My writing prompt trick: start with the last sentence first

I spent 20 minutes staring at a blank page last night until I wrote the ending line of a story about a diner waitress finding a winning lottery ticket in a tip jar, then worked backwards to build the prompt, and it came together in like 5 minutes.

2 comments

2 Comments

blake_black474d agoTop Commenter

Start by saying this totally misses the point of prompts. Writing the ending first locks you into a specific destination before you've even discovered where the story wants to take you (which kills the organic flow, honestly). Better to just throw some random words down and let the ending surprise you, since that's where the real magic usually happens.

oliver7192d ago

Starting with the ending gave you a roadmap, not a cage. Without a destination you're just wandering around hoping you trip over something interesting, which works sometimes but mostly just wastes time.