1,000 Creative Writing Prompts: Ideas for Blogs, Scripts, Stories and More

Writing Prompts, Story Ideas, and Much, Much More

Story inspiration can come from many places, but there are days when it's down-right impossible to find one good idea. When it comes to non-fiction writing, such as for my writers' blog, I've been known to hit bedrock at the bottom of the idea well.

That is, until today.

I received a review copy of Bryan Cohen's "1,000 Creative Writing Prompts" a few weeks ago, and I must admit I didn't have very high expectations. Regular readers of my blog know I'm not a big fan of writing prompts. Most of them are isolated exercises that, like free-writing, are designed to "prime the pump." Such exercises feel wasteful of my creative energy. I want to be able to use what I write, and that isn't always possible with the average story prompt.

Cohen's introduction immediately dispelled my doubts. It is well-written and lays the foundation for how to use his story idea questions effectively. (Very practical!) I personally found this instructive, and I've been at this for a lot of years! But I'm getting ahead of myself.

When I set out to review "1,000 Creative Writing Prompts: Ideas for Blogs, Scripts, Stories and More," instead of reading every word in this 100-page volume, I did what I expect an average reader would do -- devour the introduction and skim through the prompts until a category, sub-category, or individual prompt caught my interest.

My evaluation: Bryan Cohen's prompts are pure genius in their construction.

Please don't misunderstand. I don't mean that I liked ALL the prompts. There were many I didn't care for, but that will be true for anyone. There were subcategories, for example, that rubbed me the wrong way. Such reactions, however, should not rule out using those prompts. On the contrary, writing about a topic you are passionately opposed to could turn out to be some of your best writing, because you're speaking from your heart.

The thing I love most is that his technique for creating these 1,000 prompts is truly inspired. They are written as questions.

What's inspired about that? Our brains, when presented with a question, immediately begin to find an answer. Cohen has organized these question-prompts into 12 categories that should resonate with nearly everyone. From holidays to seasons, from memories to "the weird," there is something for even the pickiest writer.

So you'll have to excuse me now. I'm heading back over to his mystery and fantasy prompts, hoping to find some story inspiration of my own. You could be writing up a storm within a few minutes yourself.

If you're a writer who needs a boost in the creativity department at least occasionally, don't pass up this bargain of a book! It should be on every writer's Nook.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Gives me something to write about

Good book! It gives a lot of ideas on a variety of topics. it helps me find and reflect on what's interesting to my own life, what is interesting to me, and it would also work as a starting place for fiction. Drawn from the simple experiences and feelings of life, these prompts could produce widely varied kinds of writing.The prompts are flexible.

Meh

To answer the question brought up in "HELP" about the age appropriateness... eh. Certainly if you read every prompt like I did you will run into some iffy stuff (sprinkled throughout, often in the love and romance sections) but on the whole this collection is fairly interesting. A twelve year old could not complete every prompt as some pertain to college, your job, etc. but there are enough other/relateable prompts to keep a kid occupied.
Not bad. I was looking for more fantasy/fiction prompts than this included, but if you want to write about memories and yourself and your life, (more like a journaling prompt sort of thing for about half the book) then this is great. Certainly could inspire hours of writing.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Cohen Knows What He's Doing

If you like writing, at all, whether it's just for you, for practice, or for an audience, you need to take a gander at this. The title is no joke. There really are 1000 writing prompts, and they aren't lame. Bryan did a fan-freaking-tastic job of pulling these together. You don't have to have major publishing goals to benefit from this collection of prompts, you just have to like to write.

The prompts are sorted by category or topic, and there's an index at the front to help you. Be sure to read the intro material, too.

The particularly great thing about these prompts is that they are a mix of fiction and nonfiction ideas. Some ask you to draw on memories. Some ask you to imagine yourself in new situations. Some are kind of out in left field and have nothing to do with you at all, which is useful for any writer who wants to grow.

I'll be honest - I didn't read every single prompt. Is it safe for your 9 year old homeschooling cousin who can't leave his typewriter alone? I don't know, but you could ask Bryan. A lot of the prompts would be good for younger writers, though.

Is this book full of ideas to get you started when your mind is completely blank? Absolutely. Writer's blog will be a thing of the past.

HELP!!

Is this appropriate??!

0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Help

Im a 12 year old writer are there appropriate topics i nhere?

0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Free Sample is a JOKE!

I wanted to see if this book was something that would mesh with my writing style. I downloaded the free sample (yes I know it's only three dollars but still... why spend it until I know it's right for me)

You get 3 pages in the free sample, one of them being the cover. The other two are just the copyright and the first paragraph of the intro.

Don't waste your time! Anyone this stingy with their work doesn't even deserve my fifty cents.

0 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

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