Loading…
8
Gave my writing group the same breakup scene twice, once with a prompt and once without, and wow
I ran an experiment at my Thursday writing group in Portland where I handed out a vague prompt about a rainy bus stop and then, two weeks later, the same scene but with 5 specific details like a chipped mug and a wet dog. The prompted version came back with characters who actually wanted things, while the free write version was 800 words of somebody staring at rain and feeling bad. Does anyone else find that a few concrete objects do more for a scene than a whole page of mood?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
claire37823d ago
I had the same thing happen with a short story about two sisters cleaning out their mom's house. First draft was all fog and sad music in my head, and my group said they were bored. I added a box of old birthday cards and a broken garage door opener and suddenly the sisters were fighting over who got what, which made the whole thing work. Stuff gives people something to grab, push, or hide behind. Without it they just float around being sad.
6