61 Fall Writing Prompts You’ll Love (Fall Story Prompts)

This post is all about fall writing prompts.

With the cozy autumn weather comes the desire to write new stories and exercise your writing muscles with some fall writing prompts!!

If you’re feeling especially excited to dive into some new creative writing this fall, this post is for you because I’m giving you some fall-themed writing prompts; cozy, eerie, and everything in between!

Whether you’re trying to practice your creative writing skills or just want new story ideas for your next short story or novel, I’m sure you’ll be able to find what you’re looking for in this post with these fun writing prompts.

What I love about these writing prompts is that even if ten different writers write a story based on each, every story will turn out so different!

Whether you’re trying to write short stories or a full novel, a funny story or a twisted mystery, I’ve got all kinds of ideas for you in this post.

How do you describe fall in creative writing?

The fall season is one of the most popular seasons to write about because there are SO many ways you can describe fall. It can be cozy, spooky, dark, eerie, mysterious, and so much more.

When you’re trying to figure out how to describe fall in creative writing, think about you senses: What do you see, smell, hear, taste, feel?

There’s the obvious… the trees, the cloudy skies, the cooler temperatures, maybe even some rain.

But think beyond that.

How do your characters feel when autumn begins? Are they hopeful, cozy, comforted? Or are they anxious, worried, confused? Are they entering new chapters of their lives, with uncertainty, conflict, or confusion? How does the cold, dark weather amplify or contradict that?

There are so many ways to use the autumn weather as strong symbolism in your stories!

FALL WRITING PROMPTS

Let’s get into these 61 autumn creative writing prompts!

Mystery writing prompts for fall

1. A middle school student goes missing during one of the town’s infamous hay rides. The other young students in their class find a clue in their social studies project.
2. The pumpkin patch at the edge of town has been vandalized, but nothing was stolen.
3. A corn maze race turns sinister when one participant emerges that nobody recognizes.
4. There is an old myth that a ghost haunts the town at the first frost of the season. A skeptical teen learns it’s true, but doesn’t know who they’re being haunted by.
5. A pumpkin pie baking contest ends with one judge poisoned. Was it intentional, and if so, who is guilty?
6. A spooky season scavenger hunt leads to the discovery of a long-forgotten crime.
7. A group of friends finds an old map tucked in a library book, which leads them to a forgotten part of town.
8. A small town’s annual corn maze is canceled after a disturbing discovery in the corn maze.
9. Someone is stealing pumpkins from doorsteps and replacing them with something strange.
10. The final entry in an old journal ends with a warning: “Don’t dig where the ground is broken.”
11. On Halloween night, a child goes missing. The next morning, they’re found with no memory and a foreign coin in their pocket.
12. A hayride in a small town takes a wrong turn and ends up at a place that isn’t on the map. Accidental or intentional?
13. An old school photo shows a student no one can identify, wearing a modern outfit. That outfit is then seen in the school lost-and-found.
14. Every fall, a girl hears her dead sister’s favorite song coming from the woods.
15. A high school bonfire the night before Halloween ends with someone missing.

Cozy fall writing prompts

1. A small town’s beloved bakery is at risk of closing down because of rain damage if they don’t do something to save it.
2. Two best friends leaving for college next year try to recreate all their childhood fall traditions for their last autumn together.
3. After a life changing tragedy, a main character moves to their dream cabin in the woods to rediscover joy.
4. A lonely teacher starts a cozy autumn book club where they end up meeting the love of their life.
5. An innkeeper decorates for fall with help from a mysterious guest who turns out to be more than they seem.
6. A small town fall festival brings together two rival families who have hated each other for years.
7. A lost dog leads a grumpy author to the local harvest market, which breeds an unexpected life change.
8. Two neighbors compete to have the best fall decorations, until an autumn storm tears both their decorations down and forces them to work together.
9. A New England road trip to see the changing leaves turns into a bonding experience for an estranged family.
10. An adopted teen girl reluctantly goes on an autumn road trip with her family and ends up finding her long lost twin brother.
11. An elementary school teacher takes in a student of hers when she finds out the student was recently orphaned.
12. A retired woman who owns a general store saves her small town when a hurricane strikes unexpectedly.

Eerie autumn story ideas

1. The wind carries whispers through the trees that only children can hear.
2. Every year on fall equinox, someone’s pet goes missing.
3. A small town is confused when fall doesn’t arrive one year—it simply goes from summer to winter in one night.
4. A new family moves into an old abandoned farmhouse—but once fall strikes, nobody sees them again.
5. A group of friends have a bonfire that summons something they weren’t expecting.
6. Some teens discover that a seasonal corn maze has no exit after sunset.
7. Every pumpkin in the patch rots overnight, except one.
8. A teacher uncovers drawings from a former student who disappeared and was never found… but there’s a new message on one of the drawings.
9. A walk through the woods leads to a town that doesn’t exist on any map.
10. A child makes a friend in the cemetery, but then notices that the name on the gravestone is their own.
11. When a student hands in their fall art project, a professor realizes the student has dark secrets that need to be reported to the police.

Funny fall writing prompts

1. A squirrel becomes obsessed with stealing Halloween decorations from an entire neighbourhood, but nobody can figure out who the thief is.
2. Two rival influencers fight for the title of “Autumn Aesthetic Queen” at the local fall festival.
3. A group of dads turn their kids’ thanksgiving school production into a full-blown touring Broadway production.
4. A witch loses her powers because she confused pumpkin spice seasoning for magic dust.
5. The town mayor organizes a corn maze, but forgets to plan an exit.
6. A family of ghosts tries to haunt a family’s home, only to realize that it’s a smart home with a bunch of voice assistants they keep triggering.
7. A new couple breaks up over a disagreement about whether it should be “pumpkin spice season” or “cider season.”
8. The town baker accidentally creates a cursed pie recipe that makes people admit embarrassing facts.
9. A ghost joins a pilates class just for the warm towels at the end.
10. A group of kids build a haunted house so realistic that they get stuck inside.
11. Someone’s fall-themed Instagram captions start coming true in bizarre ways.
12. A town’s annual pumpkin catapult accidentally opens a portal to another dimension.
13. A werewolf keeps trying to make dramatic entrances to a fall festival but ends up scaring the whole town away each time.

Reflective autumn story ideas

1. A teacher can’t figure out why all her students stopped coming to class until she realizes that her lesson plans for English class were about horror stories that scared all her students away.
2. The first frost reminds a character of everything they’ve lost over the last couple years.
3. A person writes letters to their future self each fall, and finds the very first one years later.
4. A character goes on a weekend retreat to their lakehouse to make a difficult decision.
5. An older couple revisits the hiking trail where they first met in the fall of 1979.
6. A college professor bumps into an old student of theirs and asks questions that cause the student to rethink their entire life trajectory.
7. Raking leaves with a grandparent sparks a conversation that changes everything.
8. A travel journalist visits a small town in autumn and unexpectedly feels at home, only to learn that their parents had a hidden past in this town.
9. A young adult decides to quit their job on a whim and spend the entire autumn alone in the countryside.
10. A teacher gets her new class list and finds she has a student with a unique name—the same name as a student she had ten years ago who changed her life.

This post was all about fall writing prompts.

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