right or wrong suggestions and the intention is to focus on big concepts, not little details.

This whole exercise takes around 15 minutes.

Creative writing prompts

Exercise for groups of 3-5

If you're in larger group, split up into groups of 3 or 4 people.

Everyone writes the first line of a story in the Zoom chat, or on paper. Other people can then choose this line as a writing prompt.

For this exercise:

Say who the protagonist is.
Reveal their motivation.
Introduce any other characters

Once everyone's written a prompt, each author chooses a prompt (preferably someone eles's, but it can be your own if you feel really inspired by it.) Then write for 10 minutes using this prompt. See if you can reveal who the protagonist is, what their motivation is (it can be a small motivation for a particular scene, it doesn't have to be a huge life goal), and introduce at least one new character.

Take turns reading out your stories to each other.

Write in the first person.
Have the protagonist interacting with an object or something in nature.
The challenge is to create intrigue that makes the reader want to know more with just a single line.

Creative story cards / dice

Cut up a piece of paper and write one word on each of the pieces of paper, as follows:

Robot

Castle

Longing

Ice cream

Happy

Scream

Guard

Evil

Whirlwind

Cactus

King

Chaos

Angry

Desert

Laugh

Heart

Give each participant a couple of pieces of paper at random. The first person says the first sentence of a story and they must use their first word as part of that sentence. The second person then continues the story and must include their word in it, and so on. Go round the group twice to complete the story.

You can also do this creative writing exercise with story dice, your own choice of words, or by asking participants to write random words down themselves, then shuffling all the cards together.

Alternative Christmas Story

Every Christmas adults tell kids stories about Santa Claus. In this exercise you write a Christmas story from an alternative dimension.

What if every Christmas Santa didn't fly around the world delivering presents on his sleigh pulled by reindeer? What if gnomes or aliens delivered the presents? Or perhaps it was the gnomes who are trying to emulate the humans? Or some other Christmas tradition entirely that we humans have never heard of!

Group writing exercise

If you're working with a group, give everyone a couple of minutes to write two possible themes for the new Christmas story. Each theme should be 5 words or less.

Shuffle the paper and distribute them at random. If you're working online, everyone types the themes into the Zoom or group chat. Each writer then spends 10 minutes writing a short story for children based on one of the two themes, or their own theme if they really want to.

If working alone, choose your own theme and spend 15 minutes writing a short story on it. See if you can create the magic of Christmas from another world!

Murder Mystery Mind Map

In a murder mystery story or courtroom drama, there's often conflicting information and lots of links between characters. A mind map is an ideal way to illustrate how everything ties together.

Split into groups of 3 or 4 people each and place a blank piece of A3 paper (double the size of A4) in the middle of each group. Discuss between you who the victim is and write their name in the middle of the piece of paper. Then brainstorm information about the murder, for example:

Feel free to expand out from any of these, e.g. to include more information on the different characters involved.

The idea is that everyone writes at the same time! Obviously, you can discuss ideas, but anyone can dive in and write their ideas on the mind map.

Who was the victim? (job, appearance, hobbies, etc.)
Who did the victim know?
What were their possible motivations?
What was the murder weapon?
What locations are significant to the plot?

New Year’s resolutions for a fictional character

If you’re writing a piece of fiction, ask yourself how your protagonist would react to an everyday situation. This can help you to gain a deeper insight into who they are.

One way to do this is to imagine what their New Year’s resolutions would be.

If completing this exercise with a group, limit it to 3 to 5 resolutions per person. If some participants are historical fiction or non-fiction writers, they instead pick a celebrity and either write what their resolutions will be, or what their resolutions should be, their choice.

Verb Noun Fiction Exercise (Inspired by Stephen King)

Stephen King said, "I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops."

He also said, "Take any noun, put it with any verb, and you have a sentence. It never fails. Rocks explode. Jane transmits. Mountains float. These are all perfect sentences. Many such thoughts make little rational sense, but even the stranger ones (Plums deify!) have a kind of poetic weight that’s nice."

In this fiction writing exercise, start by brainstorming (either individually or collectively) seven verbs on seven different pieces of paper. Put those aside for later. Now brainstorm seven nouns. Randomly match the nouns and verbs so you have seven pairs. Choose a pair and write a piece of fiction for ten minutes. Avoid using any adverbs.

It’s the end of the world

It’s the end of the world! For 5 minutes either:

If working as a team, then after the 5 minutes is up each writer reads their description out to the other participants.

Describe how the world’s going to end, creating evocative images using similes or metaphors as you wish and tell the story from a global perspective, or
Describe how you spend your final day before the world is destroyed. Combine emotion and action to engage the reader.

7 Editing Exercises

For use after your first draft

I’ve listened to a lot of masterclasses on writing by successful authors and they all say variants of your first draft won’t be good and that’s fine. Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman summarise it the best:

“The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.”

Terry Pratchett

“For me, it’s always been a process of trying to convince myself that what I’m doing in a first draft isn’t important. One way you get through the wall is by convincing yourself that it doesn’t matter. No one is ever going to see your first draft. Nobody cares about your first draft. And that’s the thing that you may be agonising over, but honestly, whatever you’re doing can be fixed… For now, just get the words out. Get the story down however you can get it down, then fix it.”

Neil Gaiman

Once you’ve written your first draft, it will need editing to develop the plot, enhance the characters, and improve each scene in a myriad of ways – small and large. These seven creative editing exercises are designed to help with this stage of the process.

The First Sentence

Read the first paragraph of the novel, in particular the first sentence. Does it launch the reader straight into the action? According to On Writing and Worldbuilding by Timothy Hickson, “The most persuasive opening lines are succinct, and not superfluous. To do this, it is often effective to limit it to a single central idea… This does not need to be the most important element, but it should be a central element that is interesting.” Ask yourself what element your opening sentence encapsulates and whether it’s the best one to capture your readers’ attention.

Consistency

Consistency is crucial in creative writing, whether it’s in relation to location, objects, or people.

It’s also crucial for personality, emotions and motivation.

Look at scenes where your protagonist makes an important decision. Are their motivations clear? Do any scenes force them to choose between two conflicting morals? If so, do you explore this? Do their emotions fit with what’s happened in previous scenes?

As you edit your manuscript, keep the characters’ personality, emotions and motivation in mind. If their behaviour is inconsistent, either edit it for consistency, or have someone comment on their strange behaviour or be surprised by it. Inconsistent behaviour can reveal that a character is keeping a secret, or is under stress, so characters don’t always need to be consistent. But when they’re not, there has to be a reason.

Show Don’t Tell One

This exercise is the first in The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass. It’s a writing guide with a plethora of editing exercises designed to help you reenergize your writing by thinking of what your character is feeling, and giving you the tools to make your reader feel something.

Select a moment in your story when your protagonist is moved, unsettled, or disturbed… Write down all the emotions inherent in this moment, both obvious and hidden.
Next, considering what he is feeling, write down how your protagonist can act out. What is the biggest thing your protagonist can do? What would be explosive, out of bounds, or offensive? What would be symbolic? … Go sideways, underneath, or ahead. How can your protagonist show us a feeling we don’t expect to see?
Finally, go back and delete all the emotions you wrote down at the beginning of this exercise. Let actions and spoken words do the work. Do they feel too big, dangerous, or over-the-top? Use them anyway. Others will tell you if you’ve gone too far, but more likely, you haven’t gone far enough.

Show Don’t Tell Two

Search for the following words in your book:

Whenever these words occur, ask yourself if you can demonstrate how your characters feel, rather than simply stating it. For each occasion, can you use physiological descriptors (a racing heart), actions (taking a step backwards) or dialogue to express what’s just happened instead? Will this enhance the scene and engage the reader more?

After The Action

Find a scene where your characters disagree – in particular a scene where your protagonist argues with friends or allies. What happens next?

It can be tempting to wrap up the action with a quick resolution. But what if a resentment lingers and mistrust builds? This creates a more interesting story arc and means a resolution can occur later, giving the character development a real dynamic.

Review how you resolve the action and see if you can stretch out the emotions for a more satisfying read.

Eliminating the Fluff

Ensure that the words used don’t detract from the enormity of the events your character is going through. Can you delete words like, “Quite”, “Little”, or “Rather”?

Of “Very” Florence King once wrote: “ 'Very' is the most useless word in the English language and can always come out. More than useless, it is treacherous because it invariably weakens what it is intended to strengthen .” Delete it, or replace the word after it with a stronger word, which makes “Very” redundant.

“That,” is another common word used in creative writing which can often be deleted. Read a sentence as is, then reread it as if you deleted, “That”. If the meaning is the same, delete it.

Chapter Endings

When talking about chapter endings, James Patterson said, “At the end, something has to propel you into the next chapter.”

Read how each of your chapters finish and ask yourself does it either:

End on a cliff hanger? (R.L. Stine likes to finish every chapter in this method).
End on a natural pause (for example, you’re changing point of view or location).

Review how you wrap up each of your chapters. Do you end at the best point in your story? Can you add anticipation to cliff hangers? Will you leave your readers wanting more?

How to run the writing exercises

The editing exercises are designed to be completed individually.

With the others, I've always run them as part of a creative writing group, where there's no teacher and we're all equal participants, therefore I keep any 'teaching' aspect to a minimum, preferring them to be prompts to generate ideas before everyone settles down to do the silent writing. We've recently gone online and if you run a group yourself, whether online or in person, you're welcome to use these exercises for free!

The times given are suggestions only and I normally get a feel for how everyone's doing when time's up and if it's obvious that everyone's still in the middle of a discussion, then I give them longer. Where one group's in the middle of a discussion, but everyone else has finished, I sometimes have a 'soft start' to the silent writing, and say, "We're about to start the hour and a half of silent writing now, but if you're in the middle of a discussion, feel free to finish it first".

This way everyone gets to complete the discussion, but no-one's waiting for ages. It's also important to emphasise that there's no wrong answers when being creative.

Still looking for more? Check out these creative writing prompts or our dedicated Sci-Fi and Fantasy creative writing prompts

If you've enjoyed these creative writing exercises, please share them on social media, or link to them from your blog.

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55 Creative Writing Activities and Exercises

Have you ever heard these questions or statements from your students?

I don’t know where to begin.
How can I make my story interesting?
I’m just not creative.
What should my story be about?

If so, you won’t want to miss these creative writing activities.

What Are Creative Writing Activities?

Activities that teach creative writing serve as drills to exercise your student’s writing muscle. When used effectively, they help reluctant writers get past that intimidating blank paper and encourage the words to flow.

When I think of creative writing exercises , writing prompts immediately come to mind. And, yes, writing from a prompt is certainly an example of a creative writing activity (a highly effective one).

However, writing prompts are only one way to teach creative writing. Other types of activities include games, collaboration with others, sensory activities, and comic strip creation to name a few.

Unlike writing assignments, creative writing activities aren’t necessarily meant to create a perfectly polished finished project.

Instead, they serve as more of a warmup and imagination boost.

Picture-based writing exercises are especially fun. You can download one for free below!

get this picture prompt printable for free!

How to use creative writing exercises effectively.

When teaching creative writing , the most effective exercises inspire and engage the student.

Remember that worn-out prompt your teacher probably hauled out every year?

“What I Did This Summer…”

Cue the groaning.

Instead of presenting your student with lackluster topics like that one, let’s talk about ways to engage and excite them.

For Kids or Beginners

Early writers tend to possess misconceptions about writing. Many picture sitting down for hours straight, polishing a story from beginning to end.

Even for experienced writers, this is next-to-impossible to do. It’s preconceived ideas like these that overwhelm and discourage students before they’ve even started.

Instead of assigning an essay to complete, start with simple, short writing exercises for elementary students such as:

Creating comic strips using a template
Talking out loud about a recent dream
Writing a poem using rhyming words you provide
Creating an acrostic from a special word

Creative writing exercises don’t have to end in a finished piece of work. If the exercise encouraged creative thinking and helped the student put pen to paper, it’s done its job.

For Middle School

Creative writing activities for middle school can be a little more inventive. They now have the fundamental reading and writing skills to wield their words properly.

Here are some ideas for middle school writing exercises you can try at home:

Creating Mad Lib-style stories by changing out nouns, verbs, and adjectives in their favorite tales
Storyboarding a short film
Writing a family newsletter
Creating crossword puzzles

For High School

Your high school student may be starting to prepare for college essays and other important creative writing assignments.

It’s more critical than ever for her to exercise her writing skills on a regular basis.

One great way to keep your high schooler’s mind thinking creatively is to have her make “listicles” of tips or facts about something she’s interested in already.

Another fun and effective creative writing exercise for high school is to have your student retell classic stories with a twist.

List of 55 Creative Writing Activities for Students of All Ages

No matter what age range your students may be, I think you’ll find something that suits their personality and interests in this list of creative writing ideas. Enjoy!

Using only the sense of hearing, describe your surroundings.
Write a paragraph from your shoes’ point of view. How do they view the world? What does a “day in the life of a shoe” look like?
Imagine what the world will be like in 200 years. Describe it.
Write a letter to someone you know who moved away. What has he or she missed? Should he or she move back? Why?
Make up an imaginary friend. What does he or she look like? What does he or she like to do?
Create a story about a person you know. Use as many details as possible.
Write a poem that describes a place you have been.
Soak up the season you’re in with seasonal creative writing prompts. Here are some ideas for fall and winter .
Write a song where each line starts with the next letter in the alphabet.
Create a list of words related to something you love.
Write a short story based on a true event in your life.
Rewrite a chapter of your favorite book from the antagonist’s point of view.
Write a letter to your future self. What do you want to make sure you remember?
Go on a five-senses scavenger hunt. Find three items for each sense. Create a story using the items you found.
Create a story around an interesting picture ( try these fun picture writing prompts! )
Find an ad in a magazine or elsewhere and rewrite the description to convince people NOT to buy the advertised item.
Write a story using the last word of each sentence as the first word of the next.
Describe everything you’re sensing right now, using all five senses.
Write a list of animals A to Z with a one-sentence description of each one. Feel free to include imaginary animals.
Design your dream room in detail.
Write a script of yourself interviewing a famous person. Include his or her answers.
Describe what high school would be like if you lived on the moon. What would you be learning about? How would you be learning it?
Describe a day in the life of a famous person in history. Include both mundane and exciting details of things they may have experienced on a normal day.
Pick up something on a bookshelf or end table nearby. Now write a commercial script for it to convince your audience that they absolutely must own this thing.
Plan a birthday party for your best friend. Describe the decorations, food, and everything else.
Write a very short story about three siblings fighting over a toy. Now rewrite it twice, each time from a different character’s perspective.
Tell a story from the point of view of a pigeon on a city street.
Create a menu for a deli you’ll be opening soon. Name each sandwich after something or someone in real life and list the fillings and type of bread.
Pretend you just became famous for something. Write 3 exciting newspaper headlines about the topic or reason behind your newfound fame.
Keep a one-line-a-day journal. Every day, write down one thought or sentence about something that happened that day or how you felt about the day.
Have you ever had a nightmare? Write what happened but with a new ending where everything turns out okay (perhaps the monster was your dad in a costume, preparing to surprise you at your birthday party).
Write a “tweet” about something that happened to you recently, using only 140 characters.
Take an important event in your life or the life of someone in your family. Write one sentence answering each of the 6 journalistic questions: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How.
Set a timer for 5 minutes and write nonstop, starting with the words “I remember.” If you get stuck, write “I remember” again until you get unstuck.
Pick something you use often (a toothbrush, your desk, etc). Then tell the story of how it was invented. If you don’t know, make something up.
Choose a princess or hero and write a one-paragraph story about him or her traveling to a distant land.
Pretend you are a tour guide for a local attraction. It can be a library, a park, or a museum, but it could also be a place that wouldn’t normally hold tours (such as an arcade). Write a speech about what you tell your tour group as you walk around the attraction.
Create a marketing brochure for your favorite activity or fun place to go.
Make a list of 10 future story settings. Write one sentence describing each. For example, “ in the dark, musty cellar of my grandmother’s house, surrounded by dried-up jars of canned peaches… ”
Make a list of foods included in a dinner party catered by the world’s worst cook, describing how each course looks, smells, and tastes. Include your reactions while eating it.
Write out your own version of instructions for playing your favorite game.
Pretend you’ve lost your sight for one night. Describe going out to eat at a restaurant, using smells, textures, and sounds to tell your story.
Write a script for an interesting phone conversation in which the reader can only hear one side.
Tell the story of an object someone threw away from the perspective of the person who tossed it out. Then tell the story of that same object from the perspective of a person who finds it and deems it a treasure.
List your 3 least favorite chores. Pick one and write a one paragraph detailing why you can’t possibly complete that chore ever again.
Write an excerpt from your dog’s diary (pretend he keeps one).
Write the script for a movie trailer—real or imagined.
Create an acrostic for a holiday of your choice.
Pretend you’re the master of a role-playing game, describing a sticky situation in which the other players now find themselves. Describe the scenario in writing.
Compose a funny or dramatic caption for a photo.
Parents, place a textured object in a box without letting your student see it. Have him or her reach in, touch the object, and then describe how it feels.
Write lyrics for a parody of a song.
Make a list of 10-20 songs that would be played if a movie was made about your life.
Describe the sounds, smells, sights, and textures you’d experience if you went to the beach for the day.
Write an election speech with ludicrous and impossible campaign promises.

One of the best ways to encourage students to write regularly is by providing fun creative writing activities .

They serve to encourage both the habit and mindset of writing with imagination. If you need extra help with that, check out Creative Freewriting Adventure :

bring excitement into your student’s writing – no prep required!

About the author.

Jordan Mitchell

Writing Activities

18+ Creative Writing Activities To Make Writing Fun

Make writing less boring with these 12 fun creative writing activities for kids.

When most children think of writing, they think of lined paper with thousands of words written on it, line by line with the occasional spacing for paragraphs. But writing doesn’t need to be that boring and gloomy. Today we bring you12 creative writing activities to make writing fun and colourful!

How to Make Writing Fun

It is important to show your kids that there’s more to writing than just homework and long essays. Writing can be fun and it doesn’t always involve writing thousands of words in a formal structure. It’s time to stop worrying about sentence structure, grammar and spelling mistakes. Instead, encourage your kids to explore their creativity and write down their thoughts as they come in any format they like. Here are 12 fun creative writing activities that will boost your child’s creativity, imagination and encourage them to write for fun.

18+ Fun Creative Writing Activities

Use story maps.

Story maps are a great way to unleash your child’s imagination. You can either create your own or print out one of these free story map templates . To create your own story map, you’ll first need a location. This could be anywhere, a planet , an island , the woods or even your hometown. Don’t worry, you don’t actually need to leave your home to enjoy this activity.

Next draw out a simple map of the location. The map must have a starting point and an endpoint. Here is an example of our treasure island story map:

You can see that we marked the starting point with a star. And the end point with a red cross. Once this is done, you need to put loads of obstacles, challenges and interesting things on the map for your child to explore and engage with in their imagination. This could be a giant octopus monster, a lava lake, a cunning princess or even some secret symbols or lettering.

Once you have completed creating your action-packed story map (or printed out one of our free templates) – It’s time for the real adventure to begin. Give the map to your child and together you can pretend that you have landed in a whole new location.

Start from your bedroom (or your imaginary pirate ship) and make your way through the obstacles to find the secret treasure located in a mysterious cave (or the shed in your backyard). As you go through the map, think about the characters you might encounter, items you might find and even challenges you could face.

After your little adventure, your child will be inspired and ready to write about the adventure they just experienced! Go ahead and check out these free story map templates to get you started:

Forest Story Map
Island Story map

Create Some Paper Finger Puppets

Puppets and toys are a great way to stimulate imaginative play. In particular, creating your own paper finger puppets is a brilliant creative activity to boost your child’s imagination and make story-telling more fun. When creating your own finger puppets, your child can create any character they like. If they love football , try creating some famous football players, and if they love Harry Potter , get them to create some wizard themed characters. Whatever your child’s interest, combine it with story-telling, and make storytime extra fun.

To get you started, you can download our free paper finger puppet templates by signing up to Imagine Forest:

free printable paper finger puppets template

Create your own paper characters, props and background. Then let the role-playing begin!

Would You Rather Game

Kids love playing games. The Would You Rather game is a great way to boost logical thinking and communication skills. Print out our free Would You Rather game cards pack, to get a mix of funny, gross and Disney themed questions. Then get at least three players in a team to begin the game. The purpose of the game is to convince the whole team that your answer to the question is the best one and to get other players to agree with you. This game is guaranteed to get your kids laughing and thinking logically about the answers they pick.

Telephone Pictionary Game

Another brilliant creative writing activity is the Telephone Pictionary Game . The basic idea behind this game is to write a story collaboratively with your team using drawings and phrases. Together as team members take turns to write/draw something down. They’ll be improving skills such as creativity, teamwork and communication skills. And when the game is over, they’ll have a really funny story to read!

Create Some Shape Poetry

Poetry is a quick and short writing activity to get kids engaged in creative writing. But writing a typical haiku or limerick can get boring over time. To add a little more excitement gets your kids to write poems in the shape of something. For example, your child could write a poem about cats , in the shape of a cat:

Not only are these poems great to read, but they also make wonderful pieces of artwork. For more inspirations, check out our Alice in Wonderland inspired shape poetry .

Finish The Story Game

The finish the story game is the simplest creative writing activity in our list. In a team of at least 2 players, each player takes turns completing a story. Start off with a random story starter and then each player takes turns to continue this story. Which way will the story go? No-one knows. And that’s the real beauty of this game. Let your child explore their imagination and come up with wild ideas to keep the story interesting. And by the end of the game, you’ll have a really unique and funny story to read.

Use Image Prompts

Image prompts are a great source of inspiration. And can be used in a number of ways to encourage your child to write. For instance, you can ask your child to write a quick snappy slogan for a random image or photograph. Alternatively, you could play a whole game centred around a single image, such as the Round Robin Tournament game explained in our post on storytelling games using image prompts .

Story Cubes To Inspire

Inspiration is key in making writing fun for kids. That’s where story cubes come in handy. You either buy ready-made story cubes or make your own story cubes at home. If you’re interested in making your own story cubes, check out these 9 free story cube templates for ideas. Once you have a bunch of story cubes, you can simply roll them like dice and then challenge your kids to write a story based on the images they get. For game ideas using story cubes, check out this post on how to use story cubes .

Create A Comic Strip

If your kids hate writing but love drawing, then comic strips are a great creative activity to sneak in some minor writing with huge levels of imagination. Pick a topic, any topic you like. This could be related to your child’s interest and then ask them to create a short comic strip about that topic. For example, if you child loves dinosaurs, ask them to create their own comic strip about dinosaurs. For more inspiration and ideas, check out this post on how to create your own comic strip and comic books at home.

Make Your Own Pop-up Book

Another fun way to get your kids to write more is by creating your own pop-book books. Pop-up books seem really complicated to create, but in reality, they are really easy to make at home. All you need is some paper, scissors and glue. Check out this super easy tutorial on how to create your own pop-book at home for quick step-by-step instructions. Similar to comic strips, pop-up books are a great way of combining drawing with writing to get your kids writing more in a quick and fun way.

Create Mini Booklets

Turn your child’s story into a real book! You can buy blank books from Amazon or create your own mini paper book, using this easy mini notebook tutorial . With this tutorial you can create a fully customisable book, with your own cover, back page and you can even draw your own illustrations inside! This is a really fun and cute way to gets your kids writing in their spare time.

How to Make a Mini Paper Notebook Tutorial

Write A Letter With a Fun Twist

Forgot ordinary boring letters! Check out our Paper craft animal envelopes to encourage your kids to write letters to their friends, family, heroes, aliens, anyone they like! Inside the child can write any message they like, such as “how were your holidays…” or “We’re having a party this weekend…” And on the outside they can create any animal or creature they like as envelopes.

Describe a Monster

Ask your child to draw their own monster or character and describe it. – What are its strengths, and weaknesses, where does it live, what does it like doing and so on? This creative writing activity is quick, simple and full of imagination! And you could even take this a step further by creating your own monster flip books !

Use Story Starters

Use story starters to inspire reluctant writers. These can be simple sentences, such as “It was Timmy’s first day at school and he was excited…” and your child can continue writing the rest of the story. Or you could use photos and your child’s drawings to inspire story-writing by asking the child to describe what’s happening in this image. Take a look at this post on 60+ first-line prompts to inspire you or you could view our mega list of over 300 writing prompts for kids .

Create Your Own Greeting Cards

Get your child to create their own Christmas cards , greeting cards or get well cards to send to someone they know. They can write their own personal message inside and draw a picture on the outside. Quick activities like this are a great way to sneak in some writing with some arts and crafts.

step-5-pop-up-christmas-tree-card-tutorial-for-kids-imagine-forest

Create Your Own Newspaper

Ask your child to write their own newspaper article or create their own newspaper about the daily events that happen at home or at school. Remember the use of the 5 W’s and 1 H when writing newspaper articles. Our newspaper challenge online activity is great for creating fun newspaper articles.

imagine forest newspaper writing activity

Make A Shopping List

Get the kids involved in the weekly grocery shopping! Ask them to write the shopping list with drawings. If the grocery shopping list is too boring, then get them to create a wish list of items they dream of owning or even a list of goals they want to accomplish. You can buy some really pretty shopping list pads from Amazon , which could be a great way to encourage your kids to get writing!

Re-tell some fairytales

Fairytales have been around for centuries and by now they need a modern twist. Challenge your child to update an old classic. And you could even use this free ‘Retell a fairy tale pack ’ to help you. Re-telling a fairytale is a lot easier than creating a whole new one – Simply ask your child to change one or two key elements in the story and see how it changes the entire fairytale. For example, what if Cinderella was the villain? Alternatively, you could go wacky and add a whole new character to a classic fairytale, such as Spiderman making an appearance in Jack and the Beanstalk. The possibilities really are endless!

Write Your Own Movie Script

Ask your child to write their own short movie script, they can create a cast list and give all the different characters different things to say. You can find a free script and cast list template here ! Think about the conversation between the characters, what problems would they encounter, who is the villain in this story? We also think these free finger puppets printable could be great for story-telling.

Hand-written Blogs

Ask your child to keep a simple hand-written blog about their hobbies and interests. This can be done in a journal or notebook. Ask them the following questions: What do they like doing in their spare time and why do they enjoy this. Maybe ask them to provide instructions on how someone else can also be good at this hobby. They can update their hand-written blog everyday with new tips and interesting pieces of information on their hobby.

Wanted Posters

Create a ‘Wanted’ poster for famous villains in storybooks, such as Miss Trunchbull from Matilda or Cinderella’s Stepmother. You can find a free blank template here . Alternatively try out the Most Wanted online activity on Imagine Forest, to create your own wanted posters online:

Storyboarding

Writing a whole story down can be cumbersome. That’s why storyboarding can make a really good creative writing activity. Instead of asking a child to write a whole story down, get them to think about the key events in the story and plan it out using a storyboard template . Planning their story out beforehand could even encourage your child to write a complete story down afterwards. The first step is always planning out what you are going to write, and this could give your child the confidence to keep going.

Know anymore fun writing activities for kids? Tell us your ideas below.

Top 10 Writing Activities to Make Writing Fun!

Marty the wizard is the master of Imagine Forest. When he's not reading a ton of books or writing some of his own tales, he loves to be surrounded by the magical creatures that live in Imagine Forest. While living in his tree house he has devoted his time to helping children around the world with their writing skills and creativity.

writing activities for endangered species day_Imagine Forest

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14 Fun Activities for After-School Programs
For Schools

After-school programs bridge the gap left by conventional education, catering to various learning styles and nurturing creativity in a non-academic setting. By participating in a diverse range of activities, from academic clubs to sports and the arts, children can uncover their passions and talents in an enjoyable and supportive atmosphere.

These programs not only extend the day but also provide opportunities for personal growth and skill development that may not be fully addressed during regular school hours.

Let’s explore some exciting activities that can make after-school programs both fun and educational for children of all ages and interests.

STEM Activities

Three children collaborating on a robotics project, representing STEM-focused fun activities in an after-school program

STEM activities provide an exciting gateway into the world of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. These hands-on experiences not only educate but also inspire curiosity and innovation in young minds.

1. Coding Classes

Introduce children to the basics of coding through user-friendly platforms like Scratch or Python. These classes go beyond simple programming, helping students develop crucial problem-solving skills and logical thinking. As they create their own games, animations, and interactive stories, children gain confidence in their ability to bring ideas to life through technology.

2. Robotics Clubs

In robotics clubs, students embark on an exciting journey of building and programming their own robots . This immersive experience combines engineering principles with coding skills, allowing children to see their creations come to life. As they work through challenges and refine their designs, students learn valuable lessons in perseverance, teamwork, and creative problem-solving.

3. Science Experiments

Engage young scientists with captivating experiments like the classic oil and water separation or the surprising floating paper clip. These simple yet fascinating activities spark curiosity about the natural world and introduce fundamental scientific concepts. Through hands-on experimentation, children learn to:

Hypothesize
Draw conclusions,

This helps in developing critical scientific thinking skills.

Arts and Crafts

Creative activities provide children with a valuable outlet for self-expression while honing their fine motor skills and boosting self-confidence.

1. Painting and Drawing

Offer a variety of painting and drawing projects that allow children to explore different techniques and mediums. From watercolor landscapes to comic book illustrations, these activities encourage children to express their unique perspectives and develop their artistic style. As they experiment with color, form, and composition, students gain a deeper appreciation for visual arts.

2. Jewelry Making

Introduce children to the art of jewelry making, where they can create wearable pieces of art. This activity improves hand-eye coordination and patience as kids work with small beads, wires, and clasps. Beyond technical skills, jewelry making also teaches design principles and allows children to express their personal style, creating pieces they can proudly wear or gift to others.

3. DIY Crafts

Engage children in eco-friendly craft projects using recycled materials. These activities not only spark creativity but also teach valuable lessons about sustainability and resourcefulness. Children can transform everyday items like cardboard boxes, plastic bottles, and old magazines into beautiful and functional creations, learning that art can be both beautiful and environmentally conscious.

Physical Activities

Children playing soccer on a green field, enjoying an outdoor activity in an after-school progra

Physical activities are highly beneficial for children’s health, helping them stay active, build strength, and develop important social skills through teamwork and friendly competition.

1. Traditional Sports

Organize team sports like basketball, soccer, and volleyball to promote physical fitness and teamwork. These activities help children develop coordination, strategic thinking, and sportsmanship. Through practice and friendly matches, kids learn the value of perseverance, goal-setting, and supporting their teammates—skills that extend far beyond the playing field.

2. Dance Classes

Introduce children to the joy of movement through dance classes like Zumba or hip-hop. These high-energy sessions combine exercise with music, improving cardiovascular health, coordination, and rhythm. Dance classes also boost self-confidence and provide a fun way for children to express themselves creatively while getting a great workout.

3. Gymnastics

Offer gymnastics sessions to help children develop flexibility, strength, and body awareness. Through a series of tumbling exercises, balance beam activities, and floor routines, children improve their physical capabilities while building self-confidence. Gymnastics also teaches important lessons in discipline, focus, and the rewards of consistent practice.

Literature and Drama

A child reading a book, highlighting fun activities in after-school programs.

Engaging children in literature and drama activities can significantly enhance their reading comprehension, communication skills, and confidence in public speaking.

1. Book Clubs

Create engaging book clubs where children can explore diverse genres and authors. These clubs go beyond simple reading, encouraging lively discussions that enhance comprehension and critical thinking skills. Through sharing opinions, analyzing characters, and predicting plot twists, children learn to articulate their thoughts clearly and respect different perspectives.

2. Drama Classes

Introduce children to the world of theater through interactive drama classes . These sessions help boost confidence and improve public speaking abilities through fun exercises, improvisation games, and short play productions. As children step into different roles and bring stories to life, they develop empathy, creativity, and the ability to express emotions effectively.

Music and Performing Arts

A young girl smiling while playing the piano during a fun activity in an after-school program

Music and performing arts activities offer children a chance to explore their creative side while developing discipline, patience, and teamwork skills.

1. Instrument Lessons

Provide opportunities for children to learn various musical instruments . Whether it’s piano, guitar, or drums, learning an instrument helps develop discipline, patience, and fine motor skills. As children progress from simple melodies to more complex pieces, they experience the joy of achievement and gain a lifelong appreciation for music.

2. Choir or Band

Organize choir or band sessions where children can experience the thrill of making music together. These group activities teach important lessons in teamwork and listening skills as students learn to harmonize their voices or instruments. Participating in a musical ensemble also boosts confidence and provides opportunities for public performances, allowing children to showcase their talents.

3. Musical Theater

Combine the excitement of drama, music, and dance in musical theater productions. This comprehensive performing art form allows children to explore various aspects of stage performance. From memorizing lines and songs to designing costumes and sets, musical theater engages multiple skills and fosters creativity. It also teaches children about collaboration, time management, and the satisfaction of bringing a production to life.

After-school programs are essential for providing children with a balanced mix of education, physical activity, and creative expression. By incorporating a variety of fun activities, these programs help children develop important life skills, stay healthy, and enjoy their time in a safe and structured environment. Whether through STEM projects, arts and crafts, sports, or music, there are endless possibilities to keep children engaged and learning long after the school day ends.

Effective Strategies for Enhancing Out-of-School Time Programs

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After-School Programs for Kindergarten

Practice Writing the Alphabet Worksheets

Teaching preschoolers to write the alphabet can be a delightful and rewarding experience! One of the best ways to make this learning journey both fun and educational is with our alphabet practice worksheets.

These Practice Writing the Alphabet worksheets provide a friendly and structured way for your little one to recognize each letter and build confidence in writing them. As they work through these exercises, they’ll set a strong foundation for kindergarten and beyond.

What’s so great about using alphabet printables is that they can cater to all learning styles. From tracing letters to writing them independently, these printables turn learning the alphabet into an engaging adventure for you and your preschooler!

Alphabet worksheets are fantastic tools for introducing children to the world of letters. They offer guided practice, which is essential for young learners who are just beginning to develop their fine motor skills.

These free preschool printables help children understand the shape and structure of each letter, making it easier for them to remember and reproduce them. Additionally, worksheets can be used at home and in the classroom, providing flexibility for parents and teachers.

Free Printable Alphabet Worksheets

To help you make teaching the alphabet an enjoyable experience for your preschoolers, we’ve put together some fantastic free printable worksheets you can easily download and print at home.

Alphabet Exercises for Preschoolers
Alphabet Tracing Worksheets
Animal Alphabet Printable
Identifying Letters of the Alphabet Worksheets
Lowercase Alphabet Worksheets

Children dive into a fun and educational experience with interactive alphabet worksheets. These activities capture their interest and enhance fine motor skills through practical, hands-on practice. As they work through each letter, kids build the confidence and excitement needed to complete the activity.

Preschool Handwriting Practice Pages

Completing the Activity

Using our alphabet worksheets is easy and intuitive. Each worksheet focuses on one letter, allowing children to master each before moving on. Start by having the child identify the featured letter on the page. This recognition step is crucial in reinforcing letter shapes and sounds.

Next, guide them as they trace the letter. The tracing lines help build muscle memory and improve their ability to write the letter independently. Finally, encourage them to write the letter on their own. This step boosts confidence and solidifies their learning.

To make the most of these worksheets, integrate them into daily learning routines. Set aside a specific time each day for alphabet practice. Consistency is key in helping children retain what they’ve learned. Additionally, make sure to praise their efforts and progress. Positive reinforcement can greatly enhance motivation and enjoyment.

These printables aren’t just for solo activities. Incorporate them into group learning sessions to foster cooperation and peer learning. Children can learn a lot from watching their peers and working together on shared tasks.

Alphabet Activities for Preschoolers

Alphabet activities for preschoolers make learning letters fun and interactive through play, creativity, and hands-on experiences. These activities help children recognize letters, understand sounds, and build early reading and writing skills while fostering a love for learning.

Alphabet Crafts

Alphabet crafts are a creative way for preschoolers to explore letters while having fun with hands-on projects. These crafts reinforce letter recognition and allow children to express their creativity as they connect letters with shapes, colors, and textures.

In this section, you’ll find a variety of engaging alphabet crafts that will make learning the ABCs enjoyable and memorable for your child.

P is for Penguin Craft
G is for Grapes Craft
M is for Mouse Craft
A is for Acorn Craft
U is for Umbrella Craft

Books About the Alphabet for Kids

Introducing the alphabet to young learners can be a fun and engaging experience with the right books. Alphabet books are perfect for preschoolers and early readers, combining bright illustrations and playful text to make learning the ABCs exciting. Here are three delightful alphabet books that will captivate children and foster a love for reading.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault is a beloved classic that turns the alphabet into a lively adventure. The story features all the letters racing to the top of a coconut tree, only to come crashing down. With its rhythmic text and vibrant illustrations, this book is perfect for read-aloud sessions and will have kids chanting along.

In Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert, children embark on a colorful journey through fruits and vegetables from A to Z. Each page showcases beautiful, bold illustrations of different foods, encouraging healthy eating habits while teaching letter recognition. The simple yet engaging format makes it easy for young readers to connect with the text.

Dr. Seuss’s ABC is a whimsical and imaginative exploration of the alphabet. Dr. Seuss’s signature rhymes and quirky characters bring each letter to life in a way that only he can. From Aunt Annie’s Alligator to a Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz, this book is a delightful introduction to letters and sounds that will entertain and educate kids simultaneously.

Practicing writing the alphabet worksheets is a fantastic way to help preschoolers learn their letters. These worksheets are versatile and engaging and can be easily incorporated into daily routines at home and in the classroom. With consistent practice and fun activities, your child will be well on their way to mastering the alphabet.

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Sign up for easy access to this exclusive content! Signing up is 100% free! As long as you stay logged in, you get instant access to our freebies anytime you see the “click here” button shown below.

Tara is the brains behind Homeschool Preschool, where her journey from preschool and public school teacher to homeschooling mom of three fuels her passion for early childhood education. With a blend of expertise and firsthand experience, Tara’s writings offer practical tips and engaging resources to support families in creating meaningful learning adventures at home.

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How to … : An Informational Writing Contest for Teenagers

We invite students to explain how to do any task in 400 words or fewer. Contest dates: Feb. 12 to March 12, 2025.

By The Learning Network

Do you know how to fix a brake light ? What about how to memorize Shakespeare ? How to keep a goldfish alive ? Spot a shooting star ? Write a love letter ? Forgive someone ?

These are just a few of the many skills explained in Tip , the how-to column by Malia Wollan which ran weekly in The New York Times Magazine from 2015-2022.

Inspired by this column, which took on topics both serious and silly, we are challenging students to write their own “how-to” for (almost) any task.

As long as the topic is appropriate for a family newspaper, students can explain whatever they like, including tasks that Tip has already taken on. But, just as the column did, they must also find, interview and quote one expert on the subject.

Take a look at the full guidelines and related resources below. Please post any questions you have in the comments and we’ll answer you there, or write to us at [email protected]. And, consider hanging this PDF one-page announcement on your class bulletin board.

Here’s what you need to know:

The Challenge
A Few Additional Rules
Resources for Students and Teachers
Frequently Asked Questions
Submission Form

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Improve your writing with chatgpt (5 powerful prompts).

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Improve your writing with ChatGPT (5 powerful prompts)

There’s no better way to build an audience than writing online. Creating the habit of showing up and hitting publish will serve you well for everything in your professional future. But there’s a wrong way to produce. Without studying the data and learning how to improve, your words won’t hit the mark. Don’t get stale. Don’t let people switch off. Take your online writing to a whole new level and be forever proud of everything you share.

Hone your craft with an unbiased critique. Study your art and approach perfection. These ChatGPT prompts will make improving easy. Copy, paste and edit the square brackets in ChatGPT, and keep the same chat window open so the context carries through.

Online writing made simple: ChatGPT prompts to reach the next level

Resonate from the start.

Let’s learn from the music industry. To get someone’s interest and keep it, chart-topping singles change something up every six seconds. A different beat, melody or key. A way to keep short attention spans hooked. Your online writing is no different. Set up for success by reworking your opener. Resonate hard, and give someone a compelling reason to keep reading. Tease what they’ll achieve by sticking to the end. Boring openers win zero readers, but you want millions. Here’s the prompt to achieve just that.

“Analyze the opening of my online article. I'll paste the first paragraph below. Rewrite it 3 different ways to make it more compelling and hook the reader instantly. For each rewrite, explain the key changes and how they improve engagement. After presenting the 3 options, give me 5 general tips for crafting attention-grabbing openers that keep readers hooked. Here's my current opening paragraph: [paste your paragraph].”

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Clues And Answers For Tuesday, August 27th

Wwe raw results: winners and grades on august 26, 2024, forbes asia releases fourth edition of 100 to watch list, include relevant statistics.

88% of statistics are made up on the spot (including that one), but people still love them. Data is memorable. Results speak volumes. When you’re trying to make a point, appeal to the logical members of your target audience by including some numbers. Ask ChatGPT to provide studies, examples and stats that back up your point. (For your best shot at accuracy, ask Perplexity too.)

“Help me strengthen my article with compelling data. I'll provide the main points of my piece below. For each point, suggest 2-3 relevant statistics or research findings that support my argument. Include the source for each stat. After we've covered all the main points, summarize the most impactful statistics and explain how I can seamlessly weave them into my writing for maximum effect. Here are my main points: [list your key points].”

Cut out the fluff

If you can say what you want to say in half the words, that’s what you should do. Clever means concise. Rather than rambling away and being verbose, cut to the absolute essence of what you mean, to sound more definite and amass more fans. Imagine each paragraph was a tweet. Keep cutting and combining until you’re packing more punch with every line.

“Sharpen my writing by eliminating unnecessary words. I'll paste a section of my article below. Your job is to cut it down by 30% without losing the core message. Present the condensed version alongside the original, highlighting the key changes. Then, give me 3 rules for identifying and removing fluff in my future writing. Here's the section to condense: [paste your section].”

Add more personal stories

There are no unique messages, just unique messengers. And you’re the messenger that people want to hear from. Deliver the goods by including stories. Don’t just share a lesson, say how you learned it. Teach based on experience. Explain with anecdotes. Give depth to your online writing when you explain from personal experience. Don’t skip this step.

“Help me incorporate personal anecdotes into my writing. I'll share the main topic and lessons of my article. For each key point, ask me probing questions about related experiences in my life. Help me craft these experiences into concise, relevant stories that illustrate my message. After we've developed 5 anecdotes, advise me on how to smoothly integrate them into my piece for maximum impact. My article's main topic and lessons are: [describe your article].”

Identify your unique style

Anyone can take a writing course or follow a template. But the more you copy other people, the less you sound like you. Don’t leave your writing style to chance. Give ChatGPT some samples and get it to find your quirks. Those common words, signature sentence structures and unmissable ways you get your message across. Be more you with every future piece, and build familiarity with readers who are hungry for more.

“Analyze my writing style to uncover my unique voice. I'll provide 3 samples of my online writing below. Your task is to identify recurring patterns, signature phrases, and distinctive elements that define my style. After analyzing each sample, summarize my key stylistic traits and suggest how I can amplify these in future pieces to make my writing more recognizably 'me'. Here are my writing samples: [paste your samples].”

Improve your online writing in minutes: 5 powerful ChatGPT prompts

Easily improve everything you write with these 5 prompts for ChatGPT. Resonate from the start to get people on board, and include relevant statistics that are remembered for months. Cut out the fluff to make your message clearer, add more personal stories to avoid being generic, and apply your signature style for every new piece. Become a better online writer and watch your business transform. Put your ego aside and join the greats.

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Home Internet

Have Questions About Fiber Internet? Here’s Everything I Learned About Fiber Internet After Writing About It Daily

You’ve heard about cable and 5G, but what is fiber internet and is it worth the money?

Fiber internet uses the speed of light to get you online, making it the fastest internet connection your money can buy by far.

What does that mean for affordability or accessibility?

When I first started writing about the internet my eyes glazed over trying to understand the difference between cable internet and fiber internet (and also what are Wi-Fi , Ethernet and 5G ?).

Locating local internet providers

It didn’t take long for me to catch on to the buzz around fiber, not just in broadband news, but also among internet providers and even my neighbors. Everyone wants the fastest (and most cost-efficient) internet connection. I quickly discovered that fiber speeds leave cable , 5G fixed wireless , satellite internet and the middling speeds of DSL in the dust.

Fiber is one of the most popular internet service connections among customers nationwide. If people who buy fiber are happy with the internet service why don’t we just recommend fiber-optic internet to everyone? Why bother with other internet connection types?

The answer is simple: Fast speeds and customer satisfaction alone don’t automatically make fiber the best option for every household. Prices, availability, fees and other details impact how efficient fiber may be for your broadband needs and budget. Plus, most households don’t exceed an average of 600 megabits per second in download speeds, according to the latest data from OpenVault , so you may not need the 1,000Mbps or 5,000Mbps speeds offered by some fiber providers.

Fiber internet is still pretty marvelous. Since a fiber-optic internet connection relies on the speed of light to transmit data, we're still getting acquainted with all the possibilities of the technology. Still, it has already had a tremendous impact on the way we communicate and use the internet.

It's an internet connection that you'll find CNET recommending again and again, provided it's available to you. If you're like me and have questions about what fiber broadband is and how it even works, let's get in the weeds about how fiber internet functions as the fastest internet connection and whether it's a worthwhile investment.

What is fiber internet exactly?

Fiber internet gets its name from the fiber cables it relies on to get you online. The cables are made up of thin, long strands of glass or plastic encased in layers of cladding and coating that transmit data through light signals across long distances.

Technically, the speed of light used to transmit this data is reduced by 30% because of the refraction that occurs within the cables, but the speeds are still very fast. All that may seem baffling, and it was to me too, but fiber cables have long been used to get us online.

You’re reading this right now because of the lightning-fast fiber cables under the ocean , powering your internet connection -- whether it’s fiber or not.

What does all that mean for you? That means you get symmetrical download and upload speeds on any speed tier, even up to a 50-gigabit (or 50,000Mbps) plan. Compared to the upload speeds of most cable internet providers, which usually range between 20 to 50Mbps, that’s a vast improvement.

You should also know that fiber cables are very expensive, as is the installation process for a fiber network . That means it may be difficult for some providers to extend a fiber network to your neighborhood, especially if you’re in a rural area or just outside a big city.

Because fiber internet requires an existing infrastructure or fiber network to work, the speeds you get depend on which fiber internet provider has already been active in your area. Occasionally, fiber providers will share each other's networks to mitigate costs.

There are a few different ways an internet provider will connect a fiber network to your home, depending on the existing infrastructure. Note that the only true fiber internet connection is a direct one or Fiber to the Home connection.

Fiber to the Home : Fiber-optic cables run directly from the network to your house. This is the fastest option.
Fiber to the Curb : If your household can’t be wired for fiber directly, the fiber cables connect with a coaxial cable from a utility pole or cabinet, which will inevitably slow the connection down but is still plenty fast.
Fiber to the Neighborhood : This fiber internet connection, also known as Fiber to the Node, runs from a connection hub or node utility pole. Your house is then connected to the network through coaxial cables, meaning it travels the furthest of the three options and is the slowest connection type of the three.

Despite what direct fiber connection may be available to you, fiber internet is installed using a small utility box or an optical network terminal that a technician installs either inside or outside your home. The ONT is wired to the fiber network and converts light signals into electric signals, giving you the fastest internet connection on the block.

Is fiber internet the best internet connection?

There’s plenty to consider before calling fiber “the best” internet connection type. Fiber is definitely the fastest, but it’s also the most limited internet connection type in terms of availability.

According to the Federal Communications Commission , less than half of the population is wired for a fiber internet connection. Compared to cable availability, which covers 82% of the population, fiber providers have some catching up to do.

The costs of fiber internet also determine whether it's a good option for your home. There's no doubt that fiber internet has higher starting prices than cable, with many starting prices averaging around $50 per month. There are a few cheap fiber internet providers, like Frontier Fiber and Ziply Fiber, which start at $30 for 200Mbps and $20 for 100Mbps a month, respectively.

If you look at the cost per Mbps , fiber is often the most cost-efficient internet connection type, and prices don’t typically increase year after year as they do for some cable providers. For example, Spectrum and AT&T Fiber both offer 1,000Mbps for $80 a month or 8 cents per Mbps. Spectrum will increase that price to around $110 monthly in a year or two. AT&T Fiber won’t. Also note that AT&T Fiber offers 1,000Mbps upload speeds, lower latency and more overall reliability than Spectrum’s 35Mbps upload speed for that tier.

Even for Google Fiber , one of the more expensive fiber providers, which starts at $70 a month for 1,000Mbps and only goes up from there, the cost per Mbps reveals you’re getting pretty good value for the offered speeds. Paying $125 a month for 5,000Mbps may seem like a lot, but that price comes down to around 3 cents per Mbps.

Again, consider first how much internet speed you actually need , so you make the best use of your dollar. Not all of us require 5,000Mbps, but for those who work at home, are avid gamers and have multiple busy internet users in the house, a multi-gig internet connection may be the way to go.

Lastly, fiber internet has the best customer service track record when compared to other internet service types. The American Customer Satisfaction Index points to positive trends for fiber internet providers in the past few years. AT&T Fiber scored at the top of the ACSI’s 2024 satisfaction benchmark with a score of 80, while the lowest score came from Optimum Fiber at 66. For context, the scores for non-fiber internet providers (DSL, fixed wireless and cable) ranged from a low of 56 to a high of 76, held by T-Mobile Home Internet .

Data from J.D. Power , another customer satisfaction surveyor, notes that customers were happier with wireless internet overall during 2023, although they may not have separated the fixed wireless offerings from the fiber offerings from one provider. For example, Verizon offers 5G home internet as well as fiber through Verizon Fios, although there are no separate categories in the data. Either way, AT&T, Frontier Fiber, Verizon and Google Fiber scored at the top of all regional surveys.

What internet providers offer fiber?

There are upwards of 1,400 fiber internet providers in the country, according to the latest report from the FCC . Most of those providers are local. Only around seven providers serve more than 1% to 2% of the population, with Verizon Fios and AT&T Fiber covering the most ground with 9% and 12% coverage, respectively.

AT&T Fiber
Brightspeed
Frontier Fiber
Google Fiber
Kinetic by Windstream
Point Broadband
Quantum Fiber
Verizon Fios
Ziply Fiber

Bottom line: Is fiber internet worth it?

The answer to this question will depend on several factors, but perhaps most important is whether fiber is available in your area. If you can get fiber, it’s absolutely worth it. You may not need multi-gigabit tiers for over $100 a month, but even the lower tiers of 300Mbps download/300Mbps upload outpace the speeds offered by cable, fixed wireless providers and especially DSL. Fiber usually features unlimited data as well as no contracts or monthly equipment fees (although this varies by provider). Fiber internet isn’t the only solution to our broadband needs. Working out the expansion of fiber networks and improving the affordability of multi-gig tiers are some of the biggest priorities, but while we wait for those improvements, you’d be hard-pressed to find an internet connection that’s as lightning-fast as the speeds you get from fiber.

What is fiber internet FAQs

How fast is fiber internet.

The fastest known residential internet connection (at the moment) is Ziply Fiber’s 50,000Mbps tier , which raises the bar for all internet providers. Some fiber providers, like Google Fiber, start at 1,000Mbps and max out around 8,000Mbps or 10,000Mbps. Others have lower starting speeds, like Frontier Fiber or Verizon Fios, which start at 200Mbps and 300Mbps, respectively.

Is fiber internet expensive?

It definitely can be, depending on your internet provider and how fast you want your internet to be. Some of the cheapest fiber providers have plans starting at $20 a month for 100Mbps (Ziply Fiber) or $30 a month for 200Mbps (Frontier Fiber), but most starting prices average around $50.

What’s the difference between fiber internet and “fiber-rich” internet?

Cable providers often use the term "fiber-rich" to describe their services, but that doesn't mean you'll get true fiber internet. It usually means fiber-optic cables are somewhere along the network but not fiber to your home. You can usually tell if an internet provider offers true fiber service by the download and upload speeds. If they're symmetrical, it should be fiber.

Where can I get fiber internet?

If you live in or near a big city, your chances of getting fiber internet are much higher. You can plug your address into the availability checkers on most provider websites or use data from the FCC to determine if your address is eligible for fiber.

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When I first started writing about the internet my eyes glazed over trying to understand the difference between cable internet and fiber internet (and also what are Wi-Fi, Ethernet and 5G?).