The Writing Prompts Generator for Authors
Pint this 👆 for later
“Do you have any writing prompts?”
As a published author, I used to find myself short circuiting when people would ask me this—and they do, often.
I didn’t know how to answer, because I’d never used writing prompts, myself.
Here was what I thought of when I was asked about writing prompts:
I’m writing an essay about my history of disordered eating or a story about a waitress, and a writing prompt reads, “A goblin just delivered a mysterious package on your doorstep. What is it?”
I don’t write about goblins, or their creepy deliveries.
Can this writing prompt please age approximately 20 years, get a college degree, then get back to me? I’d think.
So I’d resigned myself to being a person who doesn’t use writing prompts.
Then, however, I became a writing coach, and my students started asking for them when stuck.
I couldn’t let my students down, and so I started to really investigate—what is a good writing prompt?
What would be really useful?
Enter: The Writing Prompts Generator for Authors
Here’s how it works.
You get to a particular scene and feel uninspired to write it. You’re blocked. You don’t know what to do. Let’s say it’s a wedding scene.
This is a moment where a good writing prompt would be helpful—not one with a goblin, but one about, well, matrimony.
You need to write this wedding scene, and you sit down to write and think, “All I can think of about weddings is that two people walk down an aisle.”
Blah.
You’re in a zone of basic facts and need release.
Here’s how to use the writing prompts generator for authors:
Step 1: Find another person or people.
This can be a fellow writer or group of writers if you’re in a community (in my writing course we do this for each other), but it doesn’t have to be a writer.
It can be your spouse, kid, neighbor, or fourth grade teacher.
Just find another person, because your brain needs another brain to chime in.
Step 2: Ask them the question.
The question is this:
When you think of ___________, what do you think of?
This simple sentence will force you to simplify your scene into a single word or phrase, and it’s open-ended enough that you should get some good material to jog you out of stuckness.
But what if you don’t know your scene idea?
Well, you need to pick a scene idea. That part is on you.
That’s the part that makes this writing prompts generator specific enough to be useful to you as an author.
So do that first, then come back to the generator.
In this example situation, the question would be,
When you think of a wedding, what do you think of?
We did this in our group, and here’s what came out:
Did they write their own vows?
Are there any quirky traditions?
What does it smell like? Like, is it outdoors and are people sweaty or heavily perfumed?
What is the location? Is it in a cathedral or outside in a tent or something?
What song does the couple dance to?
Any cuckoo guests?
How are guests seated?
What’s the attire?
Band or DJ? Any good covers?
...and so on.
Step 3: Let them go, encourage exploration, then riff.
Jot down their answers and your own thoughts that are inspired by their answers.
Pretty soon, you’ll have a list of things to think about as you write your scene.
Here’s another example of one we did in our group:
When you think of an outdoor festival near a lake, what do you think of?
Things people said:
How’s the weather? Is it what people expected?
Any vendors?
Are canoes on the lake?
Is there a special costume people wear, like Oktoberfest?
Any dinky rides?
Heavily or sparsely attended?
Any food? Is it good or bad?
Parking situation—free or paid? Are 11-year-olds valeting?
...and so on.
Step 4: Do this exercise every time you’re stuck.
You don’t have to be a beginner to find this exercise useful—there’s no reason to waste any time being stuck when you don’t have to be.
And in terms of who to ask, I find that people are more than happy to participate in this activity.
In fact, they seem to find it fun—even people who aren’t writers!
Places you can find people if you aren’t in the room with someone you can just banter with on the spot:
→ Email your best friend
→ Text your ex
See? The writing prompt generator is literally everywhere you look—everywhere there is a person, there it is.
Troubleshooting: What to do if you truly are alone
But what happens if you’ve volunteered to go to Mars and no one else survived the trip?
Ah, both bad and good luck, I guess.
In this case, here’s what I’d do:
Set your draft aside.
Get out a fresh notebook or piece of paper.
You’ll want to do this by hand, and not in your draft; it needs to feel different, and free.
Write the question from the Writing Prompt Generator at the top of the page:
When you think of _________, what do you think of?
Now, spend 5 minutes brainstorming.
Write down everything that comes to mind when you think of your scene topic—there are no wrong answers.
When you finish, you’ll likely have jostled yourself out of stuckness.
This solo method is a little more work and a lot less fun than picking other people’s brains, but it will suffice in a pickle.
In sum
You’re the only person writing your book, and that can be lonely.
Trust me, I’ve written three novels (well, four if you count that one terrible one about which we don’t speak).
What I love about this writing prompts generator is that it adds a collaborative/social element to book writing—and those moments are few and far between in this world.
Usually we’re only working together when we’re soliciting, receiving, or giving feedback—and those moments tend to be especially tender, and sometimes hard.
This exercise is the opposite of tender and hard.
It’s fun, low-stakes, and generative. It’s creative and playful. It’s a joy.
So have a good time with the writing prompts generator—and let me know in the comments how you end up using it in your writing life!