Dragon Writing Prompts

Use free writing to build characters. Make a list of emotions. Each day free write for 15 minutes -- that is write without pausing, push th...

Only three months away from this year's list but I just came across this: Merriam-Webster OnLine posted a list of top searched words of ...

Create a Wanted poster for a notorious criminal. Make up an evil person, use your favorite evil character, or write the Wanted poster the ba...

Here's the list of words that I used for the writing prompt -- though more of a game really! -- in the Dragon Writing fun shop at the ...

Write 35 (or more!) *ways* for a character to murder another. Again, push it even if they start sounding wacky. Try doing one or more for ea...

Write an alliterative (tabloid if you wish) headline for each letter of the alphabet.

">Hack Your Way Out of Writer's Block by Merlin Mann I recently had occasion to do some…errr…research on writer’s block. Yeah, r...

Write 35 motives for why a character would want to murder another. Push it even if they start sounding wacky. If you want, take the third-la...

Choose a hero and a villain. Set the timer for 10-15 minutes and write their latest encounter. THE SUPER HEROES The famous Wombat Specter Po...

It's the harvest moon and she's agreed to pose for a portrait. Who is she? (Click the image to open a larger one in a new window fro...

Write a story that contains one of these sentences. To get started, try writing the sentence down on your page and continuing from it. Then ...

I'm going to collect some "writer's block" tips. I don't like the term writer's block. It sounds like a disease t...

From The City Newsstand's (a newsstand/bookstore in Chicago) monthly MAGBAG -- Top 10 Tabloid Headlines . (Mostly from Weekly World News...

Use the following in sentences or a paragraph or a story. They don't need to be in the order given this time. (But of course you can if...

Reveal character and past and relationship through dialogue with two characters arguing. They should both be convincing since they each feel...

">Holly Lisle has, in addition to 30 fantasy and science fiction (and other genres) novels, compiled a wealth of essays on writing....

Adverbs and adjectives can be useful but sometimes they're used to prop up weak nouns and verbs, like "ran quickly" and "...

Create your own superhero at Superhero game at Scifi.com and then write about them: a typical adventure, an origin story, the final showdow...

And here it is. Michael Swanwick's Periodic Table of Science Fiction . 118 short short stories, each involving an element from the perio...

Here’s another short short story from Michael Swanwick’s collection to write the ending for. I’ll put up a link to the collection on Saturda...

One classic writing exercise is to read half of a short story and then write the ending you'd like to see happen. Then read the rest and...

101 Writing Tips by Prof. D. J. Higham Department of Mathematics University of Strathclyde (These are all original, but some are based on ol...

Pick one of the following. Set the timer for 10-15 minutes and tell what happened after the curse. Did the curse come to pass exactly as pro...

Create newspaper headlines using the words from the list. Try to use at least five of the words in each headline. (Feel free to add some wor...

This was posted by Arathe on the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) forums. I haven't planned out either of the stories I used fo...

Some intriguing odd phrases that almost mean something, names, single words .... It makes me appreciate the people who write spam filters. T...

Click the picture for a larger version in a new window. Who is she? (Assuming you don't know! Or can come up with an alternate version o...

From The City Newsstand's (a newsstand/bookstore in Chicago) monthly MAGBAG -- Top 10 Tabloid Headlines . (Mostly from Weekly World News...

To chill down from Thursday's writing prompt, create cool breezy phrases or sentences for each letter of the alphabet.

It's been a while since I posted a Writer's notebook idea ... Carry a small notebook around with you this week and write down 10 t...

Create hot and humid phrases or sentences for each letter of the alphabet.

Use one or several of the following and set the timer for 10-15 minutes as a writing prompt: Mothers are often mistaken for robots. Heavywe...

by Emily Hanlon Don’t think. Creating a story or book has little to do with the intellect or language when we first begin. Our best ideas wi...

Write a story backwards. Begin with the conclusion and work back to how it all began. From an exercise at Writing Exercises

Write about or define the first word using the 6 words that follow it: crusty -- eyeball, attitude, ooze, stuffy, luxury, crunched private -...

Jeffrey A. Carver has created Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy . an entire writing course on line for free :-) He says the course "...

Create new month names. You'll probably have time to create several sets! ===== More ===== Our month names are curiosities, a mixture of...

Try to get as many of these as you can into a story. Tripping over hedgehogs Rise up with fists Chalice of malice Fingernails on a chalkboa...