Story Starter

You can use these creative writing story starter prompts in different ways. Click for suggestions. Not inspired by this one? Click the button and get a new story starter at random!

What happens next?

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If you enjoy this tool, check out the books that it is based on

And our Story Starter Prompts on Teachers Pay Teachers

Ideas for Use

There are a million ways to use these stories. They work as personal writing exercises or as a writing group or English class exercise. You can do one a day or one a week, write a short outline, a sketch, or a complete story, even a novel! Here are some ways to interpret the prompts:

Read and finish the story as-is.
Have your whole class/group do it and compare endings.
Write until you come to a cliffhanger, then have someone else finish your story.
You may want to rewrite the story starter to include different details or even a different point of view
Many prompts are more about world-building. Use them as a jumping-off point to write your own story.
Think about what happened before the story started? How did we get here?
Think of an interesting what-if related to the story starter. In a world where monsters are real, what if monsters are scared of people?, for example
Write your own story prompts and share them with others!

Let us know what you do with these, maybe even share your work with us!