c/creative-writing-prompts

3

diana_moore75•3d ago

I was totally wrong about writing prompts being for beginners only

I used to skip writing prompts thinking they were just for people starting out or stuck in a rut. Then a friend in my local NaNoWriMo group challenged me to try one from r/WritingPrompts every day for 2 weeks. By day 5, I had the opening scene for a short story that ended up getting published in a small lit mag. Has anyone else found prompts useful for breaking out of a specific writing habit or dry spell?

28

terry_walker•5d ago

That week last fall when my laptop died mid-chapter and I wrote the ending by hand

I was working on a short story for a local contest, 30 pages in, and my laptop just bricked on me. No warning, no backup, just a black screen and this sinking feeling in my gut. I spent the next three days writing the ending in a spiral notebook at a diner downtown, using a $2 pen from the register. The weird thing is, the hand written version turned out way better than the original draft. Has anyone else had a tech failure actually improve their writing process?

11

fox.skyler•5d ago

Am I the only one who notices people misusing 'said' in dialogue tags?

I've been reading through writing prompts here for about six months now, and I keep seeing folks stack three or four descriptive tags like 'he whispered calmly' or 'she shouted angrily' when one word would do the job. It pulls me right out of the story because real conversations don't come with stage directions for every line. Has anyone else found that simpler tags actually make the dialogue flow better?

23

sarah_brown•6d ago

Wrote prompt number 666 without knowing it until my friend pointed it out

I was going through my old writing prompt drafts the other day and my friend asked to see my document. Turns out I had exactly 666 prompts saved up. I didn't even try to hit that number it just happened naturally over 3 years of random ideas. My friend made a joke about summoning a demon with bad prose and now I can't look at my file without laughing. Has anyone else ever hit a random milestone like this that felt way too coincidental?

16

mila_sullivan•6d ago

The writing prompt that sounded dumb actually fixed my story block

I saw this prompt on here last week that said 'write a scene where your character has to wait in line at a DMV but something supernatural happens'. I almost scrolled past because it felt so silly. But I had been stuck on my fantasy novel for three months with no idea how to get my hero from point A to point B. So I tried it just to mess around. Next thing I know I wrote 4 pages about a demon who works the counter and gives my character a cursed license plate. That dumb little idea broke the whole logjam. Now I'm wondering if the prompts that seem too simple are actually the best ones. Anyone else find that the most basic prompts unlock something weird in your brain?

11

rosel83•8d ago

Unpopular opinion: Most writing prompts are too vague to be useful

I spent last week trying to write from a prompt that just said "a stranger arrives at your door." No setting, no stakes, no conflict. I ended up staring at a blank page for three hours. What actually works for me is a prompt with a specific detail, like "a mail carrier delivers a letter from 1982." Who else thinks prompts need more concrete hooks to actually spark a story?

7

the_wade•10d ago

Shoutout to the guy who told me to stop starting prompts with 'A man wakes up'

I was stuck in a rut for like 6 months. Every prompt I wrote started with someone waking up. This dude in a critique group said 'just skip the alarm clock, start when the weird stuff happens.' Tried it on a prompt about a library where books rewrite themselves. It went from 3 likes to 15 and got my first real comment chain. Anyone else get one piece of advice that broke their whole bad habit?

20

the_sandra•10d ago

Showerthought: My writing prompts went from dead ends to story starters after I stopped forcing conflict

Used to start every prompt with some big argument or disaster, like two characters fighting over a parking spot. Felt super forced and nobody ever replied to them. Then last month in Austin I tried a prompt about someone finding a perfect spot in the sun at a coffee shop and the whole thread blew up with 40 responses. Now I just write prompts around small, real moments instead of drama. Has anyone else noticed that gentle prompts get way more traction than high stakes ones?

3

ivanlewis•11d ago

Hit 50,000 words on my novel draft last night and honestly didn't think I'd make it

I've been chipping away at this fantasy story for about 8 months now, mostly after work in my little shop office. Last night I crossed 50,000 words and it felt pretty unreal because I'd quit two other drafts around chapter 3 before. The thing that surprised me was how much the writing prompts in this community actually helped me push through the boring middle parts. I kept coming back here when I got stuck on a scene or dialogue and found a prompt that sparked something. Has anyone else hit a personal word count milestone that took way longer than you expected?

13

avery_carr57•11d ago

That creative writing workshop I mocked for 2 years actually fixed my dialogue problem

I spent years thinking prompts were for amateurs until my buddy made me do a 10 minute writing exercise based on a random prompt. My characters finally stopped sounding like robots. Has anyone else had a dumb exercise turn out to be the thing that clicked for them?

12

the_susan•12d ago

TIL I was overthinking my flash fiction prompts by trying to be too clever

Used to spend hours crafting my own prompts for 100 word stories, making them super complex with specific themes and twists. Then last month a friend in a writing group just gave me a simple one like "write about a door that shouldn't be there" and I got my best piece in 15 minutes. Now I just grab random objects in my house or weird headlines from local news. Keeps it fresh and I don't burn out. Anyone else find that simpler prompts actually push you harder?

2

jason_kelly8•12d ago

Hit 500 consecutive days with my flash fiction challenge today

I started writing a 100 word story every day during my lunch break at the Panera near the office. Back in February I barely had 10 followers on my writing account. Now I'm sitting at 87 people who actually read my stuff and some even comment. The hardest part was week 3 when I hit a wall and almost quit. What finally clicked was using random news headlines as prompts instead of trying to think of ideas from scratch. Anybody else find a weird trick that keeps them going?

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noran21•12d ago

Beware that $50 'Flash Fiction Masterclass' email course

I dropped $50 on a flash fiction course from some guy named Derek who promised to teach me the 'secrets to fast publishing'. All I got were three generic PDFs and a link to his Discord that was basically dead. He had over 2,000 followers on Twitter so I thought it was legit. Has anyone else gotten scammed by one of these email courses?

2

holly898•13d ago

Serious question, does hitting 500 subscribers actually mean anything?

I just crossed 500 subscribers on my writing blog and people are either calling it a huge milestone or saying it's basically nothing when you look at the bigger picture, so which side is right?

9

noahhall•14d ago

TIL you can trick your brain into writing by just changing the font

I was stuck on a short story for like 3 months... couldn't get past the first page. Then I switched the font to Comic Sans on a whim and suddenly wrote 2000 words in one sitting. The ugliness of it made me stop trying to be perfect and just get the words down. Has anyone else tried weird tricks like this to get past a block?

2

terry1•14d ago

That writing prompt about a time loop took me 8 hours to crack

I thought I'd knock out a quick story based on the 'stuck in a time loop' prompt. Simple enough, right? Four hours in, I had written three different versions and none of them made sense past page two. Gave up, watched TV, then woke up at 3 AM with the whole plot figured out. Eight hours total for something I figured would take me one. Anyone else have prompts way overstay their welcome like that?

25

cooper.max•16d ago

Went to a library writing group in Portland and nobody mentioned prompts once

I showed up last Tuesday to a group that was supposed to be for creative writing prompts, but the whole hour was just people reading their finished chapters aloud. I was expecting a prompt jar or something to spark ideas, but it was more like a feedback circle. Has anyone else gone to a writing meetup that completely missed the whole point of being there?

17

ivanlewis•16d ago

Rant: My trusty mechanical keyboard finally gave out after 12 years of service

It was the Z key on my old Das Keyboard. Just stopped registering last Tuesday during a late night writing session. Tried swapping the switch with the Scroll Lock key but my soldering job was garbage and now the board is a brick. Thing had been through 3 moves and countless spilled coffees. Anyone had luck bringing a dead mechanical back to life or should I just accept the loss and start shopping for a new one?

9

david701•17d ago

Found a trick that cut my editing time by half in just 2 weeks

I used to spend 3 or 4 hours rewriting the same scene over and over. Then I tried writing a super rough draft first with zero editing. Just got the ideas down on paper no matter how bad they were. After two weeks of that method, my final drafts started coming together in about 1.5 hours instead. The key was silencing my inner critic until the second pass. Anyone else tried something like this that changed their process?

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wesleybutler•18d ago

Overheard a guy at a coffee shop say he can't write dialogue because everyone sounds the same

I realized the trick is to read your dialogue out loud in different voices and if two characters could swap lines without it sounding weird, that's your sign to give them more specific word choices or rhythm.

12

avery_carr57•18d ago

Chose a handwritten journal over a writing app 5 years ago and never looked back

Back in 2019 I was stuck between using a fancy subscription app or just grabbing a $7 spiral notebook from Target. I went with the notebook because I liked the idea of leaving my phone in the other room. Now I've filled 12 of them and I can actually flip through old entries to see how my writing changed over time. The app probably would have auto-saved and organized everything but I think I would have gotten distracted by notifications too easy. Has anyone else picked pen and paper over digital for their rough drafts or prompts?

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seth_martinez21•20d ago

Had a deep conversation with my uncle Ray about writing prompts last weekend

He said my prompts were too safe and that the best stories come from asking 'what if this went wrong' instead of 'what if this worked out', and it totally shifted how I see character conflict now. Anyone else have a family member drop a truth bomb about your creative process that you couldn't shake?

5

robert_craig•21d ago

Pro tip: Try writing prompts from other people's grocery lists

I was stuck on a short story for 3 weeks and nothing clicked. I grabbed a crumpled receipt from my car that had a weird list on it: "bananas, 2% milk, duct tape, glow sticks, rosemary." That mix of random items turned into a whole plot about a guy trying to fix a camping disaster. Has anyone else found weird real world stuff like this that kicked off a scene?

12

kelly.keith•21d ago

Was dead set against reading writing prompts online, tried one and it unlocked a whole scene

I always figured those online writing prompts were just for people who couldn't come up with their own ideas, you know? Like almost cheating. But last Tuesday I was stuck on a short story for about 45 minutes, staring at a blank page. Out of desperation I clicked on a random prompt about a gas station attendant who finds a note in a bathroom stall. Figured I'd just write for 10 minutes to warm up. Ended up writing 2,000 words that turned into the opening of something I actually wanna finish. The weird part is the prompt didn't give me the whole story, it just gave me a doorway. Has anyone else had a prompt totally flip your writing workflow around?

20

jake_chen•23d ago

The Tuesday my whole writing group hated my prompt and it actually helped

I spent like 3 days crafting this elaborate prompt about a time traveler who accidentally erases his own birth but then paradoxes his way back. Thought it was genius. Brought it to my writing meetup at the library downtown last Tuesday and everybody just stared at me. One guy said it felt like homework. The woman next to him said she'd rather write about a dog that finds a lost key. I was ready to argue but then she showed me a 300 word story she wrote on the spot about that dog finding the key under a porch and it had me actually tearing up. That simple little idea had more heart in 5 minutes than my complicated mess had in days. I scrapped my whole prompt and wrote something about a kid finding a message in a bottle that same night. Has anyone else had a moment where a plot you thought was great just totally bombed with real people?