Friday Catalyst: Rewriting the Invisible Contract
The most necessary drafts often feel stripped of intelligence and control, because they are no longer written to protect the writer you learned how to be.
Purpose
This exercise centers the writer’s process. The work lives in the choices you enforce on the page, not in backstory, psychology, or polish. Designed for a two-hour session: brief setup, sustained drafting, and deliberate reflection.
1. Writing practice techniques in focus
Technique one: Exposing default narrative contracts.
Every writer relies on inherited structures of voice, pacing, and meaning. This practice isolates those habits and treats them as optional rather than fixed.
Technique two: Making form do the work.
Change occurs through syntax, structure, and constraint. The writing enacts the shift instead of naming it.
Technique three: Holding the line after rupture.
The skill is not disruption but endurance. Once the rule breaks, the draft must continue without repair or explanation.
2. The 500-word writing prompt
Write approximately 500 words in one sitting.
Begin in a narrative mode you frequently use: reflective first person, clean realism, lyrical observation, controlled interiority. Commit fully for the first 200 words. Let the prose feel assured and competent.
At roughly the 200-word mark, impose a rule change that undermines the original mode. The rule must govern sentence construction, not subject matter. Examples include eliminating abstraction, breaking causal logic, or removing evaluative language.
Write the remaining 300 words under this new rule. Do not announce the shift. Do not justify it. Proceed as if the piece has always obeyed this second logic.
Strong response example:
The opening establishes a clear stylistic contract. The rupture arrives cleanly and is enforced without hesitation. The latter section gains tension and urgency through form rather than commentary.
Weak response example:
The shift is explained, softened, or inconsistently applied. The draft protects the original comfort while mimicking risk.
3. Evaluation criteria
The opening establishes a governing mode.
The rule change is precise and enforced at the sentence level.
The draft avoids explanation and meta-commentary.
Energy increases after the rupture.
The ending follows the second rule rather than seeking closure.
4. Follow-up questions for workshopping and revision
Where did resistance first appear in the draft?
Which sentence marks the true point of no return?
What habit or assumption did the new rule expose?
What would strengthen the piece if the second rule were enforced more severely?
How does this draft differ from your usual definition of finished?
5. Recommended published work
Lydia Davis, “Break It Down.”
The story demonstrates how strict formal commitment can replace explanation while sustaining emotional pressure.
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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