50 Novel Writing Prompts (Categorized by Genre)

• Jan 08, 2026
• 8 min read

• Tags: Book Writing, Novel, Novel Writing, Writers

Do you want to write a novel, but are not sure where to start? 

Do you find yourself suffering from a case of writer’s block, wanting to write, but with no ideas at all?

Well, you’re at the right place! Here are 50 novel writing prompts, categorized by genre, to get those creative juices flowing and help you get started!

What is a novel writing prompt?

For the uninitiated, a novel writing prompt is essentially an idea for a story in a capsule. It briefly describes the main character(s) and premise (in not more than one or two lines), leaving the rest to be taken over by the writer’s imagination.

Below is a list of 50 such prompts spanning different genres of fiction that can be expanded into novels of 40,000 words or more. 

Romance novel writing prompts

Who doesn’t love a romance novel with the right mix of sugar, spice, and everything nice? Here are five romance story prompts that you can turn into full-fledged novels:

1. Classic Hallmark romance: High-powered career girl goes to her tiny hometown for the holidays to get a break from her demanding job. There, she unexpectedly falls in love with the local hunk, who upends everything she thought she knew about herself and what she wanted, and embarks on a new journey of love.

2. Enemies to lovers: In school, they couldn’t stand each other. As adults, they can’t help but find excuses to keep meeting. A classic enemies-to-lovers where the two characters who despised each other the most end up finding out they are wildly compatible, but are in denial for a long time, before finally accepting their feelings.

3. Friends to lovers: For years, they have been nothing but good friends, always meeting up and having a good time when back in their hometown. However, when they find themselves single at the same time and thrown together in unexpected circumstances, sparks fly, and an old friendship blossoms into love.

4. Second-chance love: A divorcee or widow/widower who had lost faith in love and romance, unexpectedly meets someone who seems perfect for them. Despite their best efforts to resist, they can’t help falling in love, despite swearing never to do so again.

5. Exes to lovers: Years after they broke up over a silly fight in high school, the female protagonist receives a request from her ex on social media. Fueled by curiosity, she accepts and, despite her initial reservations, discovers that over the years, they have both grown into mature individuals. Meeting in person shows her that she is still highly attracted to her ex, and the pair end up falling in love… all over again! 

Mystery or thriller novel writing prompts 

From Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to Agatha Christie to Robert Galbraith, the mystery genre has kept readers enthralled for centuries! Here are some great mystery prompts for your next whodunnit:

6. A small-town murder: Idyllic life in a small, uneventful town is disrupted by a grisly murder. It falls to an eccentric outsider who is in town on vacation to solve the mystery, where it seems everyone but him or her is a suspect.

7. A royal mystery: The food taster of the ruler of a major country drops dead, and a plot to poison the ruler is discovered. It falls to the ruler’s closest advisor to uncover the culprit.

8. The fake hauntings: A series of hauntings has been troubling a popular museum, driving away visitors just before a major exhibition. The watchman, however, has his doubts and sets out to solve the mystery of the supposed hauntings.

9. The garden poisonings: A little old lady who grows and tends to a wide variety of herbs in her home garden becomes the prime suspect in a series of small-town murders where the victims die by poisoning after ingesting concoctions made with the herbs she grows. But is she truly the culprit, or merely a scapegoat?

10. The deadly library book: In a strange turn of events, everyone who has checked out a particular book in the library becomes the target of a serial killer. While the police protect the next person on the list, they must figure out who is behind the murders and why the book is so significant.

Horror novel writing prompts

11. The classic haunted house: A young family purchases a property where they hope to live out their happily-ever-after. However, the disappearance of the family pet leads to a series of unexplained events that eventually cause them to realise that their dream home is actually haunted.

12. The family psychic: In every generation of a family, one member is blessed (or cursed) with the ability to see and commune with the dead. There is also the spirit of an ancestor long gone that insists on hanging around, seeking to wrap up unfinished business through the protagonist (something all the previous family psychics have failed to do).

13. The haunted school: A pair of siblings is enrolled in a prestigious boarding school that has a long history. A series of strange events makes them realise that something is not quite right, and that the school is actually haunted.

14. The empty airport: Forced to spend the night at an empty airport due to a snowstorm, the protagonist has paranormal experiences with figures not visible on security cameras. Their mission? To survive till dawn, when the airport opens again, and it’s time for their flight to take off.

15. Ghosthunting gone wrong: A group of bored teenagers decides to spend the summer holidays in their rural hometown investigating an abandoned house on the edge of the forest. As they accidentally wake a vengeful spirit, what was initially supposed to be a bit of fun recorded on their phones ends up turning into a paranormal nightmare.

Bildungsroman (coming-of-age) novel writing prompts

16. The eastern discovery: A burnt-out corporate employee goes on a trip to India to discover themselves. They get in touch with their spiritual side and find the answers they were looking for regarding their messy life back home.

17. The unexpected hero/heroine: A deeply flawed character is grudgingly made to take on certain responsibilities (either at work or at their place of study or in their personal life) that teach them about life, friendship, and help them recognise and overcome their flaws and grow into a better-rounded individual.

18. Grow through adversity: A cocky, couldn’t-care-less character is put through unexpected adversity that helps them tap into unknown reserves of strength of character, which helps them grow as a person.

19. The sisterhood: A girl’s or woman’s understanding of herself grows and blossoms with an unexpected bond discovered with her sisters or female friends.

20. The lucky orphan: An orphan adopted by a middle-class family experiences ‘normal’ life outside the orphanage for the first time, and flourishes into a new person.

Sci-fi novel writing prompts

21. The time machine: A homemade time machine malfunctions, accidentally launching a young science genius into the 1500s. They have to keep their identity a secret, navigate life in the past, and fix their time machine in order to return to their own time.

22. Future imperfect: An attempt by a discontented youth to rewrite the past through time travel ends up changing the future. They have to undo their mistakes quickly before life as they know it ceases to exist.

23. An ethical space dilemma: A group of astronauts goes off-course and ends up discovering a habitable planet by accident. While one faction wants to colonise the planet and turn it into a second Earth, the other faction fights to leave the new planet undisturbed in order to avoid destroying its ecosystem.

24. Discovering extraterrestrial life: An underpaid lab assistant accidentally makes contact with extraterrestrial life using her radio. Through a series of translated conversations, she learns about life on a different planet and must decide whether to inform her superiors (who are sure to set up a space mission to find the planet) or let this seemingly utopian planet remain a secret.

25. Historical clones: A successful human cloning experiment leads to a brilliant but unscrupulous scientist joining hands with a corrupt government to use their technology to bring back ruthless leaders from the past, whom the corrupt party’s heads believe will bolster their political power. But when figures like Emperor Nero and Adolf Hitler are resurrected, this plan turns into the world’s nightmare…

LGBTQIA+ fiction novel writing prompts

26. The coming-out story: A young LGBTQIA+ individual from a conservative background faces cultural or religious odds and society’s judgment when coming out to their family. 

27. Finding love in unexpected places: A protagonist who went most of their life thinking they were straight, unexpectedly finds love in a same-sex setting, like a boarding school or college, only for women or men.

28. Found family: A young LGBTQIA+ individual who has faced severe criticism from their family for their orientation finds love and acceptance among their friends, teachers, and other individuals they are not related to.

29. Lavender marriage: A lavender marriage (marriage of convenience between LGBTQIA+ individuals for social acceptance) between a seemingly heterosexual couple begins to unravel when the truth of their arrangement is found out.

30. Sporting rivals: Two sporting rivals who frequently square off against each other at major international events unexpectedly find that they have more in common than just their sport…

Historical novel writing prompts

31. The Scottish siege: Two warring Highland clans clash when the daughter of a high-ranking clansman is kidnapped by the son of the chief of the other during a raid. While the girl’s family fights to get her back, she ends up falling in love with the young man she had been raised to consider her clan’s sworn enemy.

32. The Tudor tryst: Set in Elizabethan England, a young woman from seemingly nowhere wins the Queen’s favour and rises rapidly in importance at court, going on to become Her Majesty’s closest aide. Jealousy, plots, and conspiracies abound as her enemies strive to uncover her true background in a bid to discredit her.

33. The Regency romance: In the early decades of the 19th century, a young English girl is poised to make her debut into London society, and her bankrupt family’s survival depends on her making an advantageous match with a rich nobleman. The only problem is that she views marriage as a trap and has no intentions of tying herself down.

34. The Civil War adventure: A girl in her late teens dresses up as a boy and enrolls in the Union Army, taking her sick brother’s place when he is called up to fight in the Civil War.

35. The Pioneering problems: Following a family of Pioneers who sail from England to North America to start a new life, this story is told through the eyes of a female protagonist, one of the daughters of the family, who is the only one who has any sympathy for the Native Americans who are being displaced and killed in the colonization of America. To make matters worse for her family, she falls in love with a Native American man.

Dystopian novel writing prompts

36. The surveillance state: In a dystopian future where every move of citizens is monitored, a group of students forms an underground movement to overthrow the dictatorial government.

37. The post-pandemic story: In a depleted society that was ravaged by a pandemic a few years ago, the last remaining human beings struggle to rebuild life as they knew it before the outbreak.

38. The post-apocalyptic tale: In a world that has been destroyed by a nuclear apocalypse, and going outside is dangerous due to high levels of radiation, a brave individual who was confined to their house thus far tries to make contact with any surviving human beings.

39. An AI-run world: In the year 2100, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has seeped into every aspect of human life, so much so that human beings have become intellectually stunted and are incapable of thinking of themselves without the help of their personal AI-search devices. A family who went off the grid has the only people on earth who live ‘analog’ and still know how to use their own brains for everything, and they set out to break the grip AI has on their fellow human beings.

40. Unnatural beauty: In a dystopian future where every human being undergoes plastic surgery or receives fillers or implants on a regular basis, constantly altering their appearances to fit in with ever-changing beauty standards, a group of people who have managed to resist having any procedures so far try to teach human beings to embrace their natural selves, and that chasing beauty trends is not a healthy way to live.

Young Adult (YA) novel writing prompts

Young Adult or YA is a hugely popular genre in the US and UK, with several readers in their mid-to-late teens and early twenties devouring stories of characters roughly their own age. Here are some prompts for interesting YA novels:

41. Starting afresh: A loner who was bullied at her previous school gets a chance to start afresh when her family moves to a new city. When she enrolls at her new school, she invents a new personality and goes on to become one of the most popular girls in her class, until her secrets catch up with her and threaten to ruin her newfound image.

42. The urban rebel meets perfect prince or princess: A rebellious teenager from the wrong side of the tracks crosses paths with a goody-two-shoes who seems to do nothing wrong. An unlikely friendship forms, teaching them both more about themselves and exposing them to a new world outside what they had grown up in.

43. Culture shock: An American girl is forced to move countries after school due to her parents’ divorce, and has to attend college in England, where she lives with her father. At first, she hates her new life, but gradually settles in, makes friends, and even finds love.

44. Home for the holidays: A character from an ethnic background is forced to spend the holidays with their grandparents in a developing country, very unlike the US/UK, where they grew up. However, as their bond with their grandparents deepens, they fall in love with their roots and begin to embrace their culture.

45. A military education: Against her will, a girl in her late teens is forced to enlist in the US military after school to fulfill her late father’s dreams. Upset at being unable to choose her own path, she eventually makes lifelong friendships and discovers her inner reserves of courage and strength when sent on dangerous missions for the army.

Children’s fiction novel writing prompts

Arguably one of the most fun genres to write, children’s fiction has recently been seeing a new surge in popularity, after a few decades in the shadows. Here are some great children’s fiction prompts to get your wheels turning:

46. A boarding school story or series: A young American girl (or boy), aged 11 or 12, arrives at an old-fashioned British boarding school. They are initially angry and feel abandoned by their family, and are determined not to cooperate with their peers and teachers, and to go home as soon as possible.  However, they gradually begin to make friends and realise that boarding school isn’t so bad after all!

47. A young child and their dog: A primary-school-age child is gifted their first pet, a puppy, by their parents on their birthday. Child and dog grow close in a series of heartwarming encounters, and go on to have great adventures together in their rural hometown.

48. Kid meets alien: A middle-school kid finds a UFO in the woods behind their house, from which emerges a strange, humanoid alien. The kid discovers that the alien has crashed on Earth, and is desperate to repair the UFO and return to their planet, and begs the kid to keep their existence a secret. The kid agrees and goes to spend time with the alien every evening after school. What blossoms is an unlikely friendship that’s totally out of this world!

49. Kid develops superpowers: A chance incident at school (science lab experiment gone wrong) leads to a middle-schooler developing superpowers. They soon develop a dual identity as ordinary school kid-cum-superhero/heroine, and fight crime after school, becoming the protector of their small town. However, someone discovers their secret and threatens to reveal it…

50. Diaries of a teen or tween girl: A shy new girl moves to a new town when her parents get a new job, and is enrolled at the local middle school. Write about the ups and downs of a middle-schooler’s vibrant inner life, filled with best friends, crushes, and classroom drama, in diary format. 

Now that you have 50 prompts spanning different genres at your disposal, it is time to pick up your pen and start writing! We wish you the very best with your novel-writing journey!

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Tanvi

With a foundation in Life Sciences, Tanvi enjoys curating technical writing tips tailored for ESL students. When she's not translating complex concepts into bite-sized nuggets, she can be found playing with dogs or painting landscapes.