Creative Ideas for Fiction Writers

Write Short Story Gems With These Imaginative Writing Prompts

Sep 17, 2009

Sometimes, creative writing ideas just won't come. These writing prompts will generate ideas for short story writing enthusiasts and help cure writers block.

At a loss for short story ideas? Here are some writing prompts that will generate creative ideas and have authors writing story after entertaining story. The writing ideas may seem a little out of left field, even bizarre, but sometimes, in short story writing, originality needs such a kick-start.

Fiction Writing Prompts on Public Transport

Take the bus or train and be an eavesdropper. Jot down notes of the conversations fragments overheard. Tune in to front, back and sides. It’s amazing what’s going on in people’s lives and what they actually blab about on public transport! Don’t get so involved that you miss your stop.
Make three journeys and have something to show for each. If local commuters are a surly, uncommunicative lot, try lounging in busy coffee shops, office lunchrooms and bars. It is not necessary to understand the conversations – indeed, puzzling or cryptic statements are excellent goads to the creative mind.
At home, slice the notes into individual snippets, scramble them, and extract six. From the random six, select three and weave a story – no matter how preposterous. The goal is not a fully developed short story: try for a synopsis paragraph that incorporates all three elements.

Short Story Ideas Don’t Grow on Trees

Sometimes, creativity benefits from a little fresh air, so this writing prompt requires the embattled, blocked writer to take a walk in the park, do a little creative thinking, and hopefully write something fresh and lively as a response. Find a suitable park, botanical garden or, best of all, some natural open forest space.
Walk, walk, walk. Free the mind. Enjoy. Let nature work miracles. When suitably relaxed, choose a tree that has character (pardon the pun) and sit or even lie in its shade. Feel the lawn or forest litter beneath you. Close the eyes and listen to the sounds of nature around you.
Now imagine, play out on the widescreen of the eyelids, an assignation beneath this very tree. Who are they? What are they saying? Is it romantic, sinister, or obscure and intriguing? Picture the characters in detail – facial features, dress, mannerisms.
There’s only one thing left to do. Rip the notebook out of the bag and start scribbling furiously.

Creative Writing in the News

When the brain can’t seem to generate ideas, then maybe the written word will do the trick. Fiction writing needs a basis in fact in order to be credible and engross the reader. The best example of that is the daily newspaper – and popular celebrity magazines don’t let the truth spoil a good story, either! Budding writers can make use of these two readily available items to generate short story ideas. Take a newspaper (preferably old), a magazine, and a pair of scissors.
Cut out paragraphs, headlines, advertisements, items from the personal column, quotes - even photos. Do this either at random or be guided by items that leap out at you and appeal. The subconscious mind is on the job and will guide the scissors.
Sort through the items, and select three or four to combine in some portion of story, dialogue or synopsis. If, after a few minutes, you can’t make a decision, force the issue by closing your eyes and selecting at random. Now write! Don’t feel the need to include every aspect of each clipping, or to stay too rigidly with what fate has dealt you. The goal is to generate writing ideas, not follow some game plan.

Short story writing is a fun pastime and, just sometimes, a way to make some cash. It is claimed that short story ideas are everywhere, if the writer knows where to look, but sometimes creative writing prompts or having your story critiqued can make rain fall on otherwise dry barren fields – that much-feared writer's block. Most often, the story isn’t discovered in the exercise itself, but, rather in the subconscious mind, where creativity has been triggered by the haphazard writing act.

The copyright of the article Creative Ideas for Fiction Writers in Writing Short Stories is owned by James Parsons. Permission to republish Creative Ideas for Fiction Writers in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.