Writing can be quite a difficult endeavor on it's own, and the process becomes impossible without inspiration. For most people who have trouble sticking to a daily writing goal, it’s not a lack of self-discipline, but instead a lack of inspiration.
Thankfully, authors and readers from all over the world have united in one place to share their creative and fun prompt ideas - Reddit. This Reddit forum, r/WritingPrompts, has amazingly grown to almost 16 million members.
The subreddit has become a place for members to sporadically post prompt ideas, encouraging other members to comment their own spin-off stories from the prompt. It’s not uncommon to see some users receive a flood of positive feedback on their response that they proceed to write multiple follow up responses to the same prompt.
Amazingly, there have even been some users who report back years later that their prompt response inspired them to write an entire novel!
It’s no secret that r/WritingPrompts has become a gold mine for writing inspiration. So, we thought it could be useful to to compile the all-time top 50 writing prompts from the subreddit.
On days where you’re stuck and unable to think of anything to write about, check out these prompts below and give one a shot!
The year is 1910. Adolf Hitler, a struggling artist, has fought off dozens of assassination attempts by well meaning time travelers, but this one is different. This traveller doesn't want to kill Hitler, he wants to teach him to paint. He pulls off his hood to reveal the frizzy afro of Bob Ross.
The year is 2038 and net neutrality has been dead for almost two decades. But a rebellious group managed to travel back to 2017…
“I’ll tell you what I’m going to do Mr Bond. I’m going to stick you in a spacesuit with a radio, and strap you into one of my cars. Then, while mankind watches, I’ll launch you into space. The last thing you’ll hear before leaving this earth forever, will be their applause.”
You lost your sight - along with everyone else on Earth - in The Great Blinding. Two years later, without warning, your sight returns. As you look around, you realize that every available wall, floor and surface has been painted with the same message - Don't Tell Them You Can See.
When you die, you appear in a cinema with a number of other people who look like you. You find out that they are your previous reincarnations, and soon you all begin watching your next life on the big screen.
You hire a female prostitute, tell her to meet you at a fancy restaurant, and ask her to pretend to be your colleague from the bank. Hire a male prostitute, and tell him the same thing. You sit at a table next to theirs and listen to their conversation.
It's 3 AM. An official phone alert wakes you up. It says "DO NOT LOOK AT THE MOON". You have hundreds of notifications. Hundreds of random numbers are sending "It's a beautiful night tonight. Look outside."
Every country has ninjas but the world only knows about Japan's because theirs suck.
Humans once wielded formidable magical power but with over 7 billion of us on the planet now Mana has spread far too thinly to have any effect. When hostile aliens reduce humanity to a mere fraction the survivors discover an old power has begun to reawaken once again.
A woman has been dating guy after guy, but it never seems to work out. She’s unaware that she’s actually been dating the same guy over and over; a shapeshifter who’s fallen for her, and is certain he’s going to get it right this time.
The human lifespan is actually only one day long. To adapt, when we go to sleep each night, our mind sends us one dream deeper, where we wake up alive. When we finally die, the experience of our life flashing before our eyes is really just us waking up in each dream, one at a time.
Whenever you speak, people hear you speaking in their native language. Most people are surprised and delighted. The cashier at McDonalds you've just talked to is horrified. "Nobody's spoken that language in thousands of years."
You're Barack Obama. 4 months into your retirement, you awake to find a letter with no return address on your bedside table. It reads "I hope you've had a chance to relax Barack...but pack your bags and call the number below. It's time to start the real job." Signed simply, "JFK."
The hottest show in the afterlife for the past decade: Steve Irwin wrangling all sorts of supernatural creatures.
Your ability to see people's age in years as an invisible number above their heads has made you the perfect bouncer. One day you see a four digit number.
Following World War III, all the nations of the world agreed to 50 years of strict isolation from one another in order to prevent additional conflicts. 50 years later, the United States comes out of exile, only to learn that no one else went into isolation.
Due to your nerdy great great great great grandfather in 2017 'buying a star' and some modern legal shenanigans you are now the proud owner of a small intergalactic empire
Your entire life, you've been told you're deathly allergic to bees. You've always had people protecting you from them, be it your mother or a hired hand. Today, one slips through and lands on your shoulder. You hear a tiny voice say "Your Majesty, what are your orders?"
An alien has kidnapped Matt Damon, not knowing what lengths humanity goes through to retrieve him whenever he goes missing.
All of the "#1 Dad" mugs in the world change to show the actual ranking of Dads suddenly.
A super hero fights evil by wiping memories of both the villain and everyone who knew of them so that they can be reintroduced into society safely. Today, as you were combing through old newspapers, you discovered that you were once the world's most powerful supervillain.
When you’re 28, science discovers a drug that stops all effects of aging, creating immortality. Your government decides to give the drug to all citizens under 26, but you and the rest of the “Lost Generations” are deemed too high-risk. When you’re 85, the side effects are finally discovered.
Earth is doomed in a matter of years, but you are bestowed with a mystical dagger that causes anyone killed by it to instantly resurrect on an alternate Earth that does not share the same fate. In one world you are revered as a hero, in the other the most notorious serial killer of all time.
Vampires cannot enter a house uninvited. Turns out, they invented Welcome mats to bypass this rule decades ago.
As Pride Month nears its end, the other six members of the Seven Deadly Sins begin to wonder when they'll get months dedicated to them. Pride, meanwhile, is just trying to get them to understand that he's not actually the focus of Pride Month.
You go to hell, only to find out that hell has been overturned by humans. Turns out gathering billions of the most wicked of humans, among them are several ruthless but brilliant rulers, commanders, and dictators, who can no longer die, isn't such a good idea after all.
You never kill the spiders in your home, you just whisper "today you, tomorrow me" when you set them outside. Now, in your most dire moment, an army of spiders arrives to have your back.
"Jesus take the wheel, Satan get behind me, Buddha... man the .50 cal"
One day, time just suddenly stops for a short moment for you. At first, you tried to mess around, but after the 246th time it happened, you start to realise that your power is not stopping time, but being able to move in time frozen by another person in the world.
You're a biologist who made a deal with the devil: eternity in hell after death in return for unlimited funding for your research. The funding was worth it, you discovered immortality, and the devil is not happy about this.
Your daughter has been begging you for a pony, and you told her to write a letter to Santa. On Christmas morning, you find a fire-breathing horse in your front yard, and a package by your front door. Looks like she wrote a letter to Satan, and he delivered.
Pennywise wakes up after his 27 year sleep to find that four giant turtles and a rat have taken over the sewers.
You won a lifetime supply of Oreos when you were a kid. The apocalypse and collapse of civilization was 30 years ago, yet every month the Oreos are still delivered to you, no matter where you are.
You have $86,400 in your bank and someone steals $10. You spend all the rest of your money trying to get revenge.
At the age of twelve you started randomly seeing a green line and a red line appear on the ground. You always followed the green line and have lived a successful and happy life. Ten years later you are on top of the world, but bored. Time to see where the red line leads.
We finally get men on Mars and they discover an old Soviet flag placed down decades ago. The Soviets won the space race but for whatever horrifying reason didn't say anything.
Bored with Heaven's docile wildlife, Steve Irwin rounds up a camera crew and leads an expedition to observe and study the native species of Hell.
In order to get a shot at going to Valhalla, you must die with a weapon in your hands. You just died and are now sitting in front of Odin's advisory board as they discuss whether a spatula actually counts.
After you die, you're handed a book about your life. You open it, expecting a novel. Instead you get a "Choose your own adventure" book with all of the decisions you ever made, and every outcome they could have had.
From birth, your parents have done everything they could to stop you from going out during a full moon. At the age of 16, curiosity overwhelms you and you sneak out of the house during a full moon. You take a peek at the moon, and suddenly you turn into a log cabin. You are a warehouse.
You discover a library with a biography for everyone on Earth. While reading your own, you notice that whenever someone else is mentioned, there's a footnote showing where you can find their biography. It's odd how someone who was only a sentence in your book has a whole chapter for you.
Humans are the first sentients, putting us millenia ahead of aliens. Instead of acting like an "elder" species should, we create mysterious artifacts with no actual use, crop circles and send spooky messages, like "be quiet, you are in danger" to the aliens, because we are still childish morons.
At age 15 you told the gf you were "in love" with that you'd always be there when she was in need. Aphrodite heard you and made it a reality, whenever your gf was in need you appeared at her side. Problem is, you and the girl broke up after 3 weeks but you still appear even now..10 years later
A purge comedy where two pals accidently kill someone a week before the purge and tries to fake the person's life until the night of the purge when the murder would be legal.
You are Death, but in a post-apocalyptic world. Only a few survivors remain, and you're doing everything you can to help them because if the last human dies, you die as well. The survivors can't see you, but they feel your presence and notice your effort. They started to call you Life.
When you die, you wake up in an alien world holding a bong, with other aliens saying how was the trip.
Jesus actually had 14 disciples but their behavior was deemed inappropriate by biblical scholars, so they were removed from the final versions of the Gospels. They are Brad and Chad, the Bro-ciples, and these are their stories.
The lone survivor of an Arctic exploration, you were captured generations ago by a band of tiny warriors. They’ve placed you under an enchantment to do their bidding; heading out into the world once each year as their unwilling emissary. They call you “slave,” or in their tongue, “Santa.”
You are a cat who has been taking an advantage of the recent rise of video conference trials to elevate your legal career. One day your human video filter stops working and you need to convince the judge that you are a real, human lawyer licensed to practice law in the state of Texas.
A schizophrenic man gets sick of the voice in his head and asks it to start paying rent if it wants to live there. The next morning he finds an envelope filled with cash on his desk.