sam_rivera•1mo agoTop Commenter

The one writing rule that keeps tripping me up in my prompts

I've been doing these writing prompts for about 2 months now (since mid-October) and I keep noticing people starting every story with "It was a dark and stormy night." Not literally, but close enough. Like every prompt response opens with the weather or a character waking up. It drives me crazy because it kills the hook immediately. I caught myself doing it 3 times in one week and had to force a change. Has anyone else had to break out of a specific writing habit like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

matthew_wilson461mo ago

honestly the weather thing is such a trap i fell into it too. you think describing the rain or sunrise sets a mood but it just fills space. the waking up thing is even worse. like oh wow another character opening their eyes in a room. groundbreaking. the trick that finally worked for me was starting mid action. no setup no breathing just right into the moment. my brain fought it at first but now it feels natural. cutting the first paragraph entirely helped too. just delete it and see if the story still makes sense. usually it does.

daniel5111mo ago

Man, cutting the first paragraph is brutal but it works so well. I once wrote a whole page about fog rolling over a lake, deleted it, and the story actually moved faster. It felt like cheating at first, like I was skipping something important. But readers don't need to know what time it is or what the sky looks like unless it matters to the action. The mid action thing is key, you just gotta trust the reader to catch up.