on Jami Gold Site:

Whether it’s a creative writing class, the starting point for a contest, or just random happenstance, you’ve all probably come across writing prompts at some point in your lives. But while you should already be familiar with the general concept, you might not realize just how many different applications they have — or what makes for a genuinely helpful, inspirational prompt versus a not-so-helpful one.

While writing prompts have never been more copious in the creative writing world, that doesn’t mean that they’re always constructive. Indeed, another thing that all us writers understand is that quantity ≠ quality. So in order to find good writing prompts, you have to really know where to look.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Before we dive into truly excellent prompts and where to find them, let’s quickly go over the various pros and cons of writing prompts as a whole. If you’ve ever tried using writing prompts before, you’ll likely recognize certain experiences and sentiments on both these lists.