A Gift to Spark Your Creativity – 30 Free Writing Prompts

It’s that time of year again!

I’m not talking about Halloween, wearing flannel, or drinking Pumpkin Spice Lattes. I’m talking about my birthday, silly!

And every year around my birthday I like to take a day off and spend a good chunk of the day with me, myself and I.

I work out, I take myself to a slow lunch at a nice restaurant, I go to the beach, I go shopping, I think.

It’s always fun to see where my mind goes when I quiet the noise around me.

Last week, while on said birthday date, I took out pen and paper and jotted down a list of 30 creative writing prompts while enjoying a Spicy Thai Salad and Cucumber Collins.

If you’ve been here long enough, you know that every November, I write 30 children’s stories based on short prompts to get the creative ideas flowing. I do this for a national challenge called Children’s Book Writing Month or #ChiBoWriMo. This is a spin-off of the long-standing challenge – #NaNoWriMo , but way more fun, in my opinion! 🙂

I like to share the list ahead of time for those that also want to challenge themselves to get in the habit of getting creative each day.

For me, the stories I write in November end up being the starting point for what gets published the following year.

For instance, my newest release How to Sell a Flower, was written last November and published this September.

Give yourself the gift of creativity by setting aside thirty minutes each morning to take a prompt and put pen to paper.

Please don’t take each prompt too seriously. These are meant to be rough (rough) drafts.

The more important aspect is to show up each day and challenge yourself to start each and every story.

Sometimes, it takes a while to get started. Don’t be afraid to sit with a prompt and twist it over in your mind for a bit. This specific part of the process may be more valuable than the actual story you come up with.

Think of it this way:

You will be building your creative muscle every single morning.

What a cool gift to give yourself!

(I’d rank it right up there with giving yourself the gift of alone time)