My writing group kept turning every prompt into a 2,000 word backstory and nobody finished anything
I run a small writers group out of my garage in Tulsa and for 6 weeks straight every prompt turned into someone's novel chapter. So I set one rule: the prompt had to be answered in exactly 100 words, no more. Four people groaned, but then the best lines of the whole night came out because nobody had room to warm up. Turns out a hard word limit forces you to throw the reader right into the middle of the scene. Has anyone else tried a strict word cap with their group, and what number actually works for you?