The Fiction Writer's Guide to Using Prompts Effectively

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Article by: Matthew Tett, freelance writer at Globe Soup.

Writing is full of opportunities. Writers can write anywhere – on a train, travelling on a bus, sitting in bed – and by scribbling in a notebook, rubbing out mistakes, or tip-tapping away on a sleek keyboard. It happens whenever the writer can get pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), too – in the early hours, over lunch, late into the night. Essentially, writing is fantastically versatile, flexible, and has a lot of scope.

The term ‘writer’s block’ is something that we are all too familiar with. Sometimes, we just don’t know where to begin with a piece of writing; or maybe we have started and we come across a hurdle, a complication, and we can’t figure out how to move past it. This probably sounds familiar – maybe at some times more than others. Using writing prompts is something writers are not always keen to do when writing alone – but if you facilitate writing groups, or attend classes, you have probably taken part in various exercises which result in pieces of writing that might be surprising, or unusual, or perhaps not that great. So, let’s welcome the fact that writing prompts can be hugely beneficial to us all.

The benefits of using writing prompts:

 Well... a prompt is exactly that – it prompts. In the case of writing, a prompt acts as a stepping-stone into a piece of writing. It is far better, and healthier, to rely on a prompt as opposed to sitting and staring at a blank page, or screen, for hours on end. In fact, a prompt can trigger something that you may have not thought about – so it could take your writing in a different direction. As an example, maybe I am struggling with starting. So, I turn to my trusty book, Margret Geraghty’s The five-minute writer*, and I flip to page 47. One of the prompts is to complete an incomplete sentence, and I choose ‘People don’t...’ and finish it off with ‘People don’t know the first thing about me – all they see if the mousy hair and piggy nose’. Already, I have the beginning of a piece of writing – and only time would tell how I decide to develop this piece.

Of course, prompts don’t have to come from books – they might come from something you see or hear. Just the other day, I overheard someone saying, ‘It’s all fish in a barrel, mate’ and it stuck with me. So, a prompt can be someone else’s throwaway comment, or maybe something else, like a street sign, or a picture.

What can I write about?

 The short answer is... anything! You might have a particular interest in a specific form, or genre – for example, perhaps you want to write a ghost story, in which case you could use Imagine Forest’s relevant blog post to get your ideas developing: https://www.imagineforest.com/blog/ghost-story-prompts/. Sometimes, you want to be given some suggestions, for a seed to be planted, for it to germinate and grow – and other plant-related metaphors! A perfect, easy-to-use resource for this is the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto 642 Tiny Things to Write About*. Turning to a random page it says ‘Write descriptively about food. What was the worst thing your parents ever made you eat?’ Here, there is a perfect prompt for some food-themed writing, perhaps with some memoir and comedy, too. Tweaking something to suit your own writing needs can be so inspiring.

Where can I find good prompts for writing?

 The answer to this is a positive one – everywhere! Take a look out of your window. Okay, you see a moss-covered roof top with a huge seagull sat atop a chimney pot. There you go – write about it. Maybe you see a weird painting in a local art gallery. Who’s in the picture? What’s happening? Why does the scantily clad woman look cross as she chases a scruffy dog with a large broom? The more you look around, the more you will see that anything can be a prompt, from something happening in the street, to a strange, discarded doll left on a fence post.

If you are looking for something more concrete, but with a lot of choice of prompts, you could head to www.writingexercises.co.uk. This is a superb online resource which provides a huge number of prompts, ranging from starting with a first line of dialogue, through to random titles, and plot generators. This is a perfect resource you can use anywhere, as long as you have access to the Internet. Dipping in and out of such tasks can take you in different directions – maybe, you won’t travel too far (it could be like a dead-end street!) but such prompts can show you what you like and what you don’t like. It’s worth pushing boundaries a little, too, as by doing this, you might discover that you like writing sci-fi, despite always being against the genre in the past.

 I need more inspiration – I want help with a bigger, ‘meatier’ idea.

 Some writers might be okay with starting but need help with developing an idea into something more significant. Perhaps it is point of view that is a problem, or you get your ‘story’ confused with the ‘plot’. Richard Skinner’s Writing a Novel* is a Faber Academy-endorsed (others are available!) book with plenty of ideas. The book is less focused on prompts but more about different strategies that can be employed. Likewise, Michael Loveday’s Unlocking the Novella-in-Flash* takes the reader through different processes involved in writing a series of interlinked short piece of prose, along with some interesting and stimulating reading to accompany it.

To sum-up, then...

 Prompts can come from anywhere, so it is a good idea to keep your eyes and ears open, ready for something that inspires you. Often, the best ideas come along when you least expect them to. But if you want something more reliable, or you are sat at your desk on a dreary Saturday afternoon, clutching at metaphorical straws, you could unleash a brilliant idea by using any of the prompts I have mentioned – and these barely scratch the surface.

Happy writing!

Matthew is a freelance writer living in Bradford-on-Avon, a small town in Wiltshire, UK. He has been published in Writing in Education, the Cardiff Review, the New Welsh Review, and Ink Sweat and Tears. His short story “Spun Sugar” was published in the inaugural edition of Liberally. In 2021, he won Word After Word's mini memoir prize. “One Big Treat” is being published in Skobeloff Publishing’s forthcoming Horror & Ghost Stories Anthology. Matthew is also the producer of StoryTown. Since 2022, he has been a reader/team leader for the Edinburgh Flash Fiction and Short Story competitions. Matthew is currently working on his debut short story collection.