I’m traveling all day today, so I’ll leave you with a question for discussion. Do you ever use writing prompts to get your creative juices going? Are they helpful? If so, what is the best source you’ve found for writing prompts?
14 thoughts on “Writing Prompts: Useful, or a Waste of Time?”
I find them a total waste of time and have unsubscribed to two different sites offering these so-called prompts.
Me too, Jeanine! I always wonder if anyone finds them helpful–and if so, in what way? What little creative energy I have, I feel needs to be applied to a project. Anything else feels like wasted time. Thanks for commenting!
I agree. I have my own stuff to write. Why write what someone else “tells” me to.
I suppose they have their uses for those who are new to the writing process and need something to write about, but unless it’s going to lead to a story plot, nope. Not for me.
What’s baffling to me is prevalence of sites promoting these prompts–SOMEBODY must like them, lol. Thanks for chiming in, Terry!
Honestly, to me it’s nothing more than a trip back to school and homework assignments. Been there, done that.
Well I don’t know if my experience is similar to anyone else’s, but way back when when I was just beginning to seriously pursue my education as a writer, I did use writer’s prompts at times. It helped me at that very early stage when I had no idea how to set up the framework for my own stories–they sort’ve unleashed me.
Now, many years down the road, I don’t use them at all and, like others have commented, find them a waste of time. But they did serve their purpose at one point in time.
There’s no shame in how we went about finding our sea legs as writers–I truly appreciate your input, BK! It reinforces my assumption that writing prompts are perhaps most useful to writers in the beginning stages of their development.
Until today I had not heard of a writing prompt app. I guess I won’t have to bother now! ?
We might be presenting a somewhat jaundiced view here, Julie–best to judge for yourself. Thanks for commenting!
Sometimes I give myself a writing prompt. If I’m stuck on a scene, I begin the next day with a 10-minute speed write. Before opening up anything else, I think for a minute or two about what the goal of the scene is, and then I free write without stopping my pen for ten minutes. At the end I have some flowing phrases, some killer vocabulary, and a new detail or two that I may not have found by just cogitating with a still pen.
Writing prompts are useless for me. I’ve never used them in any of my novels. I do use “pump primers,” however. These are novels that excite me because of the way they meld tension, conflict, character, and style together and stimulate my imagination. Before I start my daily writing session, I read from a pump primer, and when I feel the flow starting, I put it aside and get to work.
For me, the best pump primers come Tana French, John Hart, Lee Child, and John LeCarre. The first few books in James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux series also work, except that I’m too familiar with them now. I’ve caught on to the tricks he uses, and I hate preaching in fiction.
I’m always looking for more pump primers because I read very fast. any recommendations?
Writing prompts seem to work for some people, but I don’t use them. If you’re really serious about writing, you’ll sit down and write. Is that too harsh?
My Dad was a librarian. As well, he was a man of great depth and wisdom. Having taught in the classroom before he was a librarian, he seemed to have a deep and abiding respect for learners and learning.
He taught me that the wise use of someone else’s thoughts and thinking sometimes can sometimes lead to the best of my own thoughts and thinking.
I remembered his words once in the middle of struggling with the translation of Latin poetry–I don’t remember which Poet.
My Eureka moment was, “I’d never realized that before.”
I find writing prompts to be a help sometimes in straightening out my own confusion or the unblocking of my own block.
Only for contests. Even if the prize is bragging rights. But give me a writing prompt flash fiction contest and I am off to the races.
I’m traveling all day today, so I’ll leave you with a question for discussion. Do you ever use writing prompts to get your creative juices going? Are they helpful? If so, what is the best source you’ve found for writing prompts?
I find them a total waste of time and have unsubscribed to two different sites offering these so-called prompts.
Me too, Jeanine! I always wonder if anyone finds them helpful–and if so, in what way? What little creative energy I have, I feel needs to be applied to a project. Anything else feels like wasted time. Thanks for commenting!
I agree. I have my own stuff to write. Why write what someone else “tells” me to.
I suppose they have their uses for those who are new to the writing process and need something to write about, but unless it’s going to lead to a story plot, nope. Not for me.
What’s baffling to me is prevalence of sites promoting these prompts–SOMEBODY must like them, lol. Thanks for chiming in, Terry!
Honestly, to me it’s nothing more than a trip back to school and homework assignments. Been there, done that.
Well I don’t know if my experience is similar to anyone else’s, but way back when when I was just beginning to seriously pursue my education as a writer, I did use writer’s prompts at times. It helped me at that very early stage when I had no idea how to set up the framework for my own stories–they sort’ve unleashed me.
Now, many years down the road, I don’t use them at all and, like others have commented, find them a waste of time. But they did serve their purpose at one point in time.
There’s no shame in how we went about finding our sea legs as writers–I truly appreciate your input, BK! It reinforces my assumption that writing prompts are perhaps most useful to writers in the beginning stages of their development.
Until today I had not heard of a writing prompt app. I guess I won’t have to bother now! ?
We might be presenting a somewhat jaundiced view here, Julie–best to judge for yourself. Thanks for commenting!
Sometimes I give myself a writing prompt. If I’m stuck on a scene, I begin the next day with a 10-minute speed write. Before opening up anything else, I think for a minute or two about what the goal of the scene is, and then I free write without stopping my pen for ten minutes. At the end I have some flowing phrases, some killer vocabulary, and a new detail or two that I may not have found by just cogitating with a still pen.
Writing prompts are useless for me. I’ve never used them in any of my novels. I do use “pump primers,” however. These are novels that excite me because of the way they meld tension, conflict, character, and style together and stimulate my imagination. Before I start my daily writing session, I read from a pump primer, and when I feel the flow starting, I put it aside and get to work.
For me, the best pump primers come Tana French, John Hart, Lee Child, and John LeCarre. The first few books in James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux series also work, except that I’m too familiar with them now. I’ve caught on to the tricks he uses, and I hate preaching in fiction.
I’m always looking for more pump primers because I read very fast. any recommendations?
Writing prompts seem to work for some people, but I don’t use them. If you’re really serious about writing, you’ll sit down and write. Is that too harsh?
My Dad was a librarian. As well, he was a man of great depth and wisdom. Having taught in the classroom before he was a librarian, he seemed to have a deep and abiding respect for learners and learning.
He taught me that the wise use of someone else’s thoughts and thinking sometimes can sometimes lead to the best of my own thoughts and thinking.
I remembered his words once in the middle of struggling with the translation of Latin poetry–I don’t remember which Poet.
My Eureka moment was, “I’d never realized that before.”
I find writing prompts to be a help sometimes in straightening out my own confusion or the unblocking of my own block.
Only for contests. Even if the prize is bragging rights. But give me a writing prompt flash fiction contest and I am off to the races.
Terri