Just realized my short story prompt generator broke halfway through NaNoWriMo

I was using this prompt generator site I found last year to kickstart daily writing during November. About day 12 it started spitting out the SAME three prompts over and over, like "a detective finds a clue in a library" every single time. Tried clearing my cache and even emailed the guy who runs it but no reply. Has anyone else hit a wall with those random prompt tools or found a better way to get fresh ideas fast?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_simon1mo ago

Dude I actually just read an article about this. It said a lot of those free generators have tiny prompt pools that recycle fast. Honestly I found that swapping to a random word generator and just forcing myself to connect the words to a story works better.

seth_shah1mo ago

Man I tried that once and my brain nearly broke. Got "coconut" and "toaster" as my words. Ended up writing a story about a guy who moves to the beach and realizes his kitchen appliances are plotting against him. Felt like a genius until I reread it later and realized it was just bad fan fiction about a blender. Seriously though the random word thing works way better than those recycled prompts. Keeps your brain from getting lazy with the same old fantasy tropes.

paige3311mo ago

Wait wait wait, you're telling me some of those generators actually only have like a tiny little pool of prompts that repeat? That's wild, I always figured they had way more stored up. I mean, I guess it makes sense though, especially for the free ones. Random word generator with forced connection sounds kind of genius though, I might have to try that out. Just gotta make sure I don't end up with some random word like "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" and get stuck for hours trying to write a story around it.