Writing prompts are a good head start. Maybe you are too bored or stuck in your writing. We got some oil for the wheels. This collection of prompts should get you well on your way to your next short story. Maybe you’d even write a bestseller. Check it out!


Fiction prompts:

  1. A married woman falls in love with a married man and determines to end her marriage and elope with the new lover.
  2. An ordinary, unsuccessful writer discovers that all his stories come to life at night.
  3. A man asks a friend to write a fiction story for him and he publishes it as his. 20 years later, the original writer surfaces and insists he gives him credit for the book.
  4. A lady has an affair with a married man in the office. He lies to her for two years that he will divorce his wife and marry her. She finally he is stringing her along.
  5. A detective unknowingly falls in love with the man she is investigating. He secretly sabotages her plans. 
  6. Your mother in law moves in with you for a supposedly short holiday but refuses to leave.
  7. On a flight, you took a trip to the toilet and overhead two guys plotting to hijack the plane. It’s up to you to save the day.

More Fiction Prompts:

  1. Wild car chase involving a squad car and an SUV ends up with a dead guy even though he had no weapons on him. Is he really the bad guy?
  2. You are an assassin, and a hit is advertised in the underworld. You are in a race against time to save the target, because he’s your long lost brother.
  3. Your girlfriend gets your car impounded, but you are in a fix because in the boot is 20kg of pure cocaine powder you need to supply, and the mafia boss is on your neck
  4. 3 Siblings team up to take down the organization that killed their parents when they were kids
  5. You woke up on the morning of your wedding and saw these words in your bride’s writing: I am going to kill you
  6. It’s the day before the world ends. You have a chance to kill someone to save the whole world.
  7. On your 20th anniversary, you find out your wife aborted her first pregnancy. Complete the story.
  8. Develop the line: Tomorrow, I will put off my priestly robes and sleep with my brother’s wife in the confessional.

Poetry Prompts:

  1. Goodbyes. It’s now or never. Write about a time in your life when you said goodbye to someone.
  2. Time Travel. You have to go back in time to save something or someone. It’s risky.
  3. Ghost Rider. Imagine an invisible person takes you for a ride on his horse.
  4. Recipe. Write a poem about your favorite Recipe.
  5. If you met a person named Time, what would you say to them.
  6. Flashback: If you had a superpower that made you see people’s past and what they could have done better, how would you use it?

Nonfiction Prompts:

  1. Write about a moment in your life you are too ashamed to tell your closest friend about. Make them see why you kept it a secret.
  2. What’s the most interesting place you visited in recent years. Write a scenario of things you wish you had done or images you should have captured.
  3. If your pet had to be put down for being sick with a contagious disease, what would you say about it at it’s burial?
  4. Imagine the President was your brother and his decision is going to cause a war or genocide, what would be this decision you think could be so catastrophic and why are you against it?
  5. Write the story of the first time you realized you would fail at something you really wanted to succeed at.
  6. What’s your opinion on the proposed law to control the number of children women give birth to in Nigeria? Don’t you think it should be men instead?
  7. If Elon Musk made relocation to Mars affordable tomorrow, would you go or stay? Why?
  8. There are points in our daily lives at which we depart from common sense in the name of culture and faith. Which ones do you see around you everyday
  9. What did you learn from your last relationship?

Hope this helps you as much as it helped us.

This collection was made possible by the cfwriterz team: Rahilla Dantata, Jeff Ugochukwu, Oladeji Jonathan, Chukwu Dominic, Mide Adeleke and Michael Tolulope Emmanuel. 

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