Writing prompts for adult writers

How to use a writing prompt

A prompt is not an assignment. It is a push. Set a timer for 10 to 20 minutes, read the prompt once, and start writing before you have a plan. The goal is a page, not a good page.

If a prompt feels flat, change one thing: the place, the time of night, who is telling it, or what they want. If something surprising turns up halfway through, follow it and forget the prompt. That surprise is usually the story.

First line prompts

Start with the line as written and keep going. Each one opens in the middle of something.

• "The lantern went out, and for the first time in years, I was glad."
• "Nobody tells you that the last train has regulars."
• "I signed the ledger with my real name, which was my first mistake."
• "The rain started at exactly 10 PM, the way it did every night she played."
• "Reactor green. Pilot not."
• "He had never lost a match, and he was starting to worry he never would."

Dialogue prompts

Write each scene in dialogue only. No tags, no description: everything has to come through what people say.

• Two people argue about who gets the last seat on the last train, and neither says why it matters.
• Someone confesses a mistake to the one person who already knows about it.
• A boss gives a glowing review to the employee she is about to let go.
• Two strangers stuck in an elevator discover they have met before.
• A champion tries to talk a challenger out of a match he wants to lose.
• A customer tries to return something that was never sold.

Character prompts

Character prompts start from a person rather than a plot. Write a scene that shows the trait without ever naming it.

• Write a character who is kind to everyone except the person they love most.
• Write someone who is very good at a job they hate.
• Write a person who keeps every promise and has started to regret one.
• Write a character who lies about small things and never about large ones.
• Write someone whose greatest strength is also the thing that keeps getting them hurt.
• Write a person who is famous in one small town and unknown everywhere else.

Genre prompts: fantasy, sci-fi and the eerie

Genre prompts give you a world. Your job is to find the person in it.

• Fantasy: a dragon applies for a job at the guild, with references.
• Fantasy: the map is accurate, which is the problem.
• Sci-fi: a station's oldest crew member is asked to train her own replacement, a machine.
• Sci-fi: the colony ship arrives, and someone is already there, waiting.
• Eerie: the house is quiet in the wrong way.
• Eerie: every photo you take tonight has one extra person in it, a little closer each time.

Prompts for everyday life

Strong writing often comes from the smallest moments. These prompts stay close to home.

• Write about the first meal you cooked for someone else.
• Write about a place you visited once and still think about.
• Write the conversation you wish you had said out loud.
• Write about a stranger you will never see again.
• Write about a skill you lost, or never quite learned.
• Write about the moment you knew you had grown up.

How to write a prompt with a character

Writing alone is not the only way to use a prompt. Spin one in the box above and press write it: the prompt becomes a first line, and that genre's character answers. Every character on oeYYeo is AI, and the app says so under the box where you type. They stay in character, so you get a scene partner who pushes back from inside the world instead of a blank page.

Chat is free, for adults 18 and over, confirmed once before the first message. When the scene finds its feet, take what you like back to your own draft.

• Story ideas by genre, with a spinner
• How to make an original character

In their own words

Read next

• Story ideas you can start writing tonight: Twenty original story ideas by genre: fantasy, sci-fi, slice of life, ghost stories and rivalries. Spin for more, then play one out with a character.
• OC ideas: 15 original characters: OC ideas that hold up: 15 original character prompts by genre, each an adult with a job, a want and a flaw, plus how to turn one into a character.
• How to make an original character: Make an original character in eight steps: name, genre, job, want, flaw, voice, boundaries, then the look, so they sound like nobody else.
• AI roleplay, explained: AI roleplay is storytelling with an AI character who stays in character. How it works, what a platform should offer, what is refused, and a scene to start.