Free Creative Writing Prompts #65: Action

Bang! Pow! Wham! These free creative writing prompts are about the action genre. There is nothing like seeing a bunch of buildings explode while your favorite (debatably) movie star jumps around on cars and his stunt double does a bunch of flips. The same goes for books where such images occur on every page. Action sells because it's exciting and because people like to see "something" happen. It's important to consider this genre, because if anyone ever gives you a half a million dollars to write an action screenplay, it never hurts to have a few notes on the subject. Please enjoy, and don't hurt yourself! 


Free Creative Writing Prompts: Action

1. The mob has taken down your lover and imprisoned your family. Now it's time to get even! Discuss your infiltration of the mob's secret fortress and how you end up victorious against all odds?

2. Talk about a time in your life in which you were in a sort of action and adventure story. Did you have to show incredible athletic prowess or wits? Were there any big explosions? Go into extreme detail.

3. You are on the run from the police after being wrongfully accused for murder. Your only way of avoiding life in prison is to clear your name by finding the person who did this. What happens, how do you go about it, and how do you avoid capture?

4. You are a police officer involved in a high speed car chase. Go into extreme detail including all of the cars that get into accidents during your chase and how you attempt to catch the bad guys. Are you successful?

5. The bad guy almost always loses. Put yourself in the role of a bad guy during a big adventurous heist. You seem to have gotten away but from all your movie watching you know that there is still a final act left to come. How do you avoid being just another bad guy statistic and losing?

6. After a big explosion, you need to help rescue multiple people out of a burning building. Describe the experience from explosion onward. Are you successful?

7. In one of the biggest movie action scenes of all time, James Cameron gave us a feel of what it might be like on the Titanic after its iceburg crash. Imagine that you are one of the passengers and you must avoid the many trials and tribulations of a sinking ship.

8. Imagine that you are the title character in any of the James Bond films. Go through your experiences of avoiding and causing explosions, getting in one on one battles, and wining and dining beautiful vixens. A day in the life or a week in the life of this hero may give you enough material for a long while.

9. In a strange turn of events, you have found out that both of your parents are secret spies and that you have been thrown right into the middle of it. What does the reveal explain and how are you able to get out of a sticky situation that your parents have gotten into?

10. You are a hot-shot fighter pilot looking to take down an enemy battallion. How do you and your team go about it and do you emerge victorious? Go into extreme detail and look up plane information if you need to. 


Obviously, some of these prompts are based on popular movie stereotypes. It is never a big deal to start with a stereotype and archetype. You can use your creativity to make the hero or villian interesting and take him or her to a new level. These free creative writing prompts about the action genre can also help you to get out some of that aggression from work. We've all been there, but trust me when I say it's better to put down on paper than to enact in real life :). Happy writing! 


Bonus Prompt - You have been hired to re-write an awful action flick. What is the movie and what do you do to it to make it not end up in the bargain bin within a few short years. 

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Done with Action Writing Prompts? Go back to the Main Prompts Page.