Used to hate writing prompts that were too specific. Then one changed my whole draft.

I always thought prompts like 'write a story from the perspective of a vending machine in a hospital lobby' were too restrictive. Gave it a shot after seeing it in a Reddit thread last month. Took about 20 minutes and got a flash fiction piece that actually made my writing group laugh. Anyone else find that super narrow prompts unlock better ideas than the vague ones?

3 comments

3 Comments

david_palmer2h ago

Jump right in with the vending machine prompt myself a few weeks ago. Wound up writing about a snack that's been stuck in the coil for three years, slowly realizing it's the only thing that still remembers the old hospital wings (before they shut down for renovations). Yeah, my group thought I'd lost it too, but the guy who wrote about a haunted ATM got way more weird looks than I did. Narrow prompts feel like a dare, you know? Like "bet you can't make this dumb premise work," and then suddenly your brain kicks into overdrive just to prove it wrong.

thomasb411h ago

And honestly? That haunted ATM guy is my hero now. You gotta respect someone who takes "bank machine with a grudge" and runs with it. But yeah, @david_palmer you hit on something real with that "dare" thing. It's almost like your brain sees the prompt and goes "oh yeah? Watch me." I wrote one about a parking meter that only accepts wishes instead of coins and my group still gives me crap about it. But I'd do it again because those dumb prompts make you dig deeper than the obvious stuff. Plus the more ridiculous the setup the more fun it is to prove everyone wrong when it actually works.

joseph_bailey1h ago

Yeah, that tracks with how my brain works too. I notice it in my actual job sometimes. When someone says "clean the whole house" I get paralyzed, too many choices. But if they say "scrub every baseboard in the living room" I'm done in 10 minutes and then I'm on a roll and doing the windowsills and the blinds. The specific thing is like a starting block, it gets you moving instead of just standing there staring at the empty page or the messy room.