30 writing prompts for 30 days
The writing prompts and what day I plan on writing them. The day might change due to how I'm feeling that day, but the writing prompts will not be reused in this 30 days. Each writing prompts can only be used in the next 30 days. I am going to be using a Writing Prompt Generator. The writing prompts are in order of the day that I'll use them.
Writing Prompts #1,139
As a young woman living with your stepmother and stepsisters, you hope to someday move out and live your life the way you want to. Until then, you have to deal with your overbearing family, whom you support with three jobs while they do nothing but complain. One day while your family was out shopping, your godmother unexpectedly stops by to visit you, which was surprising since you haven't see her in several years. After a cup of tea and a nice chat, she hands you a rabbit's foot for good luck before leaving. You graciously accept the gift but soon forget about it. However, a month later, your luck seems to have turned around when you are selected to be the next contestant for "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire for a Day?" The game show has you live an extravagant, jet-setting lifestyle for just one day. Anything goes in terms of what you can do—the sky's the limit. If the home audience approves of your choices, you win the grand prize. However, if your day as a millionaire is judged to be too mundane, you go back to your normal life at midnight. You are ecstatic that you have been selected and you are ready to take on the challenge, hoping that this will be your ticket to a new life.
Writing Prompt #1,272
As the son of two well-known celebrities, your life has been constantly critiqued by the general public. As an actor since childhood yourself, you are feeling the strain of living in the public eye and are yearning for something much quieter. When a young woman at one of the parties your parents dragged you to approaches you offering just that, you are inclined to listen. She tells you that she can give you a break from the spotlight, requiring only an item that means something to you, and you jokingly decide to indulge her by giving her the necklace from your neck, which your father wore to his first audition. She smiles, slinking off into the crowd. Thinking you've just done something incredibly stupid, you return home for the night with your family. The next morning, you discover that no one recognizes you — not even your parents, who think you're a stranger invading their house. You are shocked to find that the entire world has forgotten you. Not a single trace of your existence exists, and it is now up to you to find the woman who cursed you to this new life without the comfort of your friends and family.
Writing Prompt #1.038
You sip your coffee at your favorite hole-in-the-wall café across from a crumbling and congested elevated highway. It's nearly midnight, but you don't want to go home. Your heart is aching. Your grandmother has been taken by a man your kind knows by reputation but no one has seen up close — a fallen angel who will hunt down anyone or anything if the price is right. The owner of the café, an old woman with a weathered face, offers you another cup and a smile of sympathy. When a scruffy-jawed man with thick boots and violet eyes enters the café, the old woman nearly drops her coffee pot. The café owner calls him by name, the shock in her eyes palpable as she begins to tremble. The man nods a greeting to her. Then he notices you and, to your surprise, marches right over to your table with an aggressive, animalistic intent. You hop to your feet and quickly whisper an incantation. He stops in his tracks and smiles, as much as his gruff exterior will allow. "I haven't picked a fight with a Benandanti in a hundred years. Why would I start now?" You slowly sit back down as the man makes himself comfortable in the opposite seat. "Word on the street is that you are looking for a man with broken wings. I have a lead or two, but first could you help me with a little something?" He takes off his fedora to reveal two horns sprouting from his head. You wave your hands, and in an instant the horns disappear. "Thanks, buddy. Now let's get to work."
Writing Prompt #941
Laid off from your job, you come home early to find your fiancé sleeping with your so-called best friend. To top it off, your great-aunt has passed away. You haven't seen her since you were a child, but you receive a letter from a solicitor notifying you of her passing and that you are her sole beneficiary. To what, the letter doesn't state, only that you have to appear for the reading of the will in person. You've never been to England, but now is as good a time as any. Your great-aunt lived a full life, if not a little bit eccentrically. She left you everything, including the estate, but with a catch: For the will to be permanent, you have to find the Trinity Stones within your great-aunt's manor. The story is that the queen, jealous of her step-daughters' beauty, stole the stones and trapped the young princesses inside. Find the stones, and you free the sisters. The folklore is as old as the house. Nevertheless, you are determined to find them, and you have the help of the attractive young solicitor, who feels duty-bound to help you search for them.
Writing Prompt #1.143
Your grandmother's dog has always bothered you. It's small and white, rather prim, and always sits and stares at you with its unblinking eyes. It's been around since you were a kid, and you feel as if it should have died years ago, but it keeps on living to your dismay. When your grandmother passes on, her dog becomes yours. You begrudgingly take it to your suburban home and, despite your displeasure, realize it really isn't too bad of a house guest. Until the night of the full moon, that is. You wake up to a horrible growling noise and rush downstairs. In place of the dog sits an old man. He wears a nicely pressed white suit and has a thinning patch of curly hair on his head. He smiles at you and introduces himself as your grandfather, who was cursed years ago by your grandmother. She did it to keep the family safe, he tells you with a wicked grin. And with that, he vanishes.
Writing Prompt #1,103
Your wife has recently taken up a job as a pharmacist in your small town. It's a straightforward job, and she's well beloved by the locals, but you sense that she is unhappy. A few months into the job, she starts staying later and later at work, sometimes coming home in the wee hours of the morning. You become suspicious, thinking the worst. One restless night, you decide to pay her a visit at work. You roll into the parking lot near midnight and see that the lights are on inside the pharmacy. You go through the back door and find your wife behind the counter mixing some sort of concoction in a huge cauldron while the other pharmacists stand around her. You have just discovered the local coven.
Writing Prompt #874
On your eighteenth birthday, you notice unexplainable things happening around you. Objects seem to move if you squint at them. Faint, golden sparks seem to shoot from your fingertips. Dreams of a handsome stranger with violet eyes plague you at night. At first, you chalk it all up to your imagination, but a week after your birthday, the mysterious stranger from your dreams approaches you and reveals that you are a high-born fairy who was hidden in the human world as a baby for your protection. You are now coming into a powerful arsenal of magic and are destined to be the ruler of a fairy kingdom that will fall apart if you continue residing in the human world.
Writing Prompt #864
Raised in an orphanage, you know nothing of your magical heritage. However, when you reached the age of maturity, you discovered that you possessed the powers of both the light and the dark. You don't know how your dark powers came to be, but they could get you killed by the magical enforcers: a group sworn to remove black magic from the world. That's why you fled the orphanage in the dead of night and never looked back. You survived on the streets, using your wit and your grit as well as a little bit of your dark powers, but only when absolutely necessary. Now an adult, you still remain in the shadows, keeping to yourself. One fateful night you stumble across an attempted murder. You refuse to watch an innocent man be killed. With no choice but to use your dark powers, you save his life. Little do you know that the handsome man you saved is, in fact, a magical enforcer.
Writing Prompt #794
Something about the new guy in school intrigues you. A loner yourself, you can't fight the magnetic draw you feel to him whenever you lock eyes. One rainy night, while driving home, lightning pierces the sky, enveloping the new guy as he stands on a hill. Worried that he may be hurt, you race up the hill to find his body crackling with electricity. He is overcome with emotion and reveals that he is a Nephilim. The reason you feel connected to him is because you have loved each other for years. His father, the God of all Gods, wiped your memory to keep you apart because it is prophesied that together you will have a powerful child who will rule the Heavens.
Writing Prompt #1,310
You can communicate telepathically with animals. It's a superpower you've had your entire life, one that your parents initially thought was just the result of an overactive imagination. Your sister is insanely jealous of your superpowers. Despite this, you both have gotten along fine over the years, growing up with little to no issues with each other. One day while walking in the forest, a random squirrel tells you that people have been going missing over the last few weeks. You ask other creatures in the forest, and they all tell you that something big is coming. "The forest is dying," they tell you. "The monster is here." You investigate further, asking more questions of the local animals. Eventually, they lead you to the edge of the forest and a construction site where scientists and workers alike congregate over the deepest hole you've ever seen. They leave for the night, but before you can make your way over, you see something crawling its way out. It is large and monstrous. As you watch, it shifts form — from animal to bird and finally settling on a human form. You then realize that it is your sister. Jealous of your abilities, she struck a deal with an entity that fed on her envy, gaining the ability to shapeshift. But this power is slowly killing her. You now have to find a way to free your sister from this creature's influence before it is too late.
Writing Prompt #918
As a fairy, you live in a hidden kingdom deep within woods. Most of your kind grow wings when they reach puberty. However, yours never grew. Now 20 years old, you are shunned by both family and friends. You watch sadly as the rest of your generation takes flight and chooses their mates while you are left on the ground, with no one to share your heart. Dismayed, you leave the kingdom and go elsewhere, hoping to find a wingless mate who will accept you. While on your search, you find a fairy who lost one of his wings during a battle. You aren't sure how he feels, but you instantly fall for him.
Writing Prompt #1,156
Your father is a successful billionaire. For years his company has been on the forefront of technological innovation, always one step ahead of the competition. Unbeknownst to the public, his tech is derived with the help of sorcery. But he's not the only one who uses magic to get ahead. Your entire family is wealthy due to the assistance of the arcane, and you are even a bit of a celebrity because of this wealth. When it comes time to marry, your family expects it to be to a man of equal wealth and success. You, on the other hand, have found love in someone quite the opposite. He is humble and kind — a genius in his own right — but dirt poor. When your father finds out about your beloved, he becomes so furious that he turns the young man into a frog. The curse, he tells you, can only be broken by a princess. He explains that you can be that princess if you marry a Hollywood movie mogul who happens to have relations to royalty. You must make a choice: stay with your newly croaking beau and endure a lifetime of a slimy curse, or free him by breaking both of your hearts.
Writing Prompt #1,056
Against your wishes, your father has sent you off to an all-girls boarding school in a remote part of the Midwest after moving for his job. You attend your classes and make a few friends, but one group of girls in particular strike you as odd. One night you see them silently sneak into the woods and decide to follow. You find them dancing around a small bonfire, singing in harmony. In the flames, you see the outlines of horses flickering, and within moments, real horses burst out of the flames. The girls mount them with glee and ride off into the forest. The next day you confront them about it and learn that they have been practicing magic from an old book in the library. You join in on the fun, but when you learn the origins of the book and the darkness that seeks to take it back, it is up to you to protect the book, your friends, and the school itself.
Writing Prompt #1,138
You are a shy 17-year-old girl who spends most of her time online, particularly in VR chat rooms, where you find it easier to make friends. You are excited about Knight's Brawl, a VR game you've been waiting to play for months. The game allows you to explore an open world full of dragons and fantasy creatures and travel to different arenas to compete against other players. When someone in your online group chat offers you an exclusive beta-testing code, you jump at the opportunity. You boot up the game, and everything looks incredibly realistic. You swear you can even smell your surroundings. But when you enter your first battle and actually feel each blow, you know something is wrong. Only then do you realize that you are no longer playing the game, but are in it, and you — like the others trapped in the beta — have to fight your way to the top of the leaderboard if you want to escape.
Writing Prompt #1,260
You feel like your coven has held you back your entire life, expecting you to follow rule after rule. It has never made any sense to you why witches, with all their power, go out of their way to repress it. That isn't how you want to live your life. You want power and to use your magic whenever and wherever you choose. One night, while the coven is out celebrating the sabbat beneath the full moon, you make your escape and head far away to the first bustling city you find. Right away you use your magic to extort every elected official you encounter, going unchallenged every step along the way. Within five years, you've used your magic to be elected mayor, with everyone of importance in your pocket. Life is perfect. Then one day you receive a letter in the mail, the words spelled out with letters cut out from magazines. The letter is blackmailing you over your witchcraft. Someone knows of your dark secret and wants to be paid off. Furious, you try to use your magic to discover who sent it, but you can't, which makes you realize someone possessing magic must be the culprit. Immediately you suspect your coven. Who else can possibly know enough to attempt to blackmail you? But you need more evidence. You hire an attractive private investigator to work the case, someone who knows about your kind and can get to the bottom of any situation. But what he uncovers is more than you bargained for.
Writing Prompt #969
Desperate for tuition money, you stumble upon a flyer for a drug trial. Three weeks, easy money. Most likely you will get the placebo anyway, but even if you don't, there shouldn't be any lasting effects. Unfortunately, they lied. You wake up, but you aren't you anymore. Given your new shapeshifting abilities, the scientists who administered the drug trial perform experiment after experiment to see just how far your powers can go. Desperate to escape, you enlist the help of another captive with similar abilities. You find that you can speak telepathically to her, and together you plot your escape. As you work together, you discover there is more to her than meets the eye. Her father, a magical shaman from a far-away land, is behind the development of the drug. Now you have to decide if the woman you've fallen for is to be trusted or will eventually betray you.
Writing Prompt #1,100
You are walking down the street one day when you happen upon an upset dog with four small roller skates attached to his paws. You remove his skates, and the grateful dog licks you on the cheek before running away. The next day, you find your best friend's bike in a nearby bush with a flat tire. You bring the bike over to your friend's house, and he thanks you for finding it. That night, you see some sort of creature near your trash can. You go to investigate, only to find your girlfriend's broken charm bracelet at the bottom of the can. When more strange incidents occur in your town, you are convinced that the creature you saw is behind the mayhem, but your parents and other adults don't believe you. With the help of your friends, you decide to set a trap and see who—or what—is behind all of these pranks once and for all.
Writing Prompt #1,087
You and your mother work hard every day to keep your grain farm running in the height of the Great Depression. You feel connected to the land in a way you can't explain, and your mother is a genius at knowing just how to make the crops flourish. Beyond this great closeness to the land, your bond with your mother is unshakable. Life is peaceful and tough, but fulfilling. The only thing missing for you is romance, but you believe that, when it's time, it will come to you. One night, you wake to see a purple orb glowing in the fields. A powerful force compels you to get out of bed and go to it. It's the dead of night, but you can't help yourself. When you get there, you find a hooded man holding a long staff, with the light that led you there emanating from the top of the staff. You don't run or scream, but you can't understand why. Then he greets you by your name: Persephone. He tells you his master would like to meet you. He waves the staff and, to your shock, the ground opens beneath your feet, but you do not fall. Instead, you see a stunning gentleman on a chariot tied to a pair of majestic horses beneath your feet. He asks you to join him for a ride. Before you can reply, your mother's scream rips through the night.
Writing Prompt #1,265
One evening, a young man knocks on your family's front door, seeking shelter from the brutal magic-fed thunderstorm. He is soaking wet and shivering from the cold, so you offer him blankets, a cup of tea, and a spot by the burning fire. He thanks you for your hospitality and tells you that he is on his way to the Kargrove Manor, the home of one of the wealthiest families in your county. You speak of your distaste for the Kargrove family and their varied businesses, making the wealthy wealthier and the poor poorer. The young man says nothing and, once the storm has subsided, leaves your home. The following day, you go to the town center to gather food and materials but are stopped when a large carriage comes clattering down the road. The townspeople part to make way for it, and whispers pick up as people gossip about the carriage's inhabitants. Suddenly, the carriage door opens right in front of you, and you stumble back and fall to the dirt ground to avoid being hit. Grumbling, you see a hand extend in front of your face, offering assistance. When you look up, you spot the familiar features of the young man you welcomed into your home last night as hushed voices rise to declare, "Mr. Kargrove."
Writing Prompt #930
During a business conference in the Greek islands, you hear a sweet and soft song floating on the air from a distance. You walk down the beach, following the sound, and find a woman in the water beckoning you to come closer. You move closer before sitting down on the beach to listen to her voice. Days pass and you become too weak to stand. Nevertheless, you remained entranced by this creature. Suddenly her singing shifts to crying, and she tells you that, although she is the last of her kind, she cannot bear to devour another victim. You vow to help her, not knowing if the love you have for her is true or is a result of the siren's curse.
Writing Prompt #1,262
You have idolized superheroes your entire life and want nothing more in this world than to be one. When you move out of your parents' house, you decide to make your dream come true. You attempt everything: exposing yourself to radiation, getting hit by lightning, allowing every strange-looking spider you come across to bite you… but nothing seems to work. After several failed attempts and a few trips to the hospital, you are almost ready to throw in the towel. However, no matter how hard you try, you can't shake the feeling that you were meant for greatness. Then one day it dawns on you: You don't really need superpowers to protect the innocent from the forces of evil — you can be one of those superheroes who uses gadgets! You quickly download the best CAD software you can find, watch a few YouTube tutorials, and get to work.
Writing Prompt #1,207
You are a teenager who lives next door to an elderly man who has become your friend over the years. You help him out occasionally, watering his garden and chatting while he rests on the porch as well as walking his tiny, yet equally old Pomeranian every night. You both enjoy the company. Despite speaking almost every day, you realize that you know very little about your friend. You decide to interview him for a class project, and he agrees, leading you into his house. The walls are covered with newspaper clippings detailing disasters that were averted over the years, and he tells you that, as a young man, he had a very exciting life. When he leads you into the back room and you see an old superhero suit —one that's been at the center of many urban legends — you know you're in for a good story.
Writing Prompt #1,058
You are in fifth grade when the dreams begin. You find yourself in a version of your hometown that is not quite your hometown. The people are the same, but they dress wildly, in colorful gowns and suits. The town itself is the same, but the buildings are different; the library is a castle, and the local supermarket is built into a large tree in the center of town. When you are in the dream world, no one pays you any mind until one day a boy your age whom you have never seen before realizes that you are not from here. He tells you he isn't either. In fact, he's been trapped here for years. It's up to you to help him—without getting trapped yourself.
Writing Prompt #1,118
Your parents own a small convenience store in the heart of the city in which you live and have always pressured you to carry on the family business. You don't mind picking up a shift or two every so often, but it is not something you want to do for the rest of your life. After a failed semester at your first year of college, you come back to work for your family while you figure things out. Your father tasks you with overseeing the nighttime deliveries. You agree, thinking nothing of it and assuming it's like any other delivery the store gets. He gives you the key to the backroom—one you've never been in before—and leaves you to it. But when a tall, winged creature wearing a baseball cap climbs out of the delivery truck to get you to sign for the shipment, you realize your parents have been hiding something from you. You help unload your first shipment of magical potions, shelving them in the massive backroom among the others, and realize this secret has been going on longer than you thought.
Writing Prompt #1,201
You are a 20-year-old woman working with your uncle at his logging company during the summer. It's not your ideal choice for spending your time, but it is a refreshing change in scenery for you. On your days off, you explore the nearby town and the surrounding woods, although you have been warned not to go out after dark due to the increasing number of wild animal attacks in the area. For the most part, you heed this warning. There isn't much to do anyhow, so you spend most of your time reading in the local diner. You make friends with one waitress who works there, a punk-looking girl with bright red hair and a combative attitude who wants nothing more than to leave the town. You become close. But a few weeks later, your friend goes missing. Despite your search, people have no idea where she's gone, some even claiming that they don't know her entirely. When she suddenly returns the following month, with a different attitude and an unfamiliar wardrobe, you are naturally suspicious. The more you look at her, the more unlike herself she looks. Where there once were freckles, there are none. The piercings she had are completely gone and have even healed without a trace. The worst part? Her eyes are an entirely different color. Convinced that this is not your friend, you decide to find out what exactly happened to her in an attempt to get her back — if she's not already gone forever.
Writing Prompt #1,320
Lord Nigel Briar has been pestering you for your hand in marriage since you were both teenagers. It has become so commonplace for you to deny him that it is a running joke whispered between you and your two sisters and met with a frown from both of your parents. You do not care. Your eyes have always been set on broader horizons, away from your family's countryside estate. In fact, you have been frequenting several symposiums at the local college hosted by a young man who believes he has harnessed the power of flight. Most attendees go simply to scoff at the lad, but you find it fascinating and, moreover, attainable — so much so that you decided to fund his project in secret with some of your hefty allowance. However, you included one stipulation: that you be his first passenger. You help him build a prototype of his magical flying machine and, in turn, build a relationship that is most certainly forbidden. When your parents find out, they promise you to Lord Briar. You are devastated. Now you and your lover must finish the machine before your wedding day in the hopes of escaping a lifetime of monotony.
Writing Prompt #1,123
You are a teenage boy living with your divorced mother in a suburban neighborhood. Every summer your father takes you on a cross-country trip in his RV, visiting whichever tourist trap he decides to drag you to this time. But this summer, your dad has a different plan. He tells you that his work has carried over into the summer, so you'll be traveling up to Maine for a while. He even has a job for you. You agree to go with him. You're not particularly excited about working, but you have to admit that you're intrigued. When you get there, you find out what your father's really been doing for all of these years: hunting demons and banishing them back to their own realm.
Writing Prompt #1,276
The summer of your 17th birthday you decide to drive across country with your best friend. The first few days go smoothly, but on the fourth day, you go to a fortune teller at a travelling carnival who tells you that you're both in grave danger. She's so concerned for your safety, in fact, that she successfully sells you a strange looking talisman that she says will protect you. Uneasy, but laughing it off, you and your friend continue on your journey. But on the fifth day, you notice something following you. It is not a person, per se, but more of a shadow — something constantly on the edge of your vision. When you tell your friend about it, she pauses, horrified, before telling you she's seen the same thing too. At your next campsite, you both are unable to sleep and are even more terrified when you hear a rustling outside your tent. You emerge to find the shadow, who has caught up with you. But it soon takes the shape of a worried young man. Breathless, he tells you that the fortune teller is actually a witch and that he was the last person she cursed with the talisman. His soul has been tethered to it ever since. It is now up to you and your friend to find the witch, free the young man's soul, and save your own.
Writing Prompt #686
You are new in town and determined to blend in and keep a low profile. After securing a job at a local coffee shop, you manage to convince everyone that you are a normal human and not an incubus with a dark past. When a human regular at the coffee shop starts taking an interest in you, you can't help falling for her. Just when you become comfortable in your new routine, an unwelcome reminder in the form of your succubus ex struts back into your life. Before she can blow your cover, you must reveal the truth about yourself to the woman you love.
Writing Prompt #1,092
You and your friend are at a carnival when you come across a booth challenging you to test your strength by pulling a sword out of a stone. The sign promises great fortune. Your friend, who is much more athletic than you, gives it a try without success. The carnival workers poke fun at you, daring you to give it a try. When you do, the rusty old sword comes loose from the rock with ease. Suddenly all eyes are on you, and people begin bowing before you, hailing you as their new king. In fact, anywhere you go now, sword in hand or not, people worship you—so much so that it gets in the way of your everyday life. When someone begins following you around town and bangs coconuts together to mimic the sound of a horse galloping, you have had enough. You are now on a quest to break this strange carnival curse and relinquish the crown you never asked for in the first place.
