10 Prompts to Strengthen Your Writing
Every writer has, at some point, opened up a new document or flipped to a new page only to find their mind a complete empty void.
It’s perfectly normal to feel stuck or lacking inspiration. That frustration you feel has been shared by every writer in the history of storytelling—likely even before people started writing down their stories—so really, you’re part of an exclusive club of panicked people with imposter syndrome.
There’s no reason to despair or give up completely. Your brain is a muscle and like any other muscle, you can exercise it. With a little practice and a lot of patience and compassion, eventually that blank page will have a sentence—or maybe even two!
Whether you’re an experienced writer or just starting out, sometimes all that’s needed is a simple prompt to jump-start your creative engine. Below you’ll find 10 ideas that can help you get past that single word and overcome the terror of writer’s block.
Try them one at a time or all at once, but don't spend too much time trying to be perfect. The goal isn't to be flawless, but to go outside of your comfort zone and break bad writing habits. Enjoy!
Flip the Script—Write a 5-sentence story in 1st person and then 3rd person.
Paraphrase—Re-write a page from your favorite book in your own words.
Learning Curve—Write a paragraph from the perspective of a child and adult.
Detail-Oriented—Describe a person or place with as much detail as possible.
Simplicity is Key—Describe the same person or place with minimal detail.
Polar Opposites—Think of a favorite character. What would their evil twin be like?
Red Fish, Blue Fish—Find something red and describe it as if it were blue.
Circle of 5ths—Pick a sentence from a book or movie and re-write it 5 times.
Based on a True Story—Take a recent news article and create a 100-word narrative.
Anything You Can Do—Choose a horrible example of writing and make it better.
