c/creative-writing-prompts

Tried writing a horror story from a ghost's POV and it turned into a comedy by accident

Had this idea where the ghost is just annoyed about the living leaving dirty dishes in the sink, and now I'm wondering if leaning into the humor ruined the whole spooky vibe or actually made it better, anyone else ever start one direction and end up somewhere totally different?

2 comments

casey_harris•6d ago

Heads up: that 'write your villain backwards' prompt backfired hard on me

I tried flipping my crime boss villain's origin story by writing his final scene first and working backwards over 3 chapters. Ended up with a 2,000 word prologue that made him look like a misunderstood hero and now my beta readers think he's the good guy. Anybody else accidentally turn their antagonist into a sympathetic mess doing this?

2 comments

gavinlopez•6d ago

Started a story about my old Chevy and the plot just fizzled out

I sat down last Tuesday to write a piece about my '78 pickup breaking down on Route 66 near Kingman... got three paragraphs in and realized I had no idea where the story was going. The tension I wanted just wasn't there, felt like reading a grocery list. Has anyone else lost a promising prompt because you couldn't figure out the middle?

2 comments

lauras83•7d ago

Swapped my writing morning routine after a talk at the Austin library

I used to write first thing, before coffee or breakfast, thinking the unfiltered thoughts were more creative. But last year a local author at the Austin Central Library said her best work happens after a 20-minute walk, so I tried it. Now I walk the trail around Town Lake and come back with whole scenes figured out. Has anyone else found a weird time of day that just clicks for their writing?

2 comments

the_tessa•7d ago

That time a retiree at a library writing group told me my dialogue sounded like a police report

She said it after I read a scene set in a coffee shop and my characters were just trading factual statements about the weather, and now every time I write a conversation I hear her voice in my head asking if real people actually talk like that, so has anyone else had a random critique from a stranger that totally reshaped how you approach a specific part of your writing?

2 comments

finleyh89•8d ago

Showerthought: That scene in a book where the character just sits and thinks used to bore me, now it's my favorite part.

I used to skip paragraphs of internal monologue in novels when I was younger. Wanted action, dialogue, stuff happening. But around 3 years ago I read 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy. There's this whole section where the man and the boy are just sitting in a dark house, waiting. Nothing happens for pages. But that stillness hit different after I turned 30. Maybe it's because I spend my days coordinating shipments and solving other people's small emergencies. The quiet in that chapter felt like a break I actually needed. Has anyone else had a genre or style they hated suddenly click for them later on?

2 comments

anna_ross19•9d ago

PSA: That $35 AI story generator was a complete waste of my cash

I bought one of those AI story generator apps last month for $35 thinking it would help me break through writer's block. All it did was spit out weird sentences like 'the purple sky danced with angry potatoes' no matter what prompt I gave it. I tried tweaking the settings and feeding it better examples, but after 3 hours of messing around I got nothing usable. Has anyone else fallen for one of these tools and regretted it, or am I the only one who lost money on a glitchy program?

3 comments

butler.finley•9d ago

Shoutout to the bus driver who fixed my villain dialogue

I was stuck on a scene where my antagonist just sounded whiny, not threatening. This old bus driver on the 42 route in Seattle overheard me muttering lines to myself at the back. He turned around and said 'Try whispering it slow, like you're telling a secret that'll hurt someone.' I did it and the whole monologue clicked. Has anyone else gotten good writing advice from a total stranger in an unexpected place?

3 comments

emery_lopez•9d ago

Took a creative writing workshop in Portland that completely changed how I outline stories

I went to a weekend workshop at Powell's Books in Portland last fall. The instructor had us write a scene from the end of our story first, then work backwards to the beginning. I had always started with chapter one and just wrote until I got stuck. After trying it on a short story about a failed heist, I finished the whole thing in three days instead of three months. Has anyone else tried writing out of order or starting with the end? It felt weird at first but the logic clicked for me.

3 comments

the_holly•9d ago

Spent 2 years writing scenes in order before a beta reader asked why my timeline was so jumpy

I finally realized I'd been skipping transitions and motivation because I always wrote the action first, and now I'm curious how do you figure out which scenes actually need to be in the story?

2 comments

ben_ross51•9d ago

TIL writing a mystery plot backwards saves hours of fixing plot holes

I spent like 6 hours last Tuesday trying to untangle a clue chain in my short story and it just kept breaking. The big reveal made no sense because I wrote it forward and forgot to plant the evidence early enough. A buddy told me to start with the solution first and work backwards step by step. So I wrote the last chapter, then the second to last, all the way back to page one. Took about 3 hours total for a 5,000 word story and every clue lines up perfect now. Has anyone else tried this method or do you just outline and hope for the best?

2 comments

murphy.linda•11d ago

PSA: I found a stat about forgotten characters in fan fiction that blew my mind

I was browsing Archive of Our Own last week and saw a post breaking down how over 60% of side characters in popular fandoms get less than 100 fics written about them. That shocked me because you'd think every minor character has at least a few fans, right? I checked it against my own fandom and found only 2 fics for a character I love from the third book. Has anyone else dug into their fandom's stats and found a character that's basically ignored?

2 comments

emery19•12d ago

The moment I realized my first drafts weren't supposed to be good

I spent three years rewriting my first chapter over and over, trying to make it perfect before moving on. Then last month I forced myself to write a messy 50 page draft in one week without looking back. What I ended up with was garbage, but there were actually a few solid scenes buried in there I could work with. That's when it clicked that a first draft is just you telling the story to yourself, not to anyone else. Has anyone else hit that wall where you just let yourself write badly on purpose?

2 comments

joseph_torres•14d ago

Hit 100K words in my WIP last night and I'm shook

I randomly checked my word count on a whim and realized I wrote 100,342 words over 8 months without even noticing until last night lol. Has anyone else lost track of their progress like this and had a total 'wait what' moment?

3 comments

butler.finley•14d ago

I finally figured out why my old prompts felt flat compared to the new ones

Back when I started posting writing prompts on here maybe 4 years ago, I always tried to make them super dramatic and high stakes. Like "a dragon kidnaps the president" type stuff. But nobody ever responded to those. Then about 6 months ago I switched to quieter, more personal prompts. Stuff like "you find a letter your mom wrote but never sent" and suddenly people started actually writing responses. The difference is that dramatic prompts feel like homework, but the small ones feel like a secret someone trusted you with. I had a guy write a 3 page story off a prompt about finding an old key in a drawer. Has anyone else noticed this shift in what works on here?

2 comments

ray363•14d ago

Hit 1,000 words in a single sitting for the first time in five years of writing prompts

That number shocked me because I've been stuck at 200 for months and it just happened last night with a locked room prompt, anyone else break a plateau out of nowhere?

3 comments

lilykelly•15d ago

My beta reader told me my villain was too nice, so I rewrote 30k words

I had this antagonist who was just misunderstood, not really evil, and my beta reader said flat out, 'He reads like your mom, not a villain.' I switched him to someone who genuinely enjoys causing pain and my plot finally had stakes. Anyone else had a reader call out a blind spot you didn't see?

2 comments

sam_murphy39•17d ago

Just realized I was overthinking character backstories

Used to write 10 page bios for every side character. Like a whole spreadsheet with their favorite color and childhood pet. Then I read a short story by Stephen King in 2019 where he described a character in two lines and I knew everything about them. Now I stick to three key details max and let the story do the work. Has anyone else cut way back on planning?

3 comments

daniel_lane30•18d ago

That writers workshop in Portland changed my whole approach

Guy running it said my first page was all setup and no tension. He had me delete the first two paragraphs and start right at the argument scene. Has anyone else had a workshop critique that made you rewrite everything from scratch?

3 comments

shane655•18d ago

Swore by Google Docs for writing prompts until a friend made me try Scrivener

I spent $60 on Scrivener after a buddy at my Chicago writers group swore it would organize my messy prompt ideas better. Honestly thought it was overpriced but the way it keeps all my drafts, notes, and character sheets in one place is a game changer for me. No more jumping between tabs and losing half my ideas lol. Has anyone else switched from free tools and felt it was worth the money?

2 comments

-2

claire_ramirez•20d ago

Swapping out my old prompt notebook for a digital folder felt wrong at first

I used to keep this beat up spiral notebook where I'd scribble every story idea or character quirk on napkins or random pages. There was something about the physical act of writing it down that made the ideas stick in my head better, like they had room to breathe. Last year I switched to a Google Doc folder because I got tired of losing pages, but man, the digital version just feels flat. I find myself typing faster and not really thinking through the hook of a prompt before I move on. With the notebook, I'd sit at my kitchen table in Des Moines and cross out bad lines until something clicked. The folder makes it too easy to never commit. Has anyone else noticed their creativity dip after going all digital for prompts?

3 comments

shane655•21d ago

Can we talk about how people keep using "show don't tell" as an excuse to skip internal monologue?

I was reading stories on a critique site for like 2 hours last night and I kept seeing the same comment: "you're telling too much, show don't tell." But then the writers cut out all the character's thoughts and the scenes felt flat and emotionless. It finally clicked for me when I edited one of my own short stories last week. I removed a paragraph where my MC thinks about how scared she is of heights, and the climbing scene lost all its tension. So I put it back. The real trick is balancing showing the action with telling what the character feels about it. You can't just have them climb a cliff without saying they're sweating and their heart is pounding and they wanna quit. That internal stuff is what makes us care. Has anyone else noticed how misleading that "show don't tell" advice can be when beginners take it too literally?

3 comments

john_cooper•22d ago

Just realized I've been reading writing prompts all wrong

I overheard two people at a coffee shop talking about how a good prompt should leave room for interpretation but also give you a specific conflict to solve. I always picked prompts that were too vague and ended up staring at a blank page for an hour. Anyone else figure out they approach prompts totally wrong after hearing someone else break it down?

3 comments

irismartinez•25d ago

Stuck on one scene for 3 hours then blew through 2000 words in 20 minutes

I was at my kitchen table with this mystery prompt about a locked room and just couldnt get past the first paragraph. Finally I just deleted everything and started with a random detail about a broken clock on the wall instead. Has anyone else found that forcing a fresh start unsticks you way faster than trying to fix whats already there?

3 comments

jamesfox•25d ago

Am I the only one who thinks writing prompts need clear endings?

I keep seeing prompts that ask for a story but leave the ending totally open, like "write about a door that leads somewhere." That's not a prompt, it's just a vague idea. A good prompt should give a specific twist or conflict, like "you open a door and find your younger self on the other side, what do you say?" Without that, half the responses end up being random scenes that don't go anywhere. Has anyone else noticed this messing with their writing flow?

3 comments