Loading…
29
My writing group's prompt swap went sideways last Thursday
We meet at the library downtown every other week, and last time we tried a new thing where we all brought a sealed prompt to trade. I got one that just said 'a key that opens nothing' which felt really cool at first. But after 30 minutes of staring at my notebook, I realized I had zero ideas that didn't feel super cheesy. I ended up asking the person who wrote it if I could tweak it to 'a key that opens the wrong thing', and that small change totally unlocked the story for me. Has anyone else had to bend a prompt's rules to get something moving?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
the_grant7mo ago
Actually, you didn't bend the rules, you just wrote a different prompt (which is totally fine).
2
jake8306mo ago
Yeah, I've definitely been guilty of overthinking prompts before. Like, why write a novel when a clear sentence gets the job done?
7
nelson.cameron7mo ago
Totally agree with @the_grant, it's a key point. People get hung up on trying to "hack" a system when often the real trick is just making a clear, simple request. It's not about bending rules, it's about writing a better, more direct prompt from the start. That shift in thinking changes the whole game. Framing it as rule-bending makes it sound sneaky, but it's really just good communication.
4