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?

2 comments

2 Comments

diana3141d ago

I hit one of those "writer's block" prompt generators at 2am last week and it gave me something about a woman finding a locked diary in a thrift store coat. I rolled my eyes so hard but typed a paragraph just to prove it was dumb. Three hours later I had 4,500 words and a whole plot about her tracking down the original owner. What got me was the prompt was vague enough that my brain had to fill in the gaps, which is exactly the thing that gets me unstuck. It's like the prompt is a key and your brain is the lock, you just gotta find the right one.

kai4631d ago

Tried one prompt and suddenly felt like a real writer instead of a keyboard smash, embarrassing.