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Finally gave in and tried a writing prompt generator after swearing them off for months
I always thought those prompt generators were just for people who couldn't think of ideas on their own. But last week I had a total blank for my short story and gave one a shot out of desperation. It gave me "write a story about a librarian who finds a secret message in a returned book" and I ended up writing 2,000 words in one sitting. Has anyone else had a generator surprise them like that?
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joseph_hart16d ago
That librarian story is a really good one actually. I got one that said "a mechanic at a small garage discovers their customer's car has been driven to a town that doesn't exist on any map" and I ended up writing like 3,000 words about this creepy alternate road system. The thing that surprised me most was how specific it forced me to be with details like the smell of the garage or the weird static on the radio when they got close to that town. I've been using them more now but only when I'm really stuck, not every day.
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rivera.henry16d ago
That whole "static on the radio" detail you mentioned really hits, man. My first prompt gave me this thing about a guy finding a locked room in his own house and I wrote myself into such a corner I had to kill the main character just to get out of it. I think I overshot the creepy factor by a mile and ended up with something that read like a rejected Twilight Zone script. But you're right about the details, even my failed attempt forced me to describe the mildew smell in that room perfectly. Now I just save the prompts for when I'm absolutely desperate, like staring at a blank page for 45 minutes desperate.
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