Tapping Your Brain to Provide All the Ideas You’ll Ever Need For Stories

Never have writer’s block again

Writer’s block. Stuck. Out of ideas, and wondering if writing is really for you.

Been there? Most writers have experienced writer’s block, the inability to move forward in writing or come up with any new ideas. Stephen Mosley lists 5 types of writer’s block and how to deal with each.

His first suggestion is using writing prompts.

What is a writing prompt?

A writing prompt introduces a specific topic, word, or idea and focuses the writer’s attention to that one specific item.

You may remember this from high school English or composition class, when the teacher assigned an essay to be written during class or due the following day. Your instructor may have been specific as to topic and length, or may have left those decisions up to each student.

Writing prompts work because they spark the imagination and begin a chain reaction in the brain as it begins to research everything it knows on a topic.

The brain asks itself: what have I read, experienced or heard about this subject? And how can I best explain what I know to someone else?

So, how do you find writing prompts?

Fortunately for those who are having difficulty coming up with something to write about, prompts are everywhere. You can make your own list, if you want.

Take a few minutes to brainstorm and write down your areas of interest, your past experiences, hobbies, places you’ve visited, books you’ve read, movies you’ve seen.

Sometimes just the act of thinking about, well, anything really — that doesn’t seem to be related to writing — will ‘unfreeze’ your thought processes and get those neurons moving again.

Need other places to find writing prompts?

Check out some of these resources.

Promptly Written is a publication that provides daily, weekly and monthly writing prompts and encourages writers to “Snag only the ones you like. Write whenever, wherever the mood strikes you.”

Check out the latest Word-A-Day list for the month of May, 2022, provided by editor and writer Christine Graves:

Chevanne Scordinsky tells us how she worked through a recent writing challenge involving a visual prompt. She says:

“This was a challenge. With writing, I am usually conjuring my own images and from there, the words come. I found myself blocked starting the process with a visual prompt. It’s one of the pains of writing but really a key to growth. At my usual publishing time today I had virtually nothing. Slight panic? Slight panic.”

The short story she wrote about bullies and consequences was absorbing and thought-provoking:

Use visual prompts to stir your imagination. Find a great photo (visit Pixabay.com and type in “weird” or “scary” or “strange” in the search box) and see what your unique mind comes up with.

Cindi Dean Wafstet introduced me to a new way to find story or poem ideas using songs. If you’re like me, you’ll immediately start thinking of a mash-up and how you can use it in your writing.

Writing prompts literally are everywhere.

Look up and you see sky, stars, clouds, planes, and perhaps a UFO (or is it a weather balloon?).

Looking down shows you rocks, bodies of water, insects, possibly pollution.

Glance around and you see plants, animals, buildings, books, movies, people and their myriad activities.

Let your mind wander sometimes. Let it rest and it will eventually bring new ideas to you. Fresh writing prompts for fresh new stories.

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