Spent $80 on a writing prompt subscription and it completely stalled my novel.

I was stuck on a fantasy story for months, so I signed up for one of those services that emails you a new prompt every day. Figured the $80 for a year was a good deal to get the ideas flowing. But it did the opposite. Every morning I'd get something like 'write about a clock that runs backward' or 'a character finds a door where a wall should be.' They were interesting, but they had nothing to do with my world or my characters. I kept starting these random side scenes instead of pushing my main plot forward. After three months of that, I had a folder full of disconnected snippets and my actual manuscript was untouched. Canceled it last week. Maybe prompts work for short stories, but for a long project, they just scattered my focus. Has anyone else tried using prompts for a novel and had it backfire? What's a better way to break through a block without getting derailed?

4 comments

4 Comments

taylorshah1mo ago

Yeah, my own prompt graveyard is why I'm still writing chapter one...

evanc591mo ago

Maybe we're all just writing chapter one forever because we're scared of chapter two. The prompt graveyard feels safer than actually finishing something and putting it out there. It's easier to keep starting than to risk a bad ending.

the_wyatt1mo ago

So you were trying to use the prompts to fix your story, but they just gave you new stories. What was the actual problem with your plot that made you feel stuck in the first place?

beth_singh3d ago

Remember that time @the_wyatt tried to fix a leaky faucet and ended up redoing the whole bathroom? It's kind of like that.