/r/writingprompt

Photograph via snooOG

The premise is simple: users submit prompts, and fellow members of the community respond with their own original stories. Whether it's a single sentence that sparks a thousand ideas or a detailed scenario ripe for exploration, the prompts here serve as launchpads for literary adventures. And the best part? There are no limits to where your imagination can take you.

Adopted by @Nico-Wonderdust on 26/01/24

A daily idea to get you writing. Feel free to share what you write. Make it as short or as long as you want. Write poetry, prose, fiction, whatever strikes your fancy. Feel free to post your own ideas for prompts, just know that I reserve the right to delete any prompt for any reason at any time (though I anticipate this happening extremely rarely).

/r/writingprompt

9,298 Subscribers

3

Wizard Tech Support

You are approached by an elderly-looking man dressed in magical-looking apparel, he touches your head and you are surrounded by blue light as he mumbles "Arakam, melakazam, zafrume!".

He then walks away, you feel no different but you must know what happened. You go to your local mage and they don't know what he did to you, they tell you it isn't really their field to determine curses and the like so they refer you to another wizard they know.

Thus starting a long chain of "this isn't actually my department, you want curses involving blue light, I only do red and yellow, I think Melasar down the street may do that" and "I'll just have to put you on hold while I consult Korax of the 73 Screaming hells".

1 Comment
2024/03/08
01:39 UTC

3

I was in a bit of a weird creative kick earlier and just started writing random words in bunches. I ended up with what sounded like Anime titles

After staring at the titles for a few minutes to get a vibe of what the "shows" would be about I also added a genre or minor details to each one.

  1. PROJECT: Buttermilk
    1. Mystery Thriller
  2. PATH OF TOTALITY or How We Learned to Hate the Moon
    1. Satire of disaster film genre
  3. The Night Mistress
    1. A world war 1 period piece
  4. Galaxy Bound
    1. sci-fi adventure series with star trek vibes
  5. Circus of the Stars!
    1. Biting social commentary of fame and celebrity
  6. June-Bug
    1. Coming of age slice of life about a young girl with a country backdrop during late Summer
  7. Balthazar's Mysterious Traveling Road Show
    1. modern fantasy, Harriet, an investigative journalist looks into disappearances tied to a traveling road show. Going undercover she infiltrates the show, makes friends and uncovers secrets along the way. Her allegiances are tested and friendships put to the test when she figures out what the ring leader has been up to
  8. ¡whiskey-Tango-FOXTROT!
    1. Millitary comedy about the affectionately nicknamed Misfit Company. A ragtag group of young men who didn't seem to fit in with any other company with the sole aim of either figuring out how to make it through war, or die. In my head the show is actually pretty comedy driven, but every few episodes there will be a gut wrenching out of nowhere scene that brings the seriousness of war to the forefront. Running gag of every episode is that the show will end with one of the characters saying the words "What the f-" either comedically or dramatically but get cut off for the credit roll
  9. Bonds of Titan
    1. In the future, the moon Titan has been colonized. Social commentary on urban decay, class warfare, and corporatocracy . The title references the social and economic struggles that prevent citizens from being able to leave the colonies.

If anyone is interested enough in taking one or more of these and developing further that would be really cool. I just needed to get this out of my head.

0 Comments
2024/03/04
05:38 UTC

3

[WP] In a world where when you die an unusual death you go to another realm where you have a power based on your death and compete for another chance at life. You wake up with a power everyone fears.

2 Comments
2024/02/28
04:35 UTC

7

[WP] You and your immortal friends are making practical jokes that take decades,even centuries to execute. But one day,you decided to take the pranks to the next level.

1 Comment
2024/02/21
00:42 UTC

1

Benlor

Mentor business Man

0 Comments
2024/02/17
08:02 UTC

4

[WP] You are a new student at a prestigious boarding school. While moving in to your dorms, you find a peculiar notebook lying about. Oh, it's a... secret diary? Somebody probably forgot to bring it home. You can't help but read some of it's contents.... but some secrets are better off unknown.

0 Comments
2024/02/14
14:24 UTC

7

[WP] Every night since you can remember you have a realistic dream of dying multiple ways and you feel every bit of pain. One morning you notice the news and see a story about a man being shot in the face down the street, the exact thing that happened in your dream last night.

0 Comments
2024/02/08
17:03 UTC

2

Humans cause the Great Leap to happen in dogs

The IQ of great leap dogs would be ~ 90. External communication is via a collar worn audio transceiver and implants. They would have a small vocabulary of words that they could combine randomly into sentences like humans do. They would have past and future tenses, but only the more intelligent dogs would use progressive and perfected tenses.

0 Comments
2024/02/07
02:41 UTC

8

Everyone manifests a superpower at age 6 or 7. Anyone with a useful/powerful ability is put on a list when they turn 10 years old. Each year, kids (ages 10-17) are picked from this list to participate in a "war" inside a VR World. Two teams fight against each other. This year, you're chosen.

(anything is allowed, even gore. Be strategic. No one dies since it's a VR World, but they still feel the pain of wounds. Also, I'm really sorry but I had to repost this because something happened. I am trying to delete the old one but something is wrong)

0 Comments
2024/02/02
18:44 UTC

6

I wake up in different bodies, and have no clue why. (Part 3)

My name is Alexander. Since the last time I wrote, I have changed bodies. My previous dad found out that I was using the computer to write, he beat me out of anger, and I guess I was knocked out. After that, I woke up in this body. I won't get into details about who I am or my age because honestly, I don't care. The next time I write, I could be in a different body, and I'd rather not have to explain every time. Before I get into my favorite life, I will explain what I have learned up until this point of switching bodies, and the rules I have to follow.

Rule #1: Never tell people that you switch bodies. They will think you're absolutely crazy or delusional. Parents are the worst when it comes to telling them; they assume that you need to be institutionalized, and although the drugs in mental asylums are top-notch, it basically is a prison. Friends will think you're childish and playing some sort of depressing pretend game.

Rule #2: Never expect to last long in one body. If you get your hopes up, the switch will just make you want to end it all. Which doesn't work (I've tried). Getting your hopes up is like putting it all on zero; the chances are so small, so why do it?

Rule #3: Never, I repeat, never fall in love. Love hurts when you know you can't stay, not to mention, when the original mind goes back to the body, they will have no idea about the feelings that you and the other person felt. It's like a coma for them; they notice that the dates are messed up but nothing about the experiences that their body went through.

Moral of switching bodies: It hurts, never being able to form a relationship is harder on you than you'd think. You get to experience so much but so little at the same time. You learn that you will never know what someone else is going through; in 2008, I inhabited a body that everyone loved, he was popular and athletic, on the outside, he seemed like a happy person. However, his family was awful; they were struggling from the recession and took it out on him, I mean I woke up with bruises and cuts from his parents. I hope he was able to get out of that situation after I left. The big picture of switching bodies is that it sucks, but at the same time, you learn that no two people are the same. Everyone has a story that they keep secret, and I am the one that gets to see it, good or bad

0 Comments
2024/02/02
18:27 UTC

5

I wake up in different bodies, and have no clue why. (Part 2)

My first memory was being in the body of a young boy. To this day, I have no idea if that was my original body, but that's not important. My life in that body was short-lived anyway. The only thing I remember clearly was going through the immigration center, "håpets øy" or "the island of hope," as my father at the time called it. My mother was unknown. Shortly after we were processed, I fell asleep on my father's lap. When I woke up, I was in a completely different body. Needless to say, I was very confused. I was even more confused when I realized I could speak an entirely different language, fluently as well. This confusion stuck with me for a while. It was around 3 body changes when I realized that this was my life now, never being able to live a full life, just short snippets of someone else's. The one thing in common with all of my body changes is that it happens when I fall asleep, but not every time. Sometimes I spend a few hours in a body, other times I can spend months. My longest time ever in one body is 1 year and 3 months, and it was by far my greatest, short-lived life. I'll get back to you later; my "dad" just opened a beer, and I can already tell the beer is going to tell him how angry he is…

0 Comments
2024/02/01
14:16 UTC

3

I wake up in a different body, and have no clue why. (Part 1)

I don't like this body. Not to say that I don't feel confident in myself, let me explain. Ever since I was young, I had no idea who I was. I mean I was somebody, but every now and then, I wake up within a new body. There's no rhyme, reason, or explanation to this condition. This time around, I am a young girl, around the age of 13. My parents are abusive, and they care about nothing else than my younger brother. I am pretty sure my dad is unemployed, and my mom works in retail. I am still trying to figure out my backstory, but from what I have gathered over the course of the week I have been living in this body, I, this person that I am in, was a mistake. There is nothing to do in the run-down house except avoid my "dad" and take care of my brother. Most of my time is dedicated to sitting around, waiting for my brother to start crying about something stupid like breaking his own toy. And don't think that he's some baby; he's only a few years younger than me, maybe around 9-10. I figured that instead of laying down staring at the paint peeling on the ceiling or the mold slowly creeping up the walls, I would share my experiences over the past 137 years.

0 Comments
2024/02/01
04:28 UTC

1

had a dream and decided to write, thought it was interesting. Thoughts?

Dreams are a funny thing. They are unavoidable. People say they don't dream, but let's be honest, they just have a terrible memory. I'm not saying that I remember all of my dreams, but I can say that they stick with me for quite a bit. Besides the point of people having a terrible memory, dreams are things that can contain some of the weirdest things, the most pleasant things, and also some of the scariest things. But one thing is the same throughout all of them: people don't want to wake up. We never want to wake up to reality because, no matter what the dream is, we'd much rather stay sleeping. I can't speak for everyone, but I dread waking up because it means that I have to deal with real-life stuff. Responsibilities and stress don't exist in the dream world, and when they do, we all know it ends. But as soon as you wake up, the stress and anxiety you feel only end when you do. It's scary. But one thing that I realized recently is that dreams are just something our mind comes up with, but what's stopping our minds from making up stuff when we are awake? In short, nothing. But we are bound by reality. In dreams, anything is possible. You could be a king in the 15th century, a superhero who gets the girl, or a rich man who can do anything anytime he wants. Whereas when we wake up, we are living the same old life we have always lived. Things like money, responsibilities, stress, and not to mention physics all exist when we wake up. But every now and then, we get a dream that seems so real we ask ourselves, "Did that really happen?" I like to live in my dreams. They're way better than having to go back to the same old boring life, or so I thought.

Sure, I might not be able to replicate any of my dreams in my real life, but the future is way too undefined to be stuck in the same place. I want to fly, travel, live happily, experience things that I only imagined could happen in dreams in real life. The only thing stopping me, you ask? Well, me and physics. Now that I realize it, dreams are achievable. We may have to take a huge risk in the process, but living itself is a risk. At any moment, we could experience loss, sadness, and even death. But to hell with all of that right now. We only get so long on this earth, so why waste it sleeping to live your dreams? Wake up and live your dreams. After all, we want to stay dreaming anyways, so dream within reality.

0 Comments
2024/02/01
01:19 UTC

3

Family Turns Foe

After being forced off your last job, you leave the city and move back in with your folks in your small hometown. You notice you’re falling ill, having a very specific headache that you haven’t felt since you moved out. You chalk it up to the nearby power plant and it’s gross fumes. Doing your adult-child duties, you check the mail to find 2 brand new insurance policies. One for you and one for your sibling. Slowly over time, both you and your sibling are set up for crimes, caught up in street issues, and poisoned. In a plot involving crooked cops, pharmacists, hackers, and human traff1ckers, your small hometown doesn’t seem like home anymore. You learn the ugly truth about what family would do to payback PPP loans. But chaos has already been orchestrated and local law enforcement has already been paid off. With a raggedy old vehicle and the few clothes you have, you run back to the city. Only to learn you were framed for ruining several multi-million dollar contracts at your last job.

0 Comments
2024/01/29
17:25 UTC

30

Writing Prompts Is Back!

Some time ago this sub was restricted, this was once a great community that many users visited daily to either post their own prompts, to read prompts and find inspiration, or to take a break from their current project to work on something quick and a bit different.

I felt that, being restricted, the community was missing out and deserved to have access to their beloved sub once again and as such, have become a mod here in order to open up the sub once more.

Happy writing everyone!

6 Comments
2024/01/26
12:52 UTC

59

[EU] Lactobacillus just became sentient on Earth and has entered the space era. Your baguette rocket, packed with millions of yeasts, fortified by gluten and crust, propelled by CO2 and combusting ethanol, has just successfully performed lift-off. Unbeknownst to you, a mold colony came onboard, too.

3 Comments
2020/04/20
20:34 UTC

89

A scientist discovers that misbehaving printers are the only way a species of aliens have found to communicate with humans

13 Comments
2020/04/20
16:07 UTC

35

A time traveler from the past ends up in a metropolis of the world during March-April 2020

She looks around the desolate, barren, empty city, resounding only in the silently decaying remnants of civilisation. Trash tipping over, cats fighting, the breeze blowing, flags clinging on their poles. She looks around, unsure of what became of the city.

Keep this going. Let's see what we can build together.

6 Comments
2020/04/19
10:41 UTC

19

A Story about a creature that needs your name to do stuff to you. also Paypal

This creature needs your full name to possess you or do stuff to you but to find out your full name it tells you that if you give it the email to your paypal account it will send you money. the money arrives, but now you are cursed since paypal gives your full name to anyone who sends you money and it makes it seem like the money was cursed. end saga.

5 Comments
2020/04/17
17:31 UTC

6

Bernie supporters celebrate guy fawkes day aka ‘V is for vendetta’.

Should probably include a bit of the lore surrounding governments unleashing plagues upon there own people to garner control.

EDIT: Meant to say ‘ala’ in the title, damn auto correct*

0 Comments
2020/04/17
13:48 UTC

59

[WP] A book that is written entirely through messages left on answering machine.

17 Comments
2020/04/17
11:57 UTC

42

[WP] The story of four brothers. One is the city's best public defender with a huge promotion on the line. The other is the city's most prolific prosecutor who's being considered for the DA position. The third being the judge presiding over the case. The forth on trial for grand larceny and murder.

7 Comments
2020/04/16
14:57 UTC

59

You decided to commit suicide and it seems successfull but sudenly you wake up finding out government cloned you. You live in a dystopian future where everyone is immortal by cloning and suicide is forbiden.

9 Comments
2020/04/15
03:44 UTC

9

Flip the script on common cliches.

8 Comments
2020/04/14
23:55 UTC

35

[WP] You were born in a magical empty room. If you ask for something, the room will give it to you. However, there are two rules you must follow: The room cannot make anything alive, and you cannot leave the room or you will never be allowed back inside again.

13 Comments
2020/04/14
19:26 UTC

40

[WP] You get captured and taken to a town full of elf, centaurs, and other magical creatures. You get put into a pet shop and get labeled as one of the super adorable pet humans

5 Comments
2020/04/14
00:49 UTC

2

ONE SOMEONE VS THE INTERNET

The most unspeakable story.
One that is shouted at the apex of your existence.

No one to hear it.
SCREAM LOUDER.

Be heard.

1 Comment
2020/04/13
22:32 UTC

12

All animals suddenly become fearless

3 Comments
2020/04/12
10:56 UTC

11

[WP] Mother Earth has been choking for so long, she’s had enough and releases a deadly virus on the world

[WP] Mother Earth has been suffocating for so long, she’s had enough and released a fatal virus on the world

4 Comments
2020/04/10
17:42 UTC

13

[WP] Parallel Paradoxes

It was your 70th birthday when you first met yourself. Your future self appeared bragging about finally finding a solution to time travel and a way to save the world. The only problem being that you found the solution far too late and can only travel back a decade at a time. Your goal is to convince yourself that time travel is real and that your younger self should travel back another decade and repeat the process. After a few generations of time-travel-telephone, you're thirty-year-old self now has no idea of the original goal, but free reign with a time machine.

5 Comments
2020/04/08
15:01 UTC

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