c/creative-writing-prompts

Critique about my dialog killed my favorite scene

I used to write these long, flowery conversations where characters just talked around each other for pages. Then a guy on a writing forum told me my dialog was 'working too hard' and that real people say things like 'pass the salt' not big speeches about feelings. I cut a 3 page fight scene down to 7 lines of clipped one-word answers and it hit way harder. Has anyone else gotten feedback that completely changed how you approach a specific part of writing?

1 comments

lewis.troy•13h ago

I was convinced my characters needed epic backstories until I read a 3-line prompt about a guy missing his bus

For months I was cramming paragraphs of childhood trauma and world history into every character intro. Then last week someone posted that prompt about a guy who just missed his bus and had to walk home. The responses were incredible. People built whole stories around a simple moment. Made me realize I was overcomplicating everything. Has anyone else found a tiny prompt that totally shifted how you write?

2 comments

perry.evan•13h ago

Debate on character flaws: should protagonists be likable or realistic?

I was at a book club meeting last Tuesday and this one guy, Dave, argued that a main character needs to be someone you'd want to grab a beer with. But another person pushed back hard, saying that makes stories boring and unrealistic. She brought up Walter White as an example of a compelling but terrible person. Where do you all land on this for your own writing?

3 comments

samjohnson•3d ago

My buddy the English teacher called me out on using 'said' too much in my fantasy draft

Has anyone else gotten that piece of feedback and actually tried it for a full chapter to see if it changes how readers react?

4 comments

henrycooper•3d ago

Hit 100 rejection letters last week and honestly it kind of feels good

I've been sending out short stories to magazines for about 4 years now. Last Thursday I got my 100th rejection email, a polite no from a small lit mag in Portland. When I started writing I thought I'd quit after 10 rejections, but now seeing that number just makes me feel like a real writer. Each one taught me something about my own style or how to write a better query letter. The crazy part is I actually have 3 acceptances mixed in there too, so it's not all bad. Anyone else keep a running count of their rejections or am I just weird like that?

3 comments

henderson.wesley•3d ago

That statistic about how many writers actually finish a novel surprised me

I was reading this article from Writer's Digest last week and it said only about 3% of people who start writing a novel actually finish one. That blew my mind... I figured it would be higher, like maybe 20%. Makes you wonder if all those half-started stories in my folder are actually pretty normal.

2 comments

rileyp49•18d ago

Tried a character's journal entry as a writing prompt and got way different results than I expected

I usually write prompts from a third person perspective, you know, 'a soldier finds a letter' type stuff. Last week I wrote one as a journal entry from a single mom in 1997 describing her day, down to the receipt in her purse. The responses I got were super personal and emotional, like people really connected with the voice. Has anyone else noticed first person prompts hitting harder than the standard ones lol?

2 comments

the_thomas•19d ago

Paid $60 for a 'plot twist generator' app that was just mad libs

I thought it would help me brainstorm unexpected endings for my short stories, but it just spat out random stuff like 'the mailman was actually a ghost.' Total waste of cash, and I got more plot ideas from browsing Reddit for free. Anyone else fall for a writing tool that looked cool but flopped?

2 comments

jamesfox•19d ago

My "literary" workshop in Portland ruined how I read my own drafts

I went to a three hour workshop at Powell's in Portland last Spring. The guy running it had us read our first page out loud, then everyone took turns saying what was "wrong" with it. By the end I felt like I couldn't write a grocery list without second guessing every word. Now I can't even get through a first draft without stopping to fix commas or swap out words. I've written maybe 2,000 total words this whole month. Has anyone else had a writing coach or workshop totally kill their momentum like this?

3 comments

derek656•21d ago

Shoutout to those old writing prompts that actually had limits

I was digging through some old files last week and found prompts from a 2012 forum I used to post on. They had hard caps, like "write a 500 word story about a locked room" instead of today's open ended "write whatever you want" stuff. For me, those restrictions made me get creative instead of rambling forever. Has anyone else noticed tighter prompts produce better stories than the free for all ones?

2 comments

henrycooper•21d ago

Went to that historic site in Williamsburg for inspiration...

Drove out to Colonial Williamsburg last Saturday to get some setting ideas for a historical fiction piece. Walked through the old print shop and everything, but the place was packed with tourists taking selfies and kids screaming. I couldn't focus on anything for more than 2 minutes. Has anyone else struggled to find quiet spots to observe real historical locations without all the noise?

2 comments

wilson.sam•21d ago

Can we talk about the week my coffee maker died and everything fell apart?

Last Tuesday, my 3-year-old Mr. Coffee just stopped working right before my night shift. I had to run to the gas station for a cup, and then my car battery died in the parking lot. Has anyone else had a day where small things just stacked up like that?

2 comments

ray363•22d ago

Spent 4 hours trying to fix a dialogue scene

I was working on a scene where two characters were just talking and it felt flat. I kept rewriting it for three days, thinking the issue was the words. Turns out the problem was that I had them sitting in a blank room. Once I added some background action and a ticking clock, the whole thing clicked in about 20 minutes. Anyone else get stuck on simple stuff for way too long?

3 comments

elizabethhayes•25d ago

Tried starting a story from the ending first and got a weird plot twist I didn't plan for

I sat down last night with a prompt about a librarian finding a secret door. I wrote the ending where she walks through it into a forest. But then going back to write the beginning, I realized the forest was actually her childhood backyard from 30 years ago. That changed how I wrote the middle because the whole secret door thing became about memory instead of adventure. Has anyone else had the order you write scenes totally mess with your original idea?

3 comments

parkera22•25d ago

Had a day last Tuesday where every single scene I wrote felt like garbage

I spent like 6 hours staring at a blank document for my fantasy novel, then finally typed out 200 words that made zero sense about a guy buying bread. My beta reader said the dialogue sounded like robots arguing over a warranty. Has anyone else hit a wall where even your own story feels completely foreign to you?

3 comments

angela_grant•28d ago

Tried writing a horror story from a teddy bear's point of view

I thought it would be cute and creepy, but 3 paragraphs in I realized the bear was just narrating dust particles on a shelf. What worked for me was switching to the bear watching a kid have nightmares, that gave it real tension. Any tips for keeping a non-human narrator from getting boring?

3 comments

the_sandra•29d ago

I think detailed worldbuilding docs kill the story

Everyone in this sub loves those massive lore bibles. I used to write them too. 50 pages of history for a short story about a guy finding a lost key. Then I read a Stephen King book where he spends 2 sentences on the town's founding. Now I just write characters bumping into stuff and let the reader fill in the blanks. Anyone else ditch the notebooks and just start typing?

3 comments

claire_ramirez•1mo ago

I finally got why people hate on detailed worldbuilding after a convo with a sci-fi writer at a coffee shop

She said tossing in 50 pages of lore just slows the story down like a sandbag on a kite, but is that really true or is it just her genre bias vs. fantasy's need for deep settings?

2 comments

wilson.sam•1mo ago

That 'show don't tell' tip finally clicked for me after a writing group critique

I've been trying to get better at writing scenes for a fantasy novel, but my first drafts always read like a list of events. Last week at my local writing group, someone pointed out I wrote 'he was angry' instead of showing his hands shaking. So I went back and rewrote a fight scene focusing only on what my character saw and felt, like the smell of wet gravel and the thud of boots. It made the whole thing way more alive, and now I'm going through my old chapters with a highlighter. Anybody else have a simple trick that took forever to actually sink in?

2 comments

grace508•1mo ago

Spent a whole Saturday trying to fix one plot hole in my fantasy story

I was working on a scene where my character needs to cross a river, but I realized the river was supposed to be frozen from a previous chapter. Had to go back and figure out the timeline of the cold snap, the melting rate, and whether it made sense. Took me about 4 hours of scribbling notes and re-reading 30 pages before I realized I could just have him take a boat instead. Has anyone else had a tiny logic issue eat up a whole afternoon like that?

3 comments

hannahk19•1mo ago

Finally cracked a short story after 6 months of writer's block

I used to just stare at a blank page for hours trying to force a first line, but last Tuesday I switched to writing the ending scene first and the whole thing just clicked. That one trick got me from zero words to 1,200 words in a single sitting, which is huge for me. Has anyone else found a weird method that broke their writer's block out of nowhere?

3 comments

derek994•1mo ago

Question about the worst writing day I ever had

Last Tuesday I sat down to write a short story and ended up deleting 2,000 words because nothing clicked. My character felt flat and the dialogue sounded like a robot. Has anyone else ever scrapped a whole day's work and started fresh?

3 comments

miles72•1mo ago

Just hit 50,000 words on a novel draft and now I'm questioning everything

I finally crossed that 50,000 word mark for National Novel Writing Month last week and honestly I feel more confused than proud. On one hand everybody says hitting that number means you have a real foundation but on the other hand half of what I wrote is garbage that needs rewritten from scratch. Some people argue that the whole point is just to finish and then fix it later while others say you should aim for quality over quantity from the start. So which side is right for a first draft should you push through the bad parts or stop and edit as you go? Has anyone else struggled with this milestone or did you just feel great about hitting the number?

2 comments

ray363•1mo ago

Used to hate on writing prompts with strict word counts

I spent $50 on a micro-fiction workshop last year thinking it would be a waste. Three hours of trying to tell a full story in exactly 100 words really taught me how to cut fluff from my drafts. Has anyone else found constraints actually help their writing?

3 comments

cora_scott77•1mo ago

PSA: I found out most historical fiction gets battle formations totally wrong

I was reading this book on medieval warfare last week at my local library in Dayton, and I stumbled on a detail that blew my mind. Turns out, a lot of novelists describe armies forming up in neat rows like they're at a parade, but real medieval battles were way messier. The book said troops often clumped together in chaotic blobs, not lines, because soldiers stuck with people they knew. I checked about 5 of my favorite historical novels after that, and sure enough, they all had these clean formations that just didn't match the historical accounts. It makes me wonder if authors are just copying each other instead of digging into real sources. Has anyone else stumbled on a historical fact that made you rethink a whole genre?

3 comments