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Cohost's (and Masto's, and pretty much anywhere) more open approach to writing means you can't easily make your post funnier by deliberately crashing against the arbitrary character limit.

I've found writing prompts useful in the past, to the point where I was doing micro or flash fiction every day.

Until I got burnt out because, of course, I went over-board and made it a chore; made the fun thing not fun.

I have to spend a lot of time managing and accounting for my brain's natural inclination for extremes (i.e. unable to start or unable to stop). So, I'm going to try using prompts in a different way than I have - less prescriptive.

I used a random word generator and created this list. I'm not going to set up the expectation they're to be done on the daily. Some I might skip, or just ignore the order. As long as I'm writing, that's a win.

OK, I do have one criteria I've set myself: the fic will be focused on mothman and/or other cryptids where possible. I just think they're neat.

This is something they posted on Twitter that I found smashing! You'll find my excercise after the rules.

Exercise: Write descriptions for 10 swords

• (it can be 10 of anything, but 'swords' is for ease of explanation).

The rules for this exercise are as follows -

1. You get only 20 words for each description, no exceptions. Any name you give the sword is included in this 20 words.

• (Over-hyphenation is cheating! Imagine if someone has to localize your descriptions into a different language).

2. You can't repeat/reuse descriptors.

• Words like 'blue' and 'scimitar' are descriptors. Works like 'the', 'of', etc. are not.

3. Descriptions can't start with the same word, no matter what the word is.

• This is to prevent patterns like "the [color] [material] [weapon] is..."

4. When finished, show your descriptions to someone you trust to evaluate your creative work. Ask which descriptions they like best and why.
5. Hopefully - learn something.

If this doesn't seem hard enough for you, add this additional rule for bonus points:

6. Before starting your descriptions, randomly assign a rarity to your swords from 1 to 5 stars. Gussy up or dress down your descriptions according to the rarity.
7. Timers stress me out, but if you work best under pressure, try doing the exercise in under 30 minutes.

Twitter thread Link: https://twitter.com/DeathMeetAuthor/status/1547621439099940865

My Exercise: Describe 10 Computers

1. Mechanical XR37: Made of gears and leather, it was a revolutionary system that displayed the future with its bulbed screens.
2. Ariel’s System: Covered in stickers. This once mobile device is tied to a power outlet trying to stay alive.
3. F.L.O.P. 3000: Catastrophic failure that plunged the company into a marketing spiral of no return. 13 Teraflops were not enough.
4. Perfect Gaming PC: it shuts down when its user is toxic. Making the world better one boot at a time.
5. Brand New: still in its box. It waits excitedly for the day it can power ON unaware it’s been forgotten.
6. Cloud Computing: Flickering glass that receives messages from beyond. Vibrating with purposeless notifications at random intervals… Forever. –Bzzzz– --Bzzzz—
7. Dream Machine: Inspiring tales of wander and awe. Using it bestows a story with narrative resonance and beautiful prose.
8. Dirty: Gathering dust everywhere except for the WASD keys and mouse. Its fan, loudest in the room, ignored by headsets.
9. Math Checkers: Smart women scribbling number after number. More powerful than anything before or since: a room full of women.
10. Joy Breaker: Controller shape dent followed a brightly lit red ring around the Power Button of the plastic box.

I'd love to see what you come up with!