Monday Ignition: Five Minutes in a Locked Room Prompt
Key techniques to develop
1. Productive constraint: Build parameters into your scene that limit setting, character count, or temporal scope to focus invention.
2. Specificity under pressure: Force detailed, sensory-rich choices within those constraints to avoid generic filler.
3. Emotional compression: Shape a scene to move from equilibrium to disruption and back (or not) within a tight space.
Writing prompt (500 words)
Write a scene set entirely in a single physical location no larger than a 10-by-10-foot space. Only two characters may appear, and they cannot leave, change location, or reference the outside world directly. The entire scene must unfold in real time, covering no more than five minutes of action. One character wants something from the other and must use indirect means to get it—no direct asking, telling, or naming the desire. The other character must resist, misinterpret, or deflect in ways that reveal more about both than about the object of desire.
The physical space must be fully realized with at least five sensory details that are woven into the action rather than dumped at the start. The dialogue must carry at least half of the scene’s dramatic weight, with subtext sharper than the literal meaning of the words. The emotional temperature must shift at least once—rising, falling, or flipping entirely—without either character stating their feelings outright.
Write continuously for 90 minutes, then spend 30 minutes revising for sensory precision, subtext clarity, and pacing.
Evaluation criteria
Strong responses integrate constraint without feeling cramped—the scene breathes even within its box.
The subtext is layered: on the surface, the characters speak about one thing; beneath, they mean another.
The sensory details emerge naturally from action and interaction, never stalling momentum.
Emotional shifts feel earned, emerging from what the characters say and do rather than being imposed.
Weak responses treat the constraint as a gimmick, producing static description or dialogue that circles without escalation. Sensory elements are listed rather than embedded, and subtext collapses into blunt declaration or aimless chatter.
Follow-up questions for workshop/revision
Where did the tension rise and where did it flatten?
Which sensory details feel alive, and which read like placeholders?
What’s the clearest moment of subtext, and how could it be sharpened?
Does the ending resolve the scene’s pressure or leave it in suspension?
How might shifting one sensory detail or a single line of dialogue change the scene’s trajectory?
Recommended reading
“A Small, Good Thing” by Raymond Carver — for its mastery of constrained settings, tension through subtext, and vivid sensory anchoring.
If you’d like, I can also create a second variant of this exercise that uses a different constraint model—such as time jumps or nonverbal action—as the core driver. That would push writers in a different but equally tight frame.
AI Disclosure Statement:
This writing prompt was created in collaboration with ChatGPT, an AI model by OpenAI, to support creative practice. ChatGPT assisted with idea generation and drafting; the final text was edited by the author. The illustration was created using Google Gemini.
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