Showerthought: I wrote 30 one-sentence prompts in a spiral notebook and only 2 worked | Creative Writing Prompts

Richard Hernandez · 2026-09-19T20:45:04.151291+00:00

Last month I got bored with my usual prompt routine so I sat down at my desk in Columbus and forced myself to write 30 one-sentence prompts in a single sitting, something I never do because I usually spend 10 minutes per prompt. The idea was that speed would kill my inner editor and give me raw stuff. What actually happened is 28 of them were dead on arrival, stuff like 'a door that won't stay shut' that sounded deep at 11pm but read like a fridge magnet the next morning. The two that worked were the ugliest ones, a prompt about a guy who owes his brother $340 and a prompt about someone reheating the same coffee for the fourth time. I think the lesson is that fast writing doesn't make better prompts, it just makes more of them, and volume isn't the same as quality. People keep pushing these 30-day prompt sprints and I don't buy it anymore. If you've tried writing in bulk like this, did any of it survive past a week, or did you toss most of it like I did?

Babble Community

Loading…

Showerthought: I wrote 30 one-sentence prompts in a spiral notebook and only 2 worked | Creative Writing Prompts - Babble Community