Mystery Writing Prompts
Embrace your mysterious side and write a dramatic story now with one of these fun prompts.
Embrace your mysterious side and write a dramatic story now with one of these fun prompts.
Write about the disappearance of a person that lives in a small town.
Start writingCraft a spooky story where the narrator is unknown to the reader.
Start your storyImprove your writing with helpful and creative synonym suggestions in our convenient Word Swap tool.
See Writing ToolYou’ve stopped at a quaint town off the highway. But where are all the townspeople?
Create a story to explainSurrealism is an art movement that utilizes imagery from the unconscious mind. Base a short story off of a dream you had but didn’t quite understand.
Summarize your dream nowUsing an abandoned building in your city, create a backstory for why it’s no longer occupied.
Create your backstoryWhile walking past the local park at night, your character stumbles into a detective who thinks your character is the perfect suspect. Is the detective right or wrong?
Explain the situationThe phone rings early one morning. The person on the other end says nothing but “You’ll be getting a letter in the mail today.” What happens next?
Start writingA professor of archaeology figures out an important artifact has suddenly gone missing. Who, or what, took it?
Create a story nowTake an unassuming story from today’s news and retell it as a mystery thriller.
Begin rewriting hereImagine a family member has disappeared. How did you contribute to their disappearance?
What did you do?You and your family are taking a vacation to a fishing town. The keeper of the lighthouse, however, has some stories to tell you. What are they?
Start the storiesTake a superstition or spooky story from your country, and write about it actually happening to someone.
Start writingWrite about a detective who has to figure out why they were hired.
Describe the detectiveSomething is off about your new neighbors. What secrets are they hiding?
Explain their secretsThe lights go out at a museum gala. When they come back on, the most valuable piece has been stolen! Who took it?
Write about what happenedYour character has awoken with amnesia. There is a strange key in their pocket. How do they figure out what the key is to?
Explain what they doWrite about a character who survives an assassination attempt and must find out who tried to do them in.
Describe your characterWrite a story where you try to solve your favorite unsolved murder.
Start your story