The Weekly Prompt Thread

[Neo Emolga]

Your prompt this week:

What can I do to make the prompt better?

I'll nibble. I read these things all the time but I don't usually say anything.

I would say go with prompts that stray away from the everyday stuff. The stuff we've all probably done before or happen all the time in real life every hour of the day. Stray more into the weird, odd, uncanny, fantastical, and mysterious stuff instead that never happens. Prompts are really meant to push a writer out of writer's block and hit them with things and inspiration they haven't seen before. Not to mention readers would like to read about things that take them away from reality for a while and make them think in a whole new way.

I would say go with prompts more like these:


Normally your character wouldn't be shocked and alarmed about waking up on a normal day, and while this wouldn't seem strange to anyone else, your character distinctly remembers dying yesterday.

Your character has an amazing dream about being a dragon and hearing a voice telling them to "awaken." They wake up to start the day and everything seems normal until they find a strange claw-like marking on the back of their hand.

Ten years ago, your character walked through their hometown's streets and everything was fine and good with the world. Today, your character straps into a gas mask, body armor, protective hazard suit, and prepares their firearm in case they face the worst today.

Your character gets a text message from their father. Normally this wouldn't seem alarming, but your character's father died five years ago.

Your character used to get annoyed whenever they heard a baby cry. Today, they would do anything just to hear a child's voice once again.


All of these touch base on things that almost never happen to anyone and I feel like these kinds of things make for the best writing prompts. There's nothing wrong with using "how are your characters coping with the cold" or things like that, but most of us have dealt with the everyday stuff before. I think to really nab a reader in well and to kill off Writer's Block for a writer, there's got to be something deeper, darker, and stranger for them to explore.