Perhaps, more times than you can count, you have searched for websites that offer writing prompts. Maybe you felt stuck in your creative process and needed to jog your creative wheels and get them unstuck. But maybe you never stopped to ask yourself (until now, which is why you are reading this article), “What is a narrative prompt?”
Thankfully, the answer to that question is a simple one—and will hopefully help you develop your own prompts that inspire you in your stuck moments and create fun for you and your fellow writers.
Narrative Prompt Definition
A narrative prompt can simply be defined as any writing prompt that helps jumpstart your own story. Essentially, narrative prompts take your eyes off a novel or story as a whole (in all its daunting bigness, I might add) and focus you on specific parts such as a scene, an emotional moment, a character, a comical situation, or the like. Narrative prompts are specifically designed to help you focus your creative energies on one small part of an overall project so that you both feel at ease and motivated to go on and write beyond the prompt. Think of narrative prompts as training wheels on a bike that kickstart your creative thinking.
Narrative Prompt Examples
That being said, narrative prompts come in a vast number of varieties. Remember, each of these narrative prompts is meant to lay the groundwork for a bigger project. Using these ideas is not plagiarism, although some younger writers may worry they are stealing if they build on the original idea. If you feel particularly bothered by it, you could always add an acknowledgment that references where the original idea came from—a practice that fellow writers will definitely thank you for!
Setting Narrative Prompt
One kind of narrative prompt poses a possible scene in which you and your character would have to exist. The scene prompt narratives ask you to imagine what a possible world would be like that is off-kilter or differs in some way from your normal one. For instance, a narrative scene prompt might ask you to imagine a world where water does not exist as the liquid of life but is replaced by some other valuable substance. The benefits of these prompts include the freedom to just think about setting (building that out with all its respective rules and world-specific logic) without having to worry about characters or plot.
Challenge yourself in the next 30 seconds to craft your own setting prompt. Sit by a window and observe the flora and fauna, light, and infrastructure outside. Write each item down on one side of a sheet of paper, then write down an alternate idea on the opposite side of the page, thus building a list of parallel but unique items that you can give fellow writers to play around with when building a scene.
Character Narrative Prompt
This prompt allows you to focus on potential characters by posing different hypotheticals such as imagining what the last person on earth would say, what a post-apocalyptic grocery shopper would look like, or what a person with X-ray vision would write in their college essay. (Hey, there’s an idea! Don’t forget to check out our fictional character college essay prompt!) These character narrative prompts are also good because—in exact reverse of the setting prompts—they allow you to focus all your energy on the character description and development alone. You can later tweak your character, add to them, or change them altogether. The point is, your creative juices are now flowing, and you hopefully have more direction than you did before when looking for a character that will entertain you and drive your creative passion.
Plot Narrative Prompts
This kind of narrative prompt asks you to imagine that a character is doing something unusual or harrowing. These prompts continuously ask, “What would happen if…” Such prompts may ask you to imagine what would happen if a king was abducted during an alien invasion, what would happen if you could travel back in time to meet a historical figure, or what would happen if your pet dog suddenly spoke to you. I personally think you can do the most with this kind of prompt and create the wackiest, creativity-inspiring questions.
For this prompt, challenge yourself to think of the most impossible situations that you can—then pretend that they are possible. The work that is required by these prompts—work that requires you to think outside the box and offer the answer to a “what if”—is the same work that will start your creative engine and spur you on in your writing journey.
Conclusion
Even while you consume the thousands of narrative prompts that are out there in the writing world, take a moment to consider how you can also add this to this rich store. Record funny real-life events and ask, “What if?” about them, considering them from every possible angle. Consider what unique or strange characters you could encourage fellow writers to consider. Observe your everyday surroundings and stretch your imagination to conceive of a surrounding that is similar but vastly different to your own.
Really, narrative prompts are yoga for your creative brain. They are not as intense as running a marathon but still get your creativity out of bed and force it to start something. Thus, always come to a narrative prompt like a potential story—but never forget to also kick back a bit and just have fun!
About the author
Alaina Suttles is a senior at Pensacola Christian College where she is studying for a bachelor's degree in professional writing. When she was still in high school, Alaina discovered Write the World and fell in love with its welcoming community. She won runner-up for a Write the World fantasy competition and later won first place for her college's creative fiction competition. As a young writer, Alaina was grateful to discover Write the World's community of fellow writers, where she could share her work and experience constructive and kind criticism that helped her grow her writing skills. Now, as a summer intern, she hopes to build that same confidence in other young writers and to encourage them to put their talents to the best use.
