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Am I the only one who thinks starting a prompt with a question is quietly killing good writing?
I run a small writing group out of my garage here in Amarillo, six people every other Thursday, and over the past 3 months I've noticed the same thing with almost every prompt we pick. Four out of five of them open with some version of "what if" or "have you ever," and the stories we get back all sound the same, like everyone is filling out a form. A prompt that asks a question hands the writer the answer shape before they've even started, so instead of a scene you get a paragraph that exists just to answer the question and then stops. I tried an experiment two Thursdays ago where I rewrote our usual prompt as a plain statement, no question mark anywhere, and the stories got weirder and better, with actual endings instead of trailing off. It matters because people in new writers' groups copy these prompts off the internet and think that is how it is done, and then they wonder why their drafts feel flat. Next time you build a prompt, try handing over an image or an object, like a locked shed or a bad receipt, and see what comes back. Has anyone else noticed this with their own group, or is it just me being picky?
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