 Neither the writers nor the judges know what that round's prompt is going to be, and it is very rare for the writer to have ever even seen it before during practice sessions at school.As soon as the prompt is written down in a place for all in the room to see, the writer has 40 minutes (with the exception of States, which provides only 45 or 30 minutes) to write a narrative that has relevance to or includes the prompt.Some team coaches encourage writers to set aside about 5 minutes to think up a rough outline of the beginning, middle, and end.