These title prompts are randomly generated – hit refresh to get a new prompt.

The Guess, the Totem, and the Home

How to work with title prompts:

Think of this title suggestion as a working title for your story. You can always choose a better title once the story is completed. The main point of a title prompt is to eliminate the blank page.

Imagine that you see this title on a book cover, what kind of book do you think it would be? What is the story about?

Can you think of any true stories from your life that might fit this title?

There are several ways you can start a story. You may have a scene in mind. It does not have to be the first scene. It could be the end of the story, or something from the middle. That’s fine. Write the scene and fill in the rest of the story later.

You may prefer to work from an outline. If you have a big picture idea of what this story is going to be write an outline or a timeline of events.

If you don’t have any ideas yet, try doing a “free write” for 30 minutes using this title as your prompt. See what comes up.