Top 10 Writing Prompts of 2018
Each week, I post a different writing prompt at writersdigest.com/prompts. And each week, a collection of lovely writers responds to them. Here were some of our best writing prompts of 2018.
Each week, I post a different writing prompt at writersdigest.com/prompts. And each week a community of lovely writers responds to them. Here were some of our best writing prompts of 2018, judged by participation and popularity among our team. Click on the title of each prompt if you'd like to share your response in the comments of a particular prompt, or respond in the comments on this post.
Top 10 Writing Prompts of 2018
1. Custom Etymology
Write a story or a scene about someone inventing a new word—or, alternatively, giving an existing word a new meaning.
2. Unexpected Inking
You are showering one morning when you notice a tattoo on your body that you're quite sure you don't remember getting. What is it, how did you get it, and what does it mean?
3. Handwriting Anatomy
Consider your handwriting or a character's handwriting. What significance does it have, and what does it say about the type of person you/they are?
4. Musical Incantation
You're absent-mindedly singing to yourself when suddenly the topic of the song comes true.
5. Thou Mayest
Write a scene or story about a character who has committed a misdeed—a crime or a more minor indiscretion—and must decide whether to face the consequences and make amends for the act or to conceal or avoid it.
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6. A Book of Chance
Go over to your bookshelf, close your eyes, and pick up the first book you touch. Open the book to a random page, read the first full sentence on that page, and use it as the inspiration for a story or scene. Include the original line at the beginning or end of your response.
7. Madder Libs
First, think of…
- a word you use too much.
- the name of a city you’d like to visit.
- an unusual color.
- a hobby.
- a physical quality a person might wish for.
- an animal.
- a famous author.
- a verb ending in -ing
- a number.
- an adverb.
Then, use at least five of these in a story or scene that also includes the phrase “What is that?”
8. Things We Lose
This prompt is simply a line from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Do as you please with it—incorporate it into your story, use it as inspiration, turn it on its head, make it into an anagram—anything you’d like: “Things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end, if not always in the way we expect.”
9. Unfairy Tales
Write a scene that involves a fairy tale trope turned on its head or otherwise deviating from typical expectations. For example: A princess who’s cruel to her kind stepmother; a golden goose that lays explosive eggs; a big, frightening wolf who really just wants a friend.
10. The Color of Ideas
Choose one to three colors from the color associations chart below. Note the different meanings. Create a character or place associated with each color. Profile the character(s) or setting(s), or write a scene about them.
Interested in more writing prompts?
Check out WD Editor Cassandra Lipp's 81 Creative Writing Prompts for Writers or WD Editor Robert Lee Brewer's 25 Plot Twist Ideas and Prompts for Writers.
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Jess Zafarris is the Executive Director of Marketing & Communications for Gotham Ghostwriters and the former Digital Content Director for Writer’s Digest. Her eight years of experience in digital and print content direction include such roles as editor-in-chief of HOW Design magazine and online content director of HOW and PRINT magazine, as well as writing for the Denver Business Journal, ABC News, and the Memphis Commercial Appeal. She spends much of her spare time researching curious word histories and writing about them at UselessEtymology.com. Follow her at @jesszafarris or @uselessety on Twitter.
