What Makes a Great Writing Prompt?

Author and GrubStreet Instructor Kayleigh Shoen shares her guidelines for a great writing prompt. You can learn more in Kayleigh’s FREE upcoming seminar, Short and Sweet: Fiction Generator, in-person at our Seaport location on August 27th.

 

 

Recently, I was watching a TV show in which an astronaut climbed out of his spaceship to make a repair. As I looked at the tiny cord that prevented him from floating off into the endless emptiness of space, I thought, hey, I know that feeling.

Writing prompts have saved me from the infinite abyss of the blank doc more times than I can count. As a flash fiction writer, my favorite prompt is brevity (“write a story exactly [6, 50, 100] words”), but I also often turn to the additional challenge of a word or idea to write toward. 

Consider John Gardner’s famous example from The Art of Fiction: “Describe a barn as seen by a man whose son has just been killed in a war. Do not mention the son, war, or death. Do not mention the man who does the seeing.”

At their worst, writing prompts can feel gimmicky and even embarrassing. But at their best, they push us as writers to build our craft in new ways. Consider John Gardner’s famous example from The Art of Fiction: “Describe a barn as seen by a man whose son has just been killed in a war. Do not mention the son, war, or death. Do not mention the man who does the seeing.” A prompt like this pushes us to find indirect ways of conveying information and feel our way through the difference between words’ denotations and connotations.

On the other hand, sometimes writing prompts simply help us narrow down the universe of possibilities. Looking out into the darkness, we think, can’t somebody just suggest a topic to get me started?

As a teacher, I try to offer more than one type of prompt at a time to meet students wherever they are that day. Some examples might be:

• Write your worst enemy’s deepest secret. (a prompt drawing from real-life emotions)
• Write an entire story without the letter “e.” (for puzzle-oriented writers)
• Write about the color orange without using the word “orange.” (a lighter take on Gardner’s)
• Write a rant from the perspective of an animal. (a fantastical one)

A good prompt yields a story that places the author’s imagination at the forefront, not the prompt-maker’s imagination.

And while different writers prefer different styles of prompts, there are a few characteristics that I believe all good writing prompts have:

1. The writing prompt should be open-ended. It should yield a nearly infinite variety of works when used by different writers. This is why overly prescriptive prompts like beginning your story with a provided sentence often fail to yield great stand-alone stories.
2. The prompt should be unusual enough to make writing easier, at least for a little while. For example: “Write a story about a parrot” rather than “write a story about a person.”
3. The prompt should be adaptable enough to disappear by the piece’s final draft. Lit mag editors often complain that they can tell a contest has just ended when their slush pile suddenly fills with stories set in the year 3001 or featuring a machine that invents new flavors of ice cream. A good prompt yields a story that places the author’s imagination at the forefront, not the prompt-maker’s imagination.
4. Finally, a good prompt should be fun! It should turn your thinking in a new direction you’re excited to explore. 

The truth is, there is no one perfect writing prompt that works for everyone, just as there is no one way to fix a spaceship, but perhaps there are enough varieties of writing prompts to suit everyone. I hope you’ll join me in an upcoming class to find a prompt that works for you.

Sign up for Kayleigh's upcoming FREE in-person seminar, Short and Sweet: Fiction Generator, starting Saturday, August 27th!

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