If you are looking for story inspiration, or if you are struggling to overcome writer's block, there is a plethora of online creative writing tools right here at your fingertips. Have some fun and get out of that rut with these great creativity inspiring resources.
Story Prompts
Story prompts can be a list of words, a sentence, a question, instructions, or a collection ideas that is designed prompt your imagination.
- "Story Starters for Creative Writing Exercises" provides a list of one-line story prompts and offers tips on how to use them.
- Writingfix.com has a number of inspiring techniques and tools under its "Writing Prompts" tab. Check out "Right-Brained Writing Prompts" for story starters and a random sentence generator.
- Fanatasist.net has a story starter tool under its "Resources" section. It generates a title and a first sentence for you to use together. The folks are so thoughtful, each prompt includes a second title in case you don't like the first.
- Creativewritingprompts.com has a list of over 300 prompts. Move your mouse over each of the numbers for a thought-provoking question or writing instructions.
Seventh Sanctum and Random Generators
Random generators are online tools that are programmed to provide random character descriptions, plot ideas, names, magical powers, settings--and a whole lot of other things, too. These can be used as story prompts, to build fantasy worlds, to generate a cast of characters, or however else you want! Because the material created by generators is random, it is not copyrighted and you are free to use it as you wish. These sites each offer a variety of generators that will keep you occupied (and hopefully inspired) for quite some time:
- SeventhSanctum.com is the original random generator page. It's a veritable playground for writers, artists, role-players, and other creative people. Find story themes, romance plots, detailed characters, and new martial arts moves--among many other things--here.
- Chaoticshiny.com provides dozens more Seventh Sanctum-like generators, including those that create random people, places, plots, and names. Most of the generators are fantasy-focused.
- Serendipity is another Seventh Sanctum-inspired fantasy generator site with more people, places, plots, and things for you to create and use.
Other Online Creative Inspiration
Bored with story prompts? Tired of clicking through random ideas? Here are a few ways to inspire yourself using other online resources:
- Many quotation sites, like Quotationspage.com, offer a "quote of the day" function. These quotes can be quite thought- and story-provoking.
- Wikipedia has a featured article and a featured picture on its homepage. Each is updated daily. See if one of them gets you thinking.
How to Use Prompts and Generated Ideas
So, now that you are armed with these writer's block-busting tools, how can you use them? Here are some writing exercise suggestions to get you going:
- Dare to Be Bad. Write three short stories in six days. Just write, don't edit. (The DTBB site also includes a good writing prompt generator and some other neat odds-and-ends.)
- National Novel Writing Month. Write a novel in 30 days. Again, just write, don't edit. NaNoWriMo novels are known for being silly and spontaneous.
- Keep a journal. Plan a preset amount of time every day or every week, give yourself a prompt, and write. Don't worry about what you're writing, because this is only to spark the imagination and warm up the creative "muscles." Now and then, you might pop out something that you can use in a larger piece.
Christie Bailey - Christie is an RN, BSN with a passion for holistic health. Currently, she is pursuing her masters degree to become a holistic nurse ...
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