Creative Writing Prompts & Other Writing Exercises

Creative writing prompts can be extremely useful, just like warming up for a jog it is important to get your mind in the right form before you plunge ahead into your story.  I have even based a few chapters in my book off of a few prompts, you just never know where your pen will take you!


My collection of creative writing prompts.

• Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life - Natalie Goldberg:  Easy to find and work through, and some of the exercises were actually quite enjoyable!
• What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers (3rd Edition) - Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter: The older editions are easy to find used, and much cheaper.  Very effective exercises and lessons.
• The Writer's Idea Book - Jack Heffron: The reviews do not lie, with over 400 prompts Jack takes your creative energy for a ride and provides an amazing platform for dealing with dreaded writers block.
• The 3 A.M. Epiphany: Uncommon Writing Exercises that Transform Your Fiction - Brian Kiteley: An uncommon approach to writing prompts that should be on your shelf (also by Brian, 4 A.M. Breakthrough: Unconventional Writing Exercises That Transform Your Fiction).

There are scores of books with writing prompts out there, these just happen to be the ones I came across. Please recommend others that you have found useful.  Additionally, there are online writing prompts, though I have not used them these are the online writing prompts that I have heard of (again, please recommend others):

• Writer's Digest - a large collection of writing prompts (with word limits and the ability to post your response).
• Creative Writing Prompts - scroll over a number and a prompt appears!  What you see is what you get, if you are looking for a prompt this is not a bad place to start (it is not instructive by any means).

Do you have any other sources for creative writing prompts?