My writing group's prompts went from boring to great in about two months

We meet every Tuesday at the library in Cedar Rapids, and for a long time our prompts were stuff like 'write about a rainy day' or 'describe a character waking up'. It was getting stale. Then our leader, Sarah, brought in a book called 'The 3 A.M. Epiphany' and started using its ideas. The first new one was 'write a scene where a character lies, but only using true facts'. It totally changed the vibe. People wrote way more interesting stuff, and the discussions got deeper. We've been using that book and a few online lists for maybe eight weeks now, and the difference is huge. Has anyone else found a specific book or website that gave their group a real jump start?

3 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

3 Comments

drew_carr677mo ago

That "lies with true facts" prompt sounds brilliant. Our group had the same turnaround when someone introduced the "642 Things to Write About" book.

1

jesse_young277mo ago

Oh totally, that book was a game changer for us too. We got stuck for weeks on the same three prompts until someone brought in a copy. The "describe a kitchen from the point of view of someone who just fell in love" one got our best writing all month.

5

ivanbrown6mo ago

Yeah, that "lies with true facts" idea is a good one. I read a blog post that called it "creative non-fibbing" or something like that.

2