The Best Writing Prompts To Help Spark Your Imagination

Are you looking for writing ideas? Take a tour of our list of the best  prompts for writers

Whether you are writing fiction, non-fiction, articles or blog posts, you sometimes need a little help to give you a spark of an idea.

Perhaps you need an idea to write a scene or even to write a story. Maybe you are not sure what point of view to use.

There are many places you can find creative writing prompts. Our list below consists of some of the best, so it is an excellent place to start.

If you have started writing recently, or you have high school assignments to write, little ideas from prompts can help you jump the first hurdle.

However, you need inspiring ideas and not the boring old run of the mill prompts that we have all suffered.

I am sure you have been asked at some time to write a short story about a family member or to write about a time when you felt excited. Yes, you’ve written about time travelling more times than you can count.

Right. Let’s get started on helping you find fantastic new ideas for writing a book, a new novel, a biography, to write a poem or for your next blog post or a writing exercise.

Here are the ten best places around to find writing ideas for anyone who loves writing and to get your creative juices flowing and forget all about writer’s block.

1. The Writer’s Digest

Writer’s Digest is a great place to start your writing idea hunt.

The prompts cover a vast range of topics. You will see by the number of comments on each posting that it is a popular site for writers.

Each writing prompt is written by Jess Zafarris, who is the Director of Content Strategy and Online Content for Writer’s Digest.

It gets my number one position because the ideas are so varied and should inspire any writer.

Take a look and see what you think.

2. Self-Publishing School

Self-Publishing School gets my vote due to its diversity of writing ideas.

Once you get past all the prompts to add your email address and receive a newsletter (which is a bit annoying, so ignore), there are plenty of great ideas waiting for you.

There are writing prompts for fantasy, sci-fi, dystopian, contemporary fiction, romance, horror, thriller, mystery, non-fiction, morals and values, love, sex, and relationships, childhood and family and well, the list goes on.

If you can’t find your writing genre here, well, read on. We might have it covered further down our list.

3. The New York Times

Maybe the New York Times is the last place you would expect to check for writing prompts.

But it is definitely worth a check. It has a regularly updated list that is sure to get you thinking.

It often has some off the wall concepts that will stretch your imagination and lead you to new places to take your writing.

One posting, Does Grammar Still Matter in the Age of Twitter? , caught my attention.

Now that is good food for thought.

4. Pinterest

Pinterest is another place you would not think to look.

But Pinterest user, Mandy Corine has collected over 10,000 pins of writing prompts.

With close to 17,000 followers, this must be one of the most popular accounts on Pinterest for writers.

Take a scan through the extensive listings of ideas of things to write about. You are sure to strike gold.

5. Plot Generator

Plot Generator works on a click an image find a story concept.

It is a fairly basic site as far as design is concerned, yet with one click you can access lots of ideas for your writing task.

You can even select a happy, sad or twist ending on some story ideas. That is making life too easy for a writer.

Not only can you get story ideas, but there are also links to other generators such as a name and character generator.

As I said, it is a site that lacks any flair, but it makes up for it with its content.

6. CoShedule

CoShedule has an interesting take on writing prompts.

Once you get past the pleading for your email address, which you can ignore, there are some great resources.

There is a fill in the blanks idea starter, question prompts and an ideas section for finding more ways to discover writing concepts.

For bloggers, there is a section dedicated to reworking your blog post headlines and how to create a database of compelling headlines.

7. Huge Big Thesaurus

All you have to do on Huge Big Thesaurus is keep clicking.

The site says it has over 5 million story ideas.

Each time you click Get Some More, you get six more new ideas.

I figure it will take your forever to exhaust the list if you only get six at a time.

But happy clicking and I am sure you will find something to get your writing motivation into gear.

8. Freewrite

There is nothing fancy about Freewrite.

But it does have a solid list of 60 helpful writing ideas for you to scan through.

It is worth a quick look to see if one of the topics grabs your imagination.

9. Think Written

Think Written gives you a year’s worth of ideas.

There are 365 ideas for you to scroll through when you need a little motivation.

This one caught my attention. Trash Day: Write from the perspective of a garbage collector.

Now there must be a fascinating story somewhere in that writing prompt.

10. See Jane Write

Lastly, just for bloggers is See Jane Write.

Fiction writers might only need a blast of motivation every few weeks or months.

But for bloggers, you need to find something to write about almost every day.

It is a nice list of ideas that could help you write your next article, and meet your deadline. It is worth a look.

Conclusion

You can find writing inspiration anywhere.

For me, looking out at real life from my balcony and the world moving below me is often an instant winner.

Also, spending half an hour at the train station, watching people go by is never time wasted.

Another terrific source of writing ideas are the comments I get on my blog or from social media from Twitter and Facebook users.

If you are stuck for something to write about, you are always only a minute away from finding it. All you need to do is look or listen.

I cannot recall a day when I have spent hours agonising over where the words will come from for my next writing project.

Yes, I sometimes agonise over how to say it. But that is a different story altogether.