Writing Prompts for Literary Fiction
- Sit down with a timer and give yourself 5-10 minutes to write an opening for a story. Repeat this process four or five times, each time writing a new opening for a new story (or the same story if you want to try different "voices"). Set aside your writing for a day or two. Reread your writing and choose one to keep working on that you would most want to keep reading.
- John Cheever, a great short-story writer, once said: "My favorite stories are those that were written in less than a week and were often composed aloud." Record yourself telling a story aloud (or have a friend/roommate/parent/hostparent take notes while you tell them a story). Give yourself just a few days to turn your oral story into a completed story on paper.
- Write about a secret. Reveal a secret about yourself. Once you have your secret on paper, change something about the secret or apply that secret to a character who is unlike you.
- Write a clear, vivid description of your opposite.
- Get in trouble. Expose a secret you promised never to reveal, tell an uncomfortable truth about someone you know. Stay out of trouble by changing the details (time, place, names, appearances . . .).
- Find a news article that shocks you or surprises you. Re-write the article as a story.
- Tell the story you've always wanted to tell. Tell the story only you can tell.
- Write a fairy tale. Start with "Once upon a time . . . " and take your main character through the hero's journey.
- Set a "fairy tale" in the modern world. Don't give it a happy ending.
- Write a short dialogue in which two character want something, but niether character wants to say what he or she wants.
- Read. Find a line or phrase from another book, story, or poem that intrests you. Write that line down and write from it.
- Read. Imitate the style of an author you admire.
Read before you write. One of the best ways to grow as a writer is to learn from other writers. Often, when reading the works of others we become inspired, our minds start wandering and we begin to think of more ideas. Steal. Borrow a line or a phrase that inspires you, and continue a story from that. Here are some suggestions:
- "Bird-watching at Night" by Sherman Alexie
- "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid
- "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson
- "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov
- "There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury
- "Dagon" by H. P. Lovecraft
- "The Cold Equations" by Tom Godwin
- "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant
- "The Randsom of Red Chief" by O. Henry
- "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell
- "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver
- "The Lady or the Tiger" by Frank Stockton
- "She Unnames Them" by Ursula Le Guin
- "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut