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15 multi-genre creative writing prompts

Writing ideas for teachers, students, and writers

By Kay HusnickPublished 4 years ago Updated 10 months ago 3 min read
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Finding quality creative writing prompts that aren’t repeated across multiple sources can be difficult. I feel like I find the same concepts worded just a bit differently on every list of prompts I look for when I’m searching for myself. Realistically, how beneficial are all those lists of 100 or more prompts if half of the prompts make every single list, right?

Now more than ever, writing prompts that break away from stereotypes are extremely important for keeping students engaged or for engaging with prompts as a writer working to improve your own skills.

Whether you’re a teacher looking for creative remote lesson ideas for your students, a college student looking for a creative writing prompt for class, or a writer running out of ideas to keep yourself writing daily, here are 15 fresh suggestions for new poetry, creative non-fiction, and fiction exercises:

1. Write a letter to your future grandchildren explaining what your life was like during the COVID-19 pandemic. What did you do? What major changes did you experience? Did you miss out on something big that was supposed to happen?

2. Imagine you’re able to undo one major assassination from history. Pick one and tell the story of how that changes the present.

3. Pick a date (month, day, year) and look up a current horoscope for that birthday. Create a character sketch based on that horoscope.

4. Write a list poem based on a cluttered part of your home (a junk drawer, overflowing closet, fridge that needs to be cleaned out, etc.).

5. You’re framed for a crime you didn’t commit. What is it? How do you get out of it?

6. You wake up as a new protagonist in the last TV show you watched. What does a day in your new life look like?

7. What is a conspiracy theory you believe? Write a story around that conspiracy as though it is widely accepted as fact.

8. Scroll through a website or two of stock photos, like Shuttershock or Pexels, until one of the photos piques your interest. Tell a story leading up to the moment it was taken.

9. Click the “I’m feeling lucky” button on Google. Write a poem or short essay about the subject of that randomized search.

10. Imagine your pet as a person. What would their personality be like? How would they look? How would their voice sound?

11. Create a playlist that fits your emotions right now. Work through each song explaining what it means to you.

12. Fictionalize a significant moment from your past. Rename everyone. Imagine a changed outcome, different people being involved, or how you wish it had happened. Don’t share what was real and what wasn’t.

13. Choose three fictional stories you enjoy, and write each of their names down on their own notecard. Shuffle them and lay them out in front of you in a row. Use their new order to tell a story where the protagonists from the first two stories are now together in the setting of the third story.

14. Research a moment in history that one of your living relatives was alive for. Interview that relative about what their life was like at that time and how they remember the event.

15. Find a statistic that you or someone you know well falls into. Write a personal essay using the details of that statistic to explain how your/their individual experience is different or unique. How does your/their story fit into or break away from stereotypes?

See how many of these prompts you can use in your classroom or in your own writing. If you liked these ideas, like this article, and I’ll post a second original prompts piece.

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About the Creator

Kay Husnick

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Comments (3)

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  • Test3 months ago

    it's well-crafted and offers valuable information.

  • Melanie Perry10 months ago

    Love these prompts

  • Kay Husnick (Author)about a year ago

    If you liked these prompts, I've put together a list of 10 more in another one of my stories here.

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