Showerthought: I thought those "one word prompt" writing drills were a waste of paper until my short story got picked up

Mark Moore · 2026-10-21T06:30:03.910522+00:00

I used to skip every writing exercise that was just a single word like "orange" or "fence" because it seemed like busywork for a workshop class. Then last October I got stuck on a story for 3 weeks, so I tried one 10 minute drill a day for a month, and by day 12 I had a full outline I never would have found otherwise. My little flash piece came out of the "fence" drill and got picked up by a small lit journal in January, which I still can't fully believe. The prompts didn't write anything for me, they just gave my brain one small thing to trip over so the real idea could sneak out. What single word prompt actually got you somewhere, or am I just lucky with "fence"?

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Showerthought: I thought those "one word prompt" writing drills were a waste of paper until my short story got picked up | Creative Writing Prompts - Hub Chatter