App Review: Writing Prompts by Writing.com

One app I love always having at hand is Writing Prompts by Writing.com.  It features hundreds of prompts for writing exercises in its $1.99 app. The prompts are placed into five categories: sketches, scenes, texts, words, and news.

• Sketches provides a color, genre, type of writing, and three drawn images. A most interesting take on prompts, sketches really gets your imagination going. 
• Scenes gives a place, brief character description, object, and weather description. 
• Texts shows more classic writing prompts (ex: "A bus full of people vanishes"). 
• Words provides random groups of words that, just like sketches, is more unique. I found that with either of the two prompt types I get a clear image in mind which is especially helpful when I have writer's block. 
• News prompts allows the app to search the web based on a random keyword and give you a headline to use as your prompt.  Tap refresh and a new one appears.

Users can use portrait or landscape modes and shake or swipe to change prompts, although the shake didn't work well for me. The app allows you to make a favorites list of prompts and make notes that you can email, which worked great on my iPhone.  If you desire more prompts, there are four $0.99 prompt packs each containing 250 new scene elements, 400 new words, and 100 new sketches.  According to the in-app information, with all five of the prompt packs there are over 3 billion combinations available on the scene prompt generator alone.  If users want to avoid buying packs later, they can go ahead and purchase A+ Writing Prompts for $4.99, containing all prompt packs for $1 less than buying them separately. I'm still using the basic app without the need for more, but I like that it's available if I need it.

Writing Prompts is available for iPhone, iPad, Android, and Kindle Fire.