Writing Prompts
Prompts with writing letters
Write the letter you wish you had sent to someone important in your life.
Write about a time when you struggled to find the right words in an important letter.
Write a letter to your past self and tell them something important you wish you would have known.
Write a letter to your future self and tell them who you hope you will be.
Write a letter to an antagonist in your story, someone who has done you wrong, and try to get them to see how they’ve wronged you.
Write a letter to a family member and tell them your regrets.
Write a letter to a family member and tell them why you love them.
Write a letter to a family member and tell them why you hate them.
Write a letter to a childhood friend and tell them your favorite memories.
Prompts to explore your antagonist
Recall a moment when you glimpsed your antagonist's vulnerability or humanity
Write about discovering something from their past that helped explain their behavior
Describe a time when your antagonist showed kindness or compassion that surprised you
Write from your antagonist's point of view about a significant conflict between you
Explore how this person might have viewed you as the antagonist in their own story
Explore what unmet needs might have been behind their harmful behavior
Write about pressures or expectations they faced that you might not have seen
List three qualities you admired in this person, despite everything else
Write about their relationships with others—did they show different sides?
Write about how this antagonistic relationship shaped who you've become
Describe what, if anything, you wish you had understood about them then
Childhood/Growing Up
What is your earliest memory?
How did your childhood shape you?
What were the cartoon characters of your childhood, and which one did you identify with?
Write about a favorite teacher.
What was the most embarrassing thing that happened to you in high school?
What was the first thing you ever bought yourself?
Think of a time you lied.
Think of a time when you stole something.
Did you have a comfort object growing up? What was it, and when did you need it?
What was your first car?
Write about your relationship with your siblings. What rivalries and friendships were there? If you were an only child, what are your reflections on being brought up alone?
Describe your childhood home. How did it smell? What was the temperature?
Who or what did you want to be when you were younger? How did that ambition drive you? Did you achieve your wishes? What do you feel now that you are older?
What books or films influenced you most when you were growing up? Why, and in what way?
What do you wish you could have discovered or learned as you were growing up? Why would it have been important to you now?
Looking back at your childhood, what seems odd or unusual to you? In what ways did it contribute to who you are today? Think about your earliest memory.
Pick a number from 1-20. Write about your life at that age.
What was your favorite book or movie as a child? Why? Do you still like it?
When you were young, what did you want to be when you grew up? How close did you come to pursuing that?
Describe someone you admired when you were young. Did your impression of that person change when you grew up?
What was your first job? Did you like it? How long did it last?
Name one thing you believed as a young person that you changed your mind about.
Self-Identity
Write about your name. What does it mean? Do you have a nickname? Does it suit you?
What is something no one knows about you?
Write about a recurring dream.
When you look in the mirror, what feature do you notice first? Write about that.
How many tattoos and piercings do you have, and why did you get them?
If your life were summed up in a newspaper headline, what would that headline be?
Get someone else to describe you in three words. How does their view compare with your own impression of yourself? What do you keep private and what do you share? Why?
Friends, Family, and Mentors
Who were the most influential people in your life?
What family heirloom means the most to you? Why?
Write about your first best friend.
When was the last time you saw a relative you don’t know very well? Tell us what you think about them. How are they related to you?
Think of a time when you laughed so hard, you cried.
What is your favorite gift you’ve ever given (or received)?
Who do you love to spend time with? Why?
What is one of your most vivid memories of your parents?
Write about a random act of kindness someone did for you.
Were you ever betrayed? Or did you betray someone else? How did it feel? Did you regret it, or was it in some way the right thing to do? Did it have a lasting impact on your life?
What adult had the most influence on molding who you are today? How did he or she influence you?
What's an event in your life that you and someone close to you disagree on when it comes to how the event played out? What is your experience/perception? What is theirs?
What cause or person would you die for? Does anything or anyone matter to you so much that you would die for it/them? Is death a price worth paying?
Your heroes. Have you ever met them? Did they live up to your expectations? How did you feel about them afterwards? In what way did their actions, behaviours and beliefs affect you?
The poet Philip Larkin famously wrote, “They **** you up, your mum and dad.” Write about family relationships; they’re full of drama.
How have your parents’ relationships with you and with one other affected your own personal relationships?
Write about a friend. How did you meet them? What was the attraction? In what ways are they different from you?
Write about a stranger. How did you meet? Did you remain in touch? Why is it that you remember them?
Who from your own family’s history would you most like to meet? What would you ask them? What would you most like to tell or show them?
Pets
Not everyone has owned a pet, but we all have animal companions in some form. Think stuffed animal, class pet, a totem animal. Write about the first one that comes to mind.
Emotions
What is something you're insecure about?
What is something you're passionate about?
What is something you're grateful for?
What is something you're looking forward to?
When was the last time you felt jealous?
When you were the happiest you’ve ever been?
When you were the saddest you’ve ever been?
What makes you laugh and cry? What themes connect these things? What do they tell you about yourself?
At what moment in your life have you felt most loved, and most alone? When was that? Are they related in some way? How did those moments change you?
What keeps you awake at night? Why? Have you ever sought to overcome it? Can you share a recollection of when you first worried about it?
What are your insecurities? Do you worry about your looks, your confidence or money? Why? When did your insecurity first manifest itself? Have you ever tried to overcome it?
What was your worst fear at age 5? Age 15? Age 25? Now?
Challenges/Breakthroughs/Triumphs
What were the most triumphant moments in your life?
What were the most challenging moments in your life?
What is something you did for the first time?
Tell me about a moment when you were terrified to do something, but you did it anyway. How did you feel once on the other side of this experience? What would the "after" you tell the "before" you?
Life Wisdom
What is something you wish you could tell a younger version of yourself?
What is something you learned about mercy, forgiveness, discovery, or justice?
How has your worldview changed since you were a child?
Imagine that you've traveled through time and encountered a younger version of yourself. What lesson/tip/reassurance would you provide to him/her?
What are the best and worst pieces of advice you’ve ever received, or offered? Is advice a good thing?
Do you believe in the afterlife? Why or why not?
How do you define loss? Tell about a time you experienced loss, in any form.
What’s more important to you: honesty or loyalty?
Do you believe people are inherently “good”?
Life Experiences
What is the first place you ever traveled to?
How many times have you moved in your life?
What is the best memory you have of a place you traveled to?
Have you ever had a near-death experience?
When did you first (or last!) fall in love? Who, or what, was it with?
Think of a time when you were completely and utterly in love.
What was the worst day of your life?
Tell a story you'd never want your mom or dad to read.
What do you want to do more than anything in this life? Write about it in detail. What compels you to have that desire? What will the experience look like when you have it?
What single event has most strongly shaped who you currently are and the experience you are currently having?
Write about yourself doing one of the top three things you aim to do in this life as though you're doing it in the present moment. How do you feel? What do you see, hear, smell?
Take a boring moment that happened recently and write about it in as much detail as you can -- make the boring unboring!
Who or what experience hurt your spirit most in this lifetime? Tell me about the experience and how it affected you.
Write about transformation. Can you recall a moment when your fundamental beliefs and opinions about something were changed? Perhaps you suddenly started – or stopped – believing in God?
What is your experience of witnessing birth or death?
What is your experience of good and ill health? Have you ever been diagnosed with a significant condition? In what way did it change you, physically, mentally and emotionally? How were those around you affected by it?
Can you recall a moment when you overcame your fear of something? Perhaps you asked someone out for a drink, or spoke in front of an audience, or abseiled down a cliff…?
Comedy or tragedy? Drama exists in both. Can you write about a funny situation? What caused it? What impression did it leave on you or others? If you can bring yourself to write about tragedy, how did it affect you? Was the process of writing about it cathartic?
What has been the most exciting moment of your life, your happiest memory? Why did it thrill you so much?
Write about a moment when you made a significant choice. Perhaps you proposed or were proposed to. In hindsight, was your response the right one? What choices would you like to face again, and why?
When did reality not meet your expectations? Was university not what you wanted it to be? When was a blind date a bit of a letdown?
Can you describe a moment when you didn’t do something which, with hindsight, you regret? Why does it still matter to you? How would your life have changed if you had done something differently?
Find the drama in an accident and bring it to life for your reader. What happened? Who was involved? What was the outcome? What changed as a result?
Which incident in your life hurt you more than any other? Why did it hurt so much? What effect has it had on the rest of your life?
Describe something memorable that you did for the very first time. What drove you to do it? How did you feel before, during and after doing it?
Write about a historical event that you lived through.
Activities and Proclivities
What is your favorite kind of music?
What is your favorite holiday?
What is your favorite thing to do on a rainy day?
What is your favorite thing to do on a sunny day?
What is your favorite thing to do on a snowy day?
What is your favorite thing to do on a windy day?
What is your favorite season?
What is your favorite time of day?
What is your favorite place to be?
What is your favorite book?
What is your favorite movie?
What is your favorite TV show?
What is your favorite song?
What is your favorite band?
What is your favorite artist?
What is your favorite color?
What is your favorite animal?
Tell us about your favorite article of clothing. Where did you get it, why do you love it, what does it say about you?
What’s your favorite holiday? Why?
What is your favorite smell?
Tell us a recipe that you make by heart. How did you learn it? How often do you make it?
When was the last time you went swimming?
What’s a job would you would love to do?
Write about the last time you were in nature, and what happened.
Write about a camping trip.
What do you enjoy doing in your free time that you don't consider yourself an "expert" at? What have you learned from engaging in that activity or pastime?
Who is your favorite superhero? Why?
When your house is completely silent, how do you feel?
What was your favorite celebration as a young child? As an adolescent? As an adult? Pick one and describe it in detail.
What is one of your favorite quotes and why? When did it become important/meaningful to you?
What is your favorite room in your house?
If you could take on (or hire out) one home improvement project today, which would it be?
Are you a subject matter expert in something? Do you collect stamps? Do you breed cats? Have you been into space? Have you been through the criminal justice system?
Tell the story of the best meal you’ve ever had.
What is your most prized possession?
What is your go-to cocktail?