Blazing Readers & Wordy Writers discussion

Have some writing prompts you found, made up, or like to share? Just post them and we'll take a look at them.

1) A cat stares at you expectantly from across the street. As if it knows something you don't. Out of curiosity, you decide to follow the cat as it twists it's way through alleys and even roofs. Until eventually, you come across separate from your own. A gateway of a sort. What does the "other world" look like?
Key item for the WWs: Be sure to write descriptively as this will allow your entry to earn more points.

2) You've seem to have crash into a planet while trying to make a destination towards Earth. Something is obviously wrong. Whether it's the ship which you built over the years or the people who inhabit the planet. Are they a hostile people? Can they help get your ship up and running? Or will they turn you over to the authorities as they poked through your head to find your most deadly secrets. Is this a haven or a prison?
Key Item: Add in gadgets of your choosing!

3) You heard a shrill call in the woods. Something huge and something dangerous. There have been stories of such a cry and the beast that it belongs to has never been tamed. Some say it's a large wolf, bigger than the "normal" one. Some say it's a creature controlled by evil magic. But others believe it's a tale meant to scare children from climbing out of bed. But one day, you decide to venture out with a hunting party of friends to check out what the noise was and if it really is a terrifying creature. After an hour has gone by, you notice some unusually soft fur lying on the ground. Are you able to identify the fur? If so, what does it mean and is it the beast everyone's talking about? Then you feel a blob of spit roll down your shoulder. . .
Key Item: Create an action seen with the beast.

So, I found this prompt on a website somewhere and I really like the idea! I thought I'd share! (Again, this one is not mine!)

4) Out catching fireflies on their family’s farm on a hot summer evening, two little girls accidentally capture a fairy instead.

5. The last thing you remember was falling asleep in your bed, and now you've just been abruptly awakened by being thrown into a lake? You wake up and there's no one around you and it's the middle of the day. You're in the middle of a forest, but it seems "magical." Upon finally reaching a hut and meeting a strange person, you realize you're in another world and magic exists. Just when you thought you were dreaming, your "you" of this world opens the door.
Key Item: you and the "other world you" have completely opposite personalities

6) Write a letter to your favorite character, either someone who has inspired you or whom you've always wanted to meet in real life. Find a character you love, or one you love to hate. Or conduct an interview with the character and write out their responses.

Key Item: Write a post script for the author of the character. (Or if you choose to do the interview, write one question for the author and your invented response.)

7. You just died. Despite what you believe about the afterlife, you awaken in the Underworld (Greek Mythology). Given that most people don't believe in it in modern times, no one placed coins on the eyes of your dead body for the transportation fee. You're forced to get a weird job in the underworld (you pick) to pay to save your soul from damnation.
Key Item: Write from a perspective that does not believe in greek mythology or the underworld.

8) A criminal is on the loose! The heinous crimes of this man/woman have gone unchecked for too long, and s/he must be stopped. What his crimes are is up to you. Is he a killer? A thief? A kidnapper, or something else? Whatever s/he is, his criminal activities must be put to an end. One way… or another.

Key Item: Include a scene from your criminal’s Point of View.

9) One day you come into work and find a cookie mysteriously placed on your desk. Grateful to whoever left this anonymous cookie, you eat it. The next morning you come in and find another cookie. This continues for weeks until one day a different object is left- and there's a note. What does the note say? What is the object?

Key Item: The note should be mysterious and some type of riddle that relates subtly to the object.

10) A girl is looking through old family albums with her mom and finds a picture of her as a child, sitting on the lap of man she doesn’t remember. She decides to find out who the man is.

Key Item: Add a scene where the girl confronts the man.

12) You’re opening an egg from your school’s Easter egg hunt that contains something that is definitely not what you expected. Who put it in the egg and why? You have to solve the case before everything goes wrong and someone gets hurt…
Key item: Add a distinctive symbol marking some of the eggs.

13) You just got to your job as a news anchor and you’re handed a news story that is unbelievable. You decide not to announce it today to do some detective work, and improvise when on air. That night, you use the information in the article to start a little investigation of your own.
Key item: Include the scene where you read the news on air. Optionally, you could have your character get fired and work full-time as a detective from that point on.

15) You’re flying in your spaceship, heading to the colony on Mars. When you land, you excitedly get out and head toward where you were told to meet your contact. However, when you get to the colony, the biodome where the colony lives has a huge hole in the top and the colony is abandoned. What happened? Are there survivors? You have to set out on a mission to save the colony.. With only a spaceship and provisions for a week.

Key item: Be sure to describe the feelings of your character when they arrive and find the colony destroyed.

19) The Private Investigator was never a very nice person. His past was full of things he wasn't proud of, but at least now he was helping people, even if it was for money and even if it was mostly for wives suspecting husbands or husbands suspecting wives or some such . . .
But when the dame comes in requesting his services for a crime he himself committed... Well, he isn't quite sure if he's lucky to be on this particular case or not.

Key Item: Set the story in the early 1940's.

20) Something/Someone has cursed you! But it isn't with bad luck or death or anything particularly unpleasant. No, you've been cursed... to give in to the one desire you've most been suppressing.
You're not quite sure what that is, but in the back of your mind there's that one thing you can't help but worry about... Surely... it's not that.

Key Item: Get your character to try to avoid the "thing" (person, place, item, food, etc.) as much as possible before inevitably coming in contact with it.

21) It's winter, and the snow is deep. The woman in the red cloak moves through the trees of the forest, familiar with the path even when it's drowned in white ice. She's going to see her grandmother, a woman old and gray and yet still lively and as much a part of the forest as the trees or the creatures that live in them.
Some say that some of the animals have lived near her grandmother so long that they've become part human. Others say that her grandmother has lived amongst the wild things for so long that she's become part animal.
The girl in the red cloak always laughs at these stories.
And she always visits her grandmother when the moon is full. And she always returns to the village with a little blood under her fingernails.

Key Item: Focus especially on the senses of smell and sound in your story.

23. You wake up one morning in a world that's strange but at the same time, it's eerily similar to our own; you have no memory of the past week. Your only clue is a piece of paper that reads, "It's time to descend!" in your own handwriting.
Key item: Create an atmosphere/tone of fear, suspense, and/or confusion.

24. Go out of your comfort zone as a writer. Whether this means tearing apart and improving an existing story, writing outside your usual genre, or something else entirely, is up to you.
Key item: Also write a short reflection about how this ended up.

26. You're in the woods when you hear what sounds like a child laughing. When you investigate, it turns out to be a whole group of children, with no adults in sight. Are they runaways? Part of a cult? Or...are they some sort of mythical creature?
Key item: Give each of the children a distinct personality.

27. You are a high school or college student. As the end of the year approaches, you're struggling to cram for finals, to no avail. Then, a fellow student offers you a supernatural way to guarantee success. Will you take the easy way out?

28. You have an irrational phobia that your friends and family pass off as silly--but one day, you find out that you have a very good reason to fear whatever it is....

31. You're an ordinary preteen in the time period of 2008-2010, until at least one of your parents ends up unemployed due to a recession. How will your family life change?
Key item: Include references to current events of whichever of the three years you choose to set it in.

34. You live in the world of a typical high fantasy novel (or anime, whichever you prefer), and you're trying to avoid being a Main Character. Handsome stranger in town? Ignore him. Magical artifact? Throw it in the river. Etc, etc.
Key item: Subvert, parody and/or overturn as many tropes and cliches as possible.

36. Choose a random song that you like. (If you have Spotify or a similar app, that could be very helpful). Now, write either a reflection/essay about what the song means to you, OR a story based on the song.
Key item: for the story, include the title of the song, or some important lyrics from the song, as part of a character's dialogue. If you choose the essay, mention the first time you ever heard the song.

38. You're in your school's chorus club. It's almost time for the annual concert, a huge event in your town, but a rival school tries to sabotage the event. The show must go on--but how?
Key item: Your character is a tenor or alto. (The higher male section or lower female section, if you're not into music.)

39. It's Mother's Day, and you recently learned that you were adopted as an infant. What emotions will go with this? Will you find your birth family? If so, how will they react to seeing you at their door? And why did they give you up in the first place?
Key item: Your character is a girl with a traditionally masculine name (Dylan, Michael, etc.)

41. You have the power to enter fictional worlds and change key plot points. When your favorite movie franchise, tv show, book series, or other fandom ends, you hate what the creators decided--so you go in and alter it. The problem is that your new ending is causing a lot of unforeseen suffering for the main characters. Will you do the right thing and change it back? Or will you keep your new ending, no matter what the cost?
Key item: Use one of your actual fandoms.

43. You've been the protector of a magical city for years. What the citizens don't know is that keeping the forces of darkness away for so long is painful and has shortened your lifespan significantly. Now, at age thirty-five, you're dying. The time has come to choose a new protector. Who must carry on your legacy?
Key item: You don't want to make someone else suffer like you have, but you have no choice.

45) When you were a child, you loved to fly. You would soar through the sky, and you were free. However, adults told you that it was an impossible thing to fly, and molded you into one of them. Years later, you are 18, you have moved out, and you are free from adults. However, they have changed you into the person that they wanted you to be. You are now lifeless, and only care about getting into a good college. You have forgotten about your ability to fly, and if you could even fly. Was it all just in your head? And will you ever be able to break free of your lifestyle now?

Key Item: Write it all in second person. (Ex. You crossed the street; You grabbed the paper)

By: Anna

Prompt: finish the story
Four dark figures hovered over the slumbering princesses "yep, these are the ones" one man whispered. Before the princesses could even struggle they had them out of the castle and into the wagon.

Key item: chains

(Paraphrased from something I found on Pinterest)
50. Your character lives in a city where it's always raining, but it's not dark or gloomy--it's cheerful, and people celebrate the permanently-bad weather.

51. Your character goes on a quest to find his or her missing sibling.
Key item: The main character--or the sibling--has depression.

54) You've been captured and forced into the belly of a ship which now tosses wildly in a storm at sea. You don't know where you're going. You don't know if you'll ever see your family again. You don't know if you'll even survive the trip. Death, disease, and despair surround you on all sides. What will be your fate?

Key Item: Include a highly emotional scene where the captives sing.

55) Scenario: You must have blacked out. When you awaken, you're all alone in your math classroom. But...wasn't it Saturday? And what did the sign mean..."Don't feed the animals"???

Key Item: You must use these five words at least once in the story: chainsaw, mattress, whine, television, and irritation.

62. You're an eternal optimist who sees the good in everything. But life slowly starts to break your spirit. Will you keep your head up, or will you descend into cynicism and sadness?
Key item: Your motto at the beginning is: "The world is beautiful."

63. A new song is broadcast over the radios and immediately becomes a hit. But it's actually a subliminal message/mind-control device that a species of aliens is using to take over the world!
Key item: Your character is deaf, so they can't be affected.

64. Pick a random (clean) word from the dictionary and use it in the title of a story.
Key item: Make it a quirky, unexpected, or obscure word.
Note: If you don't have a dictionary on hand, use this site. https://www.randomlists.com/random-words

65. Your character is nonverbal/mute. They're actually intelligent, but everyone assumes that they can't do anything.
Key item: Have them prove that people don't need to talk in order to be smart.

66. Your character meets a genie who can grant unlimited wishes, but always misunderstands in some way. This can be humorous or dark, it's up to you.
Key item: Include wordplay or puns at some point.

67. You live a completely average, happy life. One day, when your parents are on a business trip and you're taking care of your siblings, you end up snooping through your parents' closet--you know it's wrong, but your siblings keep begging you to. There you find a note from five years ago that changes everything...
Key item: You have seven siblings, bringing the total amount of kids to four boys and three girls (you're the fourth girl.)

68. You're a junior counselor at a summer camp full of children who are changelings, werewolves, witches, centaurs, and any other mythical species. There weren't enough magical counselors available, so the owners of the camp had to hire a few normal humans--yourself included.
Key item: You didn't know about the supernatural aspect of the camp until you got there.

69) You're riding down a long, dusty road...if you can even call it that. You're not sure where your family is going or how long it will take to get there. What do you do to pass the time? Do you get along with your sibling(s)? Describe the journey itself, your speculations on the destination, and what you left behind.

Key Item: No electronics allowed!

Hi guys! So notice, there is now a three sentence minimum for prompts. They should be creative and not just spat out for points. They also should be completely original. Thank you!

75. You live in a world where unicorns exist. However, they're seen as dumb animals to hunt for sport and trophy. Your parents are the top unicorn hunters in the state. When you find an injured unicorn in the woods, you realize that it's remarkably intelligent and elegant, and it has complex feelings, just like any human.
Key item: Include a scene, featuring two or more characters from opposing sides, in which there is a debate on the ethics of unicorn hunting.

76. You're an amazing artist with a secret: Your drawings communicate with you. You used to tell people about this, but after a stay in a mental hospital, you've learned to keep quiet. The medication the doctors put you on has silenced your drawings, and you're beginning to think you really were hallucinating.
Then one day, you skip your meds. Shrugging it off, you end up drawing something new, your masterpiece. It looks at you with adoration and shock. And it says one phrase: "I thought you were dead."
Key item: Make the story surreal and/or tragic.

77. You had a heart transplant as a baby. You're doing fine physically now, as a teen, but everyone in your family expects you to do whatever they ask, no matter how unhappy it makes you, because "You owe it to them". Well, what if you want to express yourself, but they don't approve? And, worse, what if you know something illegal is going on in your family, but they won't let you tell? Then your worst fear happens: You begin to feel severe pain in your chest. After thirteen years, your donor's heart has begun to fail. Is it simply an unfortunate turn of events, or is your family somehow to blame?
Key item: Make the end realistic, but satisfying.

78. You've folded your clothes, put away the dishes, and taken out the trash. You start to make your bed and pause when you hear a scratching sound coming from the corner of your room. When you look closely, you see two small eyes staring back at you. Not so keen on mice, you approach slowly...but what if it isn't a mouse? What if it only comes out at night? What if it likes to watch you sleep? Write a story about what this creature is, what it's motive is, and how your character handles this discovery.

Key Item: The creature is not friendly!

80. You're a superhero and a freedom fighter. One day, you're defeated in battle and end up in a coma. When you wake up, the villain of your world is holding your hand, looking at you with love, and saying, "I'm so glad you're okay." What's going on? Why are they being so nice? What happened to your allies?
Key item: Add a twist ending.

Update: You're welcome to share any prompts you find, just mark clearly what is not original so I don't give you points for it. Also, the three sentence minimum is for original prompts for points only.