What Good Writing Prompts Have in Common

The trap with writing prompts is asking for the finished thing. Ask for options instead, then bring your taste to the edit.

Make the output reviewable

Write down what you never want as explicitly as what you do. The exclusions often do more work than the instructions.

Reuse the recipe

Write down what you never want as explicitly as what you do. The exclusions often do more work than the instructions.

• Ask for three angles, then cut to the one worth shipping
• Have the model flag what it could not cover
• Lower the reading level, then check what broke

Ask for the reasoning, then the result. When the model shows its steps you can see exactly where to push back.