Saturday, October 20, 2018

My Complicated Past with Writing Prompts



As a lifelong writer, I’ve used a lot of writers’ prompts in my time.  The short story: good ones rock and bad ones make you question the others’ intelligence.

Have I ever used a prompt?  Yes.   Prompts have helped me out of writers’ block and sometimes I even have a cool story to show from the experience.

Can prompts help cultivate a daily writing habit? Yeah, but all things considered, I’d rather journal or do daily gratitude as a daily practice than a writing prompt a day.

Would I recommend a prompt to other writers?  Maybe.  My knee jerk reaction to prompts is that I hate them.  They often feel forced, and often I read on and want to defy whatever suggestion it makes.  I assume others hate these things as much as me though a friend pointed out that this might just be my issue.  Most people like when some work is done for them.

All of that said, I’d enjoy creating writing prompts for others.  My favorite part of writing is creating ideas.  I enjoy forming some of them into a story too, but I’ve got more ideas than I have time to make stories.

What do you think about writing prompts?  Do you use them often?  Are they life savers or creativity drains?  Talk to me.

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