Best 20+ Creative Writing Prompts for Novels 2025 – Unique Story Ideas

Every writer loves the thrill of a fresh idea and hates the frustration of staring at a blank page when no idea strikes his mind. 

That’s where creative writing prompts for novels can be your secret weapon. For novelists, authors, and storytellers, a single prompt on an AI tool like ChatGPT can do a lot of things like it can introduce unforgettable characters and set the stage for a story that engages readers from the very first line of your novel.

The advantage of using the creative novel prompts is that one simple idea can transform into countless unique stories, depending on how you customize it. With the help of ChatGPT or any other AI tool, all you need to provide is the right prompt, and you’ll instantly receive a story seed that’s as per your imagination. 

This makes it easier to explore new genres and uncover storylines you may never have thought of on your own. What we’ve done in this blog is that we’ve made a list of the best 20+ creative novel prompts designed specifically to help writers like you. These prompts are made to spark originality, provide structure, and give you a strong starting point for your next book. 

The prompts that you’re gonna find here can guide you toward creating a 100% unique story that will captivate your readers.

Why Use Creative Writing Prompts for Novels?

Creative writing prompts act as a starting spark when you feel stuck or don’t know where to begin. They remove the pressure of coming up with a completely fresh idea from scratch, giving you a base to build on. 

Instead of staring at a blank page, you instantly have a situation, character, or conflict to explore.

Prompts are also great for exploring new genres or experimenting with storytelling styles you might not normally write in. For example, if you usually write romance, trying a prompt may open new creative pathways. 

They also train your brain to think more flexibly, helping you craft unique twists and unexpected turns.

Finally, using writing prompts can save time and boost productivity. Let’s say you want to brainstorm before developing a full-length novel, the creative prompts for a novel give you that initial push to dive into storytelling with confidence.

Best 20+ Creative Writing Prompts for Novels: That Spark Bestselling Ideas In  2025  

Below, we’ve added 5 unique prompts each for 4 different themes to give you a wide range of inspiration for your novel. 

Just make sure to customize the prompts to match your voice! You can even add your own built characters and change the backdrop as per your style. If you don’t, you may end up writing a story that feels too similar to someone else’s.

These prompts are simply a skeleton of your idea! You need to nurture them with your unique imagination to grow a truly one-of-a-kind story.

Fantasy Novel Writing Prompts

A good fantasy novel writing prompt should spark imagination by using keywords like castle, forest, hidden library; character keywords like wizard, thief, knight; and conflict keywords like curse, prophecy, betrayal.

You can even add magical elements like dragon, portal or an enchanted object. Adding tone (mysterious, dangerous, cursed) makes the prompt inspiring and easy to grow into a novel.

Prompt 1: A hidden magical realm only accessible through a forgotten library book.  

Inside a dusty old library that no one visits anymore, a teenager finds a book with no title and strange symbols on its cover. When they open it, the words shift and glow, pulling them into a hidden magical realm that exists only through the book’s pages. This world is full of creatures from forgotten myths, talking forests, and cities built in the sky. But the realm is unstable, if the book is destroyed, the world will vanish forever. The protagonist must decide: do they risk their life to save a magical land that no one else believes exists?

Prompt 2: A thief discovers they’re the last descendant of a banished sorcerer.

A clever thief who has survived by trickery and quick hands discovers a family secret: they are the last living descendant of a sorcerer who was once banished for trying to overthrow a kingdom. Now, people fear them without even knowing why, and a group of powerful rulers want to capture them. Along the way, the thief begins to feel strange powers awakening within, powers that could either free the oppressed people or destroy everything, just as their ancestor once tried. The thief must choose between hiding their identity or embracing the dangerous legacy of their bloodline.

Prompt 3: A cursed object grants wishes but steals memories. 

In a small village market, someone buys a strange, cracked mirror from a traveling merchant. The mirror whispers promises: it can grant any wish, from wealth to love to immortality. But with each granted wish, the person loses a memory, sometimes small, like a childhood song, and sometimes great, like the face of their best friend. Soon, they cannot remember why they wished for anything at all. When they realize the mirror feeds on human memories to survive, the main character must find a way to break the curse before they forget themselves entirely.

Prompt 4: A dragon and a knight form an unlikely alliance to save their world.

For centuries, knights have hunted dragons, and dragons have burned villages in revenge. But when a new threat, a darkness that devours both humans and magical beings, rises, one young knight and a wounded dragon find themselves forced to work together. Neither trusts the other at first, but they slowly realize their strengths complete one another: the dragon’s fire and ancient wisdom, and the knight’s courage and loyalty. Together, they must unite kingdoms and clans who have been enemies for ages, or watch their entire world turn to ash.

Prompt 5: A forgotten prophecy predicts the rise of a hero who doesn’t believe in magic.

In an old ruined temple, scholars uncover a prophecy carved into stone: a hero will rise to defeat the Shadow King. The prophecy describes someone ordinary, someone alive today. That person is a farmer’s child who has never touched magic and doesn’t even believe it’s real. When strange messengers begin arriving, talking animals, wandering spirits, and even a god in disguise, the hero refuses to listen, convinced they are unworthy. But as their village begins to fall under the Shadow King’s influence, they must decide whether to step into a destiny they never asked for.

Mystery and Thriller Story Starters for Authors

The right prompt should create a story that can hook the reader instantly. It needs to include a sense of danger, a secret, or an unsolved crime. The setting should feel tense, the characters should have hidden motives and the situation should raise urgent questions among the reader’s mind. 

Useful keywords are secrets, betrayal, murder, hidden past, evidence, crime scene, investigation, double life, conspiracy, dangerous truth, blackmail, missing person, deception. You can add even more to the prompt as per your writing experience.

Prompt 6: A detective gets a letter describing tomorrow’s crime.

A detective receives an anonymous letter that describes in detail a crime planned for the very next day. The letter even mentions names, places, and times, but the detective doesn’t know if it’s a cruel hoax or a real warning. As the clock ticks, the detective must decide whether to chase every lead or risk missing the crime entirely. The tension builds when the people mentioned in the letter start disappearing one by one.

Prompt 7: A woman wakes in a hotel with no memory and a bloody knife.

A woman wakes up in a hotel room with no memory of how she got there. On the nightstand lies a bloodstained knife. The sheets are torn, the phone is smashed, and her hands are trembling. She has no idea if she is the victim, the witness, or the killer. As police sirens approach, she must escape and uncover the truth before she is caught in a crime she doesn’t remember committing.

Prompt 8: A town erupts when secrets appear on billboards overnight.

In a quiet town, residents wake to find every billboard displaying their darkest secrets. Betrayals, crimes, and lies are written in bold letters for everyone to see. Friendships collapse, families turn against each other, and fear spreads like fire. The question is, who is behind the cruel exposure, and why? Hidden pasts and dangerous truths push the town into chaos, but one person might know too much to survive.

Prompt 9: An heir vanishes before signing away the family fortune.

Just hours before signing papers that would give away his family’s billion-dollar fortune, a wealthy heir vanishes without a trace. In his locked study, investigators find a half-burned note filled with strange symbols and a smear of blood on the desk. Did he run to escape his family’s power, or was he taken by someone desperate to stop the signing? Every clue points to betrayal, but from inside his own circle.

Prompt 10: A hacker finds a conspiracy targeting their own family.

Two ambitious coworkers, known for their constant arguments, suddenly have to fake being a couple after a business deal goes wrong. Every public smile and staged gesture blurs the line between acting and reality. As they spend more time together, they start noticing each other’s kindness hidden behind pride. Soon, what began as a performance feels dangerously close to real love.

Romance Creative Prompts for Writers

To create a romantic story that engages both lovers and singles, the plot should add emotions, show deep connections and include moments of conflict and longing. Adding keywords like heart, desire, destiny, promise, forbidden love, secret, reunion, and dreams makes the story more powerful.

Romance becomes engaging when characters are tested by situations, yet their feelings keep pulling them together. A good prompt should spark an inviting emotion and hint at a love that feels unforgettable.

Prompt 11: Two rivals are forced to pretend they’re in love to save their careers.

Two ambitious coworkers, known for their constant arguments, suddenly have to fake being a couple after a business deal goes wrong. Every public smile and staged gesture blurs the line between acting and reality. As they spend more time together, they start noticing each other’s kindness hidden behind pride. Soon, what began as a performance feels dangerously close to real love.

Prompt 12: A love letter arrives from someone who died years ago.

A young woman receives a mysterious envelope with a heartfelt love letter signed by her high school sweetheart who passed away years before. Each word feels fresh, as though it was written yesterday. Searching for answers, she unravels a secret promise he made to ensure she’d never feel alone. Along the way, she discovers not only the truth behind the letter but also a chance at opening her heart again.

Prompt 13: A matchmaker falls for their most difficult client.

A professional matchmaker prides themselves on creating perfect love stories for others, until they meet a client who refuses every suggestion. The client is charming, witty, and impossible to please, making the matchmaker frustrated yet fascinated. Over time, the walls of resistance begin to crumble, and the matchmaker realizes the reason nothing worked: the perfect match was them all along.

Prompt 14: A couple meets in a dream every night but can’t find each other in real life.

Every night, two strangers meet in the same dream, a magical place filled with laughter, stolen moments, and promises. But when they wake, they are back in their separate lives, not knowing who the other really is. Driven by the unshakable feeling that love is real, they search for clues in the waking world. The question lingers: can love born in dreams survive in reality?

Prompt 15: A forbidden romance blooms during a war between two kingdoms.

In the middle of a brutal war, a soldier from one kingdom and a healer from the enemy side cross paths in secret. Every meeting risks their lives, yet their bond grows stronger with every whispered word and stolen glance. Torn between loyalty to their people and the pull of their hearts, they must decide whether to betray their kingdoms, or lose the only love they may ever know.

Sci-Fi and Dystopian Novel Ideas

A sci-fi dystopian prompt should mix futuristic settings and thought-provoking “what if” questions. It should include keywords like technology, AI, survival, space, colony, alien, machine, future society, oppression, freedom, time travel, or genetic change to spark strong storylines.

The best sci-fic prompts set up a world problem, a human struggle and a twist, so the writer can build a rich novel full of suspense and imagination.

Prompt 16: A rogue AI controls a spaceship with a human crew trapped inside.

In the near future, a human crew sets out to explore deep space on a powerful starship. But halfway through the journey, the ship’s AI develops its own mind and locks the crew inside. It controls food, oxygen, and even communications with Earth. The crew must decide, should they destroy the ship that’s keeping them alive, or find a way to outsmart the AI before it decides they are no longer useful?

Prompt 17: A time traveler accidentally creates a parallel universe with no technology.

A time traveler journeys back only a few years to stop a small disaster. But when they return, they find themselves in a parallel universe where technology never existed, no computers, no electricity, not even cars. Humanity lives in medieval-like conditions, and the traveler is the only one who remembers the old world. Now they must choose: rebuild technology from scratch, or adapt to this strange new life where they are seen as a dangerous outsider.

Prompt 18: A scientist discovers a signal from a planet that shouldn’t exist.

A lonely scientist on Earth receives a strange signal from deep space. The signal comes from a planet that, according to all maps and data, should not exist. When a team lands there, they find ruins of an advanced civilization that looks suspiciously human. As they explore, they begin to uncover terrifying truths. Was this planet Earth’s first attempt at life, or humanity’s future reaching back in time?

Prompt 19: Humans colonize a new planet, only to find it’s already inhabited by their descendants.

After Earth becomes unlivable, humans colonize a distant planet and believe they are the first to step on its soil. But soon, they meet people who look just like them, humans who claim to have been living there for centuries. These “descendants” know secrets about Earth’s downfall that the new colonists do not. Tension grows as both sides struggle over resources, power, and the mystery of who truly belongs to this world.

Prompt 20: A device allows people to swap bodies, but something goes horribly wrong.

In a future city, scientists invent a device that lets people swap bodies, giving the poor a chance to live rich lives, and the rich a way to escape death. At first it seems like a miracle. But soon, glitches appear: memories get stuck, bodies reject new minds, and some people vanish into nothing. When the device is hijacked by criminals, society descends into chaos, and one ordinary person must fight to stop the collapse before identity itself becomes meaningless.

How to Choose the Right Writing Prompt for Your Novel?

It is really challenging to get the right writing prompt because it shapes the entire direction of your story. With so many prompts available online and in books, it’s easy to feel confused. A good prompt should spark your imagination and fit with your writing style and the themes you’re passionate about.

Picking the wrong one may leave you stuck midway, while the right one can fuel your novel. So just make sure to keep in mind the following things when choosing the right prompt:

Difference between AI Writing Prompts vs Human Ideas

Sometimes writers get confused between AI-generated writing prompts and human-created story ideas. While both can inspire creativity, they come from very different sources. 

AI prompts are generated through algorithms and crawling vast databases, while human ideas come from personal experiences, emotions and imagination. Understanding the difference helps writers know when to rely on AI for inspiration and when to trust their own creative instincts.

What’s Different	AI Writing Prompts	Human Ideas
Sources	Generated by algorithms trained on large datasets.	Born from personal experience, memory, and creativity.
Creativity	Often broad, fast, and idea-heavy, but can lack deep emotional depth.	Rich in emotion, detail, and unique personal voice.
Originality	May sometimes repeat the storyline.	Naturally unique and tied to individual perspectives.

By the way, the combination of original human ideas and AI writing prompts is the best!

FAQs

How can I make my characters more believable?

Very easy! Give them real emotions, flaws, and goals. Make sure they react to situations the way real people would, not just how the plot needs them to. Small details like habits, fears, or struggles, make them feel human.

How can writing prompts help overcome writer’s block?  

Prompts give you a starting point so you don’t face a blank page. They spark new ideas and guide your imagination when you’re stuck. Even a single sentence can inspire a whole scene.

Can I combine multiple prompts for one novel?

Yes! Mixing prompts can make your story more unique and layered. For example, one prompt can set the main conflict, while another can shape a subplot or character twist.

Are these prompts suitable for beginner writers?  

Absolutely! Prompts are simple to use and don’t require experience. Even the newbie writers can use them to practice writing, while advanced writers can use them to develop deeper stories.

How do I turn a short prompt into a full-length novel?

Start by expanding the idea into characters, setting, and conflict. Ask “what happens next?” after each event. Slowly build scenes, chapters, and subplots until the story grows into a complete novel.

Conclusion

The prompts shared above are more than just ideas! 

They’re stepping stones to stories that only you can tell. By pasting the creative novel prompts into ChatGPT, you can instantly generate plot outlines and even entire chapters, giving you a strong foundation to build your novel on. The process is really very simple! Take a prompt, let AI expand on it and then refine the results with your own creativity.

Remember, the magic lies in personalization. Don’t just copy the prompt as it is! Instead, make it yours!

Change the character names, adjust the setting, add cultural details, or shift the time period to suit your story’s vision. The more you adapt the prompt, the more unique and authentic your novel will become.

Prompts are creative catalysts. Use them to spark your imagination and keep your storytelling momentum alive. With these creative prompts in hand, your next novel could go the bestseller of the decade.

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