When you get immune to the proverbial ‘knocking of the Muse’ and she turns away, do writing prompts come and shake you by the shoulders, sit you on a chair(bed in my case) and make you write? Of late, when I can’t seem to open up the imagination chambers of my brain, I am relying more and more on the writing prompts I have a prompt and a deadline. I write, focusing on the topic and after exercising all my brain muscles come up with something like a page or two – rough draft of course. When it goes on the dissecting table(my critique group) it will shrink to half a page.
Why can’t I write a lot when I am given a prompt? Does that happen to you?

A) Do writing prompts work for you as well?
b) Do they limit your imagination?
c) Do you think you can’t go beyond a certain word limit. In other words, is it difficult to write longer pieces on a given prompt?