Fantasy writing prompts: 100 ideas for characters, magic and strange worlds

Fantasy is the genre where anything can happen, which is exactly why it’s hard to start. A blank page and infinite possibility is a lot to face on a Tuesday evening. What helps is a limit: one strange person, one rule of magic, one door that shouldn’t be there.

The best fantasy writing prompts give you one piece of wonder and one cost: a dragon afraid of heights, a healer whose magic takes a year off her life, a map that updates itself. Pick a character, a magic rule or a world below, or spin the fantasy story spark for a random premise.

Spin a fantasy story spark

Characteran apprentice cartographer who maps places that do not exist yetLock

Settinga library that rearranges itself at nightLock

Objecta seed from the first treeLock

Twistthe monster was once their friendLock

Spin againCopy

Lock the cards you like and spin the rest. Nothing here is stored or sent.

Quick takeaways

• 100 fantasy prompts in seven groups: characters, magic, worlds, objects, twists, dark fantasy and fairy tales.
• A good fantasy premise pairs something wondrous with a cost or a limit.
• The spark above combines a character, a setting, an object and a twist. Lock what you like and spin the rest.
• Magic works best on the page when the reader understands its rules.
• Start small: one village, one spell, one bad decision. Worldbuild as you go.

What makes a good fantasy writing prompt?

A good fantasy writing prompt combines three things: something wondrous, a cost or limit, and a person who wants something. “A dragon” is a creature. “A dragon who is afraid of heights and has to fly home” is a story, because the wonder comes with a problem attached.

Most fantasy premises that stall do so because nothing is at stake. Magic that can do anything solves every problem, and a world with no rules has no tension. The prompts below each come with a catch built in, so the story has somewhere to go from the first line.

Fantasy character prompts

Fantasy character prompts give you an unusual person with a problem: a retired chosen one running a bakery, a knight who has never won a fight, a thief who steals memories. Start with an ordinary want, like rest, money or forgiveness, and let the fantasy make it harder.

1. A retired chosen one runs a bakery. A prophecy says she has one more job to do.
2. A dragon who is afraid of heights has to fly home before winter.
3. A knight who has never won a fight is sent to face something no one has ever beaten.
4. A thief who steals memories for a living steals one of her own by mistake.
5. A witch can only cast spells while singing, and she sings terribly.
6. A ghost is haunting the wrong house and can’t work out how to leave.
7. A troll guards a bridge nobody has crossed in a hundred years. Today, someone does.
8. A queen who secretly swapped places with her maid can’t swap back.
9. An innkeeper is a forgotten god, and one of the guests remembers.
10. A monster hunter starts to pity the monsters.
11. A scribe writes prophecies to order, and one of them comes true.
12. An elf is allergic to magic in a city made of it.
13. A wizard’s cleaner has picked up more magic than the wizard realizes.
14. A soldier deserted the winning side and is now being hunted by both.
15. A child can hear the stars arguing, and they’re arguing about her.
16. A necromancer only raises pets, until a grieving king asks for more.

Magic system prompts: what does magic cost?

Magic system prompts ask what magic can do, what it costs and who pays. Brandon Sanderson’s first law of magic says a writer’s ability to solve problems with magic depends on how well the reader understands it. So give your magic clear rules, and let the rules hurt.

Sanderson set out that idea in his essay on Sanderson’s First Law: “An author’s ability to solve conflict with magic is DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL to how well the reader understands said magic.” It’s a useful test for any magic system. If magic can rescue your characters at any moment, the reader stops worrying about them.

17. Every spell costs the caster a memory, chosen at random.
18. Magic can only undo things, never create them.
19. Healing magic moves the injury to someone else. The healer chooses who.
20. Spells only work if spoken in a language the caster no longer speaks fluently.
21. Magic is powered by grief, and the kingdom has been at peace too long.
22. Anyone can do magic once in their life. Most people save it.
23. Magic works perfectly, but everyone nearby forgets the caster exists for a day.
24. Magic is strongest at the edges of maps, where the world isn’t finished.
25. Every lie told out loud feeds the royal family’s power.
26. Spells can be bought and sold, and there is a black market in secondhand wishes.
27. Magic only works in the rain. It has not rained in six years.
28. Every spell is a bargain with the land, and the land has started keeping score.

Worldbuilding prompts: where does your story happen?

Worldbuilding prompts give you a place that makes stories on its own: a city on the back of a sleeping beast, a forest where the trees remember, a kingdom where magic has just run out. Build only what the story needs, and let the rest stay mysterious.

29. A city built on the back of a sleeping beast that is starting to wake.
30. A forest where the trees remember everyone who walks through.
31. A floating market above the clouds that lands once a year.
32. A library that rearranges itself every night, and a librarian who has stopped sleeping.
33. An island that moves every full moon, and the mapmakers who chase it.
34. A village where it has been autumn for three hundred years.
35. A kingdom the morning after all magic ran out.
36. A clockwork city that stopped at 4:17, with everyone still inside.
37. A valley where everyone dreams the same dream every night.
38. A frozen sea with a single door standing in the middle of it.
39. A crossroads where the old gods sell things from folding tables.
40. A salt mine full of sleeping kings who must not be woken.
41. A school for failed sorcerers, deep in debt.
42. A road that only exists at dusk.

Magical object prompts

Magical object prompts hand your character something powerful with strings attached: a sword that refuses to be drawn, a crown that whispers, a map that updates itself. Ask who made the object, what it wants and what happens to the person carrying it.

43. A sword that refuses to be drawn by anyone who wants to use it.
44. A crown that whispers advice, and it’s usually bad.
45. A map that updates itself. This morning, a new country appeared.
46. A key made of ice that has never melted, and never will, until today.
47. A lantern that shows things as they really are.
48. A mirror that reflects tomorrow, not today.
49. A coin with two tails.
50. A book with one page missing, and the missing page is the ending.
51. A compass that points to whatever you lost most recently.
52. A bell that wakes the dead, rung by accident at a wedding.
53. A ring that makes the wearer impossible to remember.
54. A teapot that pours prophecies, all of them about the neighbors.

Fantasy plot ideas and twists

Fantasy twist prompts turn a familiar quest sideways: the prophecy was forged, the villain is also trying to save the world, the dragon is the rightful heir. Use one to break a story out of the chosen-one groove, or give it to the character who thinks they know how this ends.

55. The prophecy was a forgery, written by someone who needed a hero.
56. The villain is trying to save the world too, just not the same people.
57. The dragon is the rightful heir to the throne.
58. The curse is the only thing keeping the hero alive.
59. The quest was a distraction, and it worked.
60. The chosen one was chosen by mistake, and the real one is furious.
61. The kingdom doesn’t want to be saved.
62. Every wish is granted, but literally.
63. The heroes turn out to be the invaders.
64. The treasure at the end of the map is a person.
65. The portal only goes one way, and nobody mentioned that.
66. The prophecy was about the cat.

Dark fantasy writing prompts

Dark fantasy prompts keep the wonder but add dread: a cathedral grown from bone, a harp that only plays grief, a bargain that has already been paid. Dark fantasy is about cost and consequence rather than gore, so let the unsettling thing stay quiet.

67. A cathedral grown from bone and coral, still growing.
68. A harp that only plays grief, stolen from a queen who needs it back.
69. The magic has a price, and it was paid before the hero was born.
70. A healer realizes every life she saves shortens someone else’s.
71. A town where no one has died in forty years, and the graveyard is waiting.
72. A saint’s relic that answers prayers, but not the way anyone intended.
73. A ferryman for the dead goes on strike.
74. Someone traded their name for power, and now nobody can say it.
75. The ghost is from the future, and she’s here to warn you about yourself.
76. A bargain with the land, and the harvest is overdue.

Fairy tale, urban and high fantasy prompts

Short prompts for three corners of fantasy: fairy tales retold from the wrong point of view, magic hidden in an ordinary city, and high fantasy with kingdoms, dragons and old wars. Pick the flavor you like reading, since that’s usually the one you’ll enjoy writing.

77. Retell a fairy tale from the point of view of the witch’s cat.
78. Cinderella’s stepsister tells her side, and she has receipts.
79. The wolf is the only honest character in the story.
80. The glass slipper fits someone else first.
81. A fairy godmother is on her last assignment before retirement, and she is tired.
82. Magic is real, and it’s regulated by a city council with a very long waiting list.
83. A subway line that only runs between midnight and 1am, to stations that aren’t on the map.
84. A tattoo artist whose designs come alive, one customer at a time.
85. The city’s pigeons are an organized spy network, and they’ve picked a side.
86. A dragon rents the apartment upstairs and pays in gold, which is starting to be a problem.
87. Two kingdoms agree to a peace treaty signed by their dragons.
88. An old war hero is asked to fight again, and has to admit she never won the battle everyone sings about.
89. A mapmaker’s apprentice discovers the kingdom’s borders were drawn wrong on purpose.
90. A dragon egg that has been cold for a century starts to warm.
91. The last speaker of a dead language is the only one who can read the treaty.
92. An army marches for a king who died a month ago, and nobody has told them.
93. A giant works as a lighthouse, and the ships are starting to ignore her.
94. A set of false teeth that once belonged to a giant turns up at auction.
95. The oldest tree in the forest is on trial for murder.
96. A kingdom elects its ruler by lottery, and this year the winner is a goat.
97. A bridge between worlds is closing, and one family lives on it.
98. The gods are just as frightened of what’s coming as everyone else.
99. A spoon that stirs up storms, used for the first time by someone who only wanted soup.
100. The last dragon writes letters to the first knight, who is very old now.

How do you turn a fantasy prompt into a story?

Start small: one character, one magical rule and one place, in one bad week. Write the first scene before designing the whole world, and add history, maps and politics only when the story asks for them. Most fantasy stalls in worldbuilding, not in writing.

A useful test for any scene is whether it would still work without the magic. If it would, the magic is decoration. If it wouldn’t, you’ve found the story. For more general story starters, character, setting and first-line prompts, the creative writing prompts hub has a hundred more and its own spark deck.

Fantasy writing questions people ask

What are some ideas for a fantasy story?

Pair something wondrous with a cost: a healer whose magic ages her, a map that redraws itself, a dragon who can’t fly. Then give a character a small, human want, like getting home, earning money or being forgiven, and let the magic complicate it.

How do you come up with a fantasy magic system?

Decide what magic can do, what it costs and who can use it. Keep the rules simple enough to explain in a sentence, because readers need to understand magic for it to create tension rather than solve every problem.

How do you start a fantasy story without an info-dump?

Start with a character doing something, and let the world show up around them. Readers will happily wait for explanations if something is happening. Explain only what the reader needs to follow the scene they’re in.

Can you give some examples of fantasy themes?

Power and its cost, belonging, grief, home, the price of knowledge and the gap between legend and truth all run through fantasy. Pick one theme and let it shape which prompt you choose.