That $5 writing prompt book from a thrift store actually broke my writer's block

I grabbed a 1980s '1000 Writing Prompts' book for pocket change thinking it'd be useless, but after staring at a blank page for 3 hours last Tuesday, I flipped to page 47 and wrote 2,000 words in one sitting. Has anyone else found an old writing resource that actually worked better than the new online stuff?

2 comments

2 Comments

parkerrodriguez8d ago

Oh man, I totally get this. I found this beat up copy of "The Writer's Book of Matches" from like 1992 at a garage sale. It's literally just one line prompts that are super weird and specific, like "describe the smell of rain on asphalt from a car window." I was stuck on a short story for weeks and that one random prompt got me 3 pages in like 20 minutes. Something about the older prompts feel less like they're trying to sell you something and more like they just want to spark something. The internet stuff always feels too polished or like it's trying to be deep.

barnes.morgan6d agoMost Upvoted

For real, that internet stuff is way too try-hard.