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My short story prompts went from 3 pages to 3 lines after a writer's group in Ann Arbor told me to cut the setup
I used to hand out these giant writing prompts at my library group, like a full page of setup about a woman finding a key in her dead dad's coat. Two years ago a guy named Pete in Ann Arbor read one out loud and said it took him 90 seconds just to get to the part where anything happens. So I started trimming, first to a paragraph, then down to 3 lines, just enough to set a scene and leave a gap. Now people actually write instead of staring at my handout. Has anyone else tried very short prompts with a group, or do longer setups work better for you?
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kelly2581mo ago
Pete basically did you a huge favor with that 90 second comment.
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