A visual image can prompt a story. What will these dudes do next? (Author’s collection.)

Prompts are a staple of the creative process, informing the written word, visual media, and even performing arts. For such a simple word, “prompt,” can mean many different things depending on the writing goals. It may be a scholarly essay assignment, a writing exercise aimed at improving a skill, free-writing for worldbuilding or character development, as well as many other “behind-the-scenes” aspects of writing.

Using prompts is a huge topic, so this blog will focus on prompts to get “unstuck”: ways to trick ourselves into putting pen to paper, fingers to the keyboard, or brush to the canvas. The prompts may or may not turn out to be the subject of the art, but they at least help us get started.

a sculpture of a fish on a bicycle. Prompts for art or writing.
Does a bicycle need a fish? (From author’s collection.)

What are Prompts?

For this discussion, a prompt is a creative starting point. A word we hear, an image we see, a scent we smell, a food we taste: any sensory stimulation will do. The prompt needs to be simple and open-ended. A single word. A puzzling photo. It’s meant to inspire the artist to plumb their depth rather fill in the blank with the “correct” answer. The creative has a couple of goals for the prompt:

            Free the Line!

Often creatives are our own worst enemy. We gum up the works and get in our own way. Our internal editor nitpicks every idea before we ever commit it to paper. The right-brain thinking languishes on the sideline while we ceaselessly get ready to create, never actually making anything. The prompt, because it is an assigned task, can fool our internal regulator into letting us play for a bit. And thus, maybe we begin a story, picture, or drama. Or maybe we’ll make something we find boring or stupid. That’s OK. It’s better than the blank page. The prompt activity need never see the light of day again.

            Inspiration

However, a random prompt can grow into an actual work of art. Its humble roots will likely be unrecognizable by the time it is finished, but prompts are a great well from which to draw when we are out of ideas. 

How to Use Prompts

Prompts mustn’t be burdensome or time-consuming. Most creatives have limited time available for their art and don’t want to spend it getting ready to work. Thus, a timer, be it a clock or the length of a song, is important to focus the effort. Five to fifteen minutes (depending on your media) is plenty for a prompt activity. Another important rule is to be engaged for the entire time: writing, drawing, dancing, whatever. If we have no ideas, we just write, “I have no ideas” over and over. The goal is to get out of the way and let the prompt pull something out of us that we didn’t know we had. 

Shaking up our routine can be helpful: Do the prompts early in the morning or late at night. Change the media or technology, such as voice recording rather than writing. Using the nondominant hand for the prompt can yield interesting results.

creepy, vine-covered old hotel.
Who lived here? Or died here? (From author’s collection.)

Prompt Examples

Any of the illustrations with this blog could yield some interesting stories. Your own family photo albums, ephemera from thrift stores, tarot cards, old books, and magazines are all great prompt sources.  Numerous online resources exist as well, just google “prompts.” On Twitter, enter “prompts” into the search function and follow any likely threads. For example, @TheRealAuGHOST looks interesting: a spooky prompt for writing or visual art for each day in August!

Here’s a few prompts to get you started (Twenty-one, for twenty-one days to a new habit!):

  • Holiday
  • Blazing
  • I opened the letter…
  • Granite
  • The river rises
  • Best day ever
  • Blood red
  • School bus
  • A big mistake
  • Happy hour
  • Random chimp
  • Formula
  • Extreme
  • Courtship
  • Stop
  • Brilliance
  • Handy
  • Extinct
  • Harmony
  • Dreadful
  • Boiling

Check out my other craft blogs: Plot And Story, The Where: Setting Of A Story, Character Terms For Writers And Readers, Character Creation Tools, Character Creation, Conflict, and Snowflake Plotting.

Do you have a favorite way to get “unstuck” and free the line? Comment by navigating to the blog on my website, clicking the blog title, and commenting in the dialog box that will open at the end of the post. 

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