It’s the Number 1 question authors are asked in interviews: Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

Of course, a large part of being a writer is having ideas, harnessing them, molding them. But we all have days when the ideas aren’t coming. We still want to write, but where to start?

Here are 8 sites that provide writing prompts.

StoryADay.org Writing Prompts

Starting in our own backyard, you can check out StoryADay’s very own writing prompts. During Story A Day May I post daily prompts, Every Wednesday in other months I post WriteOnWednesday challenges, where you can post right in the comments and get some immediate feedback.

Creative Copy Challenge

CCC provides 10 words that you have to wedge into your story. Write a story, post it in the comments and wait for the feedback to roll in. This isn’t going to earn you a Nobel in literature, but it is FUN! The constraint of having to use the 10 words frees you, paradoxically, to write something that your inner critic might not otherwise let you write. And sometimes quantity is more valuable than quality! Plus it’s fun to get feedback.

Write Anything – Fiction Friday

Write Anything is a great blog for writers, and their Fiction Friday posts give you a theme to write to. They list the upcoming themes about a month in advance, so you can plan for and craft these stories. They also have a Spoken Sunday feature which I love: record your story and link to it!

Brainstormer

Easily the most beautiful writing prompt machine online, Andrew Bosley has created a virtual word wheel that gives you thousands of combinations of person, place, thing. It even has its own iPhone/iPad app.

CreativeWriting Prompts

Never again can you say that you have nothing to write. Creative Writing Prompts lists 346 prompts all on one page — that’s almost one for every day of the year. Hover your mouse over a number to generate a prompt

Writing Fix

These prompts seem to be aimed at kids, but they work for me! There are journal prompts and prompts for creative writing. I love that they have them separated into Right Brain prompts and Left Brain Prompts, among other things. You can choose from among different types of prompts too: story starters, titles, themes, character descriptions, tone, even prepositional phrases!

Writers Digest Writing Prompts

The big mama of the writing magazines has about 100  writing prompts stored, along with a place where you can post 500 words about the prompt, and see what other people posted.

Writers Digest “Promptly” Blog

Hosted by the current editor of WD magazine, this blog has interesting articles and a prompt on every entry. You can write in the comments section if you want.
So, go forth and write. Promptly!