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Am I the only one who thinks 500 word prompts are killing good scenes?
Every prompt list I see lately says "write 500 words or less" and I think that number is way too low for anything with real stakes. Last Tuesday my writing group in Sacramento tried a 300 word limit on a chase scene and all eight of us ended up writing summaries instead of actual moments. You can't build tension in one paragraph because tension needs room to breathe, like three beats minimum before the payoff. I get that short prompts feel less scary, but they teach you to skip the part where the reader actually cares. Give me 1,200 words and a prompt about a broken vending machine and I'll show you a real story. Does anyone here run longer prompts on purpose, and if so what word count do you use?
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