Writing Prompts Make You A Better Writer

The benefits of writing prompts

Building writing prompts into your writing routine will make you a better writer. Not only will writing prompts get the creative juices flowing, but they can also help you warm-up for a productive writing session and even enable you to develop a wider writing skill-set. It can be easy to get stuck in a rut or stick to what you know, but writing prompts are all about chucking you out of your comfort zone and getting you thinking and writing very quickly.

Writing prompts enable you to:

•   Explore new styles and content in a small, safe test environment. Try something new…

•   Be more creative as you are led by the prompts rather than any of your own ideas/preconceptions.

•   Focus and concentrate at a high level on a relatively short writing task.

Writing prompts as warm-ups

Mo Farrah doesn’t run marathons without warming up, Adele doesn’t take to the stage without warming up, so why do so many writers go straight from the stresses and strains of their daily life and try and pick up where they left off in the middle of a tricky scene and then get frustrated with their progress? In the real world, the answer is probably that they are struggling to find enough time to write and want to hit the ground running. However, this can be counter-productive. Sometimes taking a break from your novel and writing a little scene about the man in front of you in the coffee shop can give you a fresh perspective when you return to your work. 

This also means you can actually be honing your craft whenever you have a spare 10 minutes, whether you are stuck on a commuter train or in a post-office queue. Good writers never stop improving. So, are you ready to give it a shot?

Try a quick and easy writing prompt

There are lots of stunning and surprising images online to use as starting points for short writing exercises. To get started, head over to http://gratisography.com/ - a site where photographers can show off their best work. Often it has very interesting subject matter shot at intriguing angles. Simply chose an image that you feel an emotional reaction to. This can be positive or negative. Now imagine yourself in the picture, as if that world was your world. Write down how you feel and what you can see. Let your imagination take over. Just making these notes will help your creative brain to engage. If you have time, try to turn these notes into a couple of opening paragraphs to a story.

More writing prompts to keep you sharp

Want more great writing prompts to make sure your writing never gets stale? Enter your details here: https://www.iamselfpublishing.com/writing-prompts and we’ll send you our worksheet with 25 writing prompts. These range from sentences to start a story with to scenarios, objects, descriptions, elements drawn from your own life experience and also exercises to practise different writing styles. So before you go back to you manuscript next time, warm up with a writing prompt – you might find a new side to your writing.

Leila Dewji is the Editorial Director of I_AM Self-Publishing, who produce beautiful books and eBooks for self-publishing authors, and give them the tools, knowledge and materials to market their work successfully. Follow @iamselfpub