Creative Writing Prompts from Far-Off Places

Travel and adventure are the themes behind some of the greatest poems ever written and best stories ever told.

Blockbuster movies like Star Wars and the Indiana Jones franchise, TV shows like Lost, and books such as Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, or The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn all use adventure as a premise to telling a riveting tale.

Today’s creative writing prompts are designed to get you out of the house and away to a far-off place. You can go anywhere you want — some of these places are fantastical while others can be found on any map.

Creative Writing Prompts

You can use these creative writing prompts any way you see fit. Write a poem, a story, an article about a similar experience you’ve had, or just draft an entry in your journal (write whatever comes to mind). Change these writing prompts as much as you need to so that they work for you. And have fun!

1. You have a chance to take an all-expense paid trip to anywhere in the world, but you’ll have to spend three months there. Where do you go and why?
2. You’re flying somewhere — anywhere — but when your plane lands, you and the other passengers quickly realize you didn’t reach your intended destination. In fact, you’ve arrived in a strange, wondrous (or terrible) world that you never knew existed.
3. Sometimes, to go someplace, you don’t even need to leave your home. Some people travel far and wide in their dreams.
4. What if you discovered a portal to another world? Where is the portal? How does it work? What’s on the other side?
5. Some adventures are nothing more than a series of mishaps. The flight is delayed, the hotel reservations were made for the wrong dates, there are no available car rentals.

Use these creative writing prompts to write anything at all — poetry, fiction, essays, or just sit down and start freewriting.

Do you ever use creative writing prompts to spark writing sessions? Have you found them helpful? Got any writing prompts of your own to share? Leave a comment!

Creative Writing Prompts Inspired by the Seasons

Writers and artists, and human beings in general, have always been inspired by the seasons. After all, the seasons provide a rotating backdrop for our lives. They mark the passage of time. They represent moving on and letting go.

A season can provide a setting for your story or the subject for your poem. Seasons can function as metaphors. They can bring challenges for characters in the form of natural disasters. Even the absence of seasons will affect a piece of writing.

On a tropical island, the weather doesn’t change much. Seasons barely exist in some places, and that shapes the rhythm of life there. On the other hand, in more common climates, seasons dictate daily life. Plant in the spring and harvest in the fall.

Today’s creative writing prompts look to the seasons for inspiration.

Creative Writing Prompts

All writers get stuck. Call it writer’s block, lack of inspiration, or absence of the muse. Sometimes, ideas just don’t come easily. That’s when creative writing prompts and other writing exercises keep your creativity going.

These prompts are an accessible way to jump-start a writing session when you’re fresh out of ideas. Use these creative writing prompts to write a poem, a story, jot down a few thoughts in your journal, or compose a blog post.

Summer

The sun is shining, the kids are out of school, and there are long lines at fairgrounds all across the country. It’s the season of heat, bright colors, and tan lines.

• You’re relaxing in an easy chair with the fan blowing in your face and an iced drink by your side. The aroma from a nearby barbecue makes your mouth water. In the distance, you hear children splashing in the water and squealing with delight.
• Four kids are meeting up at the movies for a summer afternoon matinee.
• A woman is walking alone on a beach in the summer twilight (or at dawn).
• Two words: road trip.
• Flip-flops, tank tops, sundresses, and shades. The attire of summer is light and breezy. Who’s wearing what?

Fall

In the autumn, the leaves turn and then drift to the ground. The air grows cooler, our clothes grow warmer. School starts. Harvest is just ahead. Before you know it, the holidays will be here in full swing.

• On the first day of school, two best friends discover a terrifying secret about one of their new teachers.
• A man is raking leaves on his lawn. He pauses for a breath and glances at his neighbor’s lawn. They never rake their leaves, he thinks to himself.
• Halloween is just around the corner and you have a lot do this year: candy, costumes, and pumpkin carving. The house smells like apples and caramel. You look outside and see something astonishing…
• Now that it’s off-season, there are tons of deals on flights and hotels. You can take a vacation for half of what it would cost in the summer. Where do you go and why?
• It’s a great time of year for a garage sale. You can have one of your own or take a Saturday to tour all the sales in your neighborhood. Maybe you’ll find a unique treasure with special qualities.

Winter

It’s really starting to get cold. Snow, rain, and cloudy skies loom overhead. But there’s a bright spot, too: all those twinkling, colorful holiday lights. Winter is warmed by crackling fires, hot cocoa, and thick blankets.

• All the kids are looking forward to the winter break. There’s a school-sponsored ski trip, and one girl is aching to go so she can try snowboarding for the first time.
• Puppies and kittens aren’t always born in spring. This winter, a special puppy is born, one that will change people’s lives.
• Get out your hockey sticks, skates, and skis. Winter sports are in full swing. Are you on a team or do you play solo?
• It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Wait — no it’s not! The holidays are cheesy. Bah humbug!
• Hot soup, freshly baked bread — just out of the oven, and a steaming cup of cocoa set the stage for a perfect winter night.

Spring

From budding flowers to torrential downpours, the entire season provides a wide canvas of colors, shapes, and sounds.

• The only place anything interesting is happening is outside. One kid in a big city is bored. School won’t be out for a couple of months. There are no holidays to look forward to. He (or she) wishes the family lived in the country. (Where do kids get these ideas?)
• There is a light drizzle. The skies are mostly cloudy but the sun is doing his best to show his face. A man and woman stand beside a car outside of a convenience store. They are arguing.
• There are seeds to plant! It’s time to create your very own garden. Will it be a flower garden or a vegetable garden? Maybe you’d prefer a grove of trees instead?
• This just might be the last snowfall of the year. What do you do? Go sledding? Build a snowman? Head to the pond for spring skating?
• Everyone is getting tired of the cold and eagerly anticipating summer. But this summer is going to bring more than sunshine and easy days at the beach . . .

Be Imaginative and Have Fun!

Got Any Creative Writing Prompts?

If you use any of these creative writing prompts, come back and tell us how they worked for you. Feel free to make up your own seasonal creative writing prompts and leave them in the comments. And keep on writing.

Creative Writing Prompts for Music Lovers

Some days, ideas just don’t come easily. You may find yourself staring at a blank screen or doodling in your notebook with nothing to write about. You may find that you’d really rather just listen to some music or go out dancing. Maybe you’d rather play your guitar?

If you’re a writer and a music lover, then these creative writing prompts are perfect for you. They’ll infuse your words with musicality and make your writing rock.

Creative Writing Prompts

Creative writing prompts are a great way to break through writer’s block.

There are two sets of prompts to choose from. First you’ll find a series of word lists. Pick any of these lists and use all the words from the list you’ve chosen in a piece of writing. Or mix and match the words. The possibilities are endless.

Below the word lists, you’ll find a series of music-related creative writing prompts to spark a writing session. Some get you thinking about your own relationship with music while others give you a scene where music is a key player.

Use these prompts to write anything you want: a short story, poem, essay, article, or fill a page in your journal.

The Composer	The Player	The Singer	The Listener	The Dancer
Measure Signature Staff Baseline Key	Instrument Notes Chord Band Play	Vocal Lyrics Riff Stage Microphone	Radio Song Ears Tune Listen	Music Rhythm Stretch Kick Hips

More musically inspiring creative writing prompts:

• A six-year-old girl comes home from school one day to find a piano sitting in the living room. “What’s that for?” she asks her mother. “Today, you start piano lessons,” her mom says.
• What was the first record you ever bought? Do you still like listening to it?
• After a twenty-year career as a successful, underground singer with a voice that gives audiences chills, a singer with no other skills or experience loses his or her voice.
• Have you ever played an instrument or performed music to a live audience? Ever recorded yourself singing?
• A talented and homeless twenty-something is busking in the subway. A well-to-do Juliard student passes by, then stops, turns around and approaches the busker with the offer of a lifetime.
• Do you prefer to sing in the shower or in the car while you’re driving?
• After years of writing commercial jingles and cheesy, B-movie scores, a composer writes a masterful piece that propels him (or her) into the limelight.
• Are you one of those people who “don’t dance?” Why? Do you think everyone is watching you?
• A young, professional dancer injures her knee and can never dance professionally again. She decides if she can’t move to the music, she’ll make it. Which instrument does she choose and why?

Enjoy these creative writing prompts, rock on, and keep on writing!

Do you find these creative writing prompts useful? Got any prompts or writing ideas to share? Leave a comment!

Creative Writing Prompts for Animal Lovers

Animals have played a huge role in literature throughout history. They appear in poems and stories, and plenty of nonfiction works have been written about animals and humans’ experiences with animals.

From E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web to Jane Goodall’s books on primatology, authors and readers alike have delighted in writing and reading about animals.

And it’s no wonder. We humans have forged strong bonds with animals. Our pets are like family members. In fact, Americans spend $41 billion dollars a year on their animal companions (source). Billions more are donated to wildlife preservation, animal welfare advocacy, and conservation efforts.

Naturally, animals fit comfortably into the stories we tell. Today’s creative writing prompts pay homage to our animal friends by inspiring a writing session that features animals.

Creative Writing Prompts to Honor the Animals

Below, you’ll find a series of creative writing prompts. Each one sets a scene. Your challenge is to bring that scene to life by writing about it. Turn it into a short story, a poem, a play, or an essay. Write anything you want (if you can’t decide what to write, then do a freewrite).

• A mama cat gives birth to a litter of five orange tabbies and one little gray runt.
• A young man on his first hunting trip has a deer in his sight and suddenly remembers the day his dad took him to see Bambi.
• A school of dolphins is too trusting and approaches a boat whose passengers are intent on capturing the dolphins and bringing them to a theme park for a “swim with the dolphins” attraction.
• A bird and squirrel live together in the same tree (like the odd couple).
• Two children, a brother and sister, respectively capture a butterfly and a moth, then proceed to argue over which insect is superior.

Make up Your Own Creative Writing Prompts

Feel free to make up your own animal-related creative writing prompts, leave them in the comments, and I’ll pull them into this post during a future update.

Be Imaginative and Have Fun!

If you use any of these creative writing prompts to spark a writing session, come back and tell us how they worked for you. What did you write? Did you learn anything new? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment. And keep on writing.