Honestly, I came up with this creative writing prompt last week about a time traveler who accidentally brings a medieval plague to a modern city. I thought it was genius, super original, with built in conflict and character drama. But I posted it on a forum and got like two replies, both just saying 'huh?' It took me a full hour to write the prompt and another two hours trying to figure out why it didn't land. Turns out I buried the hook in the third paragraph and nobody even read that far. Has anyone else spent way too long polishing a prompt only to have it flop completely?

I came up with this creative writing prompt last week about a time traveler who accidentally brings a medieval plague to a modern city. I thought it was genius, super original, with built in conflict and character drama. But I posted it on a forum and got like two replies, both just saying 'huh?' It took me a full hour to write the prompt and another two hours trying to figure out why it didn't land. Turns out I buried the hook in the third paragraph and nobody even read that far. Has anyone else spent way too long polishing a prompt only to have it flop completely?

2 comments

2 Comments

grant_hart22d ago

Yeah but its just a writing prompt, not that deep.

claire_wells8722d ago

Oh man, I once spent a whole evening writing a prompt about a detective who solves crimes by reading people's grocery lists. I was so proud of my clever little details, like how he could tell someone was lying because they bought pineapple AND anchovies. Got zero replies. Absolute crickets. I sat there refreshing the page like a complete idiot for an hour before I realized nobody even got past the first sentence where I described the weather instead of the actual cool concept. Learned my lesson about front-loading, but man does it sting when your masterpiece just flops into the void.