Creative Writing Prompts for When You Have No Ideas
Creative Writing Prompts for When You Have No Ideas
You sit down to write. The cursor blinks. Your brain offers you nothing.
Or worse—it offers you vague ideas that evaporate the moment you try to write them. "A story about... loneliness? Or maybe a character who... does something?"
Generic writing prompts don't help. "Write about a door." Okay, which door? Why? Who cares?
The problem isn't that you need a prompt. It's that you need the right kind of prompt for the specific way you're stuck.
This guide diagnoses your creative block and gives you prompts designed to break that exact type of blockage.
First: Diagnose Your Block
Not all writer's block is the same. Figure out which one you have:
❌ Character Block: You can't figure out who the story is about or what they want.
❌ Plot Block: You have a character or situation but no conflict, no movement, no story.
❌ Setting Block: Your scenes happen in generic voids. No sense of place.
❌ Voice Block: The writing feels flat, lifeless, not like "you." No distinct style.
❌ Motivation Block: You don't care about what you're writing. It feels pointless.
Most blocks are one of these. Pick your diagnosis, jump to that section.
Character Block: You Don't Know Who This Story Is About
The problem: Flat characters. Archetypes instead of people. You can't hear their voice or see them clearly.
What you need: Prompts that force specificity and contradiction.
Character Prompts
1. Write about someone whose job and personality are completely opposite. Examples: A shy tattoo artist. An aggressive librarian. A cheerful mortician.
2. Your character has a secret they're ashamed of, but it's something most people wouldn't care about. Not "I killed someone" but "I don't know how to swim" or "I've never finished a book."
3. Create a character who's obsessed with something mundane. Ceiling fans. Traffic patterns. Hotel room design. The obsession reveals who they are.
4. Your character has one trait everyone sees and one trait they hide. Public: confident. Private: terrified of abandonment. Public: rude. Private: desperately kind.
5. Write a character who changed their entire life based on one sentence someone said to them. What was the sentence? Who said it? What did they do?
6. Your character is defined by what they refuse to do. Won't apologize. Won't eat meat. Won't use their real name. Won't go home.
7. Create someone who's the best in the world at something useless. Best at guessing the weight of objects. Best at parallel parking. Best at remembering jingles.
8. Your character's greatest strength is also their fatal flaw. Their loyalty becomes codependency. Their ambition becomes ruthlessness. Their caution becomes paralysis.
9. Write about someone who's trying to become a completely different person (and why). Reinvention. New city, new name, new everything. What are they running from?
10. Your character is the only one who knows something important that everyone else has wrong. Historical fact, family secret, scientific truth—what is it and why won't anyone listen?
11. Create a character who was raised by an unusual guardian. Grandmother, older sibling, family friend, foster system, commune, military school—how did it shape them?
12. Your character collects something strange and can explain exactly why each item matters. Ticket stubs, keys to places they've lived, voicemails from one person, Polaroids of hands.
13. Write someone whose worst fear already happened, and now they're free. They've hit rock bottom. They've been betrayed. They've lost everything. Now what?
14. Your character has a physical trait that completely changed how people treat them. Scar, stutter, height, beauty, disability—and how they navigate the world because of it.
15. Create someone who is the living contradiction of two cultures, families, or worlds. Raised rich, now poor. Religious upbringing, now atheist. Rural roots, urban life. The tension defines them.
Plot Block: You Have Characters But No Story
The problem: Nothing happens. People stand around thinking. There's no conflict, stakes, or movement.
What you need: Prompts that force change, decisions, and consequences.
Plot Prompts
16. Your character has 24 hours to fix a problem they've been avoiding for years. Why now? What happens if they don't? What's forcing the deadline?
17. Someone returns after being gone for a long time, and everything is different. Soldier comes home. Parent reappears. Friend who ghosted shows up. What changed while they were gone?
18. Your character finds out something that recontextualizes their entire life. Adoption. Affair. Lie about their past. Criminal past of someone they trust. How do they react?
19. Two characters want the same thing, but only one can have it. Job, person, house, recognition, truth. How far will each go?
20. Your character is forced to choose between two people they love. Who to save, who to betray, who to believe, who to protect.
21. A stranger knows something about your character that no one should know. How? What do they want? What's your character willing to do to keep it secret?
22. Your character's biggest lie is about to be exposed. They're not who they said. They didn't do what they claimed. The truth is coming.
23. Something your character relies on every day suddenly stops working. Their phone, their car, their routine, their income, their medication, their partner.
24. Your character discovers they've been wrong about something important. A person they trusted, a belief they held, a memory they cherished—it's not what they thought.
25. A decision your character made years ago is suddenly relevant again. Old debt called in. Past relationship resurfaces. Consequences arrive late.
26. Your character witnesses something they shouldn't have. Accident, crime, conversation, secret. Now they have to decide: get involved or walk away?
27. Two worlds your character kept separate are about to collide. Work and home. Past and present. Two friend groups. Secret life and public life.
28. Your character is offered exactly what they want, but the cost is unclear. Deal with the devil. Too-good-to-be-true opportunity. What's the catch?
29. Your character has to do something they've never done before (and are terrified of). Public speaking, confrontation, apology, violence, vulnerability.
30. A pattern your character has repeated their whole life suddenly stops working. The charm that always worked. The excuse that always landed. The escape route that was always there.
Setting Block: Your Scenes Feel Like They're Happening Nowhere
The problem: Generic coffee shops. Blank apartments. No sense of place, time, culture, or atmosphere.
What you need: Prompts that force sensory detail and environmental storytelling.
Setting Prompts
31. Write a scene set in a place that's about to disappear. Building being demolished. Town being evacuated. Business closing. Season ending.
32. Your scene takes place somewhere people normally rush through. Airport security. Parking lot. Hallway. Gas station bathroom. Slow it down. What do they notice?
33. Set a conversation in a place where talking is difficult. Concert. Construction site. Library. Storm. Church. How does the environment shape what they say (or don't)?
34. Write a scene in a place tied to a specific memory for your character. Childhood home. First apartment. Where they got bad news. Where they fell in love.
35. Your scene happens in a location that's beautiful but dangerous. Edge of a cliff. Thin ice. Desert. Ocean during a storm. Abandoned building.
36. Set your scene in a place where your character doesn't belong. Rich person in a poor neighborhood. City person on a farm. Adult in a kid's space. Tourist in a local spot.
37. Write a scene where the weather is a character. Oppressive heat. Blizzard trapping people. Fog obscuring everything. Rain forcing decisions.
38. Your scene takes place in a space that's too small for the number of people in it. Elevator. Closet. Car. Bathroom. Small waiting room. Forced proximity, rising tension.
39. Set a scene in a place people go to hide. Dive bar. Library stacks. Walking trail. Late-night diner. Internet café. Basement.
40. Write a scene in a location where time feels different. Hospital waiting room (slow). Casino (timeless). Nightclub (fast). Forest (ancient). Space (infinite).
41. Your scene happens in a place marked by absence. Empty house after someone moved out. Closed factory. Abandoned mall. Vacant lot where something used to be.
42. Set a scene somewhere designed to be beautiful but feels wrong to your character. Museum. Fancy restaurant. Botanical garden. Place meant to inspire but it doesn't.
43. Write a scene in a location that only exists at a certain time. Night market. Morning commute. After-hours office. 3 AM gas station. The timing matters.
44. Your scene takes place in a space where every object tells a story. Grandmother's attic. Pawn shop. Antique store. Hoarder's home. Lost and found.
45. Set a scene somewhere liminal—a place of transition. Airport. Moving truck. Border. Threshold between rooms. In-between moments.
Voice Block: Your Writing Feels Flat and Generic
The problem: It reads like a technical manual. No personality, no rhythm, no distinct style. You sound like everyone else.
What you need: Prompts that force perspective and stylistic choices.
Voice Prompts
46. Write the same scene from three different character perspectives. Each one notices completely different details, uses different language, interprets events differently.
47. Tell a story using only dialogue (no narration, no tags). Forces you to make every word count. Voice comes through in what they say and how they say it.
48. Write a scene where the narrator has a strong opinion about everything. Judgmental, sarcastic, poetic, clinical, paranoid—whatever voice, commit fully.
49. Rewrite a fairy tale in the voice of a specific person you know. Your grandma. Your friend. Your boss. A comedian. Borrow their speech patterns, worldview, vocabulary.
50. Write from the perspective of someone who's lying. The lie shapes the narrative. What do they emphasize? Omit? Distort?
51. Tell a story where every sentence is a different length (short, medium, long, repeat). Forces rhythmic variety. Breaks your default patterns.
52. Write a scene using only short, punchy sentences. Then rewrite it with long, flowing ones. Feel the difference. Find which voice suits the moment.
53. Create a narrator who interrupts their own story constantly. Tangents, clarifications, doubts, digressions. Authenticity through messiness.
54. Write in second person ("You walk into the room..."). Immediate, confrontational, immersive. Harder to be boring.
55. Use a very specific vocabulary constraint. Only one-syllable words. No adjectives. No "said" (use action beats instead). Constraint forces invention.
56. Write a scene as if it's being remembered years later. The fog of memory. Some details sharp, others vague. Reflection, distance, nostalgia or regret.
57. Tell a story in fragments: short paragraphs, white space, incomplete thoughts. Mimics how memory or trauma or emotion actually works.
58. Write from the perspective of the least important person in the room. Waiter. Janitor. Child. Bystander. Their peripheral view reveals what the main characters miss.
59. Use a very specific tone for the entire piece: clinical, lyrical, bitter, ecstatic, detached. Go all the way with it. Don't hedge.
60. Write as if you're telling a secret you've never told anyone. Intimacy. Confession. Urgency. The voice changes when the stakes are real.
Motivation Block: You Don't Care About What You're Writing
The problem: It feels pointless. You're going through the motions. No emotional investment.
What you need: Prompts that connect to something real for you.
Motivation Prompts
61. Write about a moment you keep returning to in your own life. Fictionalize it, but use the emotional core. Why does it stick with you?
62. Write a story about the thing you're most afraid of happening. Not horror—emotional fear. Rejection. Failure. Loss. Becoming your parent. Losing yourself.
63. Create a character who embodies a part of you that you hide. Your anger. Your softness. Your ambition. Your selfishness. Let them live it out.
64. Write the conversation you wish you'd had (or never want to have). The apology. The confrontation. The confession. The goodbye.
65. Tell the story of something you lost. Person, place, belief, innocence, certainty. Write to understand or process it.
66. Write about a question you don't have the answer to. "Why do people leave?" "What makes someone give up?" "How do you know when to quit?" The story explores the question.
67. Create a character who made the opposite choice you made at a critical moment. What would your life look like? Explore the road not taken.
68. Write about something you're angry about. Injustice. Hypocrisy. Betrayal. Use fiction to channel the anger.
69. Tell a story about transformation you've witnessed or experienced. Addiction to sobriety. Grief to acceptance. Innocence to wisdom. Naivety to awareness.
70. Write the story your younger self needed to hear. What do you wish someone had told you? Show it instead of saying it.
71. Create a character wrestling with the same problem you're facing right now. Don't solve it for them. Explore it.
72. Write about a moment when you saw someone clearly for the first time. The illusion dropped. You understood who they really were.
73. Tell the story of a belief you used to hold fiercely and no longer believe. What changed? Why? What did it cost to let it go?
74. Write about the moment someone became a stranger to you. Relationship ending. Betrayal. Growing apart. The distance.
75. Create a character who represents who you're afraid of becoming. Your worst-case scenario self. Let them show you what you're trying to avoid.
Bonus: Combination Prompts (For When You're Truly Stuck)
Mix and match from different categories:
76. Character from #4 + Plot from #24 + Setting from #38 A character with a hidden trait discovers they've been wrong about something in a too-small space.
77. Character from #7 + Plot from #19 + Setting from #40 Someone best at something useless wants the same thing as someone else in a place where time feels different.
78. Character from #13 + Plot from #26 + Setting from #31 Someone whose worst fear already happened witnesses something they shouldn't in a place about to disappear.
Infinite combinations. When one prompt isn't enough, stack them.
The 5-Minute Rule
Still stuck? Try this:
- Pick any prompt above
- Set a timer for 5 minutes
- Write without stopping, editing, or judging
- When the timer ends, stop
You're not writing a story. You're just moving your fingers.
90% of the time, by minute 3, something interesting happens.
The first 2 minutes are garbage. That's fine. You're clearing the pipes.
Why Generic Prompts Don't Work
"Write about a door."
Okay. Which door? Why does it matter? Who cares?
Generic prompts don't give you enough constraints. Paradoxically, too much freedom is paralyzing.
Good prompts give you:
- Specificity: Not "a person" but "someone whose job and personality are opposites"
- Conflict: Not "a thing happens" but "someone's lie is about to be exposed"
- Stakes: Not "a place" but "a place about to disappear"
Constraints force creativity. Use them.
How to Create Your Own Prompts
Once you've used these, make your own:
Formula: [Specific character] + [Active conflict] + [Meaningful setting]
Examples:
- A shy tattoo artist (character) whose biggest lie is about to be exposed (conflict) in a place they go to hide (setting)
- Someone obsessed with something mundane (character) is forced to choose between two people they love (conflict) in a location marked by absence (setting)
Or start with a question:
- "What if someone who refuses to apologize had to in order to save someone?"
- "What if the best parallel parker in the world witnessed a crime in a parking lot?"
- "What if someone's secret shame was discovered in the one place they felt safe?"
Questions generate stories.
What to Do With What You Write
Don't judge it yet.
First drafts are supposed to be bad. You're discovering the story, not presenting it.
Look for the good parts.
Even in bad writing, there's usually one sentence, one image, one moment that's interesting. Build from that.
Finish something.
Not every prompt needs to be a novel. Finish a scene. A vignette. A 500-word story. Completion is a skill.
Try the same prompt twice.
First time to explore. Second time to refine.
The Secret
You don't need more ideas.
You need permission to write the ideas badly first.
You need constraints that focus your energy instead of overwhelming you with infinite possibility.
You need to diagnose your specific block and use the right tool to break it.
These prompts are tools. They won't write the story for you. But they'll get you unstuck.
And once you're moving, momentum takes over.
Start Now
Pick one prompt. Set a timer for 5 minutes. Write.
Don't pick the "best" one. Pick whichever one makes you slightly uncomfortable or curious.
The perfect prompt doesn't exist. The perfect story doesn't exist.
But the story you write today—messy, imperfect, just okay—that one's real.
And it only exists if you start.