Camp NaNoWriMo has just ended. With a 50,000 word goal in mind, I managed to write a whole 2,688 words. Hold your applause, readers.
One big problem I had is that I was unable to let go and simply write. My writinghad to come out the exact way I intended, and I refused to accept anything else. When that didn't happen, the writing stopped. Apparently, my subconscious mind has never heard of editing.
However, that's is not the problem I mean to address in this article.
Another problem I had was not knowing exactly what to write about. I had a general idea, but it rarely felt like it was working. That, or it felt like I was unable to connect the scenes I had in mind. This is the problem I mean to address with this article. To any of my readers who are interested in writing in any way, I present ten very helpful writing blogs that primarily provide prompts to get the creative juices flowing. Some also provide tips in regards to editing, pacing, worldbuilding, character development and a host of other things. They also update regularly.
Pretty much all of these blogs are for people interested in writing fiction, so they won't help as much with something like...I don't know...writing an article for The Odyssey Online, but take these blogs and enjoy them in good health!
Like the name of the blog suggests, these prompts are for people who don't want to put a lot of effort into writing. That sounds like a contradiction in terms, but most of us got into writing, because we found it...fun? Imagine!
This blog provides quick, often silly, quote-based prompts that may blossom into something immense with the right writer. The blog is up to almost two hundred prompts at the moment. It offers a "random post" feature to pick a prompt for you, and there's a search engine within the blog. It's literally never been this easy to find prompts.
The name is really on the nose, but there's nothing wrong with what you see being what you get. This blog is up to 264 prompts at the time of writing this article. It welcomes prompt submissions from other writers, and the blog moderators accept and answer messages asking for advice.
3. Character Development Prompts and Considerations
This blog is probably one of my favorites, because it helps with writing fully developed characters. The blog does this by asking innocuous questions about the character an author is trying to write. This can be about anything ranging from personality traits to what they are like in a relationship to whether or not they prefer to use mouthwash. It helps writers figure out habits and quirks for their characters that make them seem that much more realistic. Most of this blog is based around questions for a writer to answer about their characters, but it also reblogs other articles about character development.
It also updates multiple times a day most days.
This blog isn't as generalized as the previous ones have been, but it's still a solid one for prompts and writing advice. It provides image- and quote-based prompts in addition to situational prompts. It reblogs comprehensive posts and sources for research purposes. The blog also accepts and answers messages requesting writing advice, and it accepts submissions of people's writing. They basically help writers gain a following in addition to providing advice and prompts.
5. Prompts Blog
This aptly named blog is almost exclusively prompts. The prompts are mostly situations that a character can get into, but there are also quote—and imagebased blogs. The blog accepts ideas for prompts from followers. The blog will also reblog/accept submissions of written pieces based on their prompts. Like Fantasy Writing, this blog is interested in helping writers develop a following.
These blogs are a solid start for anyone having trouble finding something to write about. Y'all little writers go have fun now.
