Setting Applescript variable to list from text file - list

Question

I'm new to Applescript and the world of coding in general. I'm trying small scripts to get my feet wet and have some fun.
I want to make a random prompt generator. I know how to set the variable to a list but what I have in mind is much bigger than a few choices. I was wondering how to get the information from a text file. In said file I have over 200 prompts to choose from. I want to make a script that selects a random one from among these and displays them in a dialog box. I'm having trouble setting the initial variable to the contents of the file as a list. The follow up (random selection) I think I have a pretty good grasp on. I hope this is clear and thank you for looking.
Edit:
Here's my code so far. I keep running into an error: "Can't make "/Users/Home/Desktop/text.rtf" into type file." Not sure what that means.
set draw_promptList to {}
set draw_prompt to read "/Users/Home/Desktop/text.rtf"
repeat with i from 1 to count of paragraphs in draw_prompt
set end of draw_prompt to paragraph i of draw_prompt
end repeat
set the list_count to the count of draw_prompt
set pick to random number from 1 to list_count
display dialog "Try drawing " & some item of draw_prompt & return
Edit 9/28:I fixed it per the revisions and it works. It does exactly what I wanted: selects a random word from among the long list of words in the text file.
set draw_promptList to {}
set draw_prompt to read "/Users/Home/Desktop/test.txt"
set the list_count to the count of paragraphs in draw_prompt
set pick to random number from 1 to list_count
repeat with i from 1 to count of paragraphs in draw_prompt
set end of draw_promptList to paragraph i of draw_prompt
end repeat
display dialog "Try drawing " & some item of draw_promptList

Answer 1

If I understand correctly what you're asking, reading a file and turn each line of that file into an item in a list, then here is one way it can be done.
set theFileOfPromptsList to {}
set theFileOfPrompts to read "/path/to/FileOfPrompts"
repeat with i from 1 to count of paragraphs in theFileOfPrompts
set end of theFileOfPromptsList to paragraph i of theFileOfPrompts
end repeat
If you want to insure you don't add blank lines, if there are any, to the list, then use the following instead:
set theFileOfPromptsList to {}
set theFileOfPrompts to read "/path/to/FileOfPrompts"
repeat with i from 1 to count of paragraph in theFileOfPrompts
if paragraph i of theFileOfPrompts is not "" then
set end of theFileOfPromptsList to paragraph i of theFileOfPrompts
end if
end repeat