You Should Use Writing Prompts More Often

 You Should Use Writing Prompts More Often

Hello my fellow writers! Today’s blogpost is a pretty simple one, and I WILL be finishing off my Dialogue Mini-Series soon, I promise! (It may just take another week…)

As you can tell from the title, I will be talking about using writing prompts to inspire your writing!

I will be going over why writing prompts can be useful, instances to use them, and then give you guys a list of writing prompts from both Pinterest and my brain.

For those of you who use Pinterest or types of social media like Instagram or TikTok, you probably already have a list of some writing prompts to use. 

Why Should I Use Writing Prompts?

Writing prompts can be very helpful if you’re feeling blocked or bored. They are also easy to find, typically short and sweet, and come in a variety of different styles. Plus, they are super fun to use!

I’ll give you guys a small list of the types of writing prompts:

1. Dialogue Prompts - These are typically just one or two lines of dialogue that you stick in your story. It can be anything from, “We have your son.” to three lines of consecutive dialogue.

2. Situational Prompts - This is what is most commonly used when it comes to writing prompts. Think something like this: Your character gets kidnapped by pirates. It gives you something to launch off of.

3. Specific Prompts - These are typically not applicable to your character, since they happen to be rather specific, like this: In a fantasy world, there is a girl with a mysterious connection to animals, hunted by mercenaries. See? Not your run-of-the-mill prompt.

When To Use Them

Honestly? Whenever you want! While you may want to use certain ones for different things, all of them can be used whenever you feel like it– which is why I recommend starting a Pinterest board, saving them, or writing them down so you can use them later.

If you’re stuck or blocked, then I would recommend doing a Dialogue or Situational Prompt, since those can be applied to any character or situation that you may be stuck on.

If you’re feeling bored or want to start something new, then I would say, go all out and do a Specific Prompt! Those ones can be so fun, and might even fuel you to create a whole new project!

My word of caution on using prompts, though, is this: Don’t let yourself be pressured into keeping what you’ve written for the prompts in your story, and don’t feel pressured to continue the Specific Prompts if you don’t want to.

Maybe you use it for a five-minute fast write, or maybe it begins the first book in a trilogy; either way, do what you want to do!

And Now… The Prompts!

I’ll be doing 4 prompts for each category, so feel free to pick and choose! (Some of these may be goofy.)

Dialogue Prompts

1. “...why are you sitting on my kitchen table at three am?” “I’m eating Mac and Cheese.” “I can see that, but why?”

2. “When I say run, run and don’t look back.”

3. “Please don’t stab me.” “I’ll try not to.”

4. “Are you sure you want to do this?” “Is there another option?” “...no.” “Then I have to.”

Situational Prompts

1. Your character reunites with someone they haven’t seen in years.

2. Your character gets trapped in a room steadily filling with water.

3. Your character is challenged to a duel with a weapon of their choice.

4. Your character meets someone who is supposed to help them on their quest… but the person dies before the quest is completed.

Specific Prompts

1. Being a human in human studies class, you often get asked to confirm information.

2. A magical kingdom. A girl with a mysterious locket. A King who will do anything to stop her.

3. Create ten lovable characters. Kill nine of them.

4. You live in a city where crime runs rampant. One day, you save a young boy’s life without realizing that he is the son of a crime lord. And you have just joined the no-harm list.

…and there you have it! Twelve different prompts to get you started! 

Make sure to comment, take a look at some of my other blogposts, and check out my Youtube channel (also titled RL Writer).