50 Creative Nonfiction Prompts
For the students of English and MBA Dept Did you then think that We created you in vain, and that you would not be returned to us? The Holy Quran 23:115
Guaranteed to Inspire
In the wide world of writing prompts, the options are
slim for creative nonfiction writers. Even the relevant prompts are often
jumbled together with essay and fictional prompts, making it hard for writers
to find what they really want.
But not to worry. I present one whole hefty list of
prompts just for creative nonfiction writers.
One small note before you dive in: don’t be afraid to mix and match the prompts. Each suggestion
was meant to highlight a specific line of inspiration. There is absolutely no
reason that two or three of these can’t be explored within one piece.
In fact, just use my tiny
suggestions as springboards. Good luck!
1. Explore a scene or story from your memory by reimagining it
from an alternate perspective. Write the event from the point of view of a
passing bystander, another person close to the event, a pet, or even an
inanimate object. When choosing your narrator, pay attention to how objective
they would have been, what they would have paid attention to, and what sort of
background knowledge they would have had about the scene.
2. Tell the nonfiction story that you don’t want your mother to
read. You know the one. Don’t censor yourself.
3. Recall a moment in which you felt a strong spiritual or
unidentifiable energy. Describe the scene in vivid detail, with special
attention to the senses. Connect that scene to your relationship with your own
religious beliefs or lack thereof. Examine how you incorporated that experience
into your worldview.
4. Create a timeline of events depicting your life by using
newspaper headlines. Try to focus on events that didn’t involve you directly,
but connect them to the pivotal events in your life.
5. Tell the story of one of your family holiday gatherings.
Identify any of your family’s common trademarks, such as your one aunt that
seems to tell the same joke at every Christmas, or your two uncles that always
hide from the rest of the family by doing the dishes. Explore how you are
linked within this family dynamic, and how these little quirks evolved and
changed over the years.
6. Tell the story of a location. Possibly one that is very close
to your heart that you already know well, or a new one that inspires your
curiosity. Pay particular attention to your own connection to the location,
however small or large that connection may be.
7. Chose a location that you’ve come to know as an adult.
Compare how you interact with this setting now to how you interacted with
similar settings when you were a child. How has your perspective changed?
8. Describe a time in which you expected or wanted to feel a
religious or spiritual moment, but couldn’t. What were you hoping would happen?
How do you choose to interpret that?
9. Recall a key lesson that parents or family members tried to
impart onto you as a child. For example: “live with a healthy mind and healthy
body,” or “put others before yourself.” Revisit that lesson as an adult and
connect it to how you have come to interpret it as you grew up or in your adult
life. Feel free to pick a less serious lesson and have a little bit of fun with
it.
10. Revisit a special birthday from when you were younger.
Describe specific details, with emphasis upon the senses. Now that you have
years of context, how do you feel about what your parents and family did or did
not do for you? What does that event mean to you now?
11. Choose an event in your life that someone else remembers
differently. Describe both memories and debate the differences. Who do you
think is right? Why do you think you remember it differently?
12. Choose a strong emotion and think of two memories associated
with it. What are the links between those two memories?
13. Think of a lesson you learned recently and apply it to a memory.
How would your behavior have changed if you had applied the lesson back then?
14. Choose a commonplace or otherwise unremarkable memory and
describe it in the most dramatic and absurd way possible. For inspiration, I’m
leaving you with some quotes from Douglas Adams. “The ships hung in the sky in
much the same way that bricks don’t.” “He leant tensely against the corridor
wall and frowned like a man trying to unbend a corkscrew by telekinesis.” “It
was a deep, hollow malevolent voice which sounded like molten tar glurping out
of a drum with evil on its mind.”
15. Have you seen those bizarre Illuminati videos in which some
automated voice tries to prove that Arch Duke Ferdinand is actually alive and
has a monopoly on the world’s dairy farms? For this prompt, think of people in
your life who have believed in crazy conspiracy theories, and write about the
time they first shared them with you. Think of how your beliefs might seem
naïve to them, and explore the tension between the competing versions of history.
16. What do you want more than anything in your life? Write
about the burning hot core of your desire, and how that desire has changed over
your life.
17. Recall what stressed you out most as a child. Was it the
creaking stairs leading to the basement? Or being lost at the store? Explore
your current relationship to that stressor. Did you ever move past that fear or
anxiety? How do you interact with it now?
18. What relationship in your life has caused the most pain?
Write the key scene in that relationship, when everything was at stake.
19. Write about a road trip you took, and about where all your
fellow travelers ended up in life versus where you ended up. Are you glad you
didn’t end up where they did, or are you jealous?
20. How has your identity changed over the course of your
life? Write a scene from your teenage years that epitomizes the type of person
you were, and then write a scene from recent life that shows how you’ve
changed.
21. What event in your life has angered you the most? Write the
scene where it happened, and tell us what you would do if it happened again.
22. What single experience most shaped who you are?
Describe the experience in a single, vivid scene.
23. Who was your first friend to die? Write about how you
learned of their death, and how you and their other friends mourned them.
24. Choose a happy or comfortable memory and write it in a
way that makes the memory creepy or eerie to the reader. Don’t change the basic
facts of the event, only select different facts and present them differently.
25. Show yourself in a scene pursuing the thing you want most in
the world. Try to show the reader, without telling them, about your
character flaws.
26. If you could throw five items into the fire, what would they
be and why? To be clear, by throwing them in this fire, there would be no trace
of them left anywhere, even if it’s something on the Internet or a memory. This
is a very powerful fire. What would the consequences be?
27. What physical object or family heirloom ties together
your grandparents, your parents, and yourself? Describe this object in great
detail, and what it has meant to generations of your family.
28. Tell a story from your life in inverted chronological
order. Start with the end, then backpedal to the middle, then tell the
beginning, and then fill in the rest of the gaps.
29. Write about your favorite trip or journey, and how that high
level of happiness was eventually threatened.
30. Look at some photographs of your childhood. Look at the
pictures of your old room, the clothes you wore, and the places you had been.
Try to remember a friend from that time period, and describe the first memory
of a time when they pressured you or made you uncomfortable or angry.
31. Take a small, boring moment that happened today and write as
much as you can about it. Go overboard describing it, and make this boring
moment exciting by describing it in intense detail with ecstatic
prose. Eventually connect this small, boring detail with the grand
narrative of your life, your bigger purpose and intentions.
32. Describe the best meal you ever ate. Then
describe a conflict you had with the people you shared it with, one
that happened before, during, or after.
33. Recall an individual that you particularly hated. Describe
their cruelty to you, and try to write yourself into an understanding of why
they might have done it.
34. What was the best/worst letter you ever received or wrote?
Write about the situation surrounding that letter, and why it was so important.
35. Recall a name you’ve given to a toy, a car, a pet, or a
child, and tell us the story of how you and your family selected that name. Who
fought over the name? What was the significance of that name? What happened to
the animal or thing you named?
36. Write about experiencing the craziest natural event
you’ve ever seen — tornado, earthquake, tsunami, hurricane. Dramatize the
physical danger of the natural event as well as the tension between you and the
people you were with.
37. Tell the story of the most important person that has shaped
your town and its culture (you might have to do some research). How did the
activity of that person influence the way you grew up or live currently?
38. Scientists have wondered for years how nature and nurture
plays into the development of human minds and their choices. Explore where you
and your siblings are today and the choices that brought you there. Would you
like to trade places with your sibling? Would you be happy living in their
shoes? How have your personal choices differed over the years?
39. Write a scene of a time when someone older than you
gave you advice, and write about how you followed it or ignored it and the
consequences.
40. Write a single, three-paragraph scene when your sexual
desire was thwarted by yourself or someone else.
41. Describe a scene when you were stereotyping someone.
Did someone challenge you, or if you only felt guilty by yourself, how did you
change your behavior afterwards?
42. Describe the biggest epiphany of your life, then backtrack
and tell the lead-up to that scene or the aftermath. In the lead-up or
aftermath, show how the epiphany was either overrated or every bit as valuable
as you’d previously thought.
43. Write about a fork in the road in your life, and how you
made the decision to go the direction you did.
44. Explore an addiction you had or currently have. Whether the
addiction is as serious as alcohol or cigarettes, or something much more
mundane like texting, video games, or internet usage, describe in vivid
detail the first time you tried it. If you quit, tell the story of
how you quit.
45. Recall a scene in which you chose to remain silent. Whether
it was your boss’s racist rant, or just an argument not worth having, explore
the scene and why you chose not to speak.
46. Revisit a moment in your life that you feel you will never
be able to forget. What about that moment made it so unforgettable?
47. What makes you feel guilty? Revisit a moment that you are
ashamed of or feel guilty for and explore why that is. Describe the scene and
the event and communicate why you feel this way.
48. Write about a moment in which you acted selflessly or against
your own benefit. What motivated you to do so? What were the circumstances? How
did you feel after words?
49. Write about the most pivotal scene in a relationship with
someone in your extended family — Uncle, aunt, cousin, grandmother. Describe
the tension or happiness you shared, and how that came to affect your
relationship from that point onward.
50. If all else fails, try a writing-sprint. Set an alarm for 5,
10, or 15 minutes and write as much as possible within that time span. Even if
you begin with no inspiration, you might be surprised with what you come up
with by the end.
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