Passenger Prompts

25 writing prompts to get you inspired during long journeys on the road.

Note – Do not read/write and drive at the same time– that may prove particularly hazardous!

Are you a passenger on a lengthy road trip (let's say, anything 3 hours plus), with nothing better to do than to play eye-spy or eat junk food? Well – if you can – why not scribble down some ideas based on the journey? Here are 25 'Passenger Prompts' to boost your creative thinking from the comfort of the backseat.

1 – Unexpected Destinations

Let's start simple. What if the road you're on didn't take you to where you were planning? At the end of the day, sometimes the best stories are the most unpredictable ones...

Here's a good opening line: 'Of all the places we could wind up, we didn't think...'

2 – What's causing the tailback?

Literally– what's causing the tailback? Is there an accident up ahead? A collision? Or has an alien landed in the middle of the road? Has the fog worsened? Has someone struck a dear?

3 – Shift gear, shift perspective...

Okay, so maybe a dear did run into the road, instead of writing from your perspective, write from the perspective of the animal. Or why not choose a bird, a lamppost, a tyre, a bush...

4 – Simulation

Now, here's an idea– what if you're not on the road at all? What if you discovered you were in a simulation the whole time? What you see out of the windscreen is actually AI... Write a piece in which you find out the damning truth.

5 – Hostages

Or maybe you're not meant to be here at all! Maybe you're a hostage, tied up in the back of the car– or the boot! Imagine your field of vision is obscured– what can you see or hear? How will you escape with such little time and resources before your captors reach their destination...?

6 – Captors

On the other hand, who has to say that your main character is a good guy? This time, you're the captor and have a hostage in the back. Where are you taking them and why?

7 – Strange Services

You're desperate for a number one (or two) and you need to stop at the nearest services. Although when you get there, things aren't quite right...

8 – Unsettled Siblings

You're the eldest or youngest sibling squashed into the back of the family car. It's noisy and there's hardly any breathing room. And then someone starts an argument. Develop a scene with conflict (physical and/or verbal) and show the tension rising in this small enclosed space!

9 – You get pulled over

You're pulled over by a police officer for going too fast or not having a light working. But is the police officer who he says he is? And how are your characters going to react?

10 – Magic Petrol Station

After stopping off at a strange little petrol station in the middle of nowhere, you discover that the fuel you put in your car has given it some unbelievable new abilities! Maybe your car can now talk, or sing, or walk, or fly, or shrink, or even turn into another vehicle altogether... the possibilities are endless.

11– End of the road

So, you've reached a dead-end. Wa, wa, wa... Write something in which you start at the end and show how you got there.

12– The Endless Roundabout

What if the roundabout you suddenly came to has no exits? You're trapped. In a loop. A never-ending cycle. How do you escape the paradox? How will you stop yourself from going insane? Is there an end?

13– End of the world

Perhaps a touch more extreme than just reaching the end of the road - but imagine a scenario where a zombie apocalypse has taken place or dinosaurs have reappeared, plunging the world into chaos. Everyone is racing to the coast to escape, but society has collapsed, and the once orderly highways are now a scene of chaos and lawlessness. It's a brutal fight for survival... How far would you go?

14– New Frequencies

You discover a new radio station that reveals top-secret government information. Is it real? And if so, what do you learn? And, most importantly, how do you react?

15– An alternative mode of transport

Or maybe you're not in a car at all. Maybe you're in a train carriage or an aeroplane... Something's holding up the line/flight and people are getting frustrated. What happens next is so unbelievable that you jump out of your seat and have a coughing fit.

16– Plagued Passengers

Oh no! One of your fellow passengers has a deadly plague! How do you react? Are you going to flee or try to protect yourself? Or are you going to try and dispose of the passenger? You could use the opening line 'It began with a sneeze' to get you started.

17– Biker Gang Blockade

A sinister biker gang holds up the traffic and demands that you hand over your wheels (for whatever reason– you can make it up!) If you don't, they've threatened to shoot. What happens next?

18– TARDIS Truck

Let's give things a sci-fi twist now. Imagine you come across a truck on the side of the road and the driver invites you inside for 'a tour'... You think this is mighty strange until you discover that the interior is larger than the exterior! What sort of rooms and places are inside the truck? What adventures do your characters have there?

19– Go back in time

On the theme of time travel, imagine you're driving 30 years ago. How are the cars and roads different? Or, go even further back! What's it like to drive a Honda in the year 1757? Or a Nissan in 1066?

20 – Am I dreaming?

Upon waking up, you realise that you still have 2 hours remaining in your journey. However, are you in a dream or is this actually happening? How can you distinguish between the two?

21 – Rewind

Roads are probably the height of all things linear, but what if suddenly everything was happening in reverse? Every word, every sound, every movement outside the window... what if it's all happening backwards? This is a very surreal prompt, but it may stir up some intriguing new ideas about journeys and how we perceive them.

22 – Forest Fire

Okay, now let's ramp up the tension by 10! You're driving through a woodland on a dry summer's day and come across a cloud of dense smoke. Suddenly a tree collapses in front of you and another behind you. Everywhere you look is smoke and sparks and red hot flames. What do you do next?

23 – Unusual Lodgings

This may be a little cliche, but what if you became so tired and lost that you couldn't keep on going? You needed a place to sleep for the night. There are no services for 40 miles and your closest option is a peculiar little B&B just off the motorway. The owners are very welcoming and even offer a bed for the night for free! How amazing! But things are too good to be true because the owners are (fill in the blank) and what you to (fill in the blank) What happens next?

24 – Revving Relations

Okay, this next one is super weird, but what if you had a relationship with the car? How do you communicate? What sort of struggles have you experienced during your relationship? How do others see your coupling? Where did you meet? Are you married– how did it happen? Do you have children? Sometimes the best ideas combine the mundane with the mad...

25 – Motorway Mystery

And finally, you're an amateur sleuth and you've come across a road on the hard shoulder with a dead body inside. Do you involve the police, or will you try and solve this one yourself?

I hope those have provided you with some inspiration! Happy writing!