How and When to Use Writing Prompts - Writing and Editing Advice by Greg Luti
- Greg Luti
- Jun 12
- 5 min read
Writing prompts are a popular tool, but they’re not always the best way to generate ideas. In “How and When to Use Writing Prompts,” Greg Luti takes a closer look at the common advice around using prompts and explains when they can actually be useful versus when they might limit a writer’s ability to draw from personal experience.
The Common Advice About Prompts
Whenever I hear about writers using a prompt, the process is quite simple in that the site, or whoever gave the prompt, basically leaves the writer be. As I have grown as a writer, I have become further and further from the prompt that I am almost against the use of it, but before that, I suppose we should discuss what a prompt actually is, and why you would need it.
What Exactly Is a Writing Prompt?
A writing prompt is a line or two that gives you directions on what to write. It doesn’t tell you what to actually write, that is still up to you, but it does give you a path on where to go. An example of a prompt would be “write a story under 500 words that has to do with loss.” The prompt isn’t really meant to tell you what to think of the topic, only present you with a topic. Does it care if it is 300 words or 400 words? Not really, as long as it doesn’t go over 500. And does it care if you like love or hate it? No. It only wants you to be in that department.
So that is a lesson right there: Prompts do not give you an opinion on the topic you are writing. Sorry, you have to come up with that one on your own. And let’s face it, the topics for prompts are normally designed so you don’t have to really think too much about them. I mean, are you going to sit there and think about love or just jump right into the piece and hope you have 500 words about it? If you are like me, you’ll probably have an idea of where to go, and then just jump. So yeah, prompts don’t give you an opinion.
Where Do Prompts Usually Come From?
I normally have come across prompts on sites like this, or other writing-related sites, that are all about words and writing. I know that I have seen them on social media and even participated in a few. That is how it all happens. You open your laptop or your phone, and then you read the prompt, and go back to your office and work on it.
Writing places, or sites, or magazines, whatever you want to call them, like to include prompts as a way to get the reader engaged with them. And I get it. The act seems genuine, and for the most part, it is, having readers think about a piece and then even submit it for the site.
I do have an issue with prompts, though, and it is why I don’t advocate for them openly to writers as their first option.
Why I’m Not a Big Fan of Prompts
The first reason you shouldn’t use prompts is that they dictate the topic. I don’t want to be that guy, but I am; you are alive 24 hours in a freaking day, going around doing whatever it is you are doing…. Is there not one thing you want to write about for that day? One… Not even one thing. Writing for a prompt requires a writer to associate with topics that may not be currently in their life, which I would say is where the best inspiration comes from.
The second reason is that by relying on the prompt as a way to spark inspiration, you are not training yourself to view the parts of your life as an area for stories. That is a bad habit to form.
Do you get the issue? If you are going to improve as a writer, you are best to find the stories that reflect your life, your experience, and that means you are not looking at prompts for the answer, but yourself. If you are seeing the prompts as the time when you are inspired, then you are missing out on times in your life that the stories could come from. That observation skill is more important to develop than the ability to write up a poem about loss.
The third reason I don’t like prompts is simple. I am too damn busy with all the other stories I am writing, and I am sure that every other professional writer out there is too. I would love to get to that random prompt about love, but I have a book, make that two books, I have to get done, three books that need to be edited, and a handful of blog posts to write. If you are like me, once you get started with writing as a career where you are crafting story ideas and outlines daily, you will soon find the prompt pointless, as it is not really helping you with your goals.
Now, if you are someone who likes to write in their spare time and enjoys the prompts as a fun activity and doesn’t plan on going further with them, then obviously, the prompts are for you. But as for professional writers, those who have a schedule and a deadline to meet, the function of a prompt is questionable, at best, a waste of time, at worst.
When Prompts Can Actually Be Useful
Okay, so is there ever a time you can use a prompt? Am I going to be over here protesting the very thing like some grouchy old man who doesn’t know that clouds don’t have feelings? No, I think that prompts can be useful in a certain structure, which is how I use them when I do.
I use them when I am out of ideas, or I simply don’t want to use any of the stories I currently have. I use the prompts as a way to change things up, to challenge myself, because my creative juices could use a shift.
How I Personally Use Prompts
The second thing I do, and I highly suggest this for anyone using prompts, is I create my own, so that the prompts are related to me, and they can go back to my own experiences, so that the observations I am making during the day are never far from the prompts themselves. The activity I made up was one that involved including a writing style from a famous author I knew, a genre (like poetry or whatever), and then a topic that I had already thought about before. I pick something from those, and then I have a prompt.
Here is an example: I would have the author style be Shel Silverstein (who I know wrote nonsensical poems), the genre be flash fiction, and then the topic be something like technology. All those things I have thought about before, and know about, so I'm not going into the prompt completely lost. I am then writing about a flash fiction piece that is about technology and a little bit silly to the point of absurdity. The prompt relates to me, rather than whatever the site or magazine suggests.
The Bottom Line on Prompts
Prompts are a nice tool for writers to use when they want to challenge themselves, but as far as their usefulness in a writer’s overall development and attainment of goals, I don’t think they are great for that. If you are burned out from that book you are working on, and still want to write up something, then you can use a prompt, but I wouldn’t get too crazy with using prompts all the time. You want the ideas to really come from you more than anywhere else anyway.
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