Short Story Prompt Generator
Premises small enough for one sitting and open enough to go wrong in. Press Generate as often as you like — nothing is saved and nothing is sent anywhere.
How to use this tool
- 1Set how many prompts you want.
- 2Press Generate.
- 3Pick the one you have an immediate reaction to — including a bad one.
- 4Start writing. Change whatever you like the moment it stops helping.
Press “Get prompts” to draw your first set.
Why prompts work
Starting is the expensive part. A prompt removes the decision about what to write, which is the decision that eats the hour, and leaves you with the easier problem of how. That is the whole mechanism.
Use a timer
Ten minutes, no stopping, no going back to fix anything. Whatever is on the page at the end is raw material, not a draft — and raw material is what a blank page does not give you.
Frequently asked questions
What do I do if none of them appeal?
Generate again, and if the second batch does nothing either, take the one you dislike most and write against it. A prompt that annoys you is doing the same job as one that inspires you: it gets the first sentence written, which is the only difficult one.
Am I allowed to change the prompt?
Completely. A prompt is a way in, not a specification. Most of the time you will keep one detail and discard the rest, and that is the prompt having worked.
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