30 Summer Writing Prompts

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  1. Your character spends every summer at a sleep away summer camp in the middle of a forest, or on the edge of a lake. This year, they don’t want to go back.
  2. A group of neighborhood parents get together to plan the best summer afternoon for all their kids—but it ends up in disaster.
  3. A rebelling teen is forced to find a summer job by their parents.
  4. An old man at a retirement home travels to visit his children and grandchildren in a small town for the summer. While he’s there, crimes begin to pop up; a robbery, a supposedly unintentional car crash, and a murder. As a former detective, he decides to take up the case with the local police force.
  5. A teenager spends all summer coming up with a plan to tell his parents that he’s gay, with the help of his friends.
  6. When a family of 5 decides that they want to go on a vacation for summer, they travel to Tahiti and stay in a bungalow on the water. The trip is filled with relaxation for the parents, summer love for one of the kids, a daring treasure hunt for the middle child, and a new friend for the youngest.
  7. At the annual county fair, a group of young kids are convinced that the puppet master is secretly trying to possess them.
  8. A few college students grapple with the recent death of a friend.
  9. There’s a stray dog that a young boy has been noticing on the streets. One day, the boy decides to take the dog home, but his mother doesn’t want to keep the dog. The boy must find a way to take care of the dog and not raise any of his mother’s suspicions.
  10. A teenage girl goes to spend the summer with her grandfather, the town’s lighthouse keeper. She meets a boy who always seems to wear a yellow rain jacket, and the two unravel a local ghost mystery together.
  11. A newly widowed woman decides to start a garden in her backyard in memory of her husband.
  12. A dramatic family feud erupts on the Fourth of July, while the fireworks are going off.
  13. Four friends go on an adventure to find an enchanted ship. When their bikes are found deep in the wilderness, their hometown begins to worry.
  14. Set during the early 19th century, a rich merchant’s daughter must navigate the social conventions of those around her.
  15. This all-boy’s boarding school sends their students home for the summer, but one boy doesn’t want to go back. And his parents don’t know that the school requires the students to be at home. The boy travels to New York City and experiences what life is like on his own.
  16. While hiking in remote mountains, a group of backpackers become lost. They must survive using what they have on their backs and hope that someone will come rescue them.
  17. The high school drama club wants to put on a show for the summer, and one girl assumes the role of writing the play. She talks to the cast members about what kind of show they’d want to perform in, and realizes that not everyone in the club is as happy as they appear. Through her writing process, she learns what it means to grow up and fit in to the world.
  18. There’s an annual summer boat race in the bay, and a young boy’s dad buys a boat. The father wants to participate, but first he has to “train,” and he needs his son’s help. The boy must navigate cunning competitors and his own fear of water to help his dad have the time of his life.
  19. A teenage girl spends the summer with her aunt and uncle on their 5 acre farm down south. She sleeps on the porch outside, catches fireflies in jars, and eats watermelon until her hands are sticky with the juice. Everything is going perfectly until the girl meets her. As a daughter and niece of incredibly traditional people, the girl must choose between being accepted by her family or following her heart.
  20. Fairy tale characters come to life when a young boy wishes them alive. They escape his room and run out into the town. He has to find them all before 12 o’clock, or else they will permanently stay in his world and all their fairy tales will be erased.
  21. Your character visits an old bookstore with shelves that reach to the ceiling.
  22. A family visits Greece for the summer, and the daughter falls in love with their tour guide.
  23. A group of girls decide to run a lemonade stand to have fun, but become annoyed when the neighborhood boys begin stealing their paper cups. This inspires an all-out neighborhood war.
  24. A teen goes to Germany with their family, and learn about their grandparent’s pasts through stories around the dinner table.
  25. A cherry-picking contest takes place in a small Indiana town.
  26. A young adult decides to learn how to make quilts, and donates them to nearby children’s hospitals. While she is passing out quilts she made, she meets a young girl with cancer. A friendship soon develops between the two.
  27. A family visits a small town in central Californian mountains, and while they’re there, one of the kids becomes interested in solving the recent disappearances that have been occurring in the town. They recruit the Italian restaurant’s cashier, a local woodcutter, and the town’s piano player to help them solve the mysteries.
  28. A college student studies abroad for a summer in Spain and falls in love with the culture and history of the country.
  29. When a mother discovers that she has a passion for making bread, she begins baking loaves for all the people in her neighborhood. Eventually, it grows into a business, but it puts pressure on her family life at home.
  30. A kid, their friend, and their friend’s parents go camping by a river. They go on adventures in caves, stare at deer, star gaze, and try to catch fish with their bare hands. It becomes one of the kid’s favorite summer memories.
Photo by Julia Volk on Pexels.com

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