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Found a prompt wall at a cafe in Portland and one note stuck with me
I was in Portland for a friend's birthday and stopped at a cafe on Alberta St. There was a corkboard by the bathroom with paper slips people could take. Each slip had one prompt written on it. Most were the usual stuff like write about a door or a lie. But one said write a scene where nobody speaks for 300 words. I grabbed it and wrote 400 words that night in my hotel room. It was harder than I thought and made me cut a bunch of filler. Has anyone else tried the no dialogue prompt, and did it change how you write scenes?
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rose_murray6d ago
Did you find that writing without any talking made you focus way more on body stuff and small actions? I used to roll my eyes at the no dialogue thing because it felt like a writing class gimmick, but then I tried it in a short story and it honestly changed my whole view. I ended up describing a guy making coffee for like 200 words, the way his hands shook, the sound of the spoon, and my teacher said it was the best thing I'd written all year. Now when a scene feels flat I just strip the talking out and it usually shows me what's actually missing.
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