That random writing prompt generator actually worked for my short story

I tried one of those free online prompt generators thinking it'd be garbage, but it gave me a line about a librarian who finds a note in a returned book from 1982. That one prompt got me 3,000 words in two days. Anyone else have luck with a specific generator or do you all just make your own prompts?

2 comments

2 Comments

allen.amy26d ago

Oh man, I totally get that. I found a prompt generator that gave me a scene about a guy finding a suitcase full of letters on a bus, and it turned into a whole 10,000 word thing I actually finished. Most of them are useless clickbait junk but when you hit a good one, it just clicks. It's like the machine accidentally stumbled onto something real. I've tried making my own prompts before but they always feel stiff and forced. That random note in a book from 1982 sounds like the kind of detail that opens up a hundred questions you want to answer.

reese_lane2926d ago

It's funny how the best stuff always comes from somewhere you didn't plan. I notice that everywhere now, not just with writing. Like how the best conversations happen when you're just killing time with someone, not when you sit down for a serious talk. Or how the best photos are the ones you snap without thinking, not the ones you set up. There's something about the accidental that cuts through all the noise we usually make. We try so hard to be clever or original that we block the real stuff from getting out. That generator tricked your brain into letting go of the steering wheel for a second, right?