I worked with Wattpad and created fifteen weekly prompts for writers to use and enjoy. While I was running the prompts, Wattpad writers could post their responses and I gave feedback. Although I’m no longer giving feedback on people’s responses, I hope you find the prompts useful in your writing life.

Having a word count for your story forces you to use exact words and to hone your writing ability. Careful editing and rereading will help you select which words you need and cut away words you don’t. Many of the writing prompts I post here on Wattpad will have a word count. Word counts are something that every writer faces. Either in contents, during commissioned work, or when writing for submission when there are word count guidelines. Word counts include every single word, no matter how long the word, except for the words in the title of the piece.

Keeping in mind the following word count let’s start with our first prompt.

Using less that 500 words, write a scene that includes each of the following elements:

A cell phone.

A man who has a secret.

An empty house.

It is essential to have tension in your writing. It is all very pleasant when everyone sits around enjoying a nice conversation, but it makes for dull reading. Especially if that’s all anybody does. This week I want you to ramp up the tension between two characters, thinking about how to make your dialogue sizzle on the page as your characters disagree with and surprise each other, revealing secrets, desires and passions.

Using less that 500 words write a scene with two characters who haven’t seen each other for a number of years. What does each character want? Why haven’t they seen each other for so long? Can you convey this while maintaining tension?