Short Story Writing Prompts
Basic Prompts | School Prompts | Holiday Prompts | Animal Prompts | Wish Fulfillment
Want to write a story, but don’t have any good ideas? Here are a few you can pick from to help you start your own story:
Basic Prompts
1. Rewrite a story you know in 1st Person perspective.
(Instead of saying “Goldilocks saw a house in the woods” write “As I look around the woods, I see a tall, strange looking house. Why is it here in the middle of the woods?”)
2. Rewrite a story you know, but
a. have the villain be a main character
b. focus on a different character's view
c. change the setting
d. mix characters from different stories (example: Luke Skywalker goes to Hogwarts, Red Riding Hood has to save the Big Bad Wolf from Elsa, etc.)
3. Write about a love triangle. Boy loves a girl, but the girl loves another boy who does not love her back. (Or start with a girl...)
4. Write about winning/losing a contest.
a. singing/dancing competition "Hong Kong's Got Talent"
b. sports team (Olympics, NBA, World Cup, school team)
c. a race
5. Write a story about a dream, but:
a. when the person wakes up they find the dream was real,
b. the story is a dream within a dream, or
c. someone else had the same dream
6. Write a story about how people became friends.
a. they were enemies first, but solved a problem
b. almost died together
c. helped each other
7. Write a story about moving to a new place.
a.going to a new school
b. living in a new city
c. moving to a different country
8. Write a story about finding something that is lost.
9. Write a story about how parents love children/brothers love sisters…etc.
10. Write a story about surviving a storm/disaster.
School Prompts
1. You’re in the middle of your least favorite class at school; the teacher is going on and on about something boring that you already learned. The next thing you know, you’ve fallen asleep at your desk. When you wake up, you see the room is already empty. Nobody is there.2. You have to pass a __history__ test or you’ll fail the class and have to repeat the whole year. The test is in ten minutes and you have to prepare, but there’s no time! It’s a good thing you know how to do magic.
3. You walk into the classroom and find all the teachers and the principal sitting in the desks. It’s Reversal Day. They are the students. You are the teacher. Their eyes are on you. Your lesson is about to begin. What will you teach them?
4. School _on the Moon_ is different from when you went to school on Earth in many ways. For example…
5. It’s break time! You run out of the classroom to go—SMACK! Ow. You slowly get up off the ground and look up to see a big, strong boy/girl standing above you. Oh no. It’s Corey, the new kid. They were kicked out of their last school for fighting. The last kid they beat up is still in the hospital. They look at you and say, “You’re dead, loser!”
6. Welcome to your school. You own it. You decide what the classes are. You decide what you will have in each classroom and who the teachers are.
7. There’s no school today because…
8. The _worst / best_ day of school ever was….
9. Write about a day at school from the perspective of a teacher.
10. Exam Day. Today is Thursday, June 15th 2017. Again. Yesterday was June 15th, and the day before that was June the 15th. You keep repeating the same day over and over again. Maybe if you get all the answers on your exams right tomorrow might be a different day?
Holiday Prompts
1. There’s a murderer on the loose. His name is Santa Claus. Unfortunately, it’s your job to catch him.2. Your name is Rudolph, and you are tired of everyone picking on you. You’ll make all the other reindeer pay. And the elves, too. They’ll be so sorry they ever called you “Red nose.” Very, very sorry.
3. How strange. You just got a letter in the mail, and it appears to be a Christmas card, but it’s the middle of July! When you open the card, you suddenly feel a draft of cold and snow starts to fall on your head. The card reads, “Congratulations! You have been randomly selected to be this year’s Santa Claus. Please report to training in the North Pole by Saturday, July 30th.”
4. Valentine’s Day is so boring. All the flowers and cards are just so…lame. And of course, nobody every gives me anything. Except one Valentine’s Day. First I got one card. Then another. Then a box of chocolates. Then flowers. Then more flowers and chocolates. And everyone was looking at me with hearts in their eyes.
5. Not many people know this, but my dad is a god. His name is Eros, or as some people call him, Cupid. You know, the guy who flies around shooting people with magic arrows that make them fall in love? Well, I get to have his bow and two matching arrows today as a reward for helping to save the world last year (boring story). So, now, who will I make fall in love? Hmm….
6. There’s a cursed Halloween mask. If you wear it too long, you become the monster.
7. Dressing up as a _witch / vampire / wizard / werewolf_ for Halloween seemed like a good idea, until you found yourself around a group of real ones who thought you were one of them.
8. Chinese New Year, the Spring Festival, is called “Guo nian” because there was a story of a monster named “Nian” who used to eat people. The thing is, it wasn’t a story. It’s true. There really *is* a monster named Nian that comes once a year. I know. I saw it. This is my story.
9. Don’t say the number four at Chinese New Years. Don’t give a person a clock. Don’t wear white. It’s all bad luck. I didn’t believe it before, but after what happened this Chinese New Years…now I do.
10. April Fool’s Day is a great day to play tricks. There are hundreds of stories about fun things to do to trick others!
Animals Prompts
1. Everyone you know is a different kind of animal. What animal matches your friends? Your family? Your teachers?2. Animals can talk, and you can understand them.
A) All animals can talk, but only special people like you can understand them.
B) All animals can talk and everyone understands them, so life is very different.
C) Only one or some animals can talk, and you are the only one who can understand.
D) Only one or some animals can talk, but everyone can understand.
3. You have the power to turn into an animal/animals. What will you do with your power?
4. There is an animal war going on. The main characters are animals. Why are they fighting? Who will stop the war?
5. You have an unusual pet. It’s a lion / a panda / a wolf / an octopus. It goes with you everywhere. What happens?
6. __A witch / magic potion / crazy scientist__ changed you into an animal. Now you have to learn to live like that that animal for the rest of your life….unless you can get the other animals to help you change back.
7. A pet is separated from its owner who travels far away. How will the pet survive? Can it find its owner?
8. Escape from the zoo! How do the animals get out of the cage? How do they get out of the zoo? Once they are free, how do they get home?
9. Prey and Predator. What is it like to be an animal hunting another animal? What is it like to be the hunted? Tell the story through the eyes of the animals.
10. Two animals fall in love. The problem is, they aren’t the same kind of animal! Horse and duck? Cat and dog? Fish and bird? How do the other animals act? What will their children be like?
Wish Fulfillment
1. You find an old, dusty ruby ring. When you rub the jewel, a magical genie appears and offers to grant you _one wish / three wishes_. What do you wish for? What happens next? Does the wish make life better, or cause problems?2. On your way home from school, you find a bag. When you open the bag up, you find it is full of money. Hundreds of millions of dollars! You take it to the police, and after 20 days the police tell you that you can keep it. How do you spend it?
3. You are now the ruler of __the world / Hong Kong / your own island__. What changes will you make?
4. You have a super power. What is it? How will you use it?
5. You just won a contest! You can go anywhere in the world and spend 24 hours with anyone you want doing anything you want!
6. In the Harry Potter books and movies, there’s a mirror that shows you what you really, truly want. What do you see when you look into the mirror? What if you can step over to the other side?
7. What would you do if you knew you could not die?
8. Everyone has to do exactly what you say for 24 hours. What do you do?
9. Three people. Three wishes. What happens?
10. You were just elected the Chief Executive of Hong Kong. What do you do?