Author skills | Writing prompts
10 Money-Related Writing Prompts
Earning, double-dealing, and cashing in.
Time for another weekly list of writing prompts. As I said recently, I am re-thinking some of my regular publishing on Medium, but the prompts are here to stay!
The focus this time is on something that is much-discussed on Medium: money. And it can be a big deal in stories, too, from murder mysteries to bank heists.
If you are doing the 💯 Story Challenge, or just want to increase your output of short stories or flash fiction, check out a list with all my prompt articles here.
Idea 1
A character wakes up in a foreign land, with no memory of how they got there. They have only a few banknotes in their pocket… and those turn out not to be legal tender where they are. Describe how their day turns out.
Idea 2
We hear a lot about superpowers, but less about how superheroes pay the bills and balance the books. Write a short interview with a superhero where this is discussed.
Idea 3
Write a scene or flash fiction story about a character who can’t help but brag about their wealth.
Idea 4
Write a story, chapter or scene where one character is a spendthrift, and another is very cautious with money. There could be conflict in a family/relationship, for example, or perhaps one character is trying to persuade the other to take a risk.
Idea 5
Write about a futuristic society where money is now a thing of the past. But is a positive or a negative change? Perhaps, in line with Zane Dickens’ ‘Hope Springs Eternal’ prompt, you could consider both a utopian or a dystopian outcome.
Idea 6
Write a short, tense scene in which a character has just gained a lot of money and has to take it somewhere safe. It could be a contemporary story where someone wins big or gets a lot of backpay, fantasy fiction where they find a treasure horde, or anything else that you choose. The key thing is that they have way more money than they feel comfortable carrying around. What kind of obstacles could get in the way of making it home with the loot?
Idea 7
Write a flash fiction story or drabble from the perspective of a coin.
Idea 8
Write an account of a night of gambling. Perhaps it has ends well, perhaps not — it’s up to you!
Idea 9
Write the first chapter of a story in any genre, focusing on someone starting a money-making enterprise. They could be a future crime lord, but in this story, they are starting small! Hopefully we see just enough to recognize their potential.
Idea 10
Write a drabble in which a character asks for a raise. It could go either way — your choice!
What I published recently
I’ve decided to experiment with combining my ‘weekly review’ articles (where I say what I published over the last week) with these lists of prompts. This is in part because a lot of my output relates to prompts and writing challenges 😆
However, as I just shared a weekly review article on Saturday, there are only two new ones to report on this time. First, I shared an update on the Choose Your Own Adventure — Collaboration publication, and announced a fun forthcoming project:
And then yesterday, I published my review of ‘Searching for Charity’ by Jann Christoph von der Pütten:
If you have a web-novel on Medium, why not submit it to the same publication? We’d love to take a look!
I share a list of prompts every week, as well as other pieces about the craft of writing, and occasional short stories and web-novel chapters. Get my articles by email here.
