Ah, the last prompts of 2025. Not that prompts go bad. Feel free to use these at any time.
As the year rounds out, I’m grateful … to myself, I guess? I’m glad I started writing weekly again. It’s a practice that helps me more than I realized. Now that fiction is once again flowing, I see the benefits.
I hope others enjoy it, too.
If you’d like to get some writing done for yourself and you’re not sure where to start, that’s exactly why I share prompts. Just pick your length and roll with the prompt to get your creative process started.
And if you publish your fiction online, please link back to this page. Thanks!
100-word prompt
Write a short story in any genre that’s 100 words or less and includes the following three words: distant, bicycle, shimmer.
Advanced Challenge: Make your story drabble. Drabble is exactly 100 words, including the title.
500-word prompt
Write a short story in any genre that’s 500 words or less and includes the following elements:
Location: Somewhere designed to look old but is actually new
Item: A half-empty bottle of prescription pills
Character: Someone who is attempting to escape a very polite cult
Feel free to get creative with how you include the elements. The story doesn’t have to be trapped in the location, for example. The way you interpret the character summary can be as unconventional as you like.
Just make sure you touch on each.
Advanced Challenge: Make your story microfiction. Microfiction is 300 words or less.
1,200-word prompt
Write a short story in any genre that’s 1,200 words or less and uses the following situation as a starting point:
Write a story that takes place entirely in the five minutes immediately following an event your main character was absolutely certain would never happen. Focus on the sensory details of their disorientation and their immediate, illogical reaction.
Advanced Challenge: Include the three words from the 100-word prompt.
Happy writing!