I finally stopped using those writing prompts that give you a single word

Last month I was scrolling through this sub and saw yet another prompt that just said "Door." That was it. Just door. And I thought, what am I supposed to do with that? So three weeks ago I decided to run my own experiment. I spent a Sunday writing two short stories from two different prompt styles. One was a three-sentence scenario prompt about a janitor who finds a locked room in a school basement. The other was that single-word "Door" prompt. The scenario one gave me a full 2,000 word story in about an hour because I had a setting and a problem already. The door one got me a paragraph of someone walking through a door and then I hit a wall. Has anyone else found that detailed prompts with a timeline or a specific location actually make you finish stuff faster?

2 comments

2 Comments

coleman.christopher27d agoMost Upvoted

Yeah but I gotta push back a little on that idea that single-word prompts are just people trying to sound artistic. I think it depends a lot on what kind of writer you are and what you're trying to get out of it. For me, a word like "Door" actually works better sometimes because it leaves everything open and forces me to come up with my own conflict and setting. The problem isn't the prompt itself, it's that a lot of folks treat a single word like it's supposed to do all the work for them. You still gotta bring your own ideas to the table, you know? That said, I totally get why the detailed scenario ones feel easier to finish, they basically hand you a map and say "just walk this way." But I've also had times where a detailed prompt felt too restrictive, like I was just following directions instead of actually writing something that felt like mine. Your mileage may vary, but for me the best results come from mixing it up, using both styles depending on my mood and how much brainpower I have left at the end of the day.

brian_murray27d ago

Felt the exact same way when I tried one of those single-word prompts. Spent twenty minutes staring at "Rain" and ended up writing about a guy getting wet. The detailed ones with a character and a problem already baked in are way better because they skip the hardest part of starting. You get handed a situation and your brain just runs with it instead of sitting there asking "okay now what." Honestly I think the whole single-word prompt trend is just people trying to sound artistic without actually helping anyone write anything.