101 Western Story Prompts

Do you want to write a great Western flick but need a push in the right direction? Maybe you need some Western story prompts to get you going. If that’s the case, here we go!

We have compiled a massive list of Western story prompts to help get your creative juices flowing so you can start conceptualizing your Western script ideas.

Let’s get started!

Enter Now  |  Early Deadline in 28 days

101 Western Story Prompts

1. A newcomer challenges an old gunslinger while trying to mentor him away from the gunslinger life.
2. The true story of the first bank robbery in the Wild West.
3. The true story of the first train robbery in the Wild West.
4. The true story of the first recorded quick-draw shooting.
5. A mysterious man with no name comes to town, but nobody cares.
6. Cowboys are pursued by strange objects in the sky.
7. Cowboys are pursued by a monster stalking them in the dark.
8. A young cowboy comes across Billy the Kid.
9. Children come of age amidst the war in Tombstone.
10. An orphan befriends Wyatt Earp and witnesses the OK Corral shooting.
11. Time-traveling investigators go back to the OK Corral shooting to document what really happened.
12. A young woman attempts to meet Billy the Kid.
13. A young woman becomes an unlikely gunslinger.
14. A sheriff braces for a siege as cowboys plan to break one of their own out of his jail.
15. Strangers from around the Wild West are brought in to use their skills to rob a bank.
16. Strangers from around the Wild West are brought in to use their skills to rob a train.
17. Strangers from around the Wild West are brought in to use their skills to rob the ranch of a wealthy rancher.
18. Texas Rangers go out of their jurisdiction to catch a murderer.
19. The country’s first serial killer was actually a gunslinger in the Wild West.
20. Jack the Ripper made his way to the Wild West.
21. A ranch is besieged by strange objects in the sky.
22. An outlaw locked in a Wild West town jail cell struggles to escape as vampires slaughter the town.
23. An outlaw locked in a Wild West town jail cell struggles to escape as the town is slaughtered by a werewolf.
24. An outlaw locked in a Wild West town jail cell turns into a werewolf.
25. A man who purposefully breaks the law to be thrown into a jail cell is actually a werewolf trying to keep the town safe from him.
26. A gunslinger is actually a vampire.
27. Two vampires posing as dangerous gunslingers face off at midnight.
28. A prostitute seeks revenge when she’s beaten severely.
29. A banker who robbed one too many times decides to train to become a skilled marksman.
30. Two Pinkerton agents must thwart a train robbery at high speeds.
31. A man and his beloved horse must survive an onslaught of natives.
32. Natives must survive an onslaught of U.S. soldiers.
33. A gunslinger seeks revenge after his best friend is killed.
34. A rancher seeks revenge after his family is killed.
35. A female bounty hunter breaks Wild West’s gender barriers.
36. Freed slaves create a community in the Wild West.
37. A woman taken by natives when she was a child comes across her grownup brother who never stopped looking for her.
38. Cowboys stumble upon a town of cannibals.
39. A deadly mountain lion stalks a group of cowboys.
40. A deadly grizzly bear stalks a group of cowboys.
41. Settlers discover that the land they have settled on is besieged by native ghosts.
42. A band of outlaws is pursued by a mysterious gunslinger in black.
43. An aging gunslinger is visited by a gunslinger who ends up being Death himself.
44. A cowboy befriends an alien he finds in the desert.
45. A cowboy defends a native who is being pursued by a band of U.S. soldiers hellbent on hanging him.
46. A settlement of women is besieged by a group of male outlaws.
47. A group of strangers seeks shelter at a ranch during a winter storm, only to be killed off one by one by a killer among them.
48. A detective comes to a Wild West town to find a killer among them.
49. A family survives their first winter on their new land.
50. A family fights another for rights to their newly settled land.
51. A family fights outlaws that try to take their land away from them.
52. A son avenges the death of his gunslinging father.
53. An angel of death walks the Wild West, killing the scourge of the world with black six-shooters.
54. An immortal man appears in an old mining town.
55. Siblings travel the dangerous land of the Wild West, searching for their parents.
56. An orphan and his loyal dog are taken in by a family of settlers.
57. Explores venture the Grand Canyon and its dangers.
58. A rich family from the city loses everything and takes their chances on the open range.
59. A traveling circus arrives near a Wild West town — and people begin to die.
60. Dracula travels to the Wild West.
61. Three different bands of bank robbers ascend on the same bank.
62. Farmers must defend their farms against marauding outlaws.
63. A cross-country horse race along the Wild West territories.
64. A former Japanese Samurai arrives in a Wild West town.
65. A former Japanese Samurai has taken on the ways of the gunslinger.
66. A young boy entranced with the dime store novels of Billy the Kid fantasies about being him.
67. The story about Billy the Kid the day after he was supposedly shot and killed by Pat Garett.
68. The story of Brushy Bill Roberts, who claimed he was Billy the Kid.
69. A ghost train arrives in an Old West town.
70. Explorers discover a series of caves that house monsters of the night.
71. A Robin Hood story amidst the Wild West.
72. A deadly outlaw is loose in the train transporting him to jail.
73. Former Union and Confederate soldiers face off against each other in the Wild West.
74. A campaigning president is attacked by assassins as a local sheriff defends him.
75. Newlyweds traveling to their newly purchased land must face off against a band of outlaws.
76. A wagon race across the frontier land of the Wild West.
77. Foreign settlers battle for their share of the free land.
78. A retired gunslinger leads a happy family life until his past comes back to haunt him.
79. Angels and demons wage war in the Wild West in the form of gunslingers.
80. The story of a Superman-like being with superpowers living in a Wild West town.
81. A man who owns an Old West hotel comes across many strange characters.
82. A daughter avenges the death of her father as she straps on his six-shooter belt.
83. Explorers travel down the Colorado River, surviving the elements.
84. An Old West gunslinger reacts to the impending modern lifestyle of the 1920s.
85. A gamer playing a Wild West video game is catapulted into that world.
86. A traveling poker player is actually a gunslinging assassin.
87. A saloon owner is caught between patrons who are rival gunslingers.
88. A gunslinger arrives in an Old West town full of zombies.
89. A gunslinger arrives in an Old West town full of vampires.
90. A family of settlers goes through a dangerous town.
91. A woman and her daughters travel through the Wild West after their husband/father has died.
92. A train is derailed during a horrible winter storm.
93. A cowboy falls in love with a local rancher’s daughter.
94. A settler finds gold on their land and must defend it when word spreads.
95. A Hollywood actor known for his Western roles wakes up in the real Wild West.
96. A military fort in the Old West is attacked by vampires.
97. A military fort in the Old West is bombarded by zombies.
98. A woman hires a gunslinger to avenge her husband’s death and eventually falls in love with him.
99. Settlers hire a band of outlaws to protect them.
100. A family resists the temptation of a large landowner who is buying up the land around them.
101. A settler family builds themselves up from nothing.

Read More: How Clichés and Formulaic Screenwriting Can Make You a More Successful Screenwriter

‘The Searchers’ (1956)

Are Westerns Hard to Sell?

The American Film Institute defines Western films as those “set in the American West that [embody] the spirit, the struggle, and the demise of the new frontier.”

Many within the film industry consider the genre an undesirable undertaking. Westerns were the genre back in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, eventually dying off somewhat in popularity at the end of the 1960s.

While the genre continued with some acclaimed movies outstretched over the decades since it was never as popular with the mass audience as it once was.

Studios often consider them to be expensive gambles. Westerns are set in another time period that looks very different from anything we see today:

• Sets have to be built.
• Wardrobe has to be created.
• Authenticity in Westerns is key, and that can cost a lot of money.

These days, the only financially successful ones are those offered up by big names like Quentin Tarantino and the Coen brothers.

When written well, a Western will often shows up as critically acclaimed Awards contenders (The Power of the Dog). But the box office isn’t often there.

Contemporary Westerns like Hell or High Water, Wind River, No Country for Old Men, Dirty Harry, Logan, and Nope are much more successful, using Old West themes, archetypes, and motifs set in contemporary settings.

But don’t let that sway you on writing a Western story. Hollywood loves comebacks. And studios are always waiting for new takes on celebrated but tired genres.

WANT MORE IDEAS? TAKE A LOOK AT OUR OTHER STORY PROMPTS!

Ken Miyamoto has worked in the film industry for nearly two decades, most notably as a studio liaison for Sony Studios and then as a script reader and story analyst for Sony Pictures.

He has many studio meetings under his belt as a produced screenwriter, meeting with the likes of Sony, Dreamworks, Universal, Disney, and Warner Brothers, as well as many production and management companies. He has had a previous development deal with Lionsgate, as well as multiple writing assignments, including the produced miniseries Blackout, starring Anne Heche, Sean Patrick Flanery, Billy Zane, James Brolin, Haylie Duff, Brian Bloom, Eric La Salle, and Bruce Boxleitner, the feature thriller Hunter’s Creed, and many produced Lifetime thrillers.

Follow Ken on Twitter @KenMovies and Instagram @KenMovies76.

The post 101 Western Story Prompts appeared first on ScreenCraft.