Shoutout to those old writing prompts that actually had limits

I was digging through some old files last week and found prompts from a 2012 forum I used to post on. They had hard caps, like "write a 500 word story about a locked room" instead of today's open ended "write whatever you want" stuff. For me, those restrictions made me get creative instead of rambling forever. Has anyone else noticed tighter prompts produce better stories than the free for all ones?

3 comments

3 Comments

bettyfox2mo ago

1990 I was in a contest where the rule was your story couldn't use the letter "e" at all. Everyone was writing about "a big old oak tree on a hill" and half the entries got disqualified because they accidentally slipped a "the" in there. So yeah, I get what you mean about the rebellion part, those hard limits made you a crafty little sneak with your words.

david3725d ago

Point out one thing though, that contest you mentioned had a specific rule about not using the letter "e", so it wasn't quite about breaking the word cap or ending mid sentence like you said. I mean, the rebellion part is real, but it was more about sidestepping the letter ban than messing with the judges by cutting off early. Maybe I'm just nitpicking here, but those old school limits were so specific they forced you to play within a tiny box, not just stop writing to be clever. Idk, the real trick was dodging that "e" while still making sense, not just tossing the whole rulebook out the window.

simonh742mo ago

Wait, has anyone talked about how those old limits actually forced you to break the rules? I remember hitting the word cap and deliberately ending a story mid-sentence to mess with the judge. The constraint wasn't just about creativity - it was about rebellion. You had to know the rules inside out just to flip them. That tension made writing feel like a game. Like a puzzle where the limit was the real opponent. Now everything's so open ended it just feels flat. No stakes, no challenge. Just a blank page and a shrug.