I tried writing with a random word generator versus using a picture prompt and wow

Okay so for my writing group, we had to do a quick story start in 20 minutes. I used one of those random word generator sites that gave me 'giraffe, rust, and whisper'. I stared at the screen for like 15 minutes, totally stuck. The next week, I used a picture prompt from a site called Unsplash, just a photo of an old, empty train station at night. The story basically wrote itself in 10 minutes. The picture gave me a whole mood, a setting, and a feeling right away. The random words just felt like a weird puzzle I had to force together. It made me realize that for me, a strong image beats a list of random things every single time. Has anyone else found that one type of prompt just clicks way faster for them?

2 comments

2 Comments

phoenix_singh1mo ago

Yeah, my brain just blue-screens with random words, give me a picture any day.

morgan_butler1mo ago

My brain does that too, @phoenix_singh... just shows me error messages.