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I wrote 30 prompts that all started with the same word and didn't notice for 8 months
Last Tuesday I sat down with my prompt notebook from the past 8 months, all 214 of them, and started tagging each one by opening line. Turned out 67 of them kicked off with some version of a character waking up, and 41 of those used almost the same first sentence. I only caught it because a friend in my writing group in Akron read three of my prompts back to back and said they sounded like the same person talking to themselves. I went through and physically crossed out every opening that leaned on a body in a bed, and the notebook looked like a crime scene by the time I finished. The fix was making myself write the setting first, no people allowed for the first two lines, which forced 30 totally different starts out of me in one weekend. If you keep a prompt log, go count how many of yours start the same way. What's your most repeated opener?
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ryan_flores3d ago
How many of those 214 did you actually reread before your friend called it out? I feel this so hard because I keep a prompt log too and mine is packed with people staring out windows or checking their phones in the first line. It is wild how your brain latches onto one safe way to start and never lets go, and you dont see it until someone from the outside points at the pattern. Crossing out all those openers must have felt awful in the moment but kind of great too, like cleaning out a closet you forgot was full. I love that setting first rule, no people in the first two lines, because it takes the crutch away and forces your brain to actually build a place. I am going to go count mine tonight, and I already know the number is going to hurt.
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