That $30 writing prompt deck from Etsy changed my whole routine

I was stuck on a short story last month and nothing was working. Someone in my writers group mentioned these prompt cards that cost like $30. I bought them out of pure frustration. Now I pick one card each morning and write for 15 minutes before touching my main project. Has anyone else tried prompt decks or other small tools to break through writer's block?

3 comments

3 Comments

cora86322d ago

Oh man, a buddy of mine was in the exact same rut last year and bought a cheap prompt wheel from a thrift store. She spun it every morning while her coffee brewed and ended up writing a whole flash fiction collection just from those random spins. Told me the physical act of spinning and stopping on something made it feel less like homework and more like a game.

the_jordan1mo ago

Honestly I think spending $30 on a prompt deck is a total waste when you can just google "writing prompts" for free and get thousands of them. I tried one of those fancy decks my friend loaned me and the prompts were super generic, stuff like "write about a door that leads nowhere" which I've seen a million times before. If your brain is really stuck, forcing yourself to write random stuff for 15 minutes might just reinforce the habit of avoiding your actual story. You're better off reading a book in your genre for 15 minutes instead, that actually gets the gears turning without the gimmick.

veraj531mo ago

the_jordan I get your point about free prompts, but a good deck has a different feel than scrolling a list online. Picking a card and physically opening it can trick your brain into committing to something, whereas googling just keeps you in your head. That door prompt might be generic, but even a simple idea can unlock something specific if you actually sit and write instead of judging it.