On Writing Prompts

Writing prompts can be great. They can help when you are stuck, or when you just need a reason to get your butt back in the writing chair. But we’ve found they don’t typically help you start or finish a writing project. The only way to do this is, as Achebe reminds us, to keep at it.

We have thought a lot about how to help writers finish their projects and to revise their drafts. We are working on more significant guidance on this path, but this year we’ll be posting excercises designed to help you keep at it.

These will not be generative writing prompts, but rather invitations to experiment with your current project. Our hope is that they will help you hone, rethink, or even salvage bits of your work in progress. They will help you when you get stuck, but in a way that is focused on the draft before you. Ideally, some of these exercises will become part of your writing toolkit. If all goes well, it will be like a stern little editor is sitting on your shoulder, but we won’t have to come to your house.