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Showerthought: a 3 line prompt got me way further than my 2 page one
Last Tuesday our little writing group in Provo swapped prompts, and mine was a full page of backstory for a guy named Dale. My friend handed me one line: "Write a scene where someone lies about why they are late." That one line gave me 4 pages in an hour, while my long one had stalled three people before they even started. Turns out too much setup does the work for the writer, and nobody has to invent anything. Do you all keep your prompts short or load them up with details?
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finleym3710d ago
Watched my buddy Matt try the same thing last month. He wrote a whole page of details about some detective character, name, age, what car he drives, his divorce, all of it. His wife read it and just stared at the page for like two minutes, then asked what she was supposed to write. He handed her a sticky note that said "cop finds a wallet" and she cranked out three pages before dinner. The long prompt told her everything except what to do with it. Short one left a hole she had to fill herself.
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