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I spent $60 on a writing prompt app and it actually worked
I was totally stuck on a story set in a small town in Maine, couldn't get past the first page for weeks. I saw an ad for this app called 'Plot Twist' and figured it was worth a shot. It gave me a prompt about a character finding a locked box in a lighthouse, which sparked the whole middle of my story. Has anyone else used a specific prompt generator that actually broke them out of a block?
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caseyclark1mo ago
@amymason i feel that, the small detail thing is real. My advice is to look for prompts that force a specific sensory detail, like "the smell of gasoline and clove cigarettes" or "a door that sticks halfway open in August heat." That kind of concrete stuff gets me unstuck way more than broad "write about a secret" type prompts. And yeah, matching it to your setting helps too, Maine lighthouses and locked boxes is a solid combo.
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rayc893mo ago
My buddy had a similar thing happen with a horror script. He bought a cheap prompt pack online as a joke, and one about a radio picking up signals from a dead station gave him the whole villain's backstory. He finished the first draft in a month after being stuck forever.
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amymason3mo ago
Wow, that's so true. It's like our brains get stuck on the big picture and we freeze up. A tiny, weird detail from outside can kickstart everything. I'll stare at a blank page for a project, then see a random street sign or overhear a conversation and the whole thing just clicks. Why does it take something so small to unlock the big idea?
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