Writing prompts can be a very useful tool. When you're having trouble getting started, they can help you break through writers block and get words on the page. They're also helpful for seeing different sides of the characters and settings in your existing stories, to examine new angles of real-life events for creative nonfiction writers, and as avenues of self-discovery for memoir writers.
Each Scribble House prompt journal contains 25-50 themed writing prompts to spark your creativity. You can get them in print book form, with lined pages between the prompts for writing, or in digital form as interactive PDFs. Click the plus sign beside each title to see the full details and how to get a copy.
Note: If you'd like to use any of our prompt books for a class, workshop, or other educational setting, shoot us an email at ScribbleHousePGH@gmail.com! We're happy to do a bulk discount for educators and community groups.
Saved as Draft: A Journal in Unsent Letters
In the era of instant communication, it's rare for people to write letters. But this form of writing can often give you a different perspective on your memories and how you frame them--even if those letters never get sent. The 26 prompts in this guided journal are all framed as letters to people, places, and objects. They can be a tool for self-discovery, for creative non-fiction writers to find new angles or perspectives to approach their work, or for fiction writers to dig deeper into the psyche and background of their characters.
Explore Your Sandbox: 47 Writing Prompts to Fully Build a Speculative World
The unique, small details of a fictional world are what really make it an immersive setting for your reader. The 47 prompts in this guided journal will help you explore the landscape, culture, and history of an invented setting to create an authentic place for your characters to inhabit (and just might help you find some new stories to tell there along the way).
Every space has stories to tell. This journal helps writers to uncover these stories with 27 prompts that encourage them to see different details of the world around them, whether they're traveling the world or just walking around their home town. The prompts are designed to be versatile across styles and genres of writing, providing creative sparks to essayists, travel writers, and poets as well as fiction writers.
Scribble House's Flagship Course: From First Word to Published
There are three key stages between having a story idea and reading the finished product in a literary journal: writing the rough draft, editing it into its best form, and submitting it to publishers.
The 3 modules in this course will walk you through each step of that process step-by-step. Each module has 8 lessons (24 lessons total across the course), consisting of a video (with a transcript version for people who prefer text-based learning) along with one or more resources or worksheets to reinforce the learning or practice the techniques discussed in the lesson.
You can watch the course introduction to learn more:
Click the plus signs to open the accordion menu and learn more about each module below.
Module 1: Write
Module 1 of From First Word to Published aims to take you from idea to completed rough draft. The 8 lessons in this module will walk writers through the process of generating story ideas and turning those ideas into fully developed short stories.
The lessons in this module of the course are:
Where do story ideas come from?
We all live in a sea of stories—but that doesn’t mean it’s always easy to capture those ideas into a short story. This lesson will explore 5 approaches to find story ideas and share some advice for how to tackle the daunting blank page.
15-minute video
Worksheet: Generating story ideas
Resource: Sources of story prompts
Short story genres
You don’t need to assign your story to a genre before you start writing (or even after you finish it, really). That said, starting from a genre can give you a framework to write within and tropes to play with. In this lesson you’ll get a brief overview of common genres for fiction and some tips on how to use them in your writing.
9-minute video
Worksheet: Playing with genre
Resource: The big list of literary genres
Planning, form, and plot
Young writers (especially young literary writers) often struggle to write natural-feeling plots. A story’s plot feels organic when it feels like the natural result of characters interacting with their environment. That’s something you can achieve whether you plan (outline ahead of time) or pants (seat-of-the-pants, making it up as you go). This lesson will talk about how to use narrative and scene to build an arc and how that relates to plot.
10-minute video
Worksheet: Planning, form, and plot
Analysis: Plots of 3 published short stories
Core components of a short story
The vast majority of successful short stories include a few core components: setting, time, characters, point-of-view, mood and tone, and conflict. This lesson will talk through each of these areas and how to build them into a short story.
29-minute video
Worksheet: Conflict
Worksheet: Mood & tone
Worksheet: Point-of-view
Worksheet: Creating 3D characters
Worksheet: Time
Resource: Archetypes
Analysis: Conflicts in 3 published short stories
Beginnings
Space is limited in a short story, and that means you need to start strong from the first word. This lesson will describe the key things short story openings need to accomplish and discuss tactics for finding the right place to start both linear and nonlinear narratives.
16-minute video
Worksheet: Story beginnings
Analysis: Beginnings of 3 published short stories
Worldbuilding and setting
Worldbuilding isn’t just for sci-fi and fantasy writers. Whether it’s historical ficiton or high fantasy, the writer needs to define enough details of the story’s world for the reader to inhabit it. This lesson covers the 9 components of a well-built world and how to decide which ones you need to develop for any given story.
28-minute video
Worksheet: Worldbuilding & setting
Dialogue and narrative voice
Some stories are driven by their voice, and how a story is told can give the reader insights into the characters and world. This lesson breaks down how to construct an authentic voice on the page.
20-minute video
Worksheet: The nuts-and-bolts of voice
Endings
The end of a story is the most likely to linger in the reader’s mind, and what brings closure and meaning to what came before it. This lesson explains what makes a short story feel resolved and the key features of strong story endings.
Completing the rough draft of a story is an accomplishment--but that's just the first step if you hope to get it published. Module 2 of From First Word to Published walks through the editing process step-by-step, with the goal of refining a draft into a polished, finished story that's ready to send out to publishers.
The lessons in this module of the course are:
Goals of the editing process
Editing is how you turn a rough draft into a polished story—but what does that mean, exactly? This lesson will look at what editing aims to accomplish. It also outlines the different types of editing and when it’s most productive to do each one.
16-minute video
Resource: Types and stages of editing
The value of feedback
Getting an outside perspective on your writing can help you to spot errors you overlooked and verify that the story in your head is translating effectively to the reader through what you’ve written on the page. In this lesson, you’ll learn about the different types of feedback you can seek out and some different methods for getting it.
15-minute video
Resource: Getting feedback
List of writing courses
List of journals with feedback
Story length and structure
Structural edits often start by deciding how long you want the story to be when it’s finished. This lesson will start with some definitions of different story lengths and which story lengths are the easiest to find homes for. Then, we’ll go into how to decide whether you need to trim or add (and where) to get your story into its best form.
15-minute video
Worksheet: Playing with length
Resource: Story lengths
Crafting and refining an arc
The sequence of events and points of tension and release in a story are what give it its narrative arc. Characters also have arcs created by their growth, change, and emotional journey. This lesson looks at common plot arcs and gives advice for how to give a story an effective arc.
10-minute video
Worksheet: Creating an arc
Resource: Common story arcs
Common first draft issues
Every writer has unique strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies, and you’ll learn yours as you write and edit stories (or might know them already). There are some common mistakes many writers make with first drafts, though. This lesson will review some of them along with strategies to fix them.
18-minute video
Resource: Common first draft problems
Identifying and solidifying themes
Themes aren’t something that you always need to intentionally craft as a writer. However, they can add depth and layers to a story that makes it more enjoyable, relatable, and meaningful for readers. This lesson will explain how to spot themes that are already building in your stories, along with strategies to bring out or add a theme.
11-minute video
Worksheet: Identify and reinforce themes
Resource: Common themes
Analysis: Themes in 3 published short stories
Editing for consistency
Even small inconsistencies can pull a reader out of your story. A polished story is internally consistent at every level, from the plot and characters to punctuation and the spelling of names. This lesson will explain how to spot and correct inconsistencies in every aspect of a story.
11-minute video
Resource: Is your story consistent?
Language and voice edits
Taking the time to perfect a story at the sentence and word level can make the difference between an encouraging rejection and an acceptance. This lesson starts with general advice about line edits then gets into some common sentence-level issues to watch for during edits.
Module 3 of From First Word to Published aims to take you from idea to completed rough draft. The 8 lessons in this module will walk writers through the process of finding markets, choosing markets, and sending your work to them.
The lessons in this module of the course are:
Where to find journals and presses
There are tons of places that publish short stories, and lots of resources to help writers find the right publishers for their work. You’ll learn about a few different options in this lesson, including video walkthroughs of the three main market databases (Duotrope, Submission Grinder, and Chill Subs).
33-minute video
Resource: Where to find publishers
Choosing where to submit
Deciding which places you should send your story is often the most time-consuming and potentially overwhelming part of the submission process. This lesson will explain the different types of submission calls you’ll find, the key factors you can consider to narrow down your options, and other tips for deciding which journals or anthologies will make a good home for your work.
32-minute video
Worksheet: Choosing markets
Resource: Types of short story publishers
Submission guidelines
A journal’s submission guidelines usually have tons of helpful information for figuring out if your work fits a journal. This is where the journal tells you what they want to see in submissions, and listening to that advice is the first step to getting an acceptance. In this lesson, you’ll learn where to find submission guidelines, what kind of information you’ll find in them, and how to interpret and follow them.
20-minute video
Worksheet: Submission guideline checklist
Resource: Formatting to submission guidelines
Cover letters and bios
Cover letters for short story submissions are much simpler and shorter than when you’re submitting book-length manuscripts. This lesson includes some basic cover letter templates and advice on what you should (and shouldn’t) include. It’ll also walk you through what should go in a bio, and tips for writing bios as an unpublished writer.
12-minute video
Worksheet: Write your bio & cover letter
FAQs and common mistakes
Like most industries, publishing has some niche terminology that can be confusing for those who are new to this world. There are also some common mistakes that new submitters often make, ones that are easy to avoid once you know about them. I’ll talk through both subjects in this lesson.
14-minute video
Resource: Common submission mistakes
Resource: Publishing terminology glossary
Submission process walk-through
By this point, you’ve already done the hardest parts of submitting a story—writing a story people want to read, and finding the right places to send it. The actual submission process for short stories is easy. This lesson will walk you through step-by-step using the various submission methods you’re likely to encounter.
18-minute video
Worksheet: Submission process checklist
Tracking submissions
Tracking your submissions is smart for several reasons. It’s how you know when to send a query, where to withdraw from when you get an acceptance, and where else to send it if you get a rejection. This lesson will walk through some popular methods for tracking submissions and the advantages of each.
20-minute video
Submission tracking spreadsheet
What happens next?
You’ve sent your story out (yay!)—so now what? In this lesson, I’ll talk about typical response times, how to simultaneously submit strategically, and what to do after you get a response, whether it’s a rejection or an acceptance.
