THE PRESSURE TO PROMPT

By Jill Amadio

Quick, write a sentence containing the word ‘shallow.’ Or ‘camel.’ Maybe your creativity freezes at the first word but gushes forth at the second.

The urge to prompt is overtaking the writing community, both fiction and non-fiction.

What is a prompt? A suggested word, phrase, or sentence on which to build a paragraph or two during a specified time period. Prompt and their answers can include half sentences and are all the rage these days. Indeed, dozens of books and workbooks have been written on the subject of prompts and to the why, where, how, and when to engage in this mental exercise.

Many writers love prompts as a way to get started writing of a sterile morning, to fire up the imagination, and even to provide satisfaction that you are actually working at writing something, anything, although, in fact, it has no relevance to your WIP. However, you could stick the finished prompt into your WIP folder for use somewhere if you feel your words are immortal and need to be recorded for posterity.

Frankly, I am not a fan pf the prompt phenomenon. I believe that if you are going to spend time writing, why not work on your book, article, or blog? Why spend the time fiddling around with a piece of prose you may never use, that has no relation whatsoever to your current project, and that can send you off on a tangent to which you may find it difficult to return?

Ah, say prompt fans, prompting gets you typing. It puts pressure on you to come up with some words to fit the suggestion and actually make sense. The closest I have come to prompts lately is writing a Grocery and a To-Do list. The former is boring, the latter daunting but I have a couple of writer friends who salivate at the prospect of attacking their morning prompt.

One definition of a prompt I found online, posted by Karen Frazier, notes that a writing prompt is a statement usually followed by questions. I also found a very large collection of books on amazon.com devoted to the subject including titles such as Polyvagal Prompts, Writing Prompts Balance, The Writing Prompts for Seasons workbook, Writing Prompts for the Apocalypse, and The Art of Prompt Engineering. Not sure about that last one but it was amidst the others so I assume one needs something of a mechanical mindset to tackle it.

Some prompt books include journaling pages, and vice versa. Another offering is in the form of prompt notecards in a pretty box– a nice gift and not too insulting.

The books are directed at both fiction and non-fiction writers as well as adults, children, and humans (who or what else writes?). Also targeted are genres such as poetry, fantasy, art, drawing, songwriting, and truly interesting:  for dinosaur enthusiasts.  I haven’t seen a prompt book for AI robots yet but one could be in the works. Or already on sale.

I certainly honor those who need and enjoy a prompt to spark their creativity but as my years advance I need as much time as possible to compete the third book in my “Digging…” mystery series, and beyond.

Could a prompt, if one writes sufficient words, be considered a short story? It could surely lead to one and that is a good thing. How about prompts for birthday and Christmas cards? They can be written in advance and stored on your computer for future use.

So, where does the pressure to prompt com in? We are urged to start writing as fast and as furiously as we can as soon as we clap eyes on the prompt. Now, that is pressure par excellence. No time to consult a thesaurus. Is reviewing and editing allowed afterwards or during?  I did try prompting once and sent myself off into daydreaming, my laptop forgotten as I imagined myself back in Bangkok.

I heartily endorse the claim that writing prompts can help create characters and other elements and that, too, is a good thing. Prompts can also build writing skills, craft, and techniques as well as become story starters.

This entire subject of defining prompts has kept me away from working on my WIP. In the past four weeks I have only come up with a new title. However, part of it could be considered a prompt. Here’s a clue: Dangling Participle.

11 thoughts on “THE PRESSURE TO PROMPT”

  1. I don’t know if it was called a prompt back in 1960, when my high school English teacher asked us to start writing a novel, but I still have the two pages of manual typewriter typed story. In 2017, I used those typed words as the opening of the first book in my Chance McCoy detective series. It definitely prompted me to write what is now three books in that series. I have more of those old “prompts” that are just waiting for a story to emerge.

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  2. My experience with prompts has been in writing classes. While the other students turned out eloquent publication-ready pieces, my efforts were, well, not so eloquent. If a prompt relates to a character or scene I’m working on, it can be useful. Random prompts haven’t worked for me.

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  3. I, too, have noticed so many articles on ‘Prompts.’ It seems a bit like a gimmick for uncreative minds! Yes, we all get stuck sometimes and might welcome the odd ‘prompt.’ But focusing so much time on these ‘prompt’ programs takes away time from actually writing something substantial. Although I understand Gayle’s schooldays notebooks full of ‘prompt’ ideas… Thanks Jill!

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    2. Rosemary, I am thinking of starting up an anti-prompt group but that, too, would be very time-consuming. Thanks for your thoughts.

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      1. I have mixed feelings about prompts as well! I definitely see their value but unless the prompt is integral to the story you are writing – for example, I was really stuck on one of my earlier books. The plot was working. I was panicking and the wonderful Carolyn Hart said, ‘Have a package arrive. You don’t need to know what is in it or what the significance is. That will be revealed as the story unfolds.’ I did it – and it worked. I’ve often used that “gimmick.” But now … where my writing time is so precious to me, I don’t want to get side-tracked. Having said all that (playing the devil’s advocate!) I might experiment using a prompt with a character in play and see how that goes. A great post and wonderful suggestions by all!

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  5. This is a great post, Jill. I liked all the pro’s and cons and the way you looked at prompts from every side. I can see how it would seem better just to write on your work in progress, but it you are lazy like me and have no such works in progress and just want to write….. SOMETHING, a prompt might help.

    Like in my own case a couple weeks ago. 

    I happened on a prompt on the WRITERS WRITE website that struck my interest. It was “The Convenience Store Was A Sad Place” and immediately I pictured the local 7-11 store on a nearby corner. It was raining right then, and so…. I wrote the following short story. Here’s the link. Hope you like it. https://jackiehouchin2.com/2024/02/24/prompt-for-today-the-convenience-store-was-a-sad-place/ 

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  6. I’m with you, Jill. I’m no fan of prompts but for a different reason. I don’t mind working on writing that has nothing to do with my literary projects. What I dislike is the “on demand” aspect of prompts. I belong to a writing groups that occasionally engages in “rapid writing”, which is writing for ten minutes based on a prompt. Our group is evenly split between those who enjoy the challenge and those who despise it. Frankly, I find free-form writing, where you initiate a conversation between two of your characters, to be more helpful.

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