32 Writing Prompts for When You Want to Write Nonfiction or Memoir But Don't Know Where to Start

You know you have a nonfiction book or memoir in you. You've known it for a while, actually. You've maybe even told a few people. And then someone asks, "So what's it about?" and you open your mouth and...nothing particularly coherent comes out.

This is not a you problem. This is a starting problem, and it is one of the most universal experiences among first-time authors. The blank page isn't just intimidating, it's disorienting. When you don't know where to look, everything looks like the wrong starting point. 

What I've found, after writing 6 nonfiction books of my own and working with hundreds of nonfiction and memoir writers, is that the problem usually isn't a lack of material. It's the challenge of finding the best front door. Once you find that door, you can't stop.

These prompts are designed to help you find it.

Some of them will feel immediately relevant to your book. Some will feel completely off-topic, but write those anyway, because they have a funny way of surfacing exactly what you need to say. Don't edit. Don't worry about quality. Just write in response to the prompt and see what shows up.

Prompts to Help You Figure Out What Your Book Is Really About

1. What's the one thing you wish someone had told you five years ago that would have saved you enormous amounts of time, money, heartache, or confusion? Write about it as if you're telling a friend over coffee.
2. If your book had a single job—one transformation it was supposed to create in a reader—what would that be? Describe the "before" version of your reader and the "after."
3. What's a belief you held for a long time that turned out to be wrong? What changed your mind, and what's the story behind that shift?
4. What question do people ask you most often, whether in real life, in your work, or online? What's your honest, most complete answer?
5. Is there a mistake you made that you now feel qualified to help others avoid? Write the story of that mistake without softening it.
6. Finish this sentence (and then keep writing): "I spent years thinking I was the only one who struggled with ____________, and then I realized..."
7. What's the thing you know so well you could talk about it for three hours without notes? (Hint: That's probably your book.)

Prompts to Help You Find the Stories Worth Telling

8. Think of a moment in your life when everything changed, even if the change was invisible to everyone else at the time. Describe that moment.
9. Write about a person who shaped who you are in a way they probably don't know about. What did they do, and what did it teach you?
10. What's a story you've told out loud a hundred times—at dinner tables, in meetings, to friends who are going through something hard? Write it down exactly the way you tell it when you're talking to someone face-to-face.
11. Describe a time you were completely wrong about something you were completely sure of. Be honest. Don't round the edges.
12. What is the hardest thing you've ever had to do, and what did getting through it teach you?

Prompts to Help You Connect to Your Reader

13. Who specifically do you picture when you imagine someone reading your book? Describe that person in as much detail as possible—not in terms of demographics but in terms of what keeps them up at night, what they've tried already, what they're afraid of.
14. Write a letter to the reader who needs your book most. Tell them what you know, what you've been through, and why you're the right person to help them. (Yes, it's completely normal if you feel like you're writing to yourself, a few years ago!)
15. What's the thing your reader is getting wrong, not because they're not trying but because nobody has ever explained it the right way? Explain it as though you're sitting across from them, lattes in hand.
16. What does your reader say out loud versus what are they actually feeling? Write about the gap between those two things. Don't overthink it. Just write. 
17. What would you want someone to say about your book after they finished reading it? Write the review you're hoping for.

Prompts to Help You Start Writing Actual Chapters

18. Pick any chapter or scene (time period) you've been imagining and write the opening line. Then keep going for ten minutes without stopping. You'll be amazed by how much you can write in just 10 minutes if you aren't critiquing or overthinking it (or both).  
19. What is the first story you'd want to include in your book? Write it as if you're casually telling it to someone who has never heard it before.
20. Is there a concept, framework, or idea at the center of your book? Try explaining it as simply as possible, as if your reader has never encountered it. Even if they've encountered the concept, perhaps your take on it or way of explaining it is what's been missing for them! 
21. What do you need your reader to understand before they can understand anything else? Write that first.
22. Where does your reader's journey begin—not where does your book begin, but where is the reader in their overall journey when they pick it up? Describe that starting point.

Prompts to Help You Get Unstuck Mid-Manuscript

Sometimes you're not starting from scratch; you're somewhere in the middle and you've hit a wall. These prompts are for you.

23. What chapter or section are you avoiding right now? Write down exactly why you're avoiding it. Be honest and just let the words flow. We edit later, remember? 😉
24. What is the part of your story you're most afraid to tell? Write it badly on purpose, just to get it out.
25. If you had to summarize what your book has been trying to say, in two or three sentences, what would you write? Don't overthink it. Write the first thing that comes to mind.
26. Go back and read the last paragraph you wrote before you got stuck. Now write what comes next, even if it doesn't feel right yet.
27. Write a scene or section from a completely different angle—different tone, different starting point, different level of vulnerability. See if one of them unlocks something.

Prompts for Memoir Writers Specifically

28. Where were you when you found out something that changed everything? Describe the physical space, the light, the sounds. Then tell the story.
29. What's a version of you from the past that you now have compassion for that you didn't have then? Write a letter to that version of yourself.
30. Think of a moment that was small at the time but that you've thought about a hundred times since. Why does it stay with you? What about it specifically is most memorable?
31. Write about a relationship that shaped you, whether for better, for worse, or both. Don't protect anyone, including yourself.
32. What's the moment your memoir is building toward? Describe it.

One Last Thing Before You Start Writing

Reading through a list of prompts is not the same as writing. Pick one of these prompts—just one—and open a document or notebook and write for ten minutes. You don't have to use anything that comes out. This is just about getting the words moving.

Most of the writers I work with discover (about halfway through that ten minutes) that they actually have quite a lot to say. That's always been true. They just needed someone to ask the right question.

If you're still trying to figure out your book's focus, message, or reader before you start drafting, start with the Can't Stop Writing Formula. It's free, it's printable, and it answers the five questions that help everything else click into place.

Books don't write themselves. But you don't have to have everything figured out before you begin (none of us has that!).

Start with one prompt. That's the whole assignment.