I tried that "one sentence prompt" challenge for a month and got way different results

Everyone says shorter prompts are better for sparking creativity, so I spent 30 days only using single sentence prompts for my writing group in Portland. Turns out my group produced way less detailed stories and more people just dropped out because they had no idea where to take it. I learned that some of us actually need a bit more structure to get going, not less. Has anyone else found that super minimal prompts fall flat in practice?

3 comments

3 Comments

paul_ramirez13d ago

Did you ever figure out if shorter prompts work better for certain types of writers?

thomasgonzalez12d ago

Wait, didn't your writing group start with 12 and drop to 6 because the prompt was too vague, not because it was short? That sounds more like a clarity problem than a length one.

stellat4613d ago

I tried that exact thing with my own writing group back in March and we had similar results. We had 12 people at the start and by week two it was down to 6 because everyone was so lost. One member wrote a whole paragraph about a cat and it turned out she thought the prompt was about a specific breed of cat instead of the actual theme we were working with. Some of us just need a starting point that gives us a little direction, you know? It really showed me that less isn't always more when it comes to getting people to write.