365 Writing Prompts for Fantasy: A Year of Ideas!

Well, well, well…looking for writing prompts for fantasy, are we?

You are in luck! We are huge fans of fantasy writing (and, let’s be honest, fantasy reading), so…let’s start this quest, shall we?!

A Quick List of Fantasy Prompts For the Impatient Writer

Wanna just cut to the chase? We get it!

Here’s a quick list of 50 fantasy writing prompts categorized by theme to help spark your imagination. If you keep reading past these though, you’ll find even more!

Magic & Spells

Magic is a finite resource, and the world is running out.
Every time someone casts a spell, they lose a specific memory.
You live in a world where magic is performed through cooking and baking.
A character discovers they can “hear” the history of any object they touch.
Magic is illegal, but the Royal Physician is secretly using it to keep the King alive.
A character is born with the ability to see the “threads” of fate and can snip them.
To cast a spell, you must sacrifice something of equal value physically or emotionally.
You find a spellbook where the spells change depending on the moon’s phase.
A world where everyone is born with one—and only one—specific magical talent.
Magic is powered by music; the more complex the melody, the more powerful the spell.

Characters & Creatures

A dragon who hoards rare books and scrolls instead of gold.
A knight who is deathly afraid of swords and must find another way to fight.
A thief accidentally steals a bottle containing the soul of a forgotten god.
A princess rescues the dragon from a knight who was trying to “save” her.
A necromancer who uses their magical powers to give people one last hour with their loved ones.
An elf who hates nature and wants to live in a steampunk industrial city.
A sentient sword that is a pacifist and tries to talk its wielder out of every fight.
A shapeshifter who has spent so long as a wolf they’ve forgotten how to be human.
A golem made of glass who is terrified of breaking.
A familiar (like a cat or owl) that is actually the one in charge of the wizard.

World-Building & Setting

A city built entirely on the back of a massive, slow-moving desert creature.
A world where the sun never sets, and “night” is a magical phenomenon people must buy.
Floating islands connected by bridges made of solid moonlight.
A forest where the trees move several miles every night while everyone is sleeping.
A kingdom where the currency is “years of life” instead of gold.
An underwater civilization that has never seen the sky and believes the surface is a myth.
A mountain range that is actually the spine of a sleeping titan waiting to wake up.
A library that contains every book ever written, but the shelves rearrange themselves every hour.
A village where everyone stops aging at 25, but they only live for exactly 50 years.
A world where shadows have a life of their own and can be traded, stolen, or lost.

Quests & Conflicts

A group of adventurers is hired to find a legendary treasure, only to realize they are the ones being hunted.
The “Chosen One” dies in the first chapter, and their incompetent younger sibling has to take over the quest.
Two warring nations must unite to stop a seasonal plague that turns people into stone.
A map that shows not where you are, but where you need to be to find your heart’s desire.
A character must travel to the underworld to retrieve a recipe that was lost centuries ago.
The villain wins in the prologue, and the story follows the survivors trying to live under their rule.
A messenger must deliver a letter through a haunted wasteland, but the letter is blank to anyone but the recipient.
A rebellion led entirely by the court jesters and entertainers of a corrupt empire.
An ancient prophecy was mistranslated, and the “hero” is actually the harbinger of doom.
A war fought entirely through dreams; if you die in the dream, you never wake up.

Artifacts & Enchanted Items

A mirror that shows the viewer what they would look like if they had made a different life-changing choice.
A pair of boots that allows the wearer to walk on any surface, including water and clouds.
A compass that doesn’t point North, but toward the nearest person who is currently lying.
A cloak that makes the wearer invisible, but also makes them slowly forget their own identity.
A key that can open any door in the world, but every time it’s used, a door in the user’s own home locks forever.
A locket that plays the last song someone heard before they passed away.
A pen that only writes the truth, even if the writer tries to write a lie.
A shield that absorbs the damage it takes and can release it later as a burst of kinetic energy.
A ring that allows the wearer to speak to animals, but the animals are all incredibly cynical and rude.
A deck of cards where each card drawn manifests a real-life event, ranging from a rain of gold to a sudden thunderstorm.

Types of Fantasy Writing Prompts

Fantasy writing prompts come in different flavors that match specific subgenres.

Each type offers a starting point to explore unique worlds and story ideas that fit your creative vision. It all depends on which fantasy genre you prefer!

Epic Fantasy Story Prompts

Epic fantasy prompts transport you to vast worlds filled with kingdoms, quests, and ancient magic. These story ideas focus on large-scale conflicts between good and evil forces.

Your epic fantasy novel might center on:

A reluctant hero who must unite warring kingdoms
A prophecy that threatens to destroy civilization
A magical artifact that holds the key to saving the realm

The best epic fantasy prompts give you room to build detailed magic systems and rich histories. You might explore themes of power, sacrifice, and destiny. Think about creating different races, cultures, and languages that make your world feel real and lived-in.

Here are 33 epic fantasy story prompts, focusing on high stakes, grand world-building, and sweeping narratives:

The God-Corpse: A sprawling capital city is built inside the massive, decaying skull of a dead god. The city’s power source is the god’s lingering essence, but the “corpse” is starting to twitch, and the god is beginning to wake up.
The Memory Tax: To maintain the magical barrier protecting the last human kingdom from an ancient fog, every citizen must “donate” one year of their most precious memories to the Barrier-Keepers every decade.
The Sundered Sky: The world is made of floating islands. A legendary “Bridge-Builder” is born every millennium with the power to solidify air, tasked with reconnecting the shards of the world before they drift too far apart.
The Silent Prophecy: A Great Prophecy was etched into a mountain, but an earthquake shattered the stone. Now, a group of scholars must hunt down the missing fragments across warring territories to see if the world is actually supposed to end.
The Bloodline of Ash: Only those with royal blood can wield magic, but the royal family was systematically assassinated a century ago. A commoner discovers they can cast spells, revealing a secret history of the “usurper” kings.
The Living Map: A young cartographer finds a map that bleeds when a battle occurs and grows new parchment as explorers discover new lands. One day, a black ink stain begins to spread across the map, erasing real cities as it goes.
The Dragon’s Anchor: Dragons aren’t monsters; they are the physical anchors of gravity. As the last dragons are hunted to extinction, the world literally begins to float away into the void.
The Sun-Stealer: A sorcerer-king has successfully “bottled” the sun, plunging the rest of the world into darkness.
The Clockwork Continent: A massive, mechanical continent is slowly winding down. To keep the gears turning and prevent the land from sinking into the sea, a team of engineers must find the “Master Key” hidden in a forbidden, magical wasteland.
The Echo of Stars: The stars are actually the souls of ancient heroes. When a star falls, a new hero is born with their memories. For the first time in history, a “black star” has fallen, and no one knows what kind of power it brings.
The Language of Stone: An empire is built on the ability to speak to stone. When the mountains suddenly stop responding and go “silent,” the civilization’s architecture begins to crumble and turn back into raw earth.
The Soul-Bound Sword: A legendary blade doesn’t just kill; it traps the soul of every person it strikes. The current wielder is haunted by the voices of thousands of past enemies, all demanding a say in how the sword is used.
The Ocean of Sand: A world where the oceans are made of fine, flowing sand instead of water. Ships “sail” using heat magic to liquify the sand beneath their hulls, and deep-sea monsters are massive burrowing serpents.
The Unfinished Creation: The gods abandoned the world before finishing it. In the “Unfinished Lands,” physics is inconsistent, colors are missing, and gravity is a suggestion. A group of explorers must find the gods’ tools to complete the world.
The Shadow Rebellion: Every person’s shadow is actually a tethered spirit from another dimension. One day, the shadows begin to detach themselves and start a revolution against the “Light-Dwellers.”
The Library of Lives: Deep underground is a library where every person has a book that writes their life story in real-time. A thief breaks in and discovers that someone is erasing pages from the King’s book.
The Iron Druid: In a world of high magic, a kingdom discovers “Cold Iron,” a material that negates all spells. This leads to a massive industrial revolution that threatens to wipe out the magical races entirely.
The God-Slayer’s Heir: The man who killed the Dark Lord is now a bitter drunk. When the Dark Lord’s followers begin to rise again, the hero’s daughter must take up his mantle, only to realize her father might have been the real villain.
The Bridge of Sighs: A massive bridge connects two continents, but the toll to cross is a single year of your life. A merchant discovers that the bridge is actually a living creature that is growing stronger with every year it consumes.
The Sky-Whale Migration: Once every century, massive sky-whales migrate across the heavens. Their songs grant temporary immortality to those below, leading to brutal wars between nations trying to claim the best “listening spots.”
The Weaver of Seasons: Seasons don’t happen naturally; they are woven by a council of mages. When the Weaver of Spring is murdered, the world is trapped in a perpetual, worsening winter that threatens to freeze time itself.
The Mirror Kingdom: A portal is discovered to a world that is an exact mirror of our own, except magic is common there and technology is forbidden. The two worlds begin a cross-dimensional war for resources.
The Last Dragon Egg: Dragons have been extinct for ages, but a petrified egg is found. It only hatches when it is bathed in the blood of a selfless act, forcing a cynical mercenary to change their ways.
The City of Seven Names: A city changes its name, culture, and leadership every time the moon is full. The protagonist is the only person who remembers the previous cycles and must solve a murder that spans across these different versions of reality.
The Eternal Siege: A fortress has been under siege for 500 years. The soldiers on both sides have forgotten why the war started, but the magic keeping them alive won’t let them stop fighting until the original peace treaty is found.
The Glass Desert: A desert where the sand was turned to glass by ancient dragon fire. Beneath the surface, a civilization lives in the reflections, and they are trying to swap places with the people in the “real” world.
The Song of the Earth: Every person is born with a specific note they can hum that affects the environment. A group of outcasts discovers that if they sing in harmony, they can reshape the geography of the world.
The Relic Hunter: Magic items are sentient and choose their owners. A young girl is “chosen” by a dark artifact that everyone else is terrified of, and she must prove it can be used for good before the Inquisition finds her.
The Ghost Fleet: An armada of ships made of mist appears every time a coastal kingdom is in danger. The price for their help is that the kingdom’s bravest warrior must join the spectral crew forever.
The Tower of the Heavens: A tower is being built to reach the gods. As it gets higher, people start losing the ability to understand each other’s languages, and a linguist must find a way to unify the workers before the structure collapses.
The Dream-Walkers: In this world, people don’t sleep to rest; they enter a shared “Dream Realm.” A nightmare entity is beginning to kill people in the dream, and their physical bodies are turning into monsters in the waking world.
The Cursed Oasis: A lush paradise in the middle of a wasteland grants any wish, but for every wish granted, a nearby village is wiped off the map. A hero arrives intending to wish the oasis out of existence.
The Final Gate: There are twelve gates that hold back the “End of Time.” Eleven have already crumbled. The story follows the guardians of the last gate as they realize the key to saving the world is hidden in the history of the very first gate that fell.

Urban Fantasy Ideas

Urban fantasy blends magical elements with modern city life. These prompts put wizards in coffee shops and werewolves on subway trains.

Your fantasy novel characters might discover:

Hidden supernatural communities in present-day New York or London.
A detective who solves crimes using magic
A college student who finds out mythical creatures live next door

The modern world gives you technology to play with alongside magic. Your characters can text their vampire best friend or use GPS to track down enchanted objects. This subgenre works well for readers who want fantasy grounded in reality.

Here are 33 urban fantasy story prompts, blending the modern world with the magical and supernatural:

The Karmic Laundromat: A laundromat in a rough part of town doesn’t just clean clothes; it cleans “karmic stains.” If you’ve done something terrible, the machines can wash away the guilt—but the dirty water has to go somewhere.
The Wi-Fi Wizard: A tech-support specialist discovers that the “dead zones” in the city’s Wi-Fi are actually spots where the veil between our world and the fae realm is thinning.
The Gargoyle’s Witness: A cynical private investigator has a secret: the stone gargoyles on the city’s old buildings talk to him, providing a bird’s-eye view of every crime committed at night.
The Blood Bank Heist: Vampires have moved away from hunting and now run a high-end, legitimate blood bank. When a shipment of “Elder Blood” goes missing, they hire a human detective to find it before a war breaks out.
The Graffiti Golem: A street artist discovers that their murals come to life at night to protect the neighborhood from shadow creatures that feed on urban decay.
The 4:00 AM Subway: There is a subway line that only appears at 4:00 AM. It doesn’t take you to another station; it takes you to the city as it existed exactly 100 years ago.
The App of Shadows: A new viral app claims to show you what you’d look like as a fantasy creature. The protagonist realizes the app isn’t using filters—it’s revealing people’s true supernatural lineages.
The Alchemist’s Pharmacy: A local pharmacist is actually an alchemist who uses modern chemicals to create ancient potions. Business is great until a rival starts selling “synthetic magic” that has horrific side effects.
The Ghost in the Machine: A software engineer finds a piece of haunted code. Every time the program runs, a ghost is able to manifest in the physical world for thirty seconds.
The Library of Unwritten Books: Hidden beneath the New York Public Library is a collection of every book that was planned but never finished. The “Librarians” must stop the characters in these books from escaping into the real world.
The Siren of the Underground: A famous pop star is actually a siren whose music keeps a literal monster sleeping beneath the city. When she loses her voice, the city starts to tremble.
The Pawn Shop of Souls: A pawn shop owner accepts “years of life” or “talents” as collateral for loans. A man pawns his ability to feel fear to get through a crisis, but now he can’t get it back.
The Werewolf HR: A massive corporation is secretly run by a werewolf pack. The “Corporate Retreats” are actually full-moon hunts, and a new intern has just been invited.
The Taxi Driver for the Dead: A ride-share driver realizes their app is glitching and only sending them to pick up passengers who have recently passed away and need a ride to “the other side.”
The Concrete Dryad: In a city with almost no greenery, a dryad is bound to the last remaining oak tree in a central park. If the tree is cut down for a new skyscraper, the city’s foundations will crumble.
The Tattoo of Protection: A tattoo artist’s work provides genuine magical protection. When their clients start turning up dead, the artist realizes someone is “peeling” the magic off of them.
The Secret Menu: A popular fast-food chain has a secret menu that can only be ordered in a specific dead language.
The Coffee Shop Oracle: A barista can see the future in the latte art they pour. They try to save customers from accidents, but a mysterious organization wants to weaponize this “milk-sight.”
The Museum of Lost Things: A museum that displays objects lost by people (keys, socks, etc.). If you touch your lost item, you are teleported back to the exact moment you lost it, giving you a chance to change the past.
The Traffic Light Curse: A city’s traffic lights are controlled by a bored minor deity. If you hit ten red lights in a row, you are transported to a parallel “Traffic Hell” version of the city where it is always rush hour.
The High-Rise Hermit: A wizard lives in a penthouse apartment and hasn’t left in 50 years. He uses the building’s ventilation system to cast “calming spells” over the city to prevent magical chaos.
The Night Market: A market that only appears in the fog. You can buy anything there—luck, talent, or beauty—but you can only pay with “firsts” (your first kiss, your first memory of snow, etc.).
The Delivery Dragon: A bicycle courier discovers their bike is actually a transformed dragon. It’s faster than any car, but it requires being fed gold coins to stay in bike form.
The Penthouse Portal: A real estate agent specializes in selling haunted properties. They accidentally sell a house with a portal to the abyss to a very suburban, unsuspecting family.
The Radio Frequency Fae: A late-night radio DJ realizes they can communicate with spirits through the static between stations. The spirits start requesting songs that trigger specific magical events in the listeners’ neighborhoods, and the DJ has to figure out how to stop the “broadcast” before the city is destroyed.
The Sewer Siren: A plumber finds a colony of sirens living in the city’s storm drains, using the echoes of the pipes to lure people into the depths.
The Smartphone Grimoire: An ancient spellbook is digitized and released as an “open source” app, leading to accidental magic being cast by millions of teenagers who think it’s just a game.
The Rooftop Runes: Parkour runners discover that the layout of the city’s rooftops forms a giant protective rune, and a new demolition project is about to break the seal that keeps demons out.
The Midnight Gardener: A woman realizes her neighbor’s beautiful garden grows overnight because he’s planting “seeds of dreams” stolen from the apartment complex.
The Subway Centaur: A centaur tries to live a normal life in the city by wearing baggy pants and working as a delivery driver, but the “Equine Bureau of Investigation” is onto him.
The Neon Necromancer: A club promoter uses necromancy to bring back dead celebrities for one-night-only performances, but the ghosts are starting to refuse to go back to the afterlife.
The Apartment Mimic: A starving artist moves into a suspiciously cheap studio apartment, only to realize the entire building is a massive, sentient predator that slowly “digests” its tenants’ memories.
The Clock Tower Heart: The city’s historic clock tower is actually the “heart” of the city. If it ever stops ticking, time for every resident within city limits will freeze indefinitely while the rest of the world moves on.

Dark Fantasy Writing Prompts

Dark fantasy writing prompts explore horror elements mixed with fantasy worlds. These stories feature morally gray characters and disturbing magical consequences.

You might write about:

Cursed kingdoms where necromancy is the only hope for survival
Bargains with demons
Discovering that saving the world requires unthinkable sacrifices

These prompts challenge you to create atmospheric tension and dread. Your fantasy novel can explore what happens when magic corrupts or when heroes become monsters. The focus stays on difficult choices and the heavy price of power.

Here are 34 dark fantasy writing prompts, focusing on grim themes, horrific magic, and moral decay:

The Tithe of Limbs: A prosperous city-state owes its wealth to a demon. Every ten years, every citizen must sacrifice a non-vital body part to the “Great Collector” to keep the gold flowing.
The Sanguine Healer: Healing magic exists, but it doesn’t create new flesh; it simply transfers wounds. To save a king, a healer must find a “volunteer” to take on the king’s terminal illness.
The Moon is an Eye: One night, the moon opens. It is a giant, lidless eye that gazes down upon the world. Those caught in its direct “stare” begin to mutate into eldritch horrors.
The Bone Throne: The kingdom’s throne is made of the bones of every previous monarch. The current king begins to hear the discordant, screaming voices of his ancestors every time he sits down.
The Glass Plague: A magical disease is turning the population into living glass. They are beautiful, translucent, and conscious, but they shatter at the slightest touch.
The Shadow-Eater: You were born without a shadow. To survive, you must “steal” the shadows of others, but you also inherit their darkest impulses and most painful secrets.
The Screaming Forest: The trees in this forest were once people who committed terrible crimes. They are still conscious, and when the wind blows through their leaves, they scream in eternal agony.
The False Savior: A legendary hero finally defeats the Dark Lord, only to realize the Dark Lord was actually a “seal” holding back an ancient, cosmic horror that is much, much worse.
The Orphanage of Echoes: An orphanage where children are raised specifically to be hollow vessels for the souls of dying aristocrats who want to live a second life.
The Meat-Market of Memories: In a starving city, people can sell their happiest memories for food. The protagonist has sold everything and is now left with only their most traumatic experiences.
The Living Armor: A knight’s suit of plate mail is made of a parasitic, sentient metal. It makes him invincible in battle, but it is slowly growing barbs into his nervous system to take total control.
The Black Rain: A storm that doesn’t wash things away but stains the soul. Anyone caught in the rain loses their ability to feel empathy, turning entire cities into nests of sociopaths overnight.
The Silent Village: A village where no one has spoken for generations because words have physical weight. A single “hello” could crush a house; a “scream” could level the town.
The Necromancer’s Debt: A necromancer successfully brings their spouse back to life, but the magic requires a “balance”—for every day the spouse lives, a random person in the village drops dead.
The Mirror of Truth: A cursed mirror that shows people not as they are, but as the monsters they have become on the inside. A “saintly” priest looks in and sees a rotting demon.
The God of Rot: A deity that only grants favors in exchange for physical decay. To save a child’s life, a mother must agree to let her own body slowly turn to compost while she is still alive.
The Eternal Funeral: A city where it is illegal to stop mourning a king who died centuries ago. Laughter is a capital offense, and the “Inquisition of Tears” ensures everyone is sufficiently miserable.
The Skin-Stitcher: A rogue medic who “upgrades” soldiers by grafting the limbs and organs of magical creatures onto them. The patients gain power, but they also gain the creature’s primal, violent instincts.
The Cursed Lullaby: A song that, when sung, protects a child from all harm but slowly drains the life force of the singer until they become a withered husk.
The Hunger of the Earth: The soil in a kingdom has become sentient and “hungry.” It refuses to grow crops unless it is fed a specific amount of human blood every harvest season.
The Ghost-Light Lantern: A lantern that reveals invisible demons, but it is fueled by the “light” of the user’s soul. The longer you use it, the more hollow and emotionless you become.
The Unending Night: The sun was murdered by a cult of sorcerers. Now, the only light comes from “predatory stars” that descend to earth to hunt anything that moves.
The Clockwork Heart: A character’s heart is replaced by a machine that requires “human oil”—the distilled essence of grief—to keep ticking.
The Poisoned Prophecy: A prophecy that only comes true if the people involved are aware of it and try to stop it, effectively making the “hero” the architect of their own destruction.
The Weeping Statues: Massive statues that cry a thick, red liquid which is the only source of water in a desert. To keep the statues “crying,” the citizens must perform acts of extreme cruelty in front of them.
The Shadow-Bound Knight: A knight whose shadow is a separate, bloodthirsty entity. The shadow wins every battle for him, but it demands to “wear” his body for one hour every night.
The Cannibalistic Grimoire: A powerful spellbook that “eats” the knowledge of other books. If left alone in a library, it will eventually leave every other book blank.
The Bridge of Teeth: A bridge made of the teeth of those who failed to cross a treacherous river. To pass safely, you must contribute one of your own teeth to the structure.
The Silent God: A god who only answers prayers if the petitioner cuts out their own tongue, ensuring that the “miracle” can never be spoken of.
The Ink-Blood Pact: A contract signed in blood that physically transforms the signer into whatever the contract requires—a soldier becomes a literal living weapon; a spy becomes a puddle of ink.
The Garden of Stone: A garden filled with people petrified by a gorgon. They aren’t dead; they are fully conscious and can feel every bird that lands on them or every chip in their “skin.”
The Soul-Vessel: A child is born as a “Sin-Eater,” a vessel meant to hold the collective sins of an entire nation so the rest of the population can remain “pure” and enter heaven.
The Final Breath: A jar containing the last breath of a dying god. If opened, it will grant one wish, but it will also suck the air out of the wishmaker.

Developing Magical Worlds and Settings

Strong fantasy settings need clear rules and vivid details that make readers feel like they could step right into your story. You can craft forests full of ancient magic, build worlds that exist alongside our own, or mix everyday life with supernatural elements.

Creating an Enchanted Forest

An enchanted forest works best when you give it unique features that set it apart from regular woods. Think about what makes your forest magical: trees that whisper secrets, paths that change direction, or flowers that glow at midnight.

You should decide on the forest’s personality. Is it welcoming or dangerous? Does it help travelers or lead them astray?

Some forests might be ancient guardians protecting something valuable. Others could be testing grounds where characters prove their worth.

Add specific details that bring your forest to life. Include unusual plants, magical creatures, and natural landmarks. A silver stream that grants visions or mushrooms that mark safe paths make your setting memorable.

Building a Parallel World

A parallel world exists alongside the real world but operates by different rules.

You need to establish clear connections between these two places. Maybe mirrors serve as doorways, or certain locations let people cross between worlds.

Your parallel world should feel complete with its own geography, culture, and history.

Create maps showing cities, forests, and mountains. Decide what people eat, how they dress, and what they value. The entire world needs internal logic that makes sense to readers.

And think about how your parallel world differs from ours!

Perhaps magic replaces technology, or time moves at different speeds. These differences create interesting challenges for characters who travel between worlds.

Blending the Real World with Fantasy

Mixing the real world with fantasy elements creates stories that feel both familiar and surprising. You can hide a magical world within everyday settings like subway stations, libraries, or coffee shops.

Pick specific real locations and add magical layers.

A normal apartment building might have a floor that only appears to wizards. Your neighborhood park could transform into a fairy market after dark.

You need clear rules about how normal people interact with magic.

Do they see it and forget? Does magic hide itself automatically? Can anyone learn to spot supernatural elements?

These boundaries help maintain tension and prevent plot holes.

33 Magical World & Setting Prompts

The Future Tides: An ocean where the waves wash up artifacts from 1,000 years in the future.
The Glass Grove: A forest where trees are made of glass and “sing” when the wind blows.
The Star-Shell: A city built on the back of a giant turtle swimming through a nebula.
The Celestial Mirror: A world where the sky is a mirror reflecting a parallel, magic-less Earth.
The Gemstone Desert: A desert where the sand is ground-up rubies that explode when stepped on.
The Emotional Peaks: A mountain range that grows taller or shorter based on the collective joy of the nearby city.
The Liquid Light: A kingdom where it rains liquid gold that provides infinite energy but burns skin.
The Rainbow Bridges: Floating islands connected by bridges made of solidified light.
The Mycelium Metro: An underground civilization living inside a single, continent-sized mushroom.
The Waking Seasons: Seasons are determined by which of the four “Great Beasts” is currently awake.
The Botanical Borough: A city where houses are grown from magical seeds in a single afternoon.
The Echo Valley: A place where echoes take on physical, ghostly forms and wander the land.
The Eternal Twilight: A world where the sun and moon are locked on opposite sides of the horizon.
The Library Leaves: A forest where every leaf contains a page of a lost historical text.
The Local Gravity: A world where every individual house has its own gravity “down” direction.
The Upward River: A river that flows from the ocean up to the peak of the highest mountain.
The Melodic Streets: A city where the cobblestones are tuned to play music as people walk on them.
The Time-Warp Isle: An island where one hour on the beach is ten years in the interior forest.
The Chromatic Shadows: A world where shadows are brightly colored and reveal your magic type.
The Geode Kingdom: A civilization built entirely inside a massive, hollowed-out amethyst.
The Scent-Memory Wind: A land where the wind carries smells that force you to relive specific memories.
The Elemental Fauna: A forest where animals are made of elements (fire-wolves, ice-deer).
The Eclipse City: A city that only physically manifests during a lunar eclipse.
The Solid Clouds: A world where the clouds are firm enough to build castles on.
The Dragon-Scale Dunes: A desert where the dunes are actually the scales of a world-sized, buried dragon.
The Woven Light: A kingdom where the architecture is made of “woven” sunlight and moonlight.
The Secret Blooms: Flowers that, when they bloom, whisper a secret about the universe.
The Ink-Stained Sea: An ocean where the water is actually ink, and sailors use massive quills to “write” messages on the surface that manifest into physical reality.
The Living Architecture: A city where the buildings are sentient and can rearrange the streets to trap intruders or create shortcuts for residents they like.
The Sky-Roots: A world where giant trees grow downward from the clouds, and civilizations live in the branches suspended over a bottomless, starry void.
The Memory-Mist: A valley filled with a thick fog that takes the physical shape of whatever you are currently thinking about, making it a paradise for some and a nightmare for others.
The Clockwork Sun: A world where the sun is a massive, ancient machine that requires a guild of “Solar Engineers” to constantly maintain its gears so it doesn’t stop mid-sky.
The Silent Symphony: A land where magic is cast by “conducting” the silence; the more quiet an area is, the more powerful the spells that can be woven there.

Characters and Creatures in Fantasy Prompts

Fantasy prompts work best when they feature compelling characters with unique magical powers and interesting creatures that challenge them. Building your cast around magical abilities, legendary beasts, and opposing forces gives your story depth and conflict.

Inventing Main Characters with Magical Abilities

Your main character needs magical abilities that feel both powerful and limited.

A sorcerer who can control fire but loses energy with each spell creates natural tension. Or you might design a healer who can cure any wound but takes on the pain themselves.

Make sure you consider how your character discovered their powers.

Did they inherit abilities from a bloodline? Were they cursed or blessed by a mysterious force?

Their origin story will shape their relationship with magic.

Common magical abilities to explore:

Elemental control (fire, water, earth, air)
Mind reading or telepathy
Shape-shifting or transformation
Time manipulation
Necromancy or communicating with the dead
Illusion casting

Your character’s limitations matter as much as their strengths.

A young wizard learning to control unpredictable magic creates better stories than an all-powerful hero. Give them weaknesses that force them to grow and adapt throughout their journey.

Exploring Mythical Creatures and Magical Beings

Mythical creatures and magical beings bring wonder and danger to your fantasy world. Dragons guarding ancient treasures remain popular, but you can twist familiar creatures in new ways.

What if phoenixes carried plague instead of rebirth? How would a vampire who feeds on memories instead of blood change your story?

You can draw from character-focused fantasy writing prompts that explore unique creature origins. Consider creating hybrid creatures that combine traits from different legends.

A griffin-serpent might guard underwater ruins, while a centaur with ice magic protects frozen forests.

Popular magical creatures to feature:

Dragons (fire-breathing, ice, shadow)
Unicorns and pegasi
Werewolves and shape-shifters
Merfolk and sea monsters
Fae folk and pixies
Griffins and phoenixes

Make your magical beings feel alive by giving them goals, cultures, and conflicts. Sentient creatures can work as allies, enemies, or morally complex figures who challenge your protagonist’s worldview.

Group of Friends on a Quest

A group of friends on a quest creates natural opportunities for character development and conflict.

Each friend should bring different skills and personalities to the team. You might have a brave warrior, a clever thief, a bookish mage, and a diplomatic healer working together.

The quest itself also needs clear stakes.

Are they searching for a lost artifact to save their kingdom? Rescuing a captured best friend from enemy territory? Breaking an ancient curse that threatens their homeland?

Tension within the group makes stories engaging. Friends might disagree on tactics, harbor secrets from each other, or face moral choices that divide loyalties.

One character’s dark past could endanger the mission. Another might be tempted by power along the way.

Your group dynamics should evolve as challenges test their bonds.

Early arguments give way to trust, or small betrayals crack the foundation of friendship. The quest changes each character, and they emerge different than when they started.

Incorporating Fallen Angels and Dark Forces

A fallen angel brings complex morality to your fantasy story.

These beings often blur the line between hero and villain. You might write about an angel cast from heaven who seeks redemption, or one who embraces darkness and builds an army against the divine.

Dark forces create urgency and raise the stakes.

Shadow creatures corrupting the land, demons breaking through magical barriers, or ancient evils awakening after centuries of sleep all threaten your world. These antagonists work best when they have clear motivations beyond simple destruction.

Ways to use dark forces effectively:

Create a personal connection between your hero and the villain.
Give dark beings weaknesses that require cleverness to exploit.
Show how corruption gradually changes characters and landscapes.
Design dark magic with real consequences for users.

You can mix fallen angels with other dark forces for layered conflicts.

Perhaps a fallen angel commands legions of shadow beasts, or competes with demon lords for control. The villain’s goals might even seem reasonable from their perspective, creating moral complexity that challenges your characters and readers.

33 Characters & Creatures Prompts

The Dragon-Breath Blacksmith: A smith who was born with the ability to breathe dragon fire, allowing them to forge weapons that can cut through magic.
The Knight of Rust: A legendary warrior whose armor is cursed to decay, yet the more it rusts, the more indestructible the knight becomes.
The Chimera Child: A child born with the features of three different magical beasts, struggling to control three different sets of instincts.
The Librarian of Whispers: A character who guards a library of sentient books that only speak when they are “fed” a secret from the reader.
The Phoenix-Feather Thief: A rogue who steals a single feather from a phoenix to gain temporary immortality, but finds they are slowly turning into ash.
The Gorgon Sculptor: A gorgon who uses her curse to create the most realistic statues in the world, but secretly, she is trying to find a way to turn them back.
The Soul-Stitcher: A doctor who can sew the soul of a dying person into a mechanical golem to keep them “alive.”
The Iron-Eating Dragon: A dragon that doesn’t hoard gold but eats iron, causing a kingdom-wide shortage of weapons and tools.
The Vampire Monk: A vampire who has taken a vow of non-violence and blood-fasting, living in a monastery built over a holy spring.
The Star-Fallen Orphan: A child found in a crater who is actually a fallen star in human form, leaking light whenever they feel strong emotions.
The Mimic Merchant: A traveling salesman who is actually a massive, sentient treasure chest that sells items it has “digested” from previous owners.
The Giant’s Gardener: A human whose job is to prune the moss and parasites off a mountain-sized giant while the giant sleeps for centuries.
The Were-Raven Spy: A shapeshifter who can only turn into a bird during the day, making them the perfect daylight infiltrator for a thieves’ guild.
The Kelpie Groomer: A brave stable hand tasked with taming and grooming water-horses that try to drown anyone who touches them.
The Blind Seer’s Guide: A small, telepathic dragon that acts as the “eyes” for a powerful but blind oracle.
The Alchemist’s Homunculus: A tiny creature created in a lab that escapes to find its “father” and demand a real soul.
The Banshee Soprano: A banshee who discovers that if she sings opera, her deadly wail becomes a source of incredible healing magic.
The Faun Diplomat: A creature of the wild woods who is hired to negotiate a peace treaty between a modernizing city and the ancient forest spirits.
The Spider-Silk Weaver: An outcast who raises giant spiders to harvest their silk, which is the only material strong enough to bind a god.
The Minotaur Architect: A genius builder who is obsessed with creating a city that is a perfect, logical grid to make up for his own history of being lost in a labyrinth; he builds cities that are impossible to get lost in.
The Ghost-Bound Paladin: A holy warrior whose sword is haunted by the spirit of the first person he ever killed, who now gives him tactical advice and snarky commentary.
The Centaur Archer: A centaur who lost his hind legs in battle and uses a magical, floating chariot to remain the most mobile warrior on the battlefield.
The Shadow-Puppeteer: A performer whose shadows can detach from the wall and perform physical tasks, but they are starting to develop their own rebellious personalities.
The Mermaid Cartographer: A mermaid who maps the “under-islands” (the parts of land below sea level) and trades secrets with surface explorers for items from the sunlit world.
The Golem Bodyguard: A stone golem programmed to protect a royal family that died out 500 years ago; it now protects the last living descendant—a confused street urchin.
The Griffin Rider: A postal worker in a mountain kingdom who uses a griffin to deliver messages, but the griffin has developed a paralyzing fear of heights.
The Necromancer’s Pet: A skeleton dog that can sniff out magical artifacts and “bark” by rattling its ribs, helping its master find buried relics.
The Dryad Exile: A tree spirit whose home forest was burned down, now living inside the wooden prosthetic arm of a mercenary to stay connected to the earth.
The Sphinx Riddle-Maker: A sphinx who has run out of riddles and hires a human comedian to help her write new ones so she can keep her job guarding the mountain pass.
The Clockwork Dragon: A dragon made of gears and steam that hoards “time” (clocks, watches, and hourglasses) instead of gold.
The Siren Bodyguard: A siren who uses her voice to create sonic shields and concussive blasts to protect a merchant prince, rather than luring sailors to their deaths.
The Orc Scholar: An orc who is the world’s leading expert on ancient elven poetry, much to the confusion and annoyance of both races.
The Familiar’s Master: A story told from the perspective of a cat familiar who has to constantly save its incompetent “master” wizard from his own magical accidents.

Magical Elements and Themes

Magic can take countless forms in fantasy stories, from ancient spells that shape reality to forbidden knowledge that corrupts. These core magical elements give your fantasy world depth and create conflicts that drive your characters forward.

Ancient Magic and Magical Powers

Ancient magic refers to old, powerful forces that existed long before your story begins. This type of magic often comes from forgotten civilizations or lost ages.

You can write about characters who discover ancient spells in crumbling temples or inherit magical powers from bloodlines that trace back thousands of years.

Your characters might struggle to control these ancient forces because the knowledge of how to use them safely has been lost to time.

Ancient magic works well when it feels dangerous and unpredictable. Maybe your character finds a spell book written in a dead language, or they awaken powers that haven’t been seen in centuries.

Consider making ancient magic different from modern magic in your world. It could be more powerful but harder to control.

Hidden Dark Secrets

Every compelling fantasy world has dark secrets lurking beneath the surface. A dark secret might involve forbidden magic that was banned for good reason, or hidden truths about your world’s history that powerful people want to keep buried.

Dark secrets work best when revealing them changes everything your characters thought they knew.

Maybe the peaceful kingdom was built on genocide, or the hero’s mentor is actually the villain from legends. Your protagonist could discover that their magical powers come from a terrible source.

You can use dark secrets to add tension and moral complexity to your story.

Characters must decide whether to expose the truth or keep it hidden to protect others. The discovery of these secrets often forces difficult choices that test your characters’ values.

Themes of Eternal Life

Eternal life is a powerful theme that raises questions about what it means to be human. You can explore characters who seek immortality, those who already have it, or worlds where eternal life comes with a terrible price.

Characters who live forever face unique challenges. They watch loved ones age and die while they remain unchanged.

They might grow tired of existence or become disconnected from mortal concerns. Perhaps they sacrificed something precious to gain eternal life and now regret that choice.

You could write about a villain who wants to live forever no matter the cost, or a hero who must give up immortality to save others.

The quest for eternal life often involves dark fantasy elements where characters use forbidden magic or make deals with dangerous beings. Consider how eternal life affects your character’s personality and their relationships with others.

35 Fantasy Prompts with Magical Elements & Themes

The Finite Source: Magic is a non-renewable resource that is 99% depleted.
Memory Casting: Every spell requires you to permanently forget a specific memory.
The Blood Price: Magic is fueled by health; powerful mages are physically withered.
Sentient Magic: Magic is a conscious entity that sabotages spells it dislikes.
The Linguistic Seal: Magic is a physical language; mispronunciation is deadly.
Elemental Debt: Using fire magic requires staying in freezing cold to “repay” it.
The Shadow Trade: Magic is cast by detaching your shadow to do work.
Chromatic Magic: Mages can only cast spells using pigments available nearby.
The Echo Effect: Every spell has a reversed “echo” that occurs 24 hours later.
Celestial Power: Magic strength is tied to the distance of the nearest star.
The Corruption: Magic is a parasite that turns the user into the element they use.
Musical Magic: Spells are woven through harmony; a flat note causes an explosion.
The Weight of Power: Casting a spell makes the caster physically heavier.
Dream Harvesting: Magic can only be gathered from the dreams of sleeping giants.
True Names: Knowing an object’s true name gives control but burns the name from your mind.
Scent-Based Sorcery: Potions and spells are triggered by specific smells.
Conservation of Magic: To create water, water must disappear from elsewhere.
Emotion Fuel: Magic is powered by specific emotions (rage for fire, grief for ice).
Mirror Magic: Spells can only be cast through reflections.
Clockwork Magic: Spells are mechanical and require physical gears to function.
The Life-Swap: Healing one person requires taking the life-span from another.
Star-Iron: Magic only works on items forged from fallen meteorites.
The Forbidden Color: A specific color exists that only mages can see.
Tidal Magic: Magic power waxes and wanes with the ocean tides.
The Painted Soul: Magic is stored in magical tattoos; once the spell is cast, the ink physically vanishes from the skin.
Bone Divination: A form of future-telling that requires the caster to break one of their own bones to “see” a specific truth.
Gravity Anchors: Magic that allows people to walk on any surface, but they eventually lose their internal sense of “up” and “down” permanently.
The Arcane Waste: Casting spells creates a toxic, glowing “sludge” that must be disposed of safely, or it will mutate the local environment.
Symbiotic Flora: Mages must host a magical plant inside their own body; the plant provides mana in exchange for the host’s nutrients.
Soul-Binding: Items can be imbued with human souls, but the object eventually takes on the personality and grudges of the deceased person.
Weather Debt: Forcing a sunny day in one kingdom causes a catastrophic, unnatural storm to strike a random location elsewhere.
Luck Siphoning: Magic that allows you to succeed at any task by “stealing” the future luck of your own descendants.
The Silent Void: A natural phenomenon where magic is completely dampened, used by governments as a prison for the world’s most dangerous sorcerers.
Glass-Blowing Spells: Spells are captured inside delicate glass orbs; the magic is only released when the glass is shattered.
The Final Word: A legendary spell that grants any wish but, upon being cast, permanently erases the very concept of magic from the universe.

Short Stories and Story Starters

Short stories need strong openings and clear direction to grab readers quickly. Fantasy short fiction works best when you focus on a single magical element or character transformation rather than building entire worlds.

Fantasy Short Story Ideas

Short stories in fantasy require you to compress your ideas into tight narratives.

You should focus on one core magical concept instead of multiple plot threads. A character discovering they can see through mirrors into other dimensions makes a stronger short story than trying to explain an entire magic system.

Your fantasy short story works well when it centers on a moment of change.

A baker who accidentally bakes emotions into their pastries creates immediate conflict. A knight who finds their sword has started talking back offers instant character dynamics.

Ideas for various fantasy plots often include urban settings where magic breaks into normal life.

These work perfectly for shorter fiction because readers already understand the modern world. You only need to explain the magical twist.

Time constraints help fantasy short stories stay focused. Give yourself a single day, hour, or even minute for your story to unfold.

A wizard has sixty seconds to undo a curse.

A dragon must choose between two paths before sunset.

Writing Prompt Examples for Short Stories

Story starters give you that first sentence or situation to build from.

“The last dragon egg hatched in your kitchen sink” immediately raises questions your story must answer. “You inherit a library where the books rewrite themselves each night” creates instant mystery.

Fantasy writing prompts to spark creativity provide specific scenarios instead of vague ideas.

“A thief steals memories instead of gold” tells you exactly who your character is and what makes them unique. “Maps in your world change based on who reads them” gives you a concrete magical rule to explore.

Your best prompts contain built-in conflict.

“Every lie you tell becomes a small creature that follows you” creates immediate problems for your character. The magic itself becomes the obstacle.

Fairy Tale Inspired Prompts

Fairy tales offer familiar frameworks you can twist into fresh stories.

You might retell Cinderella where the fairy godmother is actually a con artist. Or explore Sleeping Beauty from the perspective of the castle staff who stayed awake.

Classic fairy tale elements translate well to modern settings.

A woodcutter’s child in an urban apartment. A poisoned apple that’s actually a smartphone. These updates make old stories feel new.

You can also pull single elements from fairy tales without retelling entire plots.

Use talking animals, magical gifts that come with prices, or three impossible tasks. These pieces work as story starters on their own.

High Fantasy & Epic Quests

The dragon didn’t breathe fire; it breathed the lost memories of the people it had eaten.
Every child in the kingdom is born with a map tattooed on their back, but yours is the only one that shows a path leading into the Forbidden Sea.
The crown was made of “Ever-Ice” that never melted, but the new Queen noticed a single drip fall onto the throne.
Magic is fueled by the stars, and for the first time in a thousand years, the sky has gone completely black.
You are a knight who has been sent to slay a dragon, only to find the dragon is a young child who doesn’t know how to control their power.
The sword in the stone wasn’t waiting for a king; it was a seal keeping something trapped beneath the earth.
In a world where everyone can fly, you are the first person born with feet that are tethered to the ground.
The Great Library doesn’t house books; it houses the souls of the wise, and today, one of them started screaming.
You find a door in the middle of an ancient forest. It has no walls around it, but when you look through the keyhole, you see a modern city.
The gods walk among mortals, but they are treated like celebrities, and you just got hired as a bodyguard for the God of Chaos.

Urban & Contemporary Fantasy

The subway train took a sharp turn onto a track that wasn’t on the official city map.
Your favorite coffee shop regular is actually a 500-year-old vampire who just wants to talk about 18th-century poetry.
You discover that the “white noise” on your radio is actually a broadcast from a kingdom in another dimension.
Every time you draw a door on a wall with a specific piece of enchanted chalk, it opens into the same dusty antique shop in 1920s London.
You work at a dry cleaner that specializes in removing impossible stains—like dragon blood and ectoplasm—from superhero capes.
The gargoyles on the local cathedral aren’t statues; they’re the city’s neighborhood watch, and they just asked you for a favor.
You realize your reflection in the mirror is exactly three seconds behind your actual movements, and today, it winked at you when you weren’t looking.
In a city where everyone has a superpower, you have the power to make people forget they ever met you—including your own parents.
The stray cat you’ve been feeding for a year just spoke to you, demanding to know why the “tribute” was five minutes late.
You find a smartphone in a thrift store that only has one app: a GPS that tracks the location of mythical creatures in your local neighborhood.

Dark Fantasy & Horror

The moon didn’t rise tonight; instead, a giant, unblinking eye opened in the sky.
You are an undertaker in a town where the dead refuse to stay buried unless you tell them a secret they never heard while they were alive.
The forest doesn’t have trees; it has giant, calcified fingers reaching out of the dirt toward the sun.
You were born without a shadow, and today you finally found someone who has two.
To save your dying brother, you must trade your ability to feel joy to a forest spirit who wants to experience humanity.
Every time you fall asleep, you wake up in a different person’s body, but always in the same haunted castle.
The village elders told you never to whistle after dark, but you did, and now the wind is whistling back in your own voice.
You are a necromancer who is terrified of ghosts, and you’ve just been hired to clear out a haunted mansion.
The ink in your tattoo starts to crawl across your skin, forming words that warn you of a murder that hasn’t happened yet.
In this kingdom, “immortality” is a curse passed on by a touch, and you’ve spent your whole life trying not to be “it.”

Magical Realism & Whimsical Fantasy

You live in a house that grows a new room every time you tell a lie.
The clouds are actually giant, floating whales, and today, one of them fell into your backyard.
You found a jar of “bottled sunlight” in your grandmother’s attic, but when you opened it, it released a tiny, grumpy sun god.
In your town, people don’t die; they just turn into trees. You just realized your favorite climbing tree is your great-grandfather.
You have the ability to taste colors, and today you tasted a color that shouldn’t exist.
Every morning, a new letter appears on your doorstep from a version of yourself that lives in a world where magic is real.
You found a pair of glasses that allow you to see the “narrator” of everyone’s life.
The rain in this valley doesn’t fall as water; it falls as tiny, glowing crystals that whisper secrets when they touch the ground.
You bought a clock that counts down to the exact moment you will meet your soulmate, but the timer just hit zero while you were standing in an empty field.
A baker discovers that their bread can heal physical wounds, but only if the person eating it is truly forgiven by someone they have hurt.
You find a key that fits into any lock, but it doesn’t open the door; it changes what is on the other side.
Every time you sneeze, you swap places with a version of yourself from a parallel universe for exactly sixty seconds.
The stars are actually the campfires of a celestial army, and tonight, they have started moving closer to Earth.
You are a dragon who has been cursed to live as a human accountant until you can find someone who truly loves you for your hoard of spreadsheets.
In a world where your shadow is your guardian spirit, yours has just packed its bags and walked away.
You discover that the “monsters” under children’s beds are actually protectors hiding them from the much scarier things that live inside the walls.
An apprentice mapmaker realizes that whatever they draw on their parchment becomes reality in the physical world five minutes later.
You are the last person on Earth who remembers how to cast a spell, but the words are in a language that is slowly fading from your memory every time you use them.
The ocean has suddenly dried up, revealing an ancient, sprawling city made entirely of coral and bones that was never meant to be seen.
You wake up with a crown on your head and a bloody sword in your hand, but you have no memory of being a king, a knight, or a killer.

Prompt Collections and Resources

Finding fresh fantasy prompts gets easier when you know where to look and how to organize them. Regular practice with new prompts keeps your creative skills sharp and helps you develop original story ideas.

Weekly Prompt Challenges

Weekly prompt challenges give you a steady flow of new ideas to work with.

Many writing communities and websites post a prompt of the week that encourages writers to create short pieces or scenes. These challenges often come with deadlines that push you to finish your work instead of leaving it incomplete.

Joining a weekly challenge can help you build a writing habit.

You can find these challenges on writing forums, social media groups, and author websites. Some challenges focus on specific fantasy subgenres like dark fantasy or epic fantasy.

The time limit makes you work faster and trust your instincts. This is a great way to learn to develop good ideas quickly without overthinking every detail.

Compiling Your Own List of Prompts

Creating your personal collection of prompts helps you always have good ideas ready when you need them.

Keep a notebook or digital document where you save prompts that excite you. Add prompts from websites, fantasy books, or ideas that pop into your head during the day.

Sort your prompts by category to find them more easily.

You might organize them by theme, character type, or world-building elements. Mark prompts you want to try soon with a star or highlight.

Review your list regularly and remove prompts that no longer interest you. Your taste changes as you grow as a writer, so your collection should change too.

Writing Tips for Using Fantasy Prompts

Fantasy prompts work best when you treat them as a starting point rather than rigid instructions. The key is building outward from the initial idea while adding your own creative touches.

Transforming Prompts into Full Stories

Start by writing a short scene based on your chosen prompt. If you’re working on your first fantasy novel, begin with just 500 words to test if the idea excites you.

Expand on the prompt by asking questions about what happens next.

Who are the characters involved? What do they want? What stands in their way?

Add details that aren’t in the original prompt.

If the prompt mentions a wizard, decide what kind of magic they use and why. If it includes a quest, figure out what personal stakes your characters have beyond just completing the mission.

Use the prompt as your foundation, not your entire building. Layer in subplots, character relationships, and world-building elements.

Avoiding Common Pitfalls

Don’t feel obligated to use every element from a prompt. Pick the parts that spark your imagination and set aside what doesn’t work for your story.

Avoid copying plots from popular fantasy books or movies when developing characters and world-building. Your story about a chosen one should feel different from others in the fantasy genre.

And watch out for starting too big!

Many writers try to build an entire fantasy world in their first draft. Focus on one kingdom, one magic system, or one conflict at a time.

Don’t abandon a prompt too quickly if it feels challenging. Sometimes the best stories come from prompts that make you work harder to find the right angle.

Encouraging Creativity and Originality

Mix two different fantasy writing prompts together to create something unexpected. Combine a prompt about a cursed sword with one about a political marriage for a unique story angle.

Change the setting or time period.

Take a medieval fantasy prompt and move it to a desert kingdom or an island nation. This simple shift creates fresh storytelling opportunities.

Flip character expectations.

If the prompt suggests a hero, make them morally gray. If it mentions a villain, give them sympathetic motivations.

And don’t be afraid to add personal experiences to your fantasy stories. Your hobbies, fears, and relationships can inform how characters think and behave, even in magical worlds.

We hope these writing prompts for fantasy get the wheels turning in your head!

Have some killer prompts we’ve missed? Be sure to share them in the comments.

Happy (fantasy) writing, friends!

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