Why Every Writer Should Use Writing Prompts - Jonathan Blum

JONATHAN BLUM'S WEEKLY WRITING PROMPTS

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Jonathan Blum grew up in Miami and graduated from UCLA and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He is the author of two books of fiction: The Usual Uncertainties (Rescue Press, 2019), a story collection, and Last Word (Rescue Press, 2013), a novella. Both were named one of the best books of the year by Iowa Public Radio, and The Usual Uncertainties was named one of the 15 Best Short Story Collections of 2019 by Electric Literature. Blum has twice appeared on KCRW's Bookworm. His short stories have been published in Gulf Coast, Kenyon Review, Northwest Review, Playboy, and Shanxi Literature, among others. His short story, "The White Spot," which was published in Electric Literature with an introduction by Deborah Eisenberg, appears in the award-winning anthology The Best Peace Fiction (University of New Mexico Press, 2021). He has taught fiction writing at The University of Iowa, Drew University, and the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, and is the recipient of a Michener-Copernicus Society of America Award, a Hawthornden Fellowship in Scotland, and a grant from the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation. He has also been a guest writer at the Tianjin Binhai New Area International Writing Program in China. He lives in Los Angeles.

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[realdave]

I'm a big believer in writing on paper. There's no "delete" button in a spiral notebook.

[jillneverumind]

I learned today what a “prompt” is. I kind of give myself prompts. I like when Hollywood uses play-on words in their movie titles. I think of common phrases as a movie title, then think of a story that use the phrase as a play-on words.

[thlogician]

I think the important thing to remember is that if you use a prompt, write from the character's pain and not from the prompt itself. Unless the prompt includes a source of internal conflict you are going to have to craft the internal conflict under the prompt that you are working with. (Kind of like an umbrella plot)
Best of luck on your journey! Don't let the ink eat your pen. It does that sometimes.

[theshizl]

Don't write stories, write characters. With what they do and how they act, they only have a few ways they can approach a given scenario. They may even take over and write the story for you!

[Thenoobestgirl]

"Write a love letter from a burning building" is the most unexpected out of context way to start a video 😂
It's a great way to catch the watchers' attention, too. You should use it more often. 😌

Edit: "and" is a really teasing way to end a video. You should use it less often. 😂

[Gunsong]

One thing i have noticed is i get a lot of ideas when i concentrate on story elemnts while reading and playing computer games. I also play the what if game a lot.
After i started doing this i have generated more interesting ideas than i know what to do with.

[ViperChief]

I give myself five pages to write a day or I try to of a spec screenplay I’m working on. Sometimes I can churn out an entire screenplay in a few hours by doing so. Other days it’s less cause I stop after twenty or thirty pages. But I try and write at least five pages of a screenplay every day to get more of my work done.

[markokarklins]

I write...and character or no character, the brush strokes fill the canvas and the story comes to life.

[dennisthornton]

Just a question. Though not on prompts. What do you think about the SAG strike. Is it about money as usual or would AI really take over the industry?

[phoebea]

I actually disagree with using writing prompts. Mainly because it doesn't give you a character's misbelief to carry the story, nor do they make for an interesting character arc. Prompts are great for scene/concept ideas, but good characters who can carry such grand ideas they do not make.

I used writing prompts for years, and they got the creative juices flowing, but they didn't make for original characters. It was a lot of "what would I do in this situation?" rather than, "what if this specific character was in this situation?" It was only when I created compelling, relatable characters to write about was I able to write a story worth telling.

[markforster]

I agree, but many writing prompts are useless. For example, it's Christmas Eve and Santas elves are on strike.