Tried writing prompts with strict word counts for a month and my stories got way tighter

I used to ramble for 2000 words on a single prompt but after doing 100 word max challenges for 30 days my scenes feel way more focused. Anyone else find limitations actually make their writing better?

2 comments

2 Comments

troy_murray823d ago

100 word limits sound like torture but I guess it works for some people. Seems like a lot of rules just to write a simple story though. Not everything has to be so tight and lean to be good.

abbycraig23d ago

Did you try setting a timer too? That really helped me get past the rambling phase. I did the same thing with 200 word max on a different site for 3 months. It forced me to cut every single useless adverb and adjective. My dialogue got sharper too because I couldn't hide behind description anymore. The limit didn't make my stories boring, it made them hit harder. Now I can actually write a complete scene in 500 words instead of bloating it to 2000.