Tried writing a story from a random word generator prompt vs. a detailed image prompt and the difference was huge.

I was stuck last Tuesday, so I tried a website that just gave me the word 'blue'. I wrote three pages of nothing. Then I used a prompt from a book that said 'A lighthouse keeper finds a message in a bottle, but the ink is made of seawater.' That one sentence gave me a character, a setting, and a problem. I finished a whole draft in two hours. Why do some prompts just click and others leave you blank? What's the best prompt source you've found?

3 comments

3 Comments

emma_flores19d ago

Honestly, it's just writing. Sometimes you get a good word and sometimes you don't. You wrote three pages on 'blue', that's not nothing. Maybe you just needed a break in between. I've stared at full scene descriptions and still written garbage. The best prompt is whatever gets you to put words down, even if they're bad. Overthinking where they come from is probably worse than a bad prompt.

emmaclark18d ago

Ever notice how this happens with everything, not just writing? Like when you're trying to fix something at home and you over-plan it, you just freeze. Susanb34's joke about the blues was funny, but it's true that the simplest thing, even a single word, can get you moving again. I get stuck in the same loop trying to decide what to cook for dinner, reading recipes for an hour instead of just starting to chop an onion.

susanb3418d ago

Sounds like the word generator just gave you the blues. That lighthouse prompt is solid though, it does all the heavy lifting for you.