Fantasy Writing Prompts
Fantasy prompts are most useful when they include a rule. Brandon Sanderson's well-known "laws" of magic argue that limits and costs make magic more interesting than power. Each prompt below tries to hand you a world with a built-in tension.
In a city where every lie becomes visible as smoke, a politician gives a speech.
15 fantasy writing prompts
- In a city where every lie becomes visible as smoke, a politician gives a speech.
- Magic is powered by music, and the last composer has just died.
- A healer can only cure a wound by taking it onto her own body.
- The royal library contains a book for every living person. Yours has a missing chapter.
- A dragon hires a knight to protect it from a village.
- Every child is given a familiar at twelve. Yours never arrives.
- The gods are real and are going on strike.
- A mapmaker discovers places appear only after she draws them.
- The prophecy names two chosen ones, and they hate each other.
- A thief steals a crown that whispers advice.
- In this kingdom, names are currency. You have just spent your last one.
- The forest moves one mile closer to the city every winter.
- A ghost must solve its own murder before the next full moon, with a living partner.
- The dark lord has retired and wants to open a bakery.
- A soldier returns from a magical war to a village that thinks it never happened.
Tips before you start
- Decide what magic costs before you decide what it can do.
- Show the world through ordinary people and their jobs.
- Give your chosen one a reason to say no.
Forge new ones with AI
Add a topic and get five fresh fantasy writing prompts written for 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.
Questions writers ask
How do I come up with a fantasy story idea?
Combine a character with an unusual job, a magic rule with a clear cost, and a problem that the rule makes harder. The generator on this page does exactly that.
What are Sanderson's laws of magic?
Author Brandon Sanderson proposed that an author's ability to solve conflict with magic is proportional to how well the reader understands it, that limitations are more interesting than powers, and that you should expand what you have before adding something new.