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I used to skip writing prompts that had too many rules, until a 20 minute exercise at a library in Boise changed my mind
For years I thought a good prompt had to be wide open, like "write about a door" with nothing else attached. Then last month I joined a free writing group at the Boise library and the leader handed out a prompt with eight rules on it, down to the exact number of sentences and one specific object I had to include. I almost got up and left. Instead I wrote for 20 minutes and came out with the only piece I have finished all year. Here is what I noticed that a lot of people get wrong: limits do not crush the story, they give it walls to push against. When I get a blank page I spend half my time deciding things that do not matter, like who the character is or what time of day it is. Rules take those small choices off my plate so I can focus on the actual scene. I know this works because my open prompts sit in a folder untouched, all 14 of them, while the strict ones actually get done. So my question is, do you write your own prompts with hard limits, or do you leave them loose on purpose? And if you use limits, what is your go-to rule?
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