Tell a power cut on one street: what was being said in each house as the lights went.Narrator knows: every unfinished sentence. Holds back: which one is never finished.
Tell one night in an apartment building, floor by floor, from the basement up.Narrator knows: who is awake and why. Holds back: whose light goes off last.
Write a chess game as you, losing slowly to a child.Cannot know: whether she knows she is winning. First line: You take the pawn she wants you to take.
Tell a break-in as the family dog, who slept through all of it.Cannot know: what was taken. First line: I found the smell at breakfast.
Tell a choir concert as we, the whole back row.Cannot know: what the soloist can hear. First line: We could only see her shoulders.
Tell a family photograph as the one who holds the camera.Cannot know: what goes on behind her back. First line: I am in none of these.
Tell a first meeting with a new stepbrother as the older child.Cannot know: that he rehearsed too. First line: I had my hello ready and he used his first.
Tell a job interview as the applicant who got there an hour early.Cannot know: what was said after the door closed. First line: I had read every poster in the hall twice.
Tell a long drive as the passenger who holds the map.Cannot know: what the driver saw in the mirror. First line: I said left, and she was already turning.
Tell a night shift at a bakery as a diary entry written at dawn.Cannot know: who eats the bread. First line: Four hundred rolls, and I have met none of them.
Tell a school play as the one who works the curtain.Cannot know: how it looks from the seats. First line: I know this play by its feet.
Tell a storm at sea as the ship's cook, who never leaves the galley.Cannot know: how near the rocks are. First line: I judged the waves by the soup.
Tell a surprise party as the guest of honor, from a week before it.Cannot know: why everyone has gone quiet around her. First line: I thought I had done something.
Tell a team's last match as the substitute who never gets on.Cannot know: what the coach is weighing up. First line: We were two down and I was warm.
Tell a town's flood as a neighbor writing a letter while the water rises.Cannot know: whether the letter will get there. First line: Dear Ruth, the river is in the hall.
Tell a wedding morning in first person, as the baker who delivers the cake.Cannot know: why the bride is out in the garden alone. First line: I carried it in sideways.
Tell the first day at a new school as the pupil who arrives in the wrong uniform.Cannot know: what the others think of it. First line: I counted eleven blue sweaters and mine.
Tell the last day of a hardware store as its only assistant.Cannot know: why the owner is selling. First line: I priced the ladder I had climbed for six years.
Second person (you) 15
Write a chess game as you, losing slowly to a child.Cannot know: whether she knows she is winning. First line: You take the pawn she wants you to take.
Write a driving test as you.Cannot know: what the examiner is writing. First line: You check the mirror you have already checked.
Write a first walk through a new town as you, naming each street by what you notice.Cannot know: the real names. First line: You call this one Laundry Street.
Write a goodbye at an airport as you, the one who stays behind.Cannot know: what is said on the plane. First line: You wave at the wrong window.
Write a guided tour in which you are the visitor and the guide already knows your name.Cannot know: how. First line: You are handed a ticket with your name spelled right.
Write a morning commute as you: the rider who misses the same train by ten seconds.Cannot know: who holds the doors on Friday. First line: You hear the whistle from the stairs.
Write a snow day as you at nine, in the present tense.Cannot know: when school opens again. First line: You hear it before you see it: nothing.
Write a visit to your old school as you, twenty years on.Cannot know: who uses your desk now. First line: You remember the door as heavier.
Write the day you nearly quit the team, as you at twelve.Cannot know: what staying leads to. First line: You have your bag packed before practice ends.
Write the minute before you walk on stage.Cannot know: who is sitting in the third row. First line: You count the boards between you and the light.
Write the walk home after a quarrel as you, noticing only things that take your side.Cannot know: what the other one is noticing. First line: You pass a dog that agrees with you.
Write trying on an old coat in a thrift store, with your hand going into the pocket.Cannot know: whose ticket stub it is. First line: You find the seat number first.
Write waking in a house you do not know, one room at a time.Cannot know: who made the coffee. First line: You find the kitchen by the smell.
Write your first hour as a lighthouse keeper, climbing the stairs.Cannot know: what the last keeper left on the top step. First line: You stop counting at ninety.
Write your grandmother's bread as a set of steps you follow without her.Cannot know: the step she never wrote down. First line: You warm the bowl first, because she did.
Third person, close 15
Follow a boy hiding in a wardrobe during a game.Cannot know: that the game ended ten minutes ago. First line: He was sure he was winning.
Follow a child at a grown-ups' dinner, from under the table.Cannot know: what the laughing is about. First line: She knew them all by their shoes.
Follow a girl through her first dive from the high board.Cannot know: who is watching from the gallery. First line: She had counted the steps going up.
Follow a goalkeeper through one penalty kick.Cannot know: which way the kicker chose an hour ago. First line: She watched his hips, as she had been taught.
Follow a grandmother through an airport she has never used.Cannot know: that her gate has changed. First line: She sat where the sign had told her to sit.
Follow a judge at a village flower show.Cannot know: who grew the dahlia she is about to mark down. First line: She thought it tried too hard.
Follow a locksmith on a night call in close third person, inside his head only.Cannot know: why the caller keeps looking at the stairs. First line: He disliked jobs with no car outside.
Follow a mail carrier on the last round before he retires.Cannot know: what is planned at number nine. First line: He noticed the curtains were all drawn.
Follow a new librarian through closing time.Cannot know: who is still in the reference room. First line: He turned off the lights in the order on the list.
Follow a piano examiner through a morning of candidates.Cannot know: which child practiced on a paper keyboard. First line: She wrote neat and nothing else.
Follow a ticket inspector down a train he has worked for thirty years.Cannot know: who the sleeping man in coach C is. First line: He let him sleep to the next station.
Follow a vet on a dawn call to a farm.Cannot know: why the farmer stays in the doorway. First line: She noticed he had not put his boots on.
Follow a waiter through one table's dinner.Cannot know: whether the couple are celebrating or ending something. First line: He brought the bread and guessed.
Follow an old dog through one walk.Cannot know: where they are going this time. First line: He knew the left turn meant the park, and they went right.
Follow the bride's brother through his speech.Cannot know: which joke the room has already heard. First line: He had three cards and trusted the second.
Third person, all-knowing 15
Tell a class photograph: thirty children, one second, and what each is thinking as the shutter opens.Narrator knows: every thought. Holds back: which child will keep the picture for sixty years.
Tell a ferry crossing, knowing which two strangers will be friends by the far shore.Narrator knows: how it starts. Holds back: their names until they say them.
Tell a letter's journey, knowing what the sender, the carrier and the receiver each believe.Narrator knows: all three. Holds back: what the letter says.
Tell a line at a bakery and how each person in it is tied to the loaf at the front.Narrator knows: every tie. Holds back: who the loaf is for.
Tell a market at closing time with a narrator who also knows what each stall will sell tomorrow.Narrator knows: tomorrow. Holds back: which stall will not open.
Tell a power cut on one street: what was being said in each house as the lights went.Narrator knows: every unfinished sentence. Holds back: which one is never finished.
Tell a relay race, passing the story from runner to runner with the baton.Narrator knows: what each fears. Holds back: who drops it.
Tell a snowfall on a town and what it interrupts in four houses.Narrator knows: what each house was in the middle of. Holds back: which house is glad.
Tell a traffic jam and what rides in three of the cars: a cake, a cello and a secret.Narrator knows: where each is going. Holds back: which one turns round.
Tell a village fair from above, dipping into the baker, the judge and a wasp.Narrator knows: which cake the wasp will choose. Holds back: who baked it.
Tell a wedding toast and what six guests remember while the glass is raised.Narrator knows: six memories. Holds back: the one the speaker leaves out.
Tell an orchestra's opening chord and the worry of three players a moment before it.Narrator knows: each worry. Holds back: which one comes true.
Tell five minutes on a crowded bus with a narrator who hears four passengers think.Narrator knows: who each is going to meet. Holds back: which two are going to meet each other.
Tell one night in an apartment building, floor by floor, from the basement up.Narrator knows: who is awake and why. Holds back: whose light goes off last.
Tell the last minute before a surprise party, in every hiding place at once.Narrator knows: who is behind which chair. Holds back: that the guest of honor is already inside.
The same event, told twice 15
Tell a birthday surprise twice: as the one who planned it, then as the one who knew all along.The planner misses: the acting. The other misses: how much it cost her.
Tell a broken vase twice: as the child who did it, then as the cat who is blamed.The child misses: the cat watching from the shelf. The cat misses: why everyone is looking at her.
Tell a bump at a crossroads twice, once from each driver's seat.The first misses: the sun in the other's eyes. The second misses: the child in the back.
Tell a dog's escape from a yard twice: as the owner, then as the dog.The owner misses: the hole under the fence. The dog misses: that anyone minds.
Tell a fire drill twice: as the teacher counting heads, then as the pupil still in the bathroom.The teacher misses: one head. The pupil misses: that it is only a drill.
Tell a haircut that goes wrong twice: as the customer, then as the barber on his first day.The customer misses: his shaking hands. The barber misses: tomorrow's wedding.
Tell a job interview twice: as the applicant, then as the interviewer who has already chosen someone else.The first misses: the decision. The second misses: how far she traveled.
Tell a magic trick at a party twice: as the magician, then as the child who saw how it was done.The magician misses: the child's face. The child misses: that the second trick is the real one.
Tell a missed goal twice: as the striker, then as the goalkeeper.The striker misses: that the keeper guessed. The keeper misses: that the striker slipped.
Tell a piano recital twice: as the player, then as the page turner.The player misses: a page turned early. The turner misses: that she plays from memory.
Tell a rescue from a tree twice: as the firefighter, then as the cat, who was not stuck.The firefighter misses: the cat's opinion. The cat misses: the crowd.
Tell a stopped train twice: as a passenger late for a wedding, then as the driver who cannot say why.The passenger misses: the cow on the line. The driver misses: the ring in her bag.
Tell an apology over a garden fence twice: as the one who gives it, then as the one who hears it.The first misses: that it was not needed. The second misses: how long it was rehearsed.
Tell one family dinner twice: as the cook, then as the guest who dislikes fish.The cook misses: the napkin. The guest misses: that the fish was caught that morning for her.
Tell the sale of an old clock twice: as the seller, then as the buyer who knows what it is worth.The seller misses: its value. The buyer misses: why it stopped at ten past four.
The villain's point of view 15
A cat burglar tells the night she broke in to put something back.Cannot know: that the owner is awake. First line: I have never been so careful with a window.
A chess champion tells the game against the child everyone wanted to win.Cannot know: whether the child wanted it too. First line: I heard them clap when I lost a pawn.
A dragon gives her account of the knight who keeps turning up at her cave.Cannot know: who keeps sending him. First line: He arrives on Tuesdays.
A fox tells the night at the henhouse, from outside the wire.Cannot know: why the farmer left the gate open. First line: I did not trust it for a minute.
A giant tells the day the village asked him, very politely, to move his foot.Cannot know: how long they had been asking. First line: I heard something like bees.
A masked villain narrates the morning her secret lair failed its fire inspection.Cannot know: who reported the trapdoor. First line: The exits are marked. That is the point of them.
A pirate captain tells the day the crew voted on the biscuits.Cannot know: who counted the votes. First line: I have been called worse by better.
A sea serpent gives her side of the story the fishermen tell.Cannot know: how much bigger she gets each time they tell it. First line: I came up once, to look.
A witch tells the afternoon the village came to complain about the weather she sold them.Cannot know: who asked for the hail. First line: I keep receipts.
An inventor explains to the insurance agent what the machine was meant to do.Cannot know: what the neighbors have already said. First line: The roof was never part of the plan.
The ghost of an old house explains why it wants the new family out of the blue bedroom.Cannot know: that they can hear every word. First line: I was here first, and I am tidy.
The rival baker tells the week the prize went to the shop across the road.Cannot know: what the judges tasted there. First line: I counted their customers from behind my blinds.
The rooster next door gives his reasons for four in the morning.Cannot know: what the pillow on the window means. First line: Somebody has to start the day.
The school bully tells the lunch hour when nobody was afraid.Cannot know: what the others agreed that morning. First line: I knew it by the way they kept eating.
The teacher who set the hardest test tells the evening she graded it.Cannot know: what they call her in the hall. First line: I wanted one of them to prove me wrong.
How it works
These point of view writing prompts are sorted by narrator: first person, second person, third person close and all-knowing, one event told twice, and the villain's point of view. Most come with a first line to start from.
Read the full guide
First person writing prompts and the other narrators
A first-person narrator takes part in the story and says I and me, or we as one of a group. Second person tells it with you. Third person calls every character he, she or they: close third stays inside one character's view, and an all-knowing narrator sees what each character thinks and feels.
Prompts for writing from different perspectives
The group The same event, told twice hands one event to two tellers: a broken vase as the child who did it, then as the cat who is blamed. The line under it says what each of them misses. Write both halves, and let neither teller learn the other's.
Keep to the limit. If the ship's cook never leaves the galley, the rocks stay out of the story.
A villain is sure of being in the right. To the dragon, the knight is the nuisance.
Questions and answers
What are some first person writing prompt ideas?
Fifteen are in the group First person, each with a narrator who misses something: the baker who delivers a wedding cake, the substitute who never gets on, the family dog who slept through a break-in.
Are there third person writing prompts?
Two groups. Third person, close follows one character, such as a locksmith on a night call, and says what he cannot know. Third person, all-knowing gives the narrator everything and says what to hold back.
What is a switching point of view writing prompt?
One that has you tell an event, then change the teller and tell it again. In The same event, told twice, a missed goal is told by the striker and then by the goalkeeper.
Are there villain's point of view writing prompts?
Yes, a group of fifteen, all mild: a dragon on the knight who keeps turning up at her cave, a rival baker in the week the prize went across the road, a rooster on his reasons for four in the morning.