Twitter has a wonderful writing community. I think the best part is the hashtag prompts.
Take #vssnature, which I host, as an example. The aim is to write a tweet-sized very short story (vss) on the prompt word. I limited this prompt to nature words, but there are other daily and weekly hashtag prompts to choose from.
These prompts are great to get the creative juices going. One might spark an entire story. Lately, I have been using them as a vessel to further develop a new story idea I am working on. While the characters and plot are incubating in my brain, the prompts allow me to experiment with ideas.
The tweet below gave me the opportunity to explore further the relationship between the two main characters and the intricacies of my world building purely based on the prompt word: freeze.
‘Don’t move!’
— Emma Cox (@scyian) June 24, 2022
I #freeze.
With deliberate slowness, Guy eased off his shoe. He struck fast like a snake. I heard the sole hit the window and something went squish.
‘It’s the time of year for pixies. You think horseflies are bad, wait till one of these bastards bites you.’#vss365
Other potential benefits of playing hashtag prompts include:
- Making you explore different writing styles and genres.
- Learning new words.
- Helping you get out of writer’s block.
- Tightens your writing as you have to fit it into a single tweet (I remember the days before Twitter increased the character length).
- Actually counts as writing!
There is also the social element. It’s a great way to find talented writers and engage with them.
Do you play hashtag writing prompts? What benefit do you get from it?
I do indeed, and your prompts have often been a tremendous help when I didn’t know what to write. I often used yours alongside the vss365 prompt. It’s such a shame that you’ll be moving on, but I fully understand why.
All the best in your future writing ventures.
Martin