Creative Writing Ideas – My Mom is the Worst

30 Free Story Prompts to Unleash Your Inner Creative

November is right around the corner, and I couldn’t be more excited. Every year, I dedicate this month to unleashing my creativity. I work in a very data-heavy job, and my creative side often gets pushed to the back burner. But for the last five years, November has been different—I wake up early each morning, sit down with a notebook or laptop, and write. Every single day.

A few years ago, I adapted National Novel Writing Month (#NaNoWriMo) for children’s authors and created Children’s Book Writing Month: #ChiBoWriMo. The challenge is simple and fun—write one story a day using an open-ended writing prompt. With this framework, I’ve written more than 150 children’s stories across five cozy Novembers, and today I’m sharing 30 brand-new prompts to help you start your own creative sprint.

But in full transparency… I’m switching things up this year. After writing 150 children’s stories, I think it’s okay—maybe even necessary—to give my brain a new adventure. So I’m taking it full circle and hopping on the #NaNoWriMo train. This children’s book writer is about to attempt a full-length adult novel!

Will I hit the official 50,000-word goal in November? Honestly, we’ll see. My true goal is to finish a complete rough draft by the end of the year. Wish me luck as I attempt to double (or quadruple!) my daily word count. Here’s to trying new things, stretching our creativity, and letting November surprise us.

And if you love women’s fiction, please reach out—I’m going to need a fresh group of beta readers!

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)

Finally Ready to Write Your Children’s Book? 30 Story Prompts to Help You Feel Creative

So you have an idea for a children’s book. A very good one I’m sure. Now what? I want you to take one morning and write it down. A super rough draft is fine, but get it down on paper or typed on your computer.

Guess what I am going to challenge you to do next? Write 30 more stories. What? Your goal was one. I know, I know. But this will be fun. Stick with me.

Let your story sit for a month and write some other stuff you didn’t plan on. It’s a good exercise to get your creative juices flowing, and will make you a better writer when you go back to your first story and write draft number two.

Every November writers work on completing a novel in one month (#NaNoWriMo), and us children’s book writers engage in #ChiBoWriMo – where we write a short story a day in November.

Grab your notebook and pen, and schedule in 30 minutes a day in November to use the list of story prompts below to take you from blank page to rough draft in about 30 minutes.

Stick to it! You will be amazed by the book of stories you end up with. You may even find a new favorite. But even if you head back to your original idea, you will be 30x the writer you were just a month ago!

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