Writing with Prompts (New short fiction: “Get Away”)

Are writing prompts really useful or just pleasant procrastination tools?

My short story “Get Away,” freshly published in DarkWinter Literary Magazine, opens with a first-line prompt from my “Tarot Prompts for Writers.”

I would never have come up with the story without the prompted first line, “The road lay behind him in the darkness....” So, in that sense, the prompt was useful.

But was the whole story a just distraction from the novel I should have been working on? For sure. Still, that’s not a bad way to get distracted.

And prompts don’t have to be distractions. I’ve found ways to use them to go deeper into a work in progress, and even to discover the work you’re meant to be doing.

I used to hate prompts — I didn’t like being put on the spot to write at all, and I didn’t see the point of writing to a prompt when I had other writing I was in the middle of. Prompts seemed like busywork, a time-filler that lends the impression of actual writing.

But I’ve given prompts a chance, in my teaching and in my own practice, and I’ve figured out how to make them useful in various situations — even in the middle of another writing project. Always useful? No. But sometimes. And almost always fun.

Prompts are most often used to spark new works, and that’s a great way to use them in creative writing classes that start with a blank page. I’ve used half a dozen prompts in teaching this month. My workshops for children at the Ottawa Public Library use character and object prompts to start stories for the Awesome Authors Youth Writing Contest. And at Symmes Junior High School, I’ve prompted students to open fractured fairy tales and original myths in five different ways.

Young people rise to prompts even better than adults, I find. And prompts are great in getting beginning writers and reluctant writers to set their pens to the page.

Even for experienced writers, though, if you’re in the beginning of a project, prompts can get you to flesh out the work or expand the concept. They’re useful for all sorts of idea generation, e.g., to:

• develop a character (“Match an emotion — say, jealousy or loneliness — with a career — say, deep-sea diver or telemarketer — and write a first-person POV scene where this character launches a well-laid plan…”)
• draft a dialogue (“Show an argument unfolding in a situation where the speakers are trying not to attract attention…)
• set a scene (“Take a place you know and love and transport it into the future in the midst of a climate catastrophe…”)

Prompts encourage experimentation, diversion, and play, which can be especially useful if you’re a beginner or you’re blocked or overwhelmed at a tough spot in your work in progress. Because it’s side writing, not your WIP, not your heartfelt idea invested with personal meaning, a prompt is good at getting your pen on the page or your fingers on the keyboard without pressure. And that’s not just a distraction.

Dorothea Brande, in Becoming a Writer, recommends separating the creative and evaluative stages of writing — which prompts make easy because you’re writing something you couldn’t care less about. Just as importantly, she recommends learning to write on demand to prove to yourself that you can. (E.g., every day at 4pm, write for 15 minutes; once you’ve got that pat, set various 15-minutes time slots throughout the day and meet those appointments as a point of honour to “teach yourself that no excuse of any nature can be offered when the moment comes.”) Freewriting to a prompt is perfect for that type of practice.

Don’t think about it. Just do it. Until you know you can. (Then do it for longer periods….) That’s how you become a writer.

Follow a prompt wherever it takes you — even if the work it produces never amounts to anything. Simply being reminded of the journey — how characters and settings and situations sprout with every step, how the story rises to meet you on the page, how your creativity and knowledge wait inside you and come to your aid when called — is a joy.

If you’re trying to meet a deadline to revise a novel about a recovering alcoholic, then maybe spending an hour writing to a prompt about climate change in a comedic teen voice is not your best work effort today. But…

You can use prompts to enlarge a work in progress, too:

• Discover what’s missing or what’s illogical (“Rewrite a scene from another character’s POV” to see if it still makes sense);
• Deepen character (“Write a holiday scene from childhood as a stream of consciousness”)
• Experiment with structure (“Frame this story within a future deathbed scene where one character tells it to someone…”)
• Add imagery (“Choose one sense that isn’t sight and revise all descriptions in the chapter with it in mind”)
• Refresh a limp idea by forcing it in a new direction (“Revise the story to be part of an anthology on the theme of betrayal…”)

Sometimes the best use for a prompt is simply to distract yourself from your neuroses (“I’ll never finish anything… “I’m no good at this… “What’s the point, I’ll never sell it…). Get over yourself for thirty minutes by focusing on the work.

In those cases, a language-based prompt might be best, e.g.:

• “Write a 1-sentence character description exactly 50 words long…”
• “Revise an action scene without adjectives or adverbs”
• “Rewrite any page without using the letter M…”

Prompts that focus on your language take a sideways approach to ideas and stories and shove you and all your baggage out of the way.

And what about discovering the work you’re meant to be doing? Well, that would be the prompt:

• Rewrite this story as if it’s the last thing you’ll ever write.

I have to say, that one’s a bit scary for me. I’ve yet to use it. 🙂

Set aside a weekly prompt time — why not make that your WISH time (Write in Silence Hour. Come on! Are you not doing that yet??) and see what happens. Sew some seeds with a prompt. Who knows what rewards you’ll reap?

Check out my Tarot Prompts for Writers if you need ideas. (No, I’m not a witch. I just like the pictures and stories…)

And check out my new story, “Get Away.” Then write your own story with the same first line. I’d love to read it.

Maybe you’ll get yours featured in DarkWinter Literary Magazine, too. They publish new fiction and poetry every week. (My story, “Social Animals” was featured in 2024 and “Everything Goes Wrong” appeared in 2025.) They prefer short works (under 2K) and they especially like pieces with a twist.

It’s free to read online, so check out DarkWinter.

Have a fabulous Friday.

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