Went to a writer's retreat in Vermont and watched someone pitch a 500-page novel based on a single Reddit prompt

I was at this weekend thing near Burlington, maybe 20 of us. One guy stands up on Sunday, proud as anything, says he's been working on this project for 8 months. Turns out he saw a writing prompt about "what if gravity only worked sometimes" and decided that was his whole book. No plot beyond that. No characters. Just 500 pages of people floating around. The facilitator asked him what the conflict was and he said "gravity not working" like that was enough. I get that prompts are a good starting point but has anyone else seen people take them way too literally and refuse to build anything real around them?

3 comments

3 Comments

ross.felix12d ago

Honestly I'd push back on that a little. "gravity not working" could be the whole conflict if you really dig into what that means for people. 500 pages of people floating around might actually be a cool metaphor if he's writing about chaos or feeling lost or something.

lisak2611d agoMost Upvoted

That happens so much more than people realize.

reesemoore12d ago

My buddy once wrote 200 pages about a jar that wouldn't open.