r/SimplePrompts Jul 05 '22

Meta Making Good Prompts

103 Upvotes

If I may humbly make some suggestions for newbies and anyone who is trying to get the hang of this prompt business better:

If you want to make the best simple prompts, consider the following:

Simple prompts are simple because they leave details out, and prompts because they leave ideas in.

The best prompts can be used in many kinds of stories, and in many different ways. They raise questions, but do not answer them, or they suggest an idea but don't define it, or they give a rule but make it just exactly that.

Compare these two prompts:

"It's not that we don't want to fight that thing, captain. It's that we can't. Our blasters ran out of ammo already."

Or:

"We're out of ammo."

The first tells you that it's a scifi, or a game about scifi. It also tells you that there are ranks, probably a military, a scary creature, and so on.

The second only tells you a basic situation: there is no ammunition. Are they hunters? Pirates? Police? Who or what are they fighting? Why are they doing it? Many questions, but the only answers are "they have guns" and "they can't fight anymore". Even then, it can be improved by removing the concrete detail of guns; simply say "We can't fight."

"We can't fight." Who or what are they fighting? Why can't they fight? Is it a political fight? A physical one? An emotinal argument, even? Is this a general ordering a retreat, or a husband asking his wife to settle things peacefully? The possibilities are endless.

So when you make a prompt, give an idea, but leave the possibilities open. When you provoke questions, but don't answer them, you never know what someone else will make of it. Let them write many genres and styles of stories from your prompts.

That's the point. Keep it simple.


r/SimplePrompts 6h ago

Five magical girls, their cute mascot, the villain's henchman and the monster of the week all end up swapping bodies with each other.

2 Upvotes

r/SimplePrompts 6h ago

The girls have finally cornered the giant crystalline chimera rampaging through downtown.

1 Upvotes

r/SimplePrompts 3d ago

"This looks like a job for the Crimson Cockroach!"

5 Upvotes

r/SimplePrompts 5d ago

Psychic Snitch.

1 Upvotes

r/SimplePrompts 5d ago

Part-Time Vampire.

1 Upvotes

r/SimplePrompts 8d ago

"Beggars can't be choosers - the summoning ritual cannot be attempted again (not just yet, at least) and it won't be possible to send you home straight away."

3 Upvotes

r/SimplePrompts 8d ago

I would rather solve magical problems with physics, engineering, and the scientific method than with enchanted swords and destiny. Unfortunately, while this new world DOES have rules, they're nothing like the laws of nature that I'm used to.

3 Upvotes

r/SimplePrompts 8d ago

After spending one recess helping out a few classmates, you unknowingly trigger every romantic comedy cliché imaginable.

2 Upvotes

r/SimplePrompts 8d ago

She isn't TRYING to make his life difficult—she's simply trying to fit in with a culture that's wildly different from her own.

1 Upvotes

r/SimplePrompts 9d ago

As they "level up", they realize that the monsters aren't actually from another dimension—they were evolved from stray squirrels, pigeons, and lost toys affected by the strange energy of the playground.

2 Upvotes

r/SimplePrompts 9d ago

A giant robot—the S.T.R.O.N.G. Unit—descends from the clouds.

1 Upvotes

r/SimplePrompts 9d ago

It begins with him tripping over a mysterious, glowing glowing VHS tape labeled "DO NOT WATCH: ANIME."

1 Upvotes

r/SimplePrompts 9d ago

"Hey, did you guys hear about the new rumor? Apparently, Gus is secretly a prince from a tiny nation looking for a bride."

0 Upvotes

r/SimplePrompts 9d ago

It wasn’t a ball. It was a shifting, geometric pearl that pulsed like a heartbeat.

0 Upvotes

r/SimplePrompts 9d ago

"Salutations! I am Princess Zyla of the Andromeda Seventh Sector. By catching my Starlight Capsule, you have initiated the Rite of Galactic Betrothal. We are now bonded."

0 Upvotes

r/SimplePrompts 9d ago

"She is here! The Prophetess of the Gear! The one who shall vanquish the Shadow King with the Blade of Destiny!"

1 Upvotes

r/SimplePrompts 9d ago

She was holding a half-finished model of a kinetic energy harvester, which was now sparking violently.

1 Upvotes

r/SimplePrompts 9d ago

When he touches the control pedestal, a holographic AI—modeled after a stern, monocled principal from the 1940s—activates. It identifies him via his blood-type and military-kith pedigree: "Pilot identified. Discipline protocol engaged."

1 Upvotes

r/SimplePrompts 9d ago

If he doesn't win his gym battles before she blows her whistle, he loses his progress.

1 Upvotes

r/SimplePrompts 9d ago

When the dust settles, she is draped in a ruffled, neon-pink dress with lace trim, thigh-high white stockings, and boots with pom-poms on them. In her hand is a three-foot-tall plastic wand topped with a glowing, rotating heart.

0 Upvotes

r/SimplePrompts 10d ago

Invisibility is a superpower, but now you're very, very visible

3 Upvotes

r/SimplePrompts 10d ago

Mother Hen sprinkles her magical seed and blesses young women with pregnancy.

0 Upvotes

r/SimplePrompts 10d ago

"Happiness comes from within," they said. But from within what?

3 Upvotes

r/SimplePrompts 10d ago

You challenge Death to a game of Scrabble

1 Upvotes