The Story Prompt Library is a free deck of 78 illustrated story prompts: characters, villains, plots, twists, opening lines and more, ready to steal whenever the blank page is winning. New cards added regularly.
Get New Prompts by EmailDon't just read them: steal them. Grab one card, open a blank doc, and write one rough scene today. Combine two cards for something stranger. Prompts aren't precious. They're ignition.
Every card in the Story Prompt Library belongs to one of thirteen story elements, so you can deal a full hand, lock the cards you love, and reshuffle the rest. For example, pair a character with a twist, then write the scene where they collide. Want to go deeper? Brush up on the basics of creative writing, then come back and draw a fresh hand.
A lighthouse keeper who has been secretly answering letters addressed to someone who died forty years ago.
A small town holds a festival every year to celebrate an event that, the records show, never happened.
The only person who can translate the warning is the one person your protagonist swore never to speak to again.
A library built inside a dormant volcano, where the archives are always warm and certain shelves are strictly off-limits.
The ghost has been protecting the family all along — from the house itself.
A royal food taster who has built an immunity to every poison — except one, and someone at court knows it.
Two rival mapmakers discover their maps disagree about a road one of them has walked her whole life.
Every door in the city locks itself at dusk — and tonight your protagonist is on the wrong side of one.
A coastal village where the tide goes out only once a year — and everyone leaves town before it does.
The letter she has carried for years, too afraid to deliver, was addressed to her all along.
A retired forger hired by a museum to authenticate its collection — including three paintings she faked herself.
A night market that only appears when it rains, selling things its customers lost long ago.
Join the Story Prompt Library and get fresh story sparks in your inbox as new cards are added, plus the occasional note on actually finishing the book.
A prompt gets you a scene. A fully built world gets you a book. Once the Story Prompt Library sparks an idea, grab a free sample from any of the four Storycosm fiction worlds and write inside a world that's already built.