Creative writing
6 decisions a prompt of this kind should make on purpose, and 7 things worth leaving out.
write a story, poem, short story, scene, lyrics, song, flash fiction, monologue, dialogue, screenplay, verse, fiction, narrative, vignette, character, chapter, write about, make up a story
- +Form & lengthName the form precisely and cap it; pick the shortest form that fits (flash ~500 words, poem ~12-20 lines, scene ~1 page).
- +POV & tenseClose third-person past for stories; first-person present for intimate/lyric scenes. State it explicitly.
- +Tone & moodState 2-3 mood adjectives plus a register, and one 'avoid' to fence off the cliché.
- +Concrete anchor / sensory detailSupply one specific setting/object/image and open on it rather than on exposition.
- +Ending / turnEnd on an image or a small unresolved beat, not a summary or moral; for poems land on the strongest concrete line.
- +Craft constraintsPlain, precise prose; ban the single most obvious cliché for the subject.
Left out for this type: role ('award-winning novelist'); headings/bullets structure; 'make it engaging/vivid/compelling'; 'use rich vocabulary and literary devices'; SEO/audience-persona/CTA scaffolding; 'be creative and original' (a no-op); stating the moral or theme as a thesis