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My creative writing group in Columbus banned one word from our prompts and the stories got 10x better
Last week our prompt group of 6 people at the library in Columbus agreed to ban the word "feelings" from every prompt we write for a month, and the stories coming out of it are so much sharper. Turns out when you can't hand people an easy emotion word to build around, they actually have to describe stuff, like a burnt casserole or a cracked driveway, and the emotion shows up on its own. Is banning specific words from prompts a cheap trick, or should every writing group pick 2 or 3 words to toss for good?
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hollyramirez2d ago
Love this idea and I get why it works. My old group kept getting prompts like "write about a time you felt lost" and everyone turned in the same sad story with zero actual details. When you force people to describe the burnt casserole or the cracked driveway, the reader does the work and it hits harder. Banning a few crutch words is not a cheap trick, it just makes people slow down and show instead of tell. Two or three words sounds about right, more than that and it probably starts to feel like a gimmick.
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