Writing prompts help hone the infinity of story choices out there and help lift the curse of the blank page.
My love of writing prompts was affirmed last May when I participated in the May Story-a-Day challenge over at Forward Motion for Writers.
FM has a huge list of story prompt generators for registered members (it’s free), with pictorial options for those more visually inspired. I stuck to the written prompts, myself, as I tend to be too literal with pictures.
One of my favorite generator sites is Seventh Sanctum. Their Writing Challenge Generator (with at least three elements) spawned several stories during that wild month.
Another fun one, geared toward speculative fiction (as I am), can be found at the Speculative Muse.
Also, FM Writers has their Zettercise generator, which can be used for writing prompts or writing fun.
The key for me in working with generators is not to fall into the trap of regenerating prompts when inspiration doesn’t immediately come to me. That trap will have you back at blank-page-stare state, which is what we’re trying to avoid. Dedicate yourself to one prompt, free-write on it, then pull up a fresh page and get to work–er, play.
For me, writing-prompt writing is a step away from the wild freedom of free-writing in that I’m looking to create a story with a beginning, middle and end. I allow a lot of leeway in there, though, because the focus here is creation. The imagination gets free play, but it’s within certain loose boundaries. At the same time, the internal critic gets a voice but doesn’t get to dominate. There is plenty of time for the critic to go to town in a later draft.
Another option is to visit an anthology market site and use one of their calls for submissions to create your own possible submission (and give yourself a real deadline). I recommend Duotrope and Ralan’s.
At the Duotrope market search page, narrow the focus by choosing a genre, and make sure you click on the “Anthologies only?” button. Ralan’s is primarily specfic. At the top of the page click on “Antho” or “Antho–4theLove” to see their list.
Happy Word-Crafting!
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