10 Great Creative Writing Prompts to Get You Started by Paul Malone

Use “The Story of a Smile” for the title of your next creative writing piece!

10 Great Creative Writing Prompts to Get You Started

By Paul Malone

If you enjoy writing and are looking for inspiration, we’ve got 10 great writing prompts to get you started. Whether you’d like to write a poem, a short story, or even a novel, you can use any of the prompts below as a doorway to your imagination. Who knows what you’ll discover or where your journey might lead you. Every time we sit down to write, it’s an adventure, a treasure hunt even; we come away all the richer for it—learning more about ourselves and the fascinating lives of the characters we meet along the way.

How to use the creative writing prompts

At the Sunday Writers’ Club (SWC), we gather in a group at a cafe in Vienna or online to write for an hour on a Sunday morning. We use fresh creative writing prompts every time. At the end of the hour, we share our writing with the group. You can do the same. Sit yourself down and choose whatever prompt that takes your imagination. Write for 45 minutes to an hour. You’ll be pleasantly surprised with what you’ve come up with. If you have a writing buddy, you might even like to write and share with them. It’s fabulous fun

No peeking!

The reason we know the following 10 creative writing prompts are so brilliant is because each one of them has been that special doorway to the imagination for a SWC member who went on to write their unique story. At the end of this blog post you’ll see the links to such a stories. But before you go peeking at a story, choose a prompt and write yours. Once you’ve finished, you can then click the link and compare stories. You’ll see for yourself that there are as many stories that can arise from a single prompt as there are people to write them.

Time for you to get started!

10 Great Creative Writing Prompts

Tell the Story of a half eaten apple

What happened the last time you forgot your cell phone at home?

Write about a special family recipe—perhaps one that has been lovingly handed down from one generation to the next, or one that makes you the star chef in your kitchen.

Metal Fish, Falling Snow. Take inspiration from this seemingly disjointed book title (by Australian author Cath Moore) to come up with a title for your creative writing piece. Create the most intriguing word combination which should include a material, an animal and nature in motion.

‘An Astonishing Cure For Loneliness’ Use this title to inspire a story or a poem.

Who was your first kiss? How was your first kiss?

Use “I never said you were stupid” in a line of dialogue in your story.

Write a story or a poem titled The Labyrinth. What might be discovered at its heart? A minotaur? A treasure? A startling insight into one’s own nature?

Use “The Story of a Smile” for the title of your creative writing piece

Write about what “Climate Emergency” means to you – have you experienced it already? What are your thoughts about the future?

How did you go?

We hope you enjoyed using these prompts for your own writing. We’d love to hear about how you went. You can share your experience by commenting at the end of this post. And you are very welcome to join us in Vienna or online for a Sunday creative writing session. All new creative writing prompts and good writing company will be waiting for you.

You can find out more about our creative writing sessions here.