Got a writing prompt that killed my block for a whole weekend

Last Saturday I was staring at a blank page for the third hour, so I grabbed a random prompt from this sub about a detective who only solves cases by smelling things. I wrote nonstop for 8 hours and ended up with 15 pages of a weird mystery story where the villain is a perfume maker. Has anyone else had a single prompt just unlock everything for them like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

oscar_hunt6117d ago

Tried that same thing last year with a random prompt about a barista who can taste emotions. Ended up writing 60 pages over two weekends before I even realized what happened. Some prompts just hit differently and your brain runs with it. My advice is don't overthink it when that happens, just keep typing until the engine stalls. Those are the sessions where your best stuff comes out anyway.

matthewp5216d ago

Same thing happened to me with a writing prompt about a librarian who could see memories in old books. I woke up at 3am with the whole plot in my head, typed on my phone in bed for like four hours. My thumbs were cramping and I lost track of time completely. The weird thing is I never even finished it, the idea just fizzled out after page 50 or so. But those 50 pages are some of the best stuff I've ever written, even if nobody else ever reads them.