My writing group made me try a 'character first' prompt instead of a plot one

For the last six months, I'd been stuck on a short story idea about a heist. I kept using prompts like 'write about a robbery that goes wrong'. Last week, my group gave me a new one: 'your character finds a key they thought was lost, but it opens a door they've never seen'. I wrote 2,000 words in two days. The old way gave me events, but the new one gave me a person who made the events matter. Has anyone else had a prompt type that just clicked for them in a way others didn't?

3 comments

3 Comments

robinl908d ago

Oh man, that reminds me of the time my friend tried a "word sprint" challenge where you write for ten minutes nonstop. He ended up with a scene about a detective questioning a talking cat, and somehow it turned into a whole novella. I guess sometimes the weirdest prompts just shake something loose in your brain and you roll with it. The prompt itself is only half the battle, the rest is just not overthinking it.

blair_fox71mo ago

Wait you wrote 2000 words in two days? I mean that's wild to me, I get stuck on a single paragraph. Maybe the right prompt just unlocks something.

keithf961mo ago

Honestly half of it was me typing the same sentence five different ways. The trick for me is just accepting the first draft will be garbage and fixing it later. If I try to make each paragraph perfect right away I'll never finish a single page.