PROMPTS FOR WRITING
LITERATURE THEMES
Love – War – Revenge – Betrayal – Good vs Evil – Redemption – Friendship – Family – Death – Coming of Age – Love and Marriage – Forgiveness – Identity – Youth – Prejudice – Justice – Change vs Tradition – Power – Individual vs Tradition – Social Class – Fate vs Society – Courage – Rebellion – Humanity – Fear – Hate – Violence – Hubris – Race – Money – Greed – Repuation – Woman and Feminitiy – Opression – Poverty – Sacrifice – Survival – Hypocrisy – Religion – Science – Sin – Weath Alienation – Innocence – Sexuality – Madness – Crime – Deception – Temptation – Technology – Ambition – Suffering – Education – Time – Isolation – Moral Corruption – Loneliness – American Dream – Gender Roles – Beauty – Freedom – Gothic Elements – Storytelling – Corruption – Secrecy – Memory and the Past – Repression – Loyalty – Knowledge vs Ignorance – Manipulation – Jealousy – Adultery – Guilt – Dissatisfaction – Morality – Community – Man and the Nature – Circle of Life – Censorship – Appearance vs Reality – Social Injustice – Self-improvement – Perseverence – Passion vs Reason – Motherhood – Language and Communication – Limits of Knowledge – Honour – Conformity vs Individuality – Faith and Doubt – Injustice – Hope
Pretty easy to understand. Pick a theme and start writing until something clicks. You don’t have to use everything you write but the writing part is kind of important.
PHILOSOPHY
I often use famous quotes to help me find a story. It’s especially easy when these quotes mean something. Philosophy is the study of knowledge and meaning. Finding quotes that try to understand people and the universe is one of my hobbies outside of writing. Which should come as no surprise considering my interest in psychology, but it makes it easy to find a bunch of good writing prompts too.
For example, ‘you will burn and you will burn out; you will be healed and come back again.’ by Fyodor Dostoevsky (he’s one of my favourites). There is a few ways I might break this apart.
First, I might split this quote into the two parts, write a story about burning out and then resting and coming back again. Perhaps from the perspective of someone struggling to complete a particularly difficult assignment.
Second, I can take a another perspective of an actual burn victim, and the road to recovery. This I would make more impressionistic. While dialogue can be a powerful way to info dump, it’s often more powerful to show snippets of information to your audience through particular word choices. Something like, ‘I pull on my shirt, careful to avoid brushing the scars along my arms despite the long gone pain they once caused.’
And while there are many other ways to take this quote, the last one I will mention comes from a supernatural perspective. I want to write fantasy one day so this should be no surprise either (if you’ve read the encyclopedia). From a supernatural perspective, I would write about a magic user whose abilities rely on mental and physical endurance. The more magic used the more it burns a user out. This would work much like the first scenario, but I would play into the unrealistic aspects. For example, I might make my character die. Then I would bring them back again as something different.
And that’s how you use a quote to write a story. I might add other broad avenues to explore later down the track, but this is it for now. Happy writing!
