The Helping Hand: Creative Writing Prompts for Youth

Creative writing is an art, combining imagination, grammatical ability, storytelling and perhaps even knowledge about various topics, depending on the genre.

Inculcating an interest in creative writing among young people brings about various challenges, such as pressure created by thinking of a topic to write about, choosing a genre, getting young people to read and research before writing and perhaps the biggest challenge, getting them to start a story.

Creative writing prompts are a great way to get young people to start their writing journey. Prompts not only help a writer towards a storyline, but it also allows them to stretch their imaginations and read relevant material to help them with their writing.

Creative writing prompts can be of various genres, and they can explore various writing styles such as playwriting, storytelling, poetic prose or even descriptive and argumentative styles.

Prompts can be of many types. They can be single-word topics, they can be paragraphs to start a story with, or, they can be story endings. Quotes, proverbs, scenarios and even lyrics from songs can be used as a creative writing prompt. More descriptive prompts act as a guide for one’s imagination but quotes or single words can be more vague and open to a writer’s interpretation.

Writing prompts are a great way for young people to explore various genres of writing. Oftentimes, writers who are starting out limit themselves to their favourite reading genres which may limit the diversity of their writing and prompts in various genres help writers expand their imaginative horizons.

Here are some writing prompts, based on the major genres in fiction and creative writing:

Prompts for Mysteries and Thrillers

Mysteries and thrillers are the most popular creative writing genres. These themes have so many sub genres as well, such as cosy mysteries, psychological thrillers, political thrillers, espionage thrillers, paranormal mysteries and even dystopian thrillers.

Here are some prompts exploring these genres:

Prompts for mysteries

1. Write a story where the detective discovers that they have caught the wrong suspect at the end of the story.
2. A crime has been committed but the only clue is a blank notebook and a clock that stopped working four hours ago.
3. A retired police officer is roped into a missing person case, only for the victim to send a message to the officer. A message which only he can read.
4. A crime takes place at a club for senior citizens. Every member is a suspect and every member has a strong alibi which points to their innocence. After an hour, a second crime occurs.
5. Write a story on the theme Elegy.
6. All those who are wandering are not lost.

Prompts for thrillers

1. Twelve people attended a concert and only eleven returned. The ones who returned have no memory of the missing person.
2. A man wakes up to someone knocking at the door. He answers, only to find a person who has been dead for a decade.
3. Write a story about ‘The Mirror Dimension’.
4. The person who you know as your best friend is at the top of a list of hostile assassins. 
5. Every day, something precious goes missing, each time the clock strikes two. Before the cops can investigate one loss, it’s time for the next one.
6. A librarian researching on vintage crimes realises that similar crimes are occurring around her, in the order of her reading.

 Prompts for Fantasies and Magical Realism

Fantasy is a genre that knows no boundaries. It is like a playground where imagination can run wild and the constraints of logic no longer apply.

Magical realism is a sort of a sub genre where magic is seen in everyday activities and fantastical elements become a part of daily life.

Here are some creative writing prompts for these themes: 

1. Write a story about a girl who is of fairy origins but live among normal people.
2. Your new neighbour is actually a witch, preparing for a magical full moon ritual.
3. Siren’s Call
4. The new cat in your neighbourhood has eyes which look like diamonds. He avoids all human interaction, but one day, he comes up to your doorstep, carrying a stick in his mouth.
5. A secret passage in your school leads into an ocean.
6. A town of werewolves stops seeing a full moon for two months.

Prompts for Romance

Romantic stories are always a cosy read and it is always a challenge to write a good romance. Young writers can be guided into the world of romance and romantic comedy using good writing prompts.

Here are some romantic prompts to kickstart a budding writer’s journey to the heart:

1. Two lovers were separated after a whirlwind romance, only to reconnect years later, at the spot where they last met.
2. Enemies to lovers
3. He wrote a love song everyday. One day, someone heard what his heart had to say.
4. Can an octogenarian finally find the love she’s dreamt of all her life? A book, left to her by her mother may have the answer.
5. Sonnets for the Heart
6. Love letters

Prompts for Children’s Fiction

Writing for children is challenging as the age group is so dynamic with diverse preferences. Stories for children need to be balanced, fusing all elements of fiction, without complexities.

Here are some prompts for children’s stories:

1. Four children find a path that leads to a secret beach. The beach has four huts with their names on the door. 
2. A child digging in the garden meets a mole having a tea party.
3. A small boy gets off the school bus just before it can reach his school, only to find a teacher who has textbooks on magical potions.
4. A girl accidentally goes to school on a Sunday.
5. Two children meet twin genies
6. What do children dream about?

Prompts for Creative Non Fiction

Creative non fiction may appeal to certain young writers who like to combine opinion, logic and observation with creativity.

Here are some prompts for creative non fiction:

1. Are virtue and sin two sides of the same coin?
2. The Nuances of Honesty
3. Is pride a fault or a virtue?
4. How does one define a truly good person?
5. Utopia
6. Can the stars really foresee futures?

Becoming a creative writer is a journey. It is exciting, it is refreshing and it can also be rather trying but a little guidance can whet one’s imagination beyond any limit.

Creative writing prompts are a great way to inspire young people to start writing but the most important thing for a creative writer is to read, consume all sorts of inspiration and simply, write.

By: Samiksha Deshpande

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