Got Prompts?

By Jill Earl

Looking for a little something to get the imagination going for a story? A mental poke to jumpstart your writing? How about a prompt for size?

A simple online search will produce numerous links to more writing prompts than you can imagine. Below are some sites to check out for inspiration.

One of my favorites is the OnceWritten.com’ s Writing Spark newsletter. With a choice of either the paid daily or free weekly newsletter, you can receive prompts ranging from story ideas to conflict situations that will get you back on the writing path. And as a special bonus to paid members of the Daily Writing Spark newsletter, they can enter up to three entries in the bi-monthly Writing Prompt Contest.

http://www.oncewritten.com

Milli Thornton’s site Fear of Writing.com encourages writers with Fertile Material, sample prompts from her book, Fear of Writing. A subscription to her newsletter, Fear of Writing Gazette, provides free writing contests based either on the Fertile Material prompts or selected writing challenges set by editors Jennifer Turner or Milli herself.

http://fearofwriting.com/index.htm

At Writer’s Digest.com, clicking on the ‘Tips & Prompts’ tab at the top of thehomepage takes you to their Writing Prompts. Selections are listed chronologically and there’s a direct link available to the WD Forum if you want to post your response, giving you the opportunity to see what others have submitted.

http://www.writersdigest.com/WritingPrompts/

Finally, at CreativeWritingPrompts.com, pointing your cursor at one of the over 200 numbers listed reveals a pop-up box with that particular number’s prompt. That’s almost a full year’s worth!

http://www.creativewritingprompts.com

So if you’re stuck in your writing, get prompts. They may provide the boost you need for that next story idea.