Unpopular opinion: those $15 prompt card decks are a scam and I lost $45 finding out | Creative Writing Prompts

Seth Singh · 2026-10-17T05:15:04.716471+00:00

I bought three of those fancy prompt card decks online over the past year, the ones with the nice packaging and the artsy typography, and I'm done. Dropped about $45 total between the decks and shipping, and two of the three were just the same tired stuff you see on free writing blogs: write about a door, write about a smell, describe a stranger. The third one was actually okay but not fifteen bucks okay. What really got me was the deck that came with a little booklet that just explained how to use the cards, like I needed instructions to read a prompt off cardboard. Meanwhile the best prompts I've gotten lately came from a free list a librarian in my town handed out at a workshop in March, one page, printed on both sides, and every single one made me want to write. I get that people want to support creators, but charging people for recycled ideas with a ribbon on top feels like a cash grab. So what's the deal, is there a prompt deck out there that's actually worth the money or should I just stick to free lists and cereal boxes?

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Unpopular opinion: those $15 prompt card decks are a scam and I lost $45 finding out | Creative Writing Prompts - Thought Shares