Update: my prompt about a lighthouse keeper turned into a 4,000 word mess and I finally saw why at 2am | Creative Writing Prompts

Stella Perry · 2026-09-24T15:45:04.878089+00:00

So last Tuesday I sat down at my kitchen table in Tampa with a one line prompt about a lighthouse keeper who writes letters to a dead wife. I figured it was a 500 word flash piece, easy. Two hours in I was at 1,800 words and nothing had happened, the guy was just standing on rocks feeling sad. I kept adding backstory instead of scenes, which is the oldest trick in the book for avoiding the actual story. Around midnight I read the whole thing out loud and realized every single paragraph was him thinking about stuff he already knew. There was zero want, zero trouble, just vibes. So I cut 3,200 words down to 800 and gave him one real problem, the light keeps going out and a ship is due at dawn. It finally read like a story instead of a diary. Do you guys ever over-write a prompt because you are scared to just pick the one thing that happens?

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Update: my prompt about a lighthouse keeper turned into a 4,000 word mess and I finally saw why at 2am | Creative Writing Prompts - Thought Shares