Though many instructors or writing experts, such as the staff at Writers Digest, urge writers to make use of writing prompts, some writers tend to ignore or deride them if left to their own devices. Unfortunately, they miss out on some of the advantages of writing prompts, such as forming a daily writing habit or working through writer's block. Writing prompts can jump start our creativity and motivate use to pursue our own projects rather than procrastinate; they give us a little push to move forward and grow as writers.
Many times, however, the plethora of writing prompts available to speculative fiction writers through the internet are not geared toward their preferred subject matter. While it is excellent to branch out and exercise our writing skills in different genres or types of writing, oftentimes we need to exercise our creativity and explore the boundaries of the speculative fiction genre. For it is only in discovering these boundaries that we can push or expand them.
Check out this week's writing prompts to help you get started:
Prompt # 1
The Arch
Your steps increase when you see your destination in the distance. The sweat is already slick on your forehead from your walk in the humid summer air, but you press forward toward The Arch. You pause to catch your breath and shield the sun’s glare from your eyes. You dig a camera out of the case slung over your shoulder. The Arch looms above you like the last remnants of a bygone civilization. A flash of bright purple light blinds you. When your vision clears, an indigo haze fills the center of The Arch, from one curve to the other. You rub your eyes several times, but phenomenon remains. With great care, you walk forward to investigate.
Prompt #2
The Elven Forest
You duck under a low hanging branch as you step deeper into the forest. You stop for a moment to readjust the pack on your shoulders. An uneasy feeling courses through you. The forest feels different after your absence. You resume your trek through the forest, but the uncomfortable feeling never leaves you. The silence is deafening to your ears. Not one animal or insect has made a sound to signal your homecoming to your tribe. Leaves crackle and twigs snap beneath your feet as you step toward the familiar clearing where you grew up. You feel mortified. You haven’t stepped so noisily in the forest since you were an infant-child. As you enter the clearing, you begin to understand why. Dry, sickly grass covers the clearing, and deadened branches hang down at odd angles from the trees. Not one soul can be seen anywhere in the village. Worried but curious, you approach one of the huts in the hopes of finding answers.
Challenge: Your character is an elf that senses magic, but cannot interact with it; due to odd circumstances surrounding his or her birth, he or she has no magic, and extended exposure to it makes him or her ill.
For additional writing prompts, please visit these resources:
Writers Digest - Writing Prompts
Warren Wilson College - Creative Writing Prompts
Cure writer's block with writing prompts
Writing.com: Sci Fi/Fantasy Prompts
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