Wasted 6 hours on a prompt about a haunted lighthouse because I forgot to write down the rules first | Creative Writing Prompts

Hannah Perry · 2026-10-16T04:30:06.88872+00:00

Last Saturday I sat down to write a short story from a prompt about a lighthouse keeper who hears voices in the fog. I thought it would take me maybe an hour because the idea seemed simple. Six hours later I had 14 pages of messy notes and zero actual story because I kept changing the haunted rules halfway through. First the ghost was friendly, then it was a sea monster, then it was just the guy going crazy, and by page 12 I had no idea what was real anymore. I finally took a break, made a cup of tea, and realized I never wrote down what the ghost could and couldn't do before I started. I scrapped everything and spent 20 minutes listing three rules on an index card, then the story poured out in 90 minutes. Does anyone else make themselves write the rules of their prompt world before drafting, or do you just wing it and fix it later?

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Wasted 6 hours on a prompt about a haunted lighthouse because I forgot to write down the rules first | Creative Writing Prompts - Babble Community