Prompt Forum Posting Guidelines

[Renee Stevens]

Writing Prompts are exercises for your writing muscles. They can help you get through writers block (creative prompts) or train specific muscles (technical prompts). They can even focus your writing muscles into new thought patterns (challenge prompts). Some may even challenge you, as an author, to look at your own motivations as to why you write.

There are a few things to keep in mind to keep everyone safe, sane, and successful.

 

If you have a prompt that you'd like to put out for the general masses, do so, but please keep the following in mind:

• We have staff dedicated to providing prompts on a weekly basis.  We have a backlog of prompts that are already numbered and ready to go, so please, when posting your prompt, please choose a different numbering system than what's already there.  (Example:  If I was posting a prompt (outside of the weekly prompts) I might choose to name mine as RS's Prompt #1)
• Tell the type of prompt it is in the topic title (e.g. picture, creative, technical, first line, etc.)

When posting a prompt response, please keep the following in mind:

• If posting in the forum, please keep it a reasonable length.  If your prompt response is long, consider gaining author status and posting it in GA Stories and then just linking to the story.  IF you do decide to post in GA stories, please create one "story" for all prompt responses under 1,000 words.  You can use the prompt number for the chapter title, and include a link back to the writing prompts forum in the chapter notes so more people can do them.
• If you'd rather post your prompt response in the forum and it is longer, you can make readers click to read the story and keep the forum looking "cleaner" so to speak by doing a spoiler, to do this you would type [ spoiler ]prompt response[ /spoiler ] (without the spaces) and it would look like this:
  
  prompt response

 

[JJQuinn]

 

@Renee StevensPlease forgive a stupid question but I'm still learning to navigate the site as a new to here author.  I've gone through a lot of the prompts and several look like good ways to break away from my longer pieces in short bursts. But am i allowed to use old prompts? Most of these seem from 2012 for 2015 from what I saw. I just want to make sure. 

Thank you!

JJ

Edited February 6, 2025 by JJQuinn

[Ron]

@JJQuinn I can answer your question. Yes, you may use any prompt from any era. Prompts are a means of stimulating the mind and to let your creativity come into play. So, choose however many you like, and when you post your story response it would be kind of you to put a link to your story in whatever prompt listing you’ve chosen so others however long from now have yet another way to find your story. 

[JJQuinn]

2 hours ago, Ron said:

@JJQuinn I can answer your question. Yes, you may use any prompt from any era. Prompts are a means of stimulating the mind and to let your creativity come into play. So, choose however many you like, and when you post your story response it would be kind of you to put a link to your story in whatever prompt listing you’ve chosen so others however long from now have yet another way to find your story. 

I appreciate that help! I have a few I want to try so I'm thinking maybe putting them as individual "chapters" in  a new story. Just so they're all in the same place then I can post them in the appropriate link. Thanks so much!

[Ron]

7 minutes ago, JJQuinn said:

I'm thinking maybe putting them as individual "chapters" in  a new story.

That’s a great way of showing your skills. I know that other authors have done this. I have written quite a few prompt short stories although I have never connected them as chapters of an ongoing story. Rather, I have written short stories for those prompts that interested me and considering they were usually under a thousand words I was required by site guidelines to submit them within a group. You are limited on these groupings and I used A Prompting Into the Future - 2015 and Beyond for my last one so I could just place any new ones until the end of time, or the end of me (which is creeping closer than I would like it to), or the end of whatever talent I may have had. Whoo, it was hard to write those lat two endings. 

[JJQuinn]

1 hour ago, Ron said:

That’s a great way of showing your skills. I know that other authors have done this. I have written quite a few prompt short stories although I have never connected them as chapters of an ongoing story. Rather, I have written short stories for those prompts that interested me and considering they were usually under a thousand words I was required by site guidelines to submit them within a group. You are limited on these groupings and I used A Prompting Into the Future - 2015 and Beyond for my last one so I could just place any new ones until the end of time, or the end of me (which is creeping closer than I would like it to), or the end of whatever talent I may have had. Whoo, it was hard to write those lat two endings. 

I like that idea too. I'll have to ponder. Is it allowed to merge two prompts together? Like one of those which are just a bunch of words and another that's  a prompt that sets the scene like tripping over a character who mutters about bow and arrows?

Edited February 6, 2025 by JJQuinn

[Ron]

2 hours ago, JJQuinn said:

Is it allowed to merge two prompts together?

You are the creative person, so do what you like with them. The limit of your imagination is your limit. Ha, I like that!

Edited February 6, 2025 by Ron

[JJQuinn]

1 hour ago, Ron said:

You are the creative person, so do what you like with them. The limit of your imagination is your limit. Ha, I like that!

Yay thank you!

[Jason Rimbaud]

You can do what I did, I choose 13 prompts and linked them together for a single story. Turned out to be my first vampire/werewolf/demon story, I love the prompts. 

 

J

[JJQuinn]

2 hours ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

You can do what I did, I choose 13 prompts and linked them together for a single story. Turned out to be my first vampire/werewolf/demon story, I love the prompts. 

 

J

Awesome idea. Thank you! There are 3 prompts I feel would work for one story and 2 for another.  I also found one that inspired a story idea in my head that I think ironically, might work for the creature anthology.  Which is good because lord that one had me stumped. 

[Valkyrie]

On 2/5/2025 at 9:35 PM, JJQuinn said:

 

@Renee StevensPlease forgive a stupid question but I'm still learning to navigate the site as a new to here author.  I've gone through a lot of the prompts and several look like good ways to break away from my longer pieces in short bursts. But am i allowed to use old prompts? Most of these seem from 2012 for 2015 from what I saw. I just want to make sure. 

Thank you!

JJ

Ron already did a great job of answering your questions.  Prompts are a way to get the writing process started or to practice certain skills.  There are threads here containing a lot of the old prompts, and I will link to a way to find more current prompts.  Fridays are prompt days, so there will be a blog featuring new prompts every Friday.  Feel free to browse and explore the wealth of prompts found on the site.  A lot of authors will create a "story" for prompt responses.  They do not need to link together in any way.  Think of it as more of a "collection" vs a "story".  I have a few different prompt collections in my story archive.  We do ask that if a prompt story is less than 1k words that it be included as part of a collection, so if you are planning on writing multiple prompt responses, please create a story 'collection'.  Posting a link in either the corresponding thread or prompt blog is also a great idea.  Please let me know if you have any more questions.  Prompt blogs are found in the "Writing World" section of blogs.  If you click on the "prompt" tag, it will show you all the prompt blogs.  

 

[Jason Rimbaud]

My story Christmas In Glacier Bay started from a prompt, and then expanded for Secret Author Contest, and then fitted into my shared world. All from a prompt I read maybe three years ago that I never forgot, 

J

[Ron]

14 hours ago, Valkyrie said:

We do ask that if a prompt story is less than 1k words that it be included as part of a collection, so if you are planning on writing multiple prompt responses, please create a story 'collection'.

Ha! For some damn reason the word collection wouldn’t come to mind, and so I called it a group. Thanks for fleshing it out as an admin. I have noticed that Renee has been a bit incognito lately so I popped in.