A Bevy of Writing Prompts

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Writing prompts are a great way to jumpstart your writing. When you’re sitting in silence but don’t have any ideas for where to start, it can be helpful to read a priming sentence and get to work.

A good prompt is a portal to another place. It sets the conditions for possibility.

They also take the pressure off. Blank pages are scary places. They can freeze a writer like Medusa’s hair. But a good writing prompt can be liberating because it sends you in a direction you won’t take too seriously. Many writers have talked about how after years of working on a serious project and getting nowhere, it was the lighter idea that sprung to life.

The most recent example I heard of this was Emily Henry, million-selling author of Beach Read, who started out writing darker fantasy, if I understood her path right. I recently read her latest, a romance about two journalists, and enjoyed it.