Overheard a librarian talk about prompt cards at a writers group

I was at a library meetup in Portland last month. A librarian mentioned they keep a box of old book titles cut out and randomized for writing prompts. People grab one and build a story around it. Has anyone tried this with their own stash of random phrases?

2 comments

2 Comments

avery_foster3112d ago

Never tried the book title thing but I made my own prompt jar out of old fortune cookie slips. Got like 40 of them from a takeout place that was closing. Theyre weird and sometimes dont make sense which actually helps more than the sensible ones. The librarian idea sounds better honestly since book titles have actual story structure baked in. Might try that with a thrift store dictionary.

shane_nguyen12d ago

72 old posters from a library sale bin, that's what I did. Best decision for prompts I ever made. @avery_foster31 is right about thrift store dictionaries too, I grabbed one and tore out random pages. The key is that old book titles already have a hook, theyre not just random words. My favorite was "The Last Coyote" which became a story about a guy who thinks his neighbor is a shapeshifter. Fortune cookie slips are genius though, I'm jealous you scored that many. The randomness is what makes it work, you gotta let the weird serendipity happen.