Say what you want prompts for, and add a genre, who is writing and how long they have. Hemmingway writes a set of prompts, five unless you ask for another number. Each one gives a person, a situation and one limit or odd detail, and stops before the story starts.
The prompts are made for what you asked, so a set for a class of ten-year-olds looks nothing like a set for a crime writers' group.
What makes a prompt worth using
- A good prompt has a limit. "Write about the sea" gives you nothing to push against. "A story on a ferry that has to end before it docks" does.
- Match it to the time. Ten minutes is one moment. An hour can hold a turn.
- Say what you are bored of. If every prompt you find starts in a café or a forest, write that in the theme field and it steers away.
- Take the one that starts a sentence in your head. Pass over the rest without guilt. A prompt is a way in, not homework.
An example
Asked for three prompts for ghost stories with no ghost in them, for adults in a writing group with twenty minutes each, prompts along these lines are what to expect:
1. A woman still lays two places at the table. Write the evening her sister finally says something.
2. New tenants find the last owner's shopping lists in every drawer. By the end of the week they are buying what the lists say.
3. A night porter has one room he never lets. Tonight a guest asks for it by number.
None of them tells you how it ends. If one is close but not right, ask the chat for five more like it, or paste it into the story generator to see it played out.
For a class or a notebook
Teachers: give the age and what the class is working on, such as speech marks or describing a place. For a private notebook, ask for journal prompts. The guide to AI writing prompts has more on what to do with a prompt once you have one.
Common questions
Is the writing prompt generator free?
Yes. Hemmingway has a free trial with no card needed, and this tool opens it with your answers filled in. You sign up once, and the prompts are written in the chat.
Can it make writing prompts for children?
Yes. Give the age and it keeps the words and the subjects to fit.
Can it write poetry or journal prompts?
Yes. Write "poetry prompts" or "journal prompts" in the first field. For a finished poem from your own details, the poem generator is the better tool.
What is the difference between a writing prompt and a story idea?
A prompt is an exercise: a way to start writing today, with no duty to finish. A story idea is the seed of a piece you mean to complete, and the story idea generator makes those.
Will the prompts sound like AI?
It is built not to. Hemmingway-1, the model behind it, came first on sounding like a person in our own blind test, Human-Likeness. If a prompt reads like one you have met before, skip it or ask for a stranger one.