Reality is the ultimate writing prompt.
When you look around you mindfully, anything can be an inspiration for writing. Stories are hidden everywhere. You just need to discover them. Scratch that. Stories are mostly in your head – in your imagination, but sometimes they need an external trigger to surface. And such triggers are literally everywhere.
A perfect heart carved on a red wall. A man wearing purple-gold shoes. A young woman walking with a coat and pink pajamas. An abandoned red football on the sidewalk. The way the sun lights a tree.
Each of these discoveries is a potential story. It is a peephole into a different universe, or at least a different corner of the universe, one which might exist for real or just in our mind. Each of these fragments of reality is the beginning of a story, or a frame within the story, or maybe its last sentence. And the best part is that all of them are just there – waiting to be discovered. All you have to do is look around you mindfully.
If you are looking for writing prompts – these semi-random triggers designed to launch your imagination to a different place or time or situation – try reality. If you look carefully, reality is an infinite wonderland. It is made out of an infinite collection of writing prompt. Each frame is where some story crosses your vision. All you have to do is follow its lead.
Reality is the ultimate writing prompt, but don’t take my word for it. Just go out, look around you, and capture the first thing that catches your eyes in one simple sentence or using a still photo. Then imagine a story wrapping this frame. Imagine the jigsaw puzzle which this piece you found belongs to. The story can take place anywhere at anytime as long as this piece fits in.
Try this a few times, and you will never be able to walk the street again without seeing stories everywhere.