My old writing group leader said to always start prompts with a question, and I finally tested it with 40 people

Abby Thomas · 2026-10-12T18:40:03.207239+00:00

Last month my old writing group leader Carol told me that every good prompt should start with a question. She said it pulls people in and makes them want to answer. I use prompts every Friday for a group of about 8 writers at the library here in Boise. So I wrote 20 prompts that opened with a question and 20 that opened with a plain statement like 'Write about a meal you burned.' Then I passed them out over 4 weeks and tracked which ones got finished stories. The question prompts got 27 finished stories and the statement ones got 31. Basically a tie. Carol was so sure too, she even bet me a coffee on it. Has anyone else actually tracked this stuff, or do you just go with what feels right when you write your prompts?

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My old writing group leader said to always start prompts with a question, and I finally tested it with 40 people | Creative Writing Prompts - Vivisector