The best writing prompts, especially the ones to help you jumpstart your story when it gets stuck, are the ones that already contain tension and potential for conflict. The ones that invite questions and make you, the writer, curious about their outcome.

That’s why the idea of putting two opposing characters together is so potent. It’s also why starting with characters’ flaws gets you in the flow so much faster than starting with their virtues. But we’ll get to those some other time.

Today, I want to bring up another great tool for writing prompts: secrets.

We all have them and so do our characters. Put a few of them together, play around with who knows what and when (including the audience and the narrative point of view!), and bam - you’ve got a story (jump)starter.

Writing exercise #1

Set a timer for 10 minutes and write about one of the following:

• a period of time when you were trying to hide something from other people, ideally something that lasted for a while and made you form a few habits around keeping your secret;
• a time when you knew someone else’s secret and helped them keep it from other people;
• a situation in which someone’s secret came out.

If any of these make you cringe and feel something in your chest or stomach, well, I suggest you gather your courage and write about that one.

Writing exercise #2

Choose three of the following secrets (you can add your own examples - either from the previous exercise or think of new random ones).

Give them to three different characters.

Put these characters together in a situation where they are doing something together, for example assembling furniture, decorating a room for a party, or investigating crime.

1. This character has witnessed a murder.
2. This character has cheated on their partner.
3. This character caught someone else cheating on their partner.
4. This character stole a valuable object.
5. This character broke a valuable object.
6. This character is a spy.
7. This character recently received a lot of money.
8. This character is heavily in debt.
9. This character has a gambling problem.
10. This character is trying to quit drinking alcohol.
11. This character doesn’t know how to drive.
12. This character is going to move to a different country.
13. This character has seen a ghost.
14. This character almost died yesterday.
15. This character writes famous novels under a pseudonym.
16. This character’s family is super rich.
17. This character is dealing drugs.
18. This character is pregnant.
19. This character was fired recently.
20. This character was recently promoted.
21. This character went bankrupt.
22. This character knows another character’s secret.
23. This character is not human.
24. This character knows about a political conspiracy.
25. This character has changed their religious beliefs.
26. This character cheated on a test.
27. This character has health problems.
28. This character started a false rumour about another character.
29. This character has quit school.
30. This character got a new job.

Have fun and let me know how it goes!

Stay creative

Katja