31 Writing Prompts For December 2024

Writers Write shares writing prompts and writing resources. Use these writing prompts for December 2024 to get you writing.

Hello Writer

As I mentioned, we are going to use our prompts to practice our craft.

(NOTE: You will receive your monthly prompts as always, but this year I would like you to focus on specific aspects of your novel. This is, of course, entirely optional. You can also use the prompts to free-write.)

The Ending

This month, I want you to focus on the ending. We spend so much time talking about the beginning that we often neglect talking about the ending.

The endings are truly simple, but we like to overcomplicate them. You have three options: your character succeeds, your character fails or we don’t know if they fail or succeed.

We can shade these by considering a moral loss or a moral gain. The character succeeds but … or the character fails but …

As you get closer to the end make sure all your loose ends are tied up. There is a hierarchy. Your least important subplot ends first then the more important one and then the most important subplot. The fewer subplots the better. I would not recommend more than 2 or 3 for a novel of 80 000 words. Strengthen your main plot instead of adding subplots.

The last storyline to end is your main storyline. Does the character achieve the goal or not? Sometimes the romantic subplot can be tied up after the main storyline has been resolved – think baddie being driven away in the cop car and the detective finally asks the journalist out for coffee. It can be that simple.

Use the prompts to tie up the loose ends, create alternative endings and play with different options. Think of it as a ‘choose your own ending’ novel during this month. These are not necessarily scenes that will be used in your book, but rather scenes that will help you evaluate and experiment with the ending.