Unpopular opinion: writing prompts with too many rules kill creativity

Last year a guy in my workshop gave me a prompt that was just two words: "broken windows." That was it. No setting, no character, no conflict needed. That single open ended line led to a story I still think about, but the prompts with 5 bullet points of requirements always feel like homework.

3 comments

3 Comments

elizabeth2206d agoTop Commenter

Does it kill creativity or just shift the pressure from the idea to the execution, @jamie794? The extra rules force you to fight against the constraints which can be its own kind of creative challenge if you don't mind the fight. But yeah, most of the time that just makes people freeze up instead of actually write.

jamie7946d ago

lol this is basically the same thing as when someone hands you a recipe with 47 ingredients versus just telling you to make something with what's in the fridge. more rules just means more ways to accidentally do it wrong.

kelly.dylan6d ago

Wait, "broken windows" was the whole prompt? Just that? I'd probably stare at a wall for an hour trying to figure out what to do with that...