S
19

Every writing prompt I see has someone waking up with amnesia

I've read 40 prompts in this sub over the last two days and 31 of them start with the character hitting their head or losing memory. It's such a lazy setup that I called it out on a post yesterday and the author just said it's the easiest way to build mystery. Does anyone else skip past amnesia prompts immediately, or am I the only one who needs a different hook to stay interested?
1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In
1 Comment
owens.cameron
Ugh, right? It's like the whole sub collectively hit its head and forgot how to write an opening scene. I swear, next time I see amnesia I'm gonna reply with "and then the character suddenly remembers they're lactose intolerant" just to see if anyone catches on. Honestly, at this point I'm half-convinced these prompts are just templates where you fill in the blank for "forgot they were [insert job here]." It's not mystery, it's a cheat code. Give me a character who remembers everything but is trapped, or one who lies about what they know, anything but the ol' bump on the noggin. I'll take a boring barista with a secret note over another foggy-headed protagonist any day.
4