Creative writing prompts
Prompts that train a skill as well as spark an idea. Choose a technique, strike a prompt, and write for fifteen minutes.
Retell a famous fairy tale from the point of view of a minor character.
AI creative writing prompts on any topic
Type a subject and the AI writes five craft-focused prompts around it.
AI output is generated by openai/gpt-6-luna via Vercel AI Gateway. It can be wrong or odd; the prompt lists on this page work without it.
Point of view prompts
- Retell a famous fairy tale from the point of view of a minor character.
- Write a scene in second person ("you") about someone waiting for test results.
- Describe a family dinner from the dog's point of view.
- Write the same breakup twice: once from each person's side.
- Narrate a heist from the point of view of the safe.
- Write a first-person story where the narrator is clearly wrong about themselves.
Constraints prompts
- Write a complete story in exactly 50 words.
- Write a scene without using the letter "e".
- Tell a story in six sentences, each one shorter than the last.
- Write a story in which every sentence is a question.
- Write a story using only dialogue, no tags.
- Write a scene in present tense that covers exactly sixty seconds.
Senses & setting prompts
- Describe a market at dawn without using sight.
- Write a scene where the weather is the main character.
- Describe your favourite room so precisely a stranger could find the keys.
- Write about a city at 3am from the perspective of the person cleaning it.
- Describe a smell that brings back a specific day, then write the day.
- Set a scene in a place you have been a hundred times, noticing something new.
Character prompts
- Write a character through the contents of their bin.
- Introduce a character by showing what they do when nobody is watching.
- Write a villain who genuinely believes they are saving the world.
- Write about a character who has to choose between two things they love.
- Show a character's grief without naming it.
- Write about someone who is very good at a job nobody respects.
Unusual forms prompts
- Write a story as a series of online reviews of the same hotel.
- Tell a love story as a list of items on a shopping list over one year.
- Write a story as the minutes of a very strange neighbourhood meeting.
- Write a short story in the form of a recipe.
- Write a story told through a lost-and-found log.
- Write a breakup as a product return form.
Questions writers ask
What is a creative writing prompt?
A creative writing prompt is a starting point designed to spark imaginative writing. Craft-focused prompts also practise a specific skill, such as point of view, sensory detail or structure.
What is the difference between a story prompt and a craft exercise?
A story prompt gives you a premise. A craft exercise gives you a technique or constraint to practise, and can be applied to any premise.
Why do constraints help creativity?
Constraints narrow the number of choices, which reduces blank-page paralysis and forces unusual solutions. Groups like the French Oulipo built a whole movement around writing under constraints.