Nature inspires, and so do these creative writing prompts.
Today’s post includes a selection of prompts from my book, 1200 Creative Writing Prompts. Enjoy!
Creative writing prompts are excellent tools for writers who are feeling uninspired or who simply want to tackle a new writing challenge. Today’s creative writing prompts focus on nature.
For centuries, writers have been composing poems that celebrate nature, stories that explore it, and essays that analyze it.
Nature is a huge source of inspiration for all creative people. You can find it heavily featured in film, television, art, and music.
Creative Writing Prompts
You can use these creative writing prompts in any way you choose. Sketch a scene, write a poem, draft a story, or compose an essay. The purpose of these prompts is to inspire you, so take the images they bring to your mind and run with them. And have fun!
- A young girl and her mother walk to the edge of a field, kneel down in the grass, and plant a tree.
- The protagonist wakes up in a seemingly endless field of wildflowers in full bloom with no idea how he or she got there.
- Write a piece using the following image: a smashed flower on the sidewalk.
- A family of five from a large, urban city decides to spend their one-week vacation camping.
- An elderly couple traveling through the desert spend an evening stargazing and sharing memories of their lives.
- A woman is working in her garden when she discovers an unusual egg.
- Write a piece using the following image: a clearing deep in the woods where sunlight filters through the overhead lattice of tree leaves.
- Some people are hiking in the woods when they are suddenly surrounded by hundreds of butterflies.
- A person who lives in a metropolitan apartment connects with nature through the birds that come to the window.
- Write a piece using the following image: an owl soaring through the night sky.
- A well-to-do family from the city that has lost all their wealth except an old, run-down farmhouse in the country. They are forced to move into it and learn to live humbly.
- Two adolescents, a sister and brother, are visiting their relatives’ farm and witness a sow giving birth.
Again, you can use these creative writing prompts to write anything — poems, stories, songs, essays, blog posts, or just sit down and start freewriting.
lovely prompts… really simple line or two that just strikes up imagery and let you freestyle all over it. Nice one
Thanks, Rory!
thanks for the good ideas good short story for someone in grade 8
Thanks. I just read through your list of prompts and got flashes of either beginnings or endings for stories from every one.
I’ve not seen prmopts like these much on the web, so well done. Such a simple idea with so much power and potential. If only I had the day off to get cracking!
I love to create and use writing prompts, and I’m glad you found these to be useful. Thanks!
Hello. Supernatural or magic realism is pretty much all I write.
I’ve got a prompt. ‘A young teenager is walking home during a storm and ends up getting struck by lightning. The next day they wake up to find that the accident turned them into an inhuman being.’
I’ve heard of this type of scenario before and I thought it would make for a great story.
I love creating my own ideas of course but writing prompts are just fun challenge myself with and see what I can create out of already given ideas. I really like the prompts you give. As I said they are enjoyable to mess around with.
Thanks for sharing your prompt, Kristen. I agree that prompts are fun and can be challenging. I’m glad you like these. Keep writing!
#7 Woodland Clearing
Winter trees screen blue and sunny skies,
Intense but icy light the heat belies.
Spikey, naked, dormant maids and men
Wait for the earth to turn around again.
And bring the warmth that touches every thread
Of bark and twigs and all that acted dead
Until the full-blown leaves create a wall
Shortening the view until late fall
When sun and clouds break through the limbs again
And show clear-cut those lacey maids and men
Black for a time against the coldest air
While waiting for the Spring to deck them fair
With leaves that seem to turn the world to green
Creating hidden meadows only seen
By animals and birds and mist and rains.
For ages before calendars and trains.
Humanity intrudes in such a place
And fools themselves that they have found a space
Where they belong beneath the patchy light
To rip and tear and exercise their might.
For meadow edges have no need to stand
Between the woods and grassy, open land
Where bugs and bears and buntings feel the sun.
‘Till people think they do what must be done.
April 27, 2019
Hi Jennifa. Thanks for sharing your lovely poem here.
That is a stunningly good poem, Jennifa. Far more worthy than just an obscure comment thread here. I hope you found a home for it where more eyes will see it. If you are published anywhere, I’d love to find out.
Wow. These are truly amazing prompts! Just a few lines of inspiration and now my mind is filled with creativity. Please come up with more! <3
You’ll find plenty more in the Writing Prompts section of the Blog menu.
these are really helpful
Thanks, Flo! I’m glad you found them helpful.
What lovely prompts. I’m going to do some free writing and see what comes out.
And maybe a poem or two.
Good luck!