Prompts & Ideas to Improve Your Writing Skills
A bit exhausted? Well, it’s time to stop blaming it on lockdown!
I speak for the majority of writers out there when I say we’re all stumped over our works, aren’t we? That’s completely fine! The one thing you should always remember is that you are your own boss! You get to choose when to write, when to not. It shouldn’t feel like a chore.
(P.S. If you’re suffering from Writer’s Block go check this out! — https://thefiction.medium.com/writers-block-how-to-solve-it-28b629c3dff7)
Prompts
‘a bar-hall is filled with hunters across all lands, the warm glow bursts out the window like the chanting of one-hundred drunk men’
That, yes, that right there, is how I began writing my best ever properly structured novel. Yes, the one I'm working on right now. Can’t believe it? It was one of the prompts I got from my Dungeon Master in my first ever DnD Campaign. So, yes, they do work.
Seriously though, my draft is still named ‘Writing Exercise’.
Now, how do prompts actually help? Well, for starters they help activate your, long-dead, writing senses. Since prompts can either be open ended or narrow they can help stimulate your out-of-the-box thinking. they have a wide variety and can help you get used to writing in different styles depending on the text.
Talking about the actual prompt itself, how do you know if it’s good or bad. How many sentences does it have to be? Is it even a sentence or is it just a few words? What happens if I can’t write with it?
Well don’t worry! I’ve put some down for you! And don’t worry, there are no such things as bad prompts. These prompts will be mainly short with a few longer ones at the end, I’ve separated them by length:
Paragraph Prompts
These prompts are short and sweet, made to make you think quick and effectively. I’d say to use no more than 2 hours on this!
I gasped, the glinting coins flowed on for what seemed like forever. The sudden sound of what seemed like footsteps slipped into a loud crescendo-
(SNAP) Their cape fluttered violently as their hands lost control of the reigns.
“You can do it!” — — — “I think your overestimating my ability here.”
“How many fingers am I holding up?” — — — “11.5?” — — — “Perfect.”
Short Story Prompts
These are more longer prompts that will arch over the story, these can be open-door or quite confined. These prompts are generally written in second or third person, but you can flip this however you want! I’d say to use no more than a day to a week — if you’re enjoying it — at most for these.
Write about someone who has to change their look, is it a fashion show or a crime scene?
Albeit on a mountain, your character’s binoculars peer through a gap in the clouds and find something peculiar.
A small dwarf doctor enters the clinic, smelling of bleach. He taps your knee. Nothing happens. He pulls out a heavy gold hammer instead.
You find an upside down gardener hanging from your dainty willow tree. It appears that one side’s leaves have turned bright pink.
Novel Prompts
These prompts are quite long, and maybe you might find yourself writing a novel like me! Either way, these are great to check your planning skills as well as your plot and structure building abilities. It’s ideal to build on one of these prompts for about a month at max. It’s great to use it to warm-up before writing seriously or cool down afterwards!
They were exiled after an incident, nothing but a satchel full of items and the bareness of the wilderness. Do they travel to another city all alone, come to terms with the wilderness or attempt to retry their lives in the same place under a new identity?
It’s been hundreds of year after The Destruction, you travel between the two towns as a rookie merchant. One of them fought back the Destruction and became the victor while the other one succumbed in one great finale, becoming known as the ‘lost city’ or the ‘blackened city’. After hundreds of years it has become apparent that maybe the ‘lost city’ has progressed and become a better nation overall, finding peace and flourishing. What will become when hundred-year tensions begin to rise again?
You are the top fighter, not that you didn’t work hard. the missions compile. People call you the fallen solder, one who has perfected their moves and arcane power. no flaunting or showing off. Straight to the point. You hate making messes. Your victim’s horror when you show no irritation to their probing, when your face stays calm and stoic. When you smirk as you take their last breath. You have been assigned to go educate the trainees on basic combat, but are suddenly pulled out of the class for a mission with another agent of equal rank. the only other one in the world. Huh, you think to yourself, how intriguing.
I hope these help get your mind out of the ditch it is currently in. Feel free to e-mail me your creations or add anything in the replies! It’s important not to stress to much on these prompts. Once your time is up try not to go back and edit it, instead do a new prompt. This helps your writing improve. So that next time your drafts will be looking a lot closer to your final piece. This’ll also help you write more cleanly when your in your flow and feel like throwing everything up!
Who knows? Maybe it’ll become your next novel!
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