There is nothing more frustrating for a writer than staring at a blank screen, a blinking cursor, and having nothing to write. Luckily, all it takes is logging on to the Internet where you can find an endless source of inspiration. There's no limit to the writing prompts you can find online to inspire you. No matter what your preferred style of writing or genre may be -- you can find inspiration on social networks, in email newsletters, on photography sites and more.
When it comes to find inspiration for your creative writing, MakeUseOf has already offered up some great lists for places to find writing prompts, blogging ideas for when you have writers block, inspiration points and more. We've put together a list of five more places to look when you're itching to write, but just aren't sure where to start.
Dictionaries
There is nothing simpler to use as a point of inspiration than one simple word. There are countless dictionaries and online tools that offer a word of the day. Whether it's the Merriam Webster Dictionary, Dictionary.com and even the New York Times, and many more (just google word of the day) - you can find countless ways to choose one word to use as a point of inspiration for your stories, poems, and other creative works. In some cases, you can even subscribe to receive the word of the day via email.
Photography
Just as one word can be used as a source of inspiration for your creative writing, photographs can also serve the same purpose. Whether it's taking a look at the beautiful daily photographs published by National Geographic, or the daily photos coming from the latest news stories from around the world on the New York Times' Lens Blog, or Flickr's most interesting photos posted in the past seven days, there's no limit to the imagery you can find to inspire the next bestseller.
Social Media
Inspiration points and daily prompts can easily be found on social media. One Twitter account which you'll find tirelessly posting writing prompts on a daily basis, and has been doing so for quite a while now, is Daily Prompt. There are just over 1,400 prompts to go through if you've just started following. On Tumblr, Poetry Prompts is home to an archive of prompts that dates back to February 2012.
Other social networking sites are also offering prompts that can serve as inspiration -- creative writing site ABCTales posts a weekly inspiration point on the site's blog, and not only can you use it to spark a creative idea, you can also share your final product on the site with other users.
Reddit features a subreddit -- Writing Prompts - where you can also post your creative writing on the thread to share with other Reddit users.
Lastly, the site HitRecord is a great community where creative users can come together to collaborate. Collaborative groups can serve the purpose of suggesting topics, styles of writing, or even more specifically, you can come together with other users on creative projects.
Just as you can receive the word of the day from online services via email, you can also receive writing prompts online as well. A couple of sites that offer a newsletter service with daily or weekly writing prompts are Poets & Writers and Figment. The convenience of having the prompts delivered directly to your email is a great way to make sure you don't forget about your source of inspiration. This is particularly useful if you're trying to write on a daily basis.
Mobile Apps
If you want to take the writing prompts with you on the go, the aptly named iOS app Prompts offers users a mobile option for inspiration. The app works a little differently than other writing prompt services we've seen -- offering users the first sentence of a story, which you can complete right there on your phone. If you're willing to pay a a little extra, the $1.99 app Writing Prompts is available for both Android and iOS users.
If you're looking for more mobile apps that can help you with your writing, check out Bakari's guide to iPhone and iPad apps for brainstorming creative writing ideas.
Once you've got your inspiration fix, be sure to also check out our writer's guide to free apps for inspiration and organization.
Where do you go for your writing prompts? Let us know in the comments.
Image Credit: Dinuraj K