I’m gonna mix things up a bit this time, guys. *listens to the collective groans* Relax, it’ll be fine! Basically, instead of posting Emily’s prize interview first and then Grace’s prize guest post, I’ll post Grace’s stuff first and Emily’s second. 🙂 Congrats again, Grace, on winning!! To the rest of you… if you need inspiration, read this.
Y’all, when Joelle sent me her list of AMAZING article ideas, I found myself in between a rock and a hard place. You see, they were all so good that I simply couldn’t pick just one! In the end, though, I decided to go with one of my favorites…a list of writing prompts.
Now, I know that sounds boring…and simple…and unoriginal…but trust me. I have a plot twist for these writing prompts! Instead of giving you a select number of cut-and-dry story ideas such as “boy meets wizard, wizard leads boy on epic journey, boy saves world” or “boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy and girl get married,” I’m compiling some of my favorite dialogue prompts, plot twist prompts, character prompts, and PIRATE PROMPTS (because they are seriously the hardest to find)!
Before we get started, though, just what is a writing prompt? I think a lot of us writers (including prompt writers) mistake writing prompts for full-blown story ideas or even stories themselves. But the point is that a writing prompt simply motivates you to write, to create a certain side character, to introduce a new theme, to twist the story, to finish that scene. You can’t rely on a prompt to provide you with everything you need to write a story (maybe flash fiction, yes, but a novel? Nope), but you must use the prompt to help you. To inspire you. To fuel you. Not to guide you, but to push you!
So, without further ado, our first category of prompts…
Dialogue Prompts
Unlike the typical writing prompt, dialogue prompts only give you one or two characters, no plot, no structure, no beginning, middle, or end…they just exist as a line or two of dialogue, like a movie quote out of context.
What I’ve noticed dialogue prompts working best for are (1) character development, (2) scene ideas, and (3) motivation. Plus, studying what makes dialogue prompts so full of inspiration and intrigue can help you create meaningful, authentic dialogue!
Now, for the moment you’ve all been waiting for…an extremely extensive list of dialogue prompts! (And, no, I did not come up with these all at once, trust me.)
“How is she?” “Dead. Has been for thirty years.”
“Say, do you know what year this is?”
“Hold up. I remember you. I was at your funeral.”
“I think she’s trying to kill me.” “I’m pretty sure that means she likes you.”
“Did you drop out of high school or something?” “Nope, but I did play hooky all through kindergarten.”
“Oopsy.” “What is it this time?” “I may have just dropped the bomb…literally.”
“All aboard!” “Aboard what?” “The train, of course.” “You mean…the one up there…in the sky?”
“I’ve a one-horse open sleigh in the back, if you’re interested.”
“I hate Christmas parties.” “But it’s Thanksgiving.”
“You and I becoming a couple is about as probable as it raining in the desert.” “You know, deserts do typically get about 10 inches of rain a year. Just sayin’.”
“I wasn’t always like this.” “What do you mean?” “I wasn’t always able to see.”
“Hey, do you have a needle and thread lying around anywhere?” “No, why?” “I’m kinda bleeding to death over here.”
“Tell me about yourself.” “I already have.” “No, I mean the real you.”
“Wait. You mean to tell me there’s a marshmallow planet too?”
“Frankly, darling, I don’t give a…a…flying fish fart!”
“Are you telling me that there isn’t a single good reason for me not to kill you?”
“You left me with nothing. Not even the junk mail.”
“Are those buffaloes…dancing?”
“What are you doing?” “Fishing for a wall outlet.”
“So, what’s this song about?” “You don’t know? It’s…it’s about you. They all are.”
“Hey, I have powers too!” “Yeah, like the ones that got us into this mess in the first place.”
“I keep you in my jean pocket.” “You do what now?”
“There’s an alien in my room.” “Look, just because I’m from Canada doesn’t mean I’m an alien!” “I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what that means.”
“We’re the tyrants now.”
“I wanna make chocolate with you every day for the rest of our lives.” “Is that a proposal?”
“You know I can’t do that.” “Not even for me?” “Especially not for you.”
“You took everything from me!” “Dude, it was just a taco.” “No…it was everything.”
“Is that loaded?” “See for yourself.”
“Is it Christmas yet?” “Son, they canceled Christmas years ago.”
“I feel like David had better odds against Goliath.”
“Are those…scales?”
“So you’re a dentist with a degree in electrical engineering? And you have your own cooking show?”
“I know who you are. I know everything about you. I even know that you didn’t use deodorant this morning.”
“You know what they say, tomorrow is another day.” “Sure, that’s how it works for you.”
“The day you step foot on my lawn is the day I bury you under it, do you hear?”
“I couldn’t, perchance, use a vacuum to suck up paint, now could I?”
“They see you as a threat.” “But why?” “It’s your voice.”
“Lemme guess. The car talks.”
“You’re so…so irresponsible! Irritating! All the words that start with irr!” “Irresistible? Irreplaceable?”
Plot Twist Prompts
You know, a simple writing prompt can only go so far. After a while, regardless of how strong my characters are, how intense my beginning is, how beautiful my themes are…I kinda run out of ideas to keep the story interesting. Sometimes it seems like there is no climax, no awe-inspiring moments, no twists and turns, no nothing.
Hence the invention (not by me, though) of the plot twist prompt. These are meant to go along with an already existing story idea or cast of characters, to give you fresh ideas to keep the story going in an exciting, believable manner instead of just trickling out! (Note: some of these are written in story-form to make them simpler, while others are written like a cut-and-dry prompt.)
(PST: These twist ideas make GREAT cliché benders!)
The wise mentor is the villain.
He wasn’t my real father.
All along, my best friend had been against me.
I’d fallen in love with the wrong girl.
There was no prophecy.
The villain believes in true love.
There were two of them. Twins, in fact.
She never really was the queen.
The villain is the only one who survives.
They live…but not quite happily-ever-after.
The dragon (or donkey) speaks.
Their arrival was delayed.
An impostor came in his place.
The chosen one is the evil one.
The rogue makes the right choice in the end.
The villain sacrifices himself.
The minor character had been the narrator all along.
It was just a dream.
There was a storm at sea.
We regret to inform you…the general never returned from battle.
The war ended not by bloodshed nor by treaty, but because there was no one left to fight.
A ghost from the past returns.
The antagonist gets the upper hand.
Amnesia. (Nuff said.)
She says “I love you,” but he was never in love with her.
The hero and villain are stuck together…in a dungeon…and someone just so happened to throw away the keys.
The mythological monster…wasn’t so mythological at all.
The legends were true, but not in this universe.
The protagonist disappears without a trace.
Character Prompts
Character prompts can range anywhere from unique eye color descriptions to tragic backstories to quirky personalities traits…anything that inspires a new, unique character fits! You can use these character prompts to give you an idea for a flash fiction piece, a minor character to spice up your WIP, or to inspire the hero of your next novel!
A crazy cat lady…who’s psychic.
Scatter-brained but vastly intelligent.
The fearless leader who cracks jokes and is often the butt of them.
Reckless character who’s also the chill one.
A blind character with keen insight.
A deaf character who loves music.
Soldier who loves kids.
Criminal with a kind heart.
Rebel with a cause.
A wise mentor…who is younger than the hero.
Tortured genius.
A young, lovely, beautiful…sea witch.
A strong girl who’s terrified of her own shadow.
Hair like maple syrup.
Eyes of crystal glass.
Ghostwriter.
A character with the power…to time travel.
A pirate who’s loyal unto death.
Laughing hues of blue.
Long waves of hair like the ocean.
A magician who uses her sleight of hand tricks to spy for the government.
An heir who lost his fortune…and his family.
A child who sells flowers on the street corner.
A laid-back middle-class character who moves to the big city.
A reclusive novelist who discovers an abandoned baby on his doorstep.
He was like the sea: melancholy, passionate, quick-tempered, volatile, tempestuous.
A highwayman masquerading as something he is decidedly not.
A girl in search of the child she gave up.
A girl who falls in love with an Indian—just like the ones who killed her parents.
A bounty hunter in search of the father of the woman he loves.
A shy spinster becomes an heiress to a large fortune.
A weary messenger arrives at his destination, only to find the recipient is gone.
A wagon pulls to a halt and only a man steps down, hat low and gun swinging from his hip. Inside the wagon is a passel of children.
In the wake of the American Revolution, a spy is forced to give up the mantle and return to the life of a civilian…only they are nothing apart from their many, many aliases.
PIRATE PROMPTS
I cannot tell you how many times I have researched pirate prompts on everywhere from Google to Pinterest to Tumblr, only to find the same five generic ideas (not counting the writing prompts for kids, which are all about buried treasure, of course).
So I’ve decided the throw in a few prompts for y’all to refer back to if you ever decide to write a pirate story—whether it’s historical fiction, medieval fantasy, or sci-fi in space (because pirates are literally universal and go great with any story; just sayin’). Enjoy, mateys!
A savvy young woman puts up a front as a businesswoman to hide her brothers’ illegal pirating from society.
A naval officer turns to piracy to escape being court-martialed after accidentally killing a fellow officer.
A discharged Royal Navy captain is on the search for his missing sister. There’s just one little problem—the only person who will help him is a female pirate.
With war between Spain and Britain escalating in their backyard, a young Spanish woman and her brother are left with only one escape…upon a pirate ship.
A mission of revenge turns a pirate captain against his fellow buccaneers.
To save herself from the noose, a female pirate captain becomes a spy for the government during a dangerous war.
A nobleman’s daughter is held for ransom by the nobles of a rival nation…and her valiant rescuer is a pirate.
In a case of mistaken identity, a female pirate is rescued from drowning by a merman who mistakes her for a princess. (Gender-bent The Little Mermaid with a piratical twist.)
When a mythological treasure is revealed to be real, a pirate sets off in search of it. (Here’s a twist: it’s the Holy Grail, and the pirate needs it to heal him.)
A pirate hunter sets off to find the most elusive pirate in history…only discover its his childhood best friend.
A notorious pirate captain wakes up with amnesia after a horrible shipwreck and has no idea why his life is in danger.
A young woman in search of her missing father has to join forces with pirates to find him.
A pirate masquerades as his lawful twin brother to make a new life for himself.
There ya have it, folks! A list of the only prompts I could think of off the top of my head unique dialogue prompts, character prompts, plot twist prompts, and a few fun pirate prompts! Hopefully these will spark a few new ideas!
Have you ever used a writing prompt before? Which kind of prompt is your favorite? Do you have any interesting prompts floating around in your head?
Grace A. Johnson is a teenage Christian fiction authoress, book reviewer, and avid reader. She lives in beautiful (but humid) South Georgia, surrounded by farmland and forestry, with her parents and six younger siblings. She has written four novels, three of which are published, and a smattering of short stories and novellas, which you can find on Amazon. She’s also a homeschooler who loves learning about history, linguistics, art, and the world around her. You can find her on Goodreads, Pinterest, BookBub, or blogging on her website at www.graceajohnson.com. Join her for a virtual cup of tea and a free preview of her debut novel when you sign up for her e-newsletter!
AHHH THANK YOU SO MUCH GRACE!! Those prompts are AWESOME. And my villain is totally going to sacrifice himself for the hero now. XD My brain cells are PUMPED. XD Great work – on both your story and this article – and congrats again on winning!!
Until next time,
Take courage, pursue God, and write while you still have brain juice!! 😀
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