Let’s face it, you’ve been looking at your screen for the past hour without fresh ideas to get you writing. In hopes of searching for an idea, you resort to scrolling through your Facebook newsfeed or looking at old pieces of fiction you wrote two years ago. Whether you’re trying to get published, or want to write for fun, here are a few writing prompts to get the ball rolling in forming your first draft.

1. Describe love to a child. What questions would they ask? How would you effectively answer their questions?

2. Describe a scene: find an old magazine, and pick a landscape to begin formatting a story.

3. Write about a difficult phone conversation you didn't want to have — include dialogue.

4. Write a lyric essay pertaining to a subject you know a lot about.

5. Find an old letter that was addressed to you, and write a response to that letter.

6. For poets, re-write a bad pop song by substituting words or phrases for your own.

7. Write about a bad joke someone tells, and why that joke is bad.

8. Write about an argument from the perspective of the person you were arguing with.

9. Write a 100-word story that has an introduction, climax, and conclusion.

10. Write an instructional in the second person.

11. Write a poem that praises something you don't like.

12. Find a photograph, then describe to your audience what is happening in the picture that others cannot readily see.

13. Write a sex scene without using cliches, vulgarity, or referring to parts of the body.

14. Build two character using strictly dialogue (do not give any physical descriptions of the characters).

15. Write about death as a character — what flaws or experiences do they have?

16. Analyze the relationship you have with someone else through old Facebook posts (family, friends, significant other).

17. Write a short story that is reflexive (aware of itself being a short story). You can do this by mentioning the narrator in your piece.

18. Write a dystopian piece that proceeds the election of Donald Trump (or another politician you dislike).

19. Write an exaggerated story about keeping a goal, or breaking a bad habit.

20. Begin a piece by talking about a subculture you are in, or that you are interested in.

21. Write a discography pertaining to an artist/band that has strongly influenced you.

22. Write sentence by sentence with a partner to form a complete story.

23. Write a mix tape playlist, and the memories/ feelings you attribute to each playlist.

24. Write about a smell.

25. Retell a mundane task that is embellished and in great detail.

26. Write about something you are struggling to understand.

27. Describe a place that carries a lot of good memories.

28. Write a storyboard for the beginning of a comic.

29. Have old diaries/journals? Write a response to your own entries.

30. Write about describing birth or death to a child.