writingexercises.co.uk

Writing Exercises and Prompts (writingexercises.co.uk) is a free creative writing site that groups its tools into five main areas: Plot Development, Anagram Games, Character Development, More Generators, and Articles. If you already know what you're stuck on — plot, character, setting, dialogue, or just getting started — you can jump straight to the matching section instead of browsing the whole site.

Plot Development

This section is for writers who have a premise but no direction, or who need a structural starting point.

• Plot Generator — generates a plot idea to build from.
• Murder Plot Generator — a genre-specific version for mystery/crime plots.
• Fantasy Plot Generator — same idea, aimed at fantasy.
• Quick Plot Generator — a faster, lighter option when you just need a nudge.
• Plot Structure — reference material on how plots are organized.
• Common Plot Lines — a list of recurring plot patterns you can adapt.

Use this section when your problem is "I don't know what happens next" rather than "I don't know who this character is."

Character Development

This section covers both generating characters and deepening ones you already have.

• Character Generator — produces a character to work with.
• Character Rounding — exercises for turning a flat character into a fuller one.
• Character Exercises — general practice prompts for character work.
• Random Traits and List of Character Traits — trait sources for building or differentiating characters.

If your draft has people who feel interchangeable or thin, start with Character Rounding and the trait lists rather than the generator.

More Generators

This is the catch-all section, and it's where most of the specific "I need a ___" tools live:

This is the section to check first when your need is concrete and narrow — a name, a title, a first line, a setting.

Anagram Games

A separate, vocabulary-focused area rather than a story-generation one:

• Anagram Game 1 and Anagram Game 2
• Anagram Drop Game (marked NEW)
• Guess The Word
• Anagram Solver
• Scrabble Trainer

These are word puzzles and vocabulary practice. They're useful as a warm-up or a break, not as story-development tools.

Articles

The Articles section is instructional writing rather than generators. Topics include:

• Creative Writing First Steps
• Unlock Your Inner Storyteller
• The Perfect Opening Line
• Short Guide to Literary Genres
• Choosing Your Narrative Perspective
• Creating Memorable Characters
• Creating Character Dialogue
• Pacing Your Story
• 10 Fantasy Prompts
• Short Guide to Worldbuilding
• Using Literary Devices
• End Your Story With An Impact
• Revising Your First Draft

There's also a Children's Section, a Rhyming Dictionary, a Random Exercises list, a Lottery Generator, and a List of Jobs/Occupations outside the five main groups.

How to choose an entry point

• Blank page, no idea at all → Plot Generator or What If? Scenario.
• Have a plot, need people → Character Generator, then Character Rounding.
• Have characters, need a place → Create A Setting or Town Name Generator.
• Stuck mid-scene → Dialogue Prompts or First Line Prompts.
• Want to learn craft, not generate → the Articles section.
• Want a quick warm-up → Anagram Games or Random Words Exercise.

The site describes its prompts and exercises as completely free, so there's no cost barrier to trying a section and moving on if it doesn't fit.

The three generators serve different stages of planning a story. Plot generators give you a sequence of events or a conflict to build around; character generators give you traits and personality details for a person; setting generators give you a place and atmosphere to drop that person into. If you already know what happens but not who it happens to, start with the character tools. If you have a person and a place but no momentum, start with plot.

Plot generators: for when you know the pieces but not the sequence

The site lists four separate plot tools under Plot Development:

• Plot Generator
• Murder Plot Generator
• Fantasy Plot Generator
• Quick Plot Generator

These differ mainly by genre and by how much scaffolding they hand you. The murder and fantasy versions narrow the raw material to their genre's conventions, so the output is already shaped toward a mystery or a secondary-world conflict. The quick version is for when you want a starting point without reading through a longer result.

There is also a Plot Structure page and a Common Plot Lines page. Those are reference material rather than generators — useful if the generator gives you an idea but you are unsure how to pace it across a whole story.

Choose a plot generator when: you have a character or a setting in mind but no idea what should happen, or you have written yourself into a corner and need a new turn of events.

Character generators: for when the plot is fine but the people are thin

Under Character Development the site offers:

• Character Generator
• Character Rounding
• Character Exercises
• Random Traits
• List of Character Traits

The split here is between generating and deepening. The Character Generator produces a person to write about. Random Traits and the List of Character Traits are raw material you can pull from when a character feels flat — the list is a browsable reference, the random version forces you to work with something you would not have chosen. Character Rounding and Character Exercises are aimed at the second pass: taking a character you already have and adding contradictions, habits, or history.

Choose a character generator when: your plot works but your protagonist feels interchangeable, or you need a cast member to fill a specific role (an antagonist, a mentor, a witness).

Setting generators: for when you need a place before anything else

The Create A Setting tool sits under More Generators rather than having its own section. It is the smallest of the three categories in terms of dedicated tools, but it does a distinct job: it gives you a location, and location often implies genre, mood, and what kind of story can happen there.

Related tools in the same More Generators group that overlap with setting work include:

• Image Generator — a visual prompt rather than a written description
• What If? Scenario — a premise that often implies a world
• Random Words Exercise and Take Three Nouns — constraints that can force a setting into existence

Choose a setting generator when: you have a character and a conflict but no sense of where the scene takes place, or when the place itself is the point of the story.

How to decide between them

The order matters less than the loop. A common working pattern is: generate a setting, generate a character to put in it, then generate a plot to force them into conflict. If the result feels thin, go back to Character Rounding rather than generating a whole new set — deepening what you have is usually faster than starting over.

What these tools are not

None of the generators write prose for you. They produce prompts, lists, and combinations that you still have to turn into sentences. The site also carries a separate Articles section — covering openings, narrative perspective, dialogue, pacing, worldbuilding, and revision — which is where to go when the problem is craft rather than a missing idea. The Anagram Games section is vocabulary practice and unrelated to story generation, despite sitting in the same navigation.

If you are new to creative writing entirely, the Creative Writing First Steps article is the more sensible entry point than any single generator, because it explains how to use a prompt once you have one.

Writing Exercises and Prompts (writingexercises.co.uk) is a free creative writing resource site. It provides prompts, exercises, and generators to help you start writing and break through writing blocks, plus a set of anagram vocabulary games. It is aimed at writers who need a starting point, a nudge past a blank page, or a quick practice task rather than a full course.

What the site offers

The site organizes its tools into a few main areas, each with a different job.

Plot Development

Tools for generating or shaping story plots:

• Plot Generator
• Murder Plot Generator
• Fantasy Plot Generator
• Quick Plot Generator
• Plot Structure
• Common Plot Lines

Use these when you have a premise but no sequence of events, or when you want a ready-made situation to write into.

Character Development

Tools for building and deepening characters:

• Character Generator
• Character Rounding
• Character Exercises
• Random Traits
• List of Character Traits

These suit the stage where a character feels flat and you need specific traits, contradictions, or rounding questions to work with.

More Generators

A wider set of prompt and generator tools:

• Create A Setting
• Dialogue Prompts
• First Line Prompts
• Famous Film Plots
• Image Generator
• Random Job/Occupation
• Story Title Generator
• Subject Generator
• What If? Scenario
• Random Words Exercise
• Take Three Nouns
• Name Generators (including a Town Name Generator)

These are useful when you want a single constraint — a first line, a setting, a "what if" — to launch a scene rather than plan a whole story.

Anagram Games

Vocabulary-focused games and tools:

• Anagram Game 1
• Anagram Game 2
• Anagram Drop Game (marked NEW)
• Guess The Word
• Anagram Solver
• Scrabble Trainer

These are word-play exercises rather than story prompts, useful for warming up or for vocabulary practice.

Articles

A library of short guides on craft topics, including:

• Creative Writing First Steps
• Unlock Your Inner Storyteller
• The Perfect Opening Line
• Short Guide to Literary Genres
• Choosing Your Narrative Perspective
• Creating Memorable Characters
• Creating Character Dialogue
• Pacing Your Story
• 10 Fantasy Prompts
• Short Guide to Worldbuilding
• Using Literary Devices
• End Your Story With An Impact
• Revising Your First Draft

There is also a Children's Section, a Rhyming Dictionary, a Random Exercises page, a List of Jobs/Occupations, and a Lottery Generator.

How to use it

1. Pick the problem you actually have. If you cannot start, use First Line Prompts or Image Generator. If your plot stalls, use Plot Generator or Plot Structure. If a character feels thin, use Character Rounding or Random Traits.
2. Run the generator or read the prompt, then write immediately — the value is in the constraint, not in perfecting the prompt.
3. If you want to improve craft rather than generate material, read the relevant article (for example, Pacing Your Story or Creating Character Dialogue) and apply it to a draft you already have.
4. For warm-ups or vocabulary work, use the Anagram Games section separately from story writing.

What to expect

The site describes its prompts and exercises as completely free. The page evidence does not list prices, payment platforms, or login requirements, so treat those details as unconfirmed rather than assuming any paid tier or account system.

It is a prompt-and-exercise site, not a structured curriculum: you choose the tool that matches your current block. If you want a guided sequence, the Articles section is the closest thing to instruction, while the generators are best used as starting points you write from right away.

Yes. Writing Exercises and Prompts (writingexercises.co.uk) is a reasonable starting point for beginners, mainly because it combines beginner-oriented articles with low-stakes generators and exercises that remove the hardest part of getting started: deciding what to write about. The site describes its prompts and exercises as "completely free," and the material is organized so you can begin with a single prompt rather than a full story idea.

What a beginner actually gets

The site is not a structured course. It is a collection of tools and short articles. For a new writer, that is usually an advantage: you can pick one thing, write for ten minutes, and stop.

How to use it as a beginner

1. Start with an article, not a generator. Read "Creative Writing First Steps" to get a sense of what a first draft is supposed to look like. Expectation-setting matters more than technique at this stage.
2. Pick one generator and write immediately. Open the First Line Prompts or What If? Scenario, take the first result, and write without changing it. The point is to produce text, not to choose the perfect idea.
3. Use plot and character tools only when you stall. If your draft has a person but no event, run the Plot Generator. If it has an event but a blank character, run the Character Generator and the Random Traits list.
4. Verify by finishing something short. A useful check: can you complete 200–300 words from a single prompt in one sitting? If yes, the site is working for you. If you keep restarting, switch to the Random Words Exercise, which forces a scene rather than a premise.
5. Then read one craft article. "Pacing Your Story" or "Creating Character Dialogue" will make more sense after you have a draft to apply it to.

Where beginners hit friction

• Generators give fragments, not stories. A plot generator hands you a situation; you still have to write the scenes. Beginners sometimes expect a finished outline and are disappointed.
• No progress tracking or feedback. Nothing on the site tells you whether your writing is improving. If you need correction, pair it with a writing group or a class.
• Breadth can be overwhelming. The homepage lists dozens of tools across plot, character, anagrams, and articles. Pick two or three and ignore the rest for the first few weeks.
• Free access is stated, but no account features are described. The site presents its prompts and exercises as completely free; there is no indication of a login-based tier, so treat it as a no-signup resource rather than assuming any saved-progress feature exists.

Who it suits, and who it does not

Suits you if: you are new, you freeze at the blank page, you want short exercises rather than a syllabus, and you prefer to write first and study craft second.

May not suit you if: you want graded lessons with feedback, a deadline structure, or advanced literary theory. The site's own article list stops around revision and genre basics, so writers past the beginner stage will likely outgrow it.

A practical next step: open the First Line Prompts page, take one line, and write for fifteen minutes. If that produces a page you did not have before, the site is doing its job for you.

Writing Exercises and Prompts (writingexercises.co.uk) is a free site that offers creative writing prompts, generators, and exercises designed to help you get started and push past writing blocks. It works best if you need a quick starting point—a plot idea, a character, a setting, or a first line—rather than a full course or feedback on finished work. The site also includes anagram vocabulary games for warm-up play.

What the site actually gives you

The homepage groups its tools into a few clear areas, each aimed at a different part of the writing problem.

Plot Development

• Plot Generator
• Murder Plot Generator
• Fantasy Plot Generator
• Quick Plot Generator
• Plot Structure
• Common Plot Lines

If you know you want to write but have no idea what should happen, these generators produce a plot premise you can react to. "Plot Structure" and "Common Plot Lines" are reference pages rather than generators, useful when your block is about shape rather than idea.

Character Development

• Character Generator
• Character Rounding
• Character Exercises
• Random Traits
• List of Character Traits

These help when your block is specifically "I don't know who this person is." The Character Generator gives you a starting person; the traits lists and rounding exercises help you deepen someone you already have.

More Generators

• Create A Setting
• Dialogue Prompts
• First Line Prompts
• Famous Film Plots
• Image Generator
• Random Job/Occupation
• Story Title Generator
• Subject Generator
• What If? Scenario
• Random Words Exercise
• Take Three Nouns
• Name Generators (including a Town Name Generator)

This is the widest category and the most useful for block-breaking, because it covers almost every entry point: a first line, a line of dialogue, an image, a job, a title, a "what if" question, or a handful of random words you have to connect.

Anagram Games

• Anagram Game 1
• Anagram Game 2
• Anagram Drop Game (marked NEW)
• Guess The Word
• Anagram Solver
• Scrabble Trainer

These are vocabulary games rather than story prompts. They suit a warm-up or a break when staring at a blank page isn't working.

Articles

The site also carries craft articles, including: Creative Writing First Steps, Unlock Your Inner Storyteller, The Perfect Opening Line, Short Guide to Literary Genres, Choosing Your Narrative Perspective, Creating Memorable Characters, Creating Character Dialogue, Pacing Your Story, 10 Fantasy Prompts, Short Guide to Worldbuilding, Using Literary Devices, End Your Story With An Impact, and Revising Your First Draft. There is also a Children's Section, a Rhyming Dictionary, a Random Exercises page, a List of Jobs/Occupations, and a Lottery Generator.

How to use it when you're actually stuck

The site's own framing is that it provides "completely free" prompts and exercises to help you get started and break through writing blocks. A practical way to use that:

1. Name your block. Is it no idea, no character, no setting, or no next sentence? That decides which section you open.
2. Pick one generator, not five. Run a single tool—say the Plot Generator or First Line Prompts—and take the first output seriously rather than rerolling for a "better" one.
3. Write immediately, before judging. The point of a prompt is to produce text, not to produce a good premise. Expect to discard the premise and keep the momentum.
4. Use the articles when the block is craft-shaped. If you keep stalling at the same place (openings, pacing, endings, revision), the relevant article addresses the recurring problem rather than the immediate blank page.
5. Use the anagram games as a warm-up only. They build vocabulary and loosen you up, but they won't generate story material.

What it is and isn't

Who gets the most out of it

• Beginners who freeze at the blank page and need something concrete to respond to.
• Experienced writers who are between projects or stuck on one element (a character, a setting, a title).
• Teachers or workshop leaders looking for ready-made prompts and exercises to hand out.
• Anyone doing short warm-up writing who wants a prompt in under a minute.

If you need accountability, deadlines, or someone to read your work, this site won't supply that—pair it with a writing group or a course. If you need a spark right now, start with the generator that matches the part of the story you're missing, write for ten minutes without editing, and only then decide whether the idea is worth keeping.