Writing Playground Browse craft prompts the same way you browse extracts — filter by category, search, then open a prompt and write. See which author your voice resembles.
Guided prompts Freetext
Voice
Character First impression Introduce a character the moment they enter a room. Show who they are through action, dialogue, and one telling detail…
Character
Structure
Dialogue The unspoken Write a short exchange between two people where the most important thing is never said aloud.
Dialogue
Voice
Dialogue Two distinct voices Write a conversation of at least six lines. Make each speaker sound unmistakably different — rhythm, vocabulary, what…
Dialogue
Imagery
Place A childhood place Write about a place from your childhood using only sensory details — what you saw, heard, smelled, touched, tasted.
Place
Imagery
Observation The morning light Describe the first thing you see when you wake up, as if noticing it for the very first time.
Observation
Voice
Observation A stranger observed You are sitting in a café. Describe a stranger who walks in — without using any adjectives about their personality.
Observation
Imagery
Metaphor The storm inside Describe a thunderstorm, but make it mirror an emotional state you have felt recently.
Metaphor
Imagery
Symbol An ordinary object Pick an everyday object — a key, a cup, a shoe — and write about it as though it holds the entire history of a person.
Symbol
Pacing
Scene A walk at dusk You are walking through your neighbourhood at dusk. Write what you notice in the order you notice it.
Scene
Pacing
Time Waiting Describe the experience of waiting — in a queue, a hospital, an airport — and make the reader feel the weight of time.
Time
Imagery
Scene A meal remembered Write about a meal that mattered. Focus on the food, the setting, and one detail that made it unforgettable.
Scene
Structure
Scene beat Behind the door A character opens a door they have been avoiding. Describe only what they see, hear, and feel in the first five seconds.
Scene beat
Structure
Syntax Long and short Write one paragraph about a small moment of tension. Use at least one very long sentence and one sentence of five words…
Syntax
Voice
Interiority Inside one mind Stay in one character’s head for a full paragraph as they make a decision they don’t want to make. No dialogue.
Interiority
Pacing
Structure Then and now Alternate between two moments in time — the same location, years apart — in short beats. No more than three sentences…
Structure
Pacing
Momentum Something goes wrong Write a sequence where a simple plan falls apart in under two minutes of story time. Prioritise motion and consequence…
Momentum