Itching for summer to arrive? Dreaming of warmer days? Or, maybe, you find yourself already in the heat of summer and you’ve got some extra time on your hands. Maybe you’re lounging by the swimming pool or you’re bored at your job. Maybe you’re trying to brush up on your creative writing skills before school starts.
If you’re trying to get some writing done this summer, but you’re not sure what you want to write about, you’ve come to the right place. Below, you’ll find a whopping 100 summer writing prompts to kickstart your creativity ranging from journaling prompts to poetry prompts, creative writing prompts to fiction and short story prompts. Whatever your preferred style, you’ll find something to inspire.
Summer journal prompts
1. What are your goals for this summer? Write them down and, more specifically, write down why those are your goals. What do you hope they give you? What inspired them? See where your words take you.
2. What is your all-time favorite summer memory from summers past? Write it down in as much detail as possible.
3. How do you imagine the beginning of your summer and the end of your summer will differ? Write it down and then look back later to see how right or wrong you were.
4. How does your life change during the summer? Do you live in a new location, change jobs, have more fun with friends, or just get outside more? How do these changes impact you on an emotional or mental level?
5. What is your favorite thing about summer? How could you take that fun thing you love and extend it forward to last the whole year? Brainstorm and write it down.
Summer poetry prompts
6. Explore a new-to-you form of poetry this summer. Find a poem in that style and then try writing your own version on the same topic.
7. Love setting writing goals or writing challenges for yourself? Challenge yourself to write one poem each day or week, with the poem reflecting something that happened that day or week.
8. How can you best bottle the feeling of summer in a poem? See what happens when you limit yourself to fewer words.
9. Personify summer as person in a poem.
10. Grab a piece of summer-related ephemera (think newspaper clippings, event flyers, etcetera) and make erasure poetry, blacking out text on the page to create a whole new work of art.
Summer holiday and event prompts
11. Memorial Day kicks off the summer season for many. Think about the meaning of Memorial Day and who you might remember. Write about them in a poem, short story, or essay.
12. Write a story that takes place at a July 4 event. Think a fireworks show, parade, beach festival, or baseball game.
13. Labor Day is the unofficial end of the summer season. What else in your life is ending at this time of year? Write about it.
14. Many families use the summer season to plan family reunions. Write about a family reunion that goes terribly, terribly wrong.
15. Now’s also the time for fairs and festivals. Write a short story that takes place at one of these events and make the setting crucial to the story, so that the plot couldn’t take place anywhere else.
Summer writing prompts about summer jobs
16. Even if you don’t have one right now, you likely had summer jobs at one point. Write a story set at your job, or a creative essay about an experience you had there.
17. One popular seasonal job? Working at a camp. Write a story set at a summer camp, but make it the coolest ever. Think a camp for royalty, for spies in training, or for cryptids.
18. Write a short story about someone who works at an ice cream parlor and why they either love or hate their job.
19. Write a short story about someone who wants a seasonal job, but can’t get one. What dramatic lengths will they go to in order to snag that interview or prove themselves worthy?
20. Write about what happens to summer workers in the winter. Where do the carnival workers go? What about the lifeguards?
Favorite summer memory prompts
21. Take your favorite seasonal memory and turn it into a short story, but make the main character absolutely hate everything you loved about that memory.
22. Remember your favorite place, favorite song, or favorite road trip from summers past? Write about it.
23. Write about your favorite seasonal memory but set it in the distant past. How would that memory have differed/looked if you’d lived in the 1800s or 1700s?
24. Take your memory and flip it on its head. Take the same cast of characters and events and make them the worst you could possibly imagine.
25. Imagine a favorite memory of the future. Pretend you’re writing as a 90-year-old. What might be your favorite memory then?
Summer destination prompts
26. Set a story at the ocean, sea, or a lake. Add in a sea monster if you want to get really creative.
27. Set a story at a campground filled with the most obnoxious tourists you’ve ever seen.
28. Write a story about someone trying desperately to get to a summer destination. Do they really need a vacation or are they fleeing something?
29. Write a story about a destination that no one would want to visit for summer vacation.
30. Imagine what your favorite summer destination might look like after the apocalypse and write about it.
School’s out writing prompts
31. Write a story from the point of view of a parent whose kids are out for the summer. Do they love it or hate it?
32. Write a story about a teacher who switches jobs during summer vacation—and they can never let any of their kids, parents or coworkers know what their summer job is.
33. Write a story about summer vacation from the point of view of a child’s bedroom. How is that space impacted?
34. Write about how you often felt as a child on the last day of the school year.
35. Write a letter to your children or future children about your favorite days with them over summer break.
Summer five senses writing prompts
36. Write a poem or personal essay about your favorite taste of summer.
37. Write a poem or personal essay about your favorite smell of summer.
38. Write a poem or personal essay about your favorite feeling or texture of summer.
39. Write a poem or personal essay about your favorite sight of summer.
40. Write a poem or personal essay about your favorite sound of summer.
Summer wildlife prompts
41. Write a scene about your least-favorite summer bug and what you might do if it invaded your house.
42. Write a story about what might happen to the summer wildlife and nature if summer never came.
43. Write a short story from the point of view of a bug that knows summer’s almost run its course. How do they spend their time?
44. Write a story about an animal with a summer job (think horses at a summer camp or petting zoo animals at the fair).
45. Write a poem about the sounds of summer wildlife that you might hear (ie, crickets chirping, deer munching grass in the morning, gulls at the ocean, etc.)
Summer plant life prompts
46. Write an ode to your favorite summer flower.
47. Write a story about mowing the grass, but from the point of view of the grass.
48. Write a story about gardening and make the normally low stakes of growing household produce incredibly high for your main character.
49. Write a scene about what the summer plant life would look like if humans weren’t around.
50. Write a personal essay about your own experiences with gardening. Are they good, bad, disastrous?
Summer hobbies writing prompts
51. Write a story about riding your bike and finding something life-changing along the way.
52. Write a story about swimming and finding something unusual in the water.
53. Write a story about a character who goes for a hike and gets lost.
54. Write a story about a parent who wants to get their children involved in their favorite hobbies over summer break. How successful are they?
55. Write a poem that tells your reader how to perform your favorite summer hobby.
Summer sports writing prompts
56. Describe a date that takes place at a baseball game, but neither of the people on the date like baseball.
57. Write a short story from the point of view of a character who’s decided to streak across the field at a baseball game.
58. Write a poem about a summer sport that you know nothing about. Try to describe it using your limited knowledge.
59. Write a story about a sailing team that gets blown off course.
60. Write a story about a fall or winter professional sports team that wants to play in the summer. What challenges do they come up against and are they successful?
Summer weather prompts
61. Write a poem about the summertime heat. How does it make you feel?
62. Write a personal essay about how the summer weather has changed since you were a child.
63. Write a scene or story that takes place in a house where the air conditioning just kicked the bucket on the hottest day of the year.
64. Write a short story that takes place in the middle of a hurricane—but the hurricane isn’t the most dangerous thing that your characters face.
65. Write a story about two tornado chasers that hate each other.
Summer foods writing prompts
66. Write a poem about the best summer meal that you ever ate.
67. Write a personal essay about how you might go about cooking a summer meal for your family and the significance of the foods you choose, the setting, etc.
68. Write a short story about a picnic that goes wrong.
69. Describe the ideal ice cream cone.
70. Write a story set in the future, about post-apocalyptic humans scavenging for food to create the perfect summer feast.
Wedding season writing prompts
71. Write a story from the point of view of a wedding officiant or planner working during the height of wedding season.
72. Compose a poem about the worst wedding you’ve ever been to.
73. Write a story about a wedding where none of the guests show up.
74. Describe a wedding from the point of view of the flower girl or the ring bearer.
75. Write a story about a wedding where the maid of honor loves the groom and the best man loves the bride, and the two team up together to ruin the wedding.
Summer wear writing prompts
76. Compose a poem about your favorite or least favorite summer outfit.
77. Write a short essay about your feelings surrounding summer wear. Do you feel confident in your swimsuit? Why or why not? Do you hate your legs in shorts? Do you love ditching your winter coat for the season?
78. Write a story about someone who accidentally glues their sunglasses onto their face.
79. Design a character who can’t feel temperature, so they’re not restricted to a normal seasonal wardrobe.
80. Write a story about someone who’s shopping for a swimsuit and falls in love in the process.
Summer nights prompts
81. Think about how your life changes with the lengthening days. Write a short essay about what you do with your extra daylight and how it does (or doesn’t) impact your life.
82. Write about the best summer night you’ve ever had.
83. Compose a poem that captures the feeling of a summer night right after the sun has set.
84. Write a story about a character who works nights during the summer. How do they view summer differently than the average person?
85. Write a story from the point of view of a character trying to sleep on an extremely hot night. Why are they frustrated beyond just being sweaty?
Dog days of summer writing prompts
86. Write a story from the point of view of a dog at a picnic or barbecue.
87. Write a story about a dog walker who loses a prized pooch in the park during their first day on the job.
88. Compose a poem about spending a summer day with your favorite dog.
89. Compose a poem or short story from the point of view of a dog cowering during Independence Day fireworks.
90. Think about how you might spend your summer days differently if you were a dog. Write about it.
Summer reading prompts
91. Did you ever participate in your library’s summer reading program as a kid? Write about the experience.
92. What’s the best beach book you’ve ever read? Journal about what made it stand out.
93. Think about your favorite book or movie. How might the plot be different if it was set in the dead of summer? Write some fan fiction showing how that might play out.
94. Write a story about someone reading a library book on the beach or a cruise ship and finds a secret message inside. What does it say?
95. Your character dropped their spouse’s prized original edition of their favorite book in the pool. What do they do now?
End of summer writing prompts
96. Reflect on how your summer went. Journal about what you wish you would have done differently, as well as your summertime successes.
97. Write a story about a character reflecting back on the best summer ever and their dread at the impending fall months.
98. Write from the point of view of a tree that’s starting to change as summer ends.
99. Compose a poem about the bittersweet end of summer.
100. Look ahead to the fall. What are your writing goals for the fall and winter? How will you use what you learned from the summer to achieve those goals? Journal about it.
Get into your writing groove this summer with one of these 100 summer writing prompts
Summer is the perfect time to get in some extra writing, so hopefully some of the above summer writing prompts have sparked your imagination.
Once you have some pieces ready to take on the world, why not send them out for publication? We have a guide just for that!
