101 Western Story Prompts – ScreenCraft

Do you want to write a great Western, but need a push in the right direction? Maybe you need a few Western story prompts to help you keep going. If that’s the case, let’s do it!

We’ve compiled an extensive list of Western story prompts to help you get creative and start crafting your Western screenplay ideas.

Let’s get started!

101 Western Story Tips

1. A newbie challenges a veteran gunslinger while trying to coach him out of the life of a gunslinger.
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 rapid fire.
5. An unknown and mysterious man comes to town, but no one cares.
6. Cowboys are chased by strange objects in the sky.
7. The cowboys are chased by monsters stalking them in the dark.
8. A young cowboy meets Billy the Kid.
9. Children grow up amid the war in Tombstone.
10. An orphan befriended Wyatt Earp and witnessed the OK Corral shooting.
11. Time-traveling investigators return to the OK Corral shooting to document what happened.
12. A young woman tries to meet Billy the Kid.
13. A young woman is an unlikely shooter.
14. A sergeant prepares for a siege, and the Cowboys are planning to break one of their own from jail.
15. Strangers from all over the Wild West are brought in and use their skills to rob banks.
16. Strangers from all over the Wild West are brought in and use their skills to rob trains.
17. Strangers from all over the Wild West were brought in and used their skills to rob the ranches of wealthy ranchers.
18. Texas Rangers go outside their jurisdiction to catch the killer.
19. The country’s first serial killers were actually Wild West gunslingers.
20. Jack the Ripper travels to the Wild West.
21. A ranch is surrounded by strange objects in the sky.
22. Locked in a jail cell in a Wild West town, an outlaw struggles to escape as vampires slaughter the town.
23. Locked in a jail cell in a Wild West town, an outlaw struggles to escape when the town is massacred by werewolves.
24. An outlaw locked in a jail cell in a Wild West town is transformed into a werewolf.
25. A man thrown into a jail cell for intentionally breaking the law is actually a werewolf trying to keep the town safe.
26. The gunslinger is actually a vampire.
27. Two vampires pose as dangerous gunmen for a midnight confrontation.
28. A prostitute seeks revenge after being severely beaten.
29. A banker who has committed one too many robberies decides to train to become a skilled marksman.
30. Two Pinkerton agents must foil a high-speed train robbery.
31. A man and his beloved horse must survive a native attack.
32. The locals must survive an onslaught of American soldiers.
33. A gunslinger seeks revenge after his best friend is killed.
34. A ranch owner seeks revenge after his family is murdered.
35. A female bounty hunter breaks gender barriers in the Wild West.
36. Freed slaves created a community in the Wild West.
37. A woman who was taken away by locals as a child meets her adult brother, who has been searching for her.
38. Cowboys stumble upon a cannibal town.
39. A deadly mountain lion stalks a group of cowboys.
40. A deadly grizzly bear stalks a group of cowboys.
41. Settlers find that the land they settle on is besieged by native ghosts.
42. A group of outlaws are chased by a mysterious gunman dressed in black.
43. A gunman is visited by an elderly gunman who turns out to be Death himself.
44. A cowboy befriends an alien he discovers in the desert.
45. A cowboy is protecting a local who is being chased by a group of American soldiers bent on hanging him.
46. A women’s colony is besieged by a group of male desperadoes.
47. A group of strangers seek shelter at the ranch during a winter storm, only to be killed one by one by one of their killers.
48. A detective arrives in a Wild West town looking for one of its killers.
49. A family spends its first winter in a new land.
50. One family competed with another for rights to the newly settled land.
51. A family fights against criminals trying to take away their land.
52. Son avenges father for gunman’s death.
53. The Angel of Death walks the Wild West, wiping out the scourge of the world with his black six-shooter.
54. An immortal man appears in an old mining town.
55. Brothers and sisters travel the dangerous lands of the Wild West in search of their parents.
56. An orphan and his loyal dog are taken in by a settler family.
57. Explore the Grand Canyon and its dangers.
58. A wealthy family from the city loses everything and ventures out into the open pastures.
59. A traveling circus arrives near a Wild West town and people start dying.
60. Dracula travels to the Wild West.
61. Three different groups of bank robbers board the same bank.
62. Farmers must defend their farms from criminals.
63. Take a cross-country horse ride along the Wild West.
64. A former samurai arrives in a Wild West town.
65. A former samurai becomes a gunfighter.
66. A young boy becomes obsessed with Billy the Kid’s dime store novels and fantasizes about being him.
67. The story of the day after Billy the Kid was allegedly shot to death by Pat Garrett.
68. The story of Bruce Bill Roberts, who claimed to be Billy the Kid.
69. A ghost train arrives in an Old West town.
70. Explorers discover a series of caves that harbor monsters of the night.
71. A Robin Hood story from the Wild West.
72. A deadly gangster is on the loose on a train taking him to prison.
73. Former Union and Confederate soldiers face off in the Wild West.
74. A presidential candidate is attacked by an assassin and the local police chief defends him.
75. A newlywed couple must face a group of outlaws as they head to their newly purchased land.
76. A wagon race through the frontier lands of the Wild West.
77. Foreign settlers fought for their free land.
78. A retired gunslinger lives 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 man with superpowers like Superman living in a Wild West town.
81. A man who owns an Old West hotel encounters many strange characters.
82. The daughter avenges her father and wears his six-shooter belt.
83. Explorers traveled down the Colorado River and survived harsh weather.
84. An Old West gunslinger reacts to the coming modern lifestyle of the 1920s.
85. Players who play the Wild West video game are catapulted into that world.
86. A traveling poker player is actually a gun-toting assassin.
87. A tavern owner is caught between patrons, who are rivals of the gunman.
88. A gunslinger arrives in an Old West town filled with zombies.
89. A gunslinger arrives in an Old West town filled with vampires.
90. A settler family travels through a dangerous town.
91. A woman and her daughter travel through the Wild West after the death of her husband/father.
92. A train derails during a horrific winter storm.
93. A cowboy falls in love with the daughter of a local ranch owner.
94. Settlers have discovered gold on their land and when word spreads, they must defend it.
95. A Hollywood actor known for his roles in Westerns 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 bombed by zombies.
98. A woman hires a gunman to avenge her husband and ends up falling in love with him.
99. The settlers hired a band of outlaws to protect them.
100. A family resists the temptation of large landowners who are buying up the land around them.
101. Settler families started from scratch.

Read more: How clichés and formulaic screenwriting can make you a more successful screenwriter

“The Searchers” (1956)

Is it hard to sell Westerns?

The American Film Institute defines Westerns as “set in the American West, [embody] Spirit, struggle, and demise in the new frontier.

Many in the film industry consider the genre an unpopular enterprise. The Western was a genre of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, eventually dying out in the late 1960s.

Although the genre has continued with some critically acclaimed films over the decades, it has never been as popular with mass audiences as it once was.

Studios generally view this as an expensive gamble. Westerns are set in another time period that looks very different from what we see today:

• Collection must be constructed.
• A wardrobe must be created.
• Authenticity is key in a western, and that can cost a lot of money.

Today, the only financially successful projects are those offered by big-name stars like Quentin Tarantino and the Coen brothers.

When well written, Western Testaments often become critically acclaimed awards contenders (dog power). But it’s not always available at the box office.

Contemporary Westerners like Hell or high water, wind river, No place for old people, dirty harry, Loganand No Use Old West themes, archetypes, and themes in contemporary settings to be more successful.

But don’t let that stop you from writing a Western story. Hollywood loves comebacks. Movie studios are always waiting for new entries in well-known but tired genres.

Want more ideas? Check out our other story prompts!

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

As a production writer, he attended numerous studio meetings, meeting with companies such as Sony, DreamWorks, Universal Pictures, Disney and Warner Bros., as well as numerous production and management companies. He previously signed a development deal with Lionsgate and has had several writing assignments, including producing the miniseries Blackout, starring Anne Heche, Sean Patrick Flanery, Billy Zane, James Brolin, Hayley Duff, Brian Bloom, Eric Larsa and Bruce Bucklina star in the thriller Hunter’s Creed and many more thrillers from Lifetime.

Follow Ken on Twitter @ken电影 and Instagram @KenMovies76.