What Makes a Great Writing Prompt?

There's an art to creating a prompt that inspires the deepest writing. After I describe that art, I'll share eight of my all-time favorite prompts at the bottom of this post.

You may wonder why you should bother to use writing prompts—let’s face it; a lot of typical ones are boring. You may also assume that prompts are only appropriate for beginners; but I’ve found them invaluable for writers at every level. In my decades responding to prompts and creating and personalizing them for my students, I’ve learned a lot about what makes an effective, compelling, truth-producing prompt.

Here’s what I’ve learned:

• A writing prompt provides an easier place to begin than a blank piece of paper. A prompt gives you a jump-start, a place to begin. It’s the impetus that gets you going and starts words flowing on the page. Just facing a blank sheet of paper with no idea where to start or what to write can be terrifying. A prompt is an effective way to begin.

• The best writing prompts are visceral and evocative. Rather than being a flat task: “Tell me about two characters who meet in a bar,” the best writing prompts should jar you into something new. A well-worded prompt should feel almost like a burr in your side. It should make you feel provoked, edgy, spurred to respond. The first thoughts that come to you upon hearing or reading the prompt may be surprising or unusual, even risky. Always go with those first thoughts.

• Writing prompts can help you access memories and stories you can’t retrieve directly. A good prompt can make you remember something you hadn’t thought about in a month, a year, even fifty years. My students often finish responding to a prompt, and when it’s their turn to read out loud, they’re thrilled to have uncovered a memory or story that they had forgotten—sometimes for decades. A strong prompt is a great antidote to a failing or faulty memory.

• A good writing prompt should be targeted and specific. Consider for instance, how much more powerful it is to respond to the prompt, “My father’s hands,” than it is to write from the much more tepid, non-specific suggestion, “Tell me about your father.” The first prompt evokes an instant visceral response and an image; the second is too broad and generic to give you an immediate starting place.

• A writing prompt will get you writing, and keep you writing, much more effectively than the idea, “I should write.” With a prompt, you have something concrete to respond to. And if you make it part of your personal writing practice to respond to the ones that I send out each week, you won’t have to think them up yourself.

• Take on challenging prompts; they stretch you into new territory as a writer—and as a person. In my experience, and in my years observing my students, it is often the prompts you want to avoid that lead to the most revealing, compelling writing.

• Don’t give yourself an out. Not every prompt will feel comfortable or like a perfect fit, but if you are serious about your development as a writer, I recommend that you try each of them anyway. It builds your versatility. If you were sitting in a writing class with me, you wouldn’t get to pick and choose your prompts. I’d give the whole class a prompt and whatever it was, you’d have to find a way to respond immediately, without thinking. Do the same when you take this on as a practice at home. You’ll go to some unexpected, fruitful places.

• Repeat effective prompts again and again. Some prompts are so open-ended, you could use them every day for the rest of your life and never run out of things to write, prompts like, “I remember….” Or, “I wish….” Or, “If only…”

• Use repeating prompts to excavate your deepest material. If you’re dealing with a subject that is huge in your life, say the death of someone close to you, a traumatic accident or a major life turning point, it can be useful to take the same prompt and do it every day for a month—for twenty minutes or half an hour at a time. Even ten minutes. Sitting down every day and writing to,,“The day my father died….” Or “Before the accident….” Or “After the accident…” or “During the war….” can lead you to explore a rich vein in more depth. Even though there may be repetition in your responses, each day you will inevitably come up with some new material—you will recall different details, write from a different vantage point, or simply remember more.

Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash

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Now, here are a few of my all-time favorite tried-and-true prompts:

• My mother’s legs

• I don’t remember (use it as a repeating line)

• Here’s the part I never told anyone before (when you’re tired of telling the same story in the same habitual way)

• This is the way things are right now (This is also a repeating line. I got it from the great poet and writing teacher Sharon Charde. You could write this prompt every day and never run out of material.)

• What’s on the back burner?

• A phone call that changed my life

• The wolf at the door

• What would your refrigerator say about you? Write in the voice of your refrigerator.

Photo by Nicolas Barbier on Unsplash

How To Get the Most Out of Writing Prompts:

If you’re new to my Substack, here’s my advice for how to mine the deepest material in your writing:

If You Want to Mine the Deepest Material in Your Writing, Here’s How...