Overused fantasy prompts are killing our writing group's energy

I gave a prompt where a hero finds a magic sword in a cave. Three people wrote almost the same story about defeating a dark lord. It felt like we were just copying old books, not creating anything new. Why do we keep using ideas that lead nowhere?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_ben29d ago

Maybe the problem isn't the old prompt, but the old goal. What if the sword's real magic was something useless, like making perfect toast?

shanef3429d ago

That "useless" magic is the whole point, the_ben. You stop chasing the old goal and start seeing what's actually there. Then you can build something new around the real function.

reese_rodriguez8629d ago

What if the toast thing is the key though? Like the real magic is always the thing you'd never think to ask for.