20 Fun and Creative Writing Prompts for Kids | Great for Reluctant Writers
Fun and Creative Writing Prompts for Kids
Sometimes all it takes is a wacky idea to get kids creativity flowing, ideas churning, and ultimately, writing!
The best way to get anyone to write, is by offering them sources of ideas and inspiration. Once an idea has been sparked, kids will usually run with it. There are exceptions of course, but the main reason that kids will refuse to write, is because they don’t want to be forced to write about something that they are not interested in. I’m sure you can recall feeling the same way back when you were in school.
Kids Need Wacky Ideas for Inspriation
Kids might not be on the hunt for story ideas or inspiration, so they might not find any in the ordinary everyday life, but a wacky idea will catch a kid’s attention.
Story prompts can be a wonderful tool for getting kids, especially reluctant writers, to write stories. You can find hundreds of thousands of story prompts for kids on the internet if you know where to look. Typically a quick google search or pinterest search will render you many to choose from.
How to Choose a Story Prompt for Your Kid
Whether you are choosing a story prompt for one child, or many, it doesn’t really matter, you may want to consider this tip:
If you are dealing with reluctant writers, then it may be a good idea to encourage them to choose a prompt for themselves from a prepared list from you. Oftentimes kids respond better if they get to choose what they are going to be writing about as opposed to if they are told what they have to write about. Refer back to being in school.
Some Story Prompts for Kids to Get You Started
- If you a million dollars to spend on anything at all, what would you do or buy with it? Why did you choose to use your million dollars that way?
- If you could travel to anywhere in the world by just snapping your fingers or clapping your hands, where would you go? Why there? What would do there?
- If you could write a letter to the Pope, the Queen, or the President, what you include in that letter?
- Pretend you are a song lyric writer and you have just been given a commission to write the words for the first song to be played on the planet Jupiter. What would the song be about? Write the song lyrics and set it to music or make the music up for yourself.
- If you could have a conversation with any famous person, dead or living, who would it be? What would you ask them? What would they answer? Write the conversation down.
- Pretend you are a famous book critic and you have been given the job of writing a review for your favorite book. Write the review and don’t forget to include details like what you like about the book, what you wish was different about the book, how many stars you give it, who you would recommend it to, and why you think people should read it.
- Pretend you are journalist and have be given the task of writing a newspaper article about one thing of your choosing. It could be about a certain park or zoo you love to visit and explain why other should visit it too. It could be about an interesting bug or plant you came across, or why all dogs should have names that start with the letter L. The topic of the newspaper article can be real or fake, it doesn’t matter. You can make something up if it makes a good story.
- If you could have any known animal for a pet and know that it wouldn’t be able to hurt you or others, just be your best friend, which animal would it? What would it be like to have that animal for a pet?
- If you could invent a machine or device that would make people’s lives easier, what would you invent? What would it look like? How would it would? How would it make people’s lives easier?
- Imagine yourself into one of your favorite books or movies. What would do there? Which of the characters would you talk to? Who would you be most excited to meet? Who would you be least excited to meet?
- If you could design your dream home, what it would it look like? Where would it be? Would it be big or small? How many rooms would it have? What would each of those rooms have in it?
- Imagine you traveled several hundred years into the future. What does the world look like? What do the people look like? How do they dress? What do they do? What do houses look like? Are there robots in the future?
- What would the world look like if electricity had never been discovered?
- Think of a famous person that you admire. What would the world look like now if they had never been born? How would the world be different? How would you be different?
- If you could travel back in time to any time period in any place, when and where would you? What would you do there? Would you go there to meet a certain person? Who would that person be?
- If you could rewrite just one scene in any book or movie, what scene would it be? Why would you change it? What would you change it to?
- If you could change the ending of any book or movie, which book or movie would you choose? Why would change the ending? What would you change it to?
- If you could choose between being able to fly or being able to time travel without changing the future, which would you choose? Why? What would you do with the superpower?
- Create your own superhero. You can give him or her as many special powers of your choosing as you want. What would their special powers be? What would they look like? What do they do? How did they become superheroes? What was their most heroic action so far?
- If you could change just one thing in the world right now that could affect millions of people for the better, what would that one thing be? Why would you choose that one thing? How would it affect the world as we know it now?
Story Prompts Can Help Kids Write
There you have twenty story prompts for kids of all ages to get your started. Having the child in question take a look at some story prompts themselves may be a really good idea to get them excited about writing.
If you are looking for more writing related tips and resources, please browse the blog page to find similar content.
