― Herman Melville

Do we hide away in our towers or do we stand at the foot, daring to break in? Good words, my friends!

Please make sure you are aware of the ranking rules. They’re listed in the post below and in a linked wiki. The challenge is included every week!

[IP] | [MP]

• Use the tag [TT] when submitting prompts that match this week’s theme.

Theme Thursday Rules

• Leave one story or poem between 100 and 500 words as a top-level comment. Use wordcounter.net to check your word count.

• Deadline: 11:59 PM CST next Tuesday

• No serials or stories that have been written for another prompt or feature here on WP

• No previously written content

• Any stories not meeting these rules will be disqualified from rankings and will not be read at campfires

• Does your story not fit the Theme Thursday rules? You can post your story as a [PI] with your work when TT post is 3 days old!

• The form to submit votes for Theme Thursday winners is posted on Discord every week! Join and help your favorites rise to the top of the ranks!

Theme Thursday Discussion Section:

• Discuss your thoughts on this week’s theme, or share your ideas for upcoming themes.

Campfire

• On Wednesdays we host two Theme Thursday Campfires on the Discord main voice lounge. Join us to read your story aloud, hear other stories, and have a blast discussing writing!

• Time: I’ll be there 7 pm CST and we’ll begin within about 15 minutes.

• Don’t worry about being late, just join! Don’t forget to sign up for a campfire slot on discord. If you don’t sign up, you won’t be put into the pre-set order and we can’t accommodate any time constraints. We don’t want you to miss out on awesome feedback, so get to discord and use that !TT command!

• There’s a Theme Thursday role on the Discord server, so make sure you grab that so you’re notified of all Theme Thursday-related news!

As a reminder to all of you writing for Theme Thursday: the interpretation is completely up to you! I love to share my thoughts on what the theme makes me think of but you are by no means bound to these ideas! I love when writers step outside their comfort zones or think outside the box, so take all my thoughts with a grain of salt if you had something entirely different in mind.

• Plot - Up to 50 points if the story makes sense

• Resolution - Up to 10 points if the story has an ending (not a cliffhanger)

• Grammar & Punctuation - Up to 10 points for spell checking

• Weekly Challenge - 25 points for not using the theme word - points off for uses of synonyms. The point of this is to exercise setting a scene, description, and characters without leaning on the definition. Not meeting the spirit of this challenge only hurts you!

• Actionable Feedback - 5 points for each story you give crit to, up to 25 points

• Nominations - 10 points for each nomination your story receives, no cap; 5 points for submitting nominations

• Ali’s Ranking - 50 points for first place, 40 points for second place, 30 points for third place, 20 points for fourth place, 10 points for fifth, plus regular nominations

First by /u/GingerQuill *

Second by /u/Xacktar

Third by /u/sevenseassaurus *

Fourth by /u/katpoker666 *

Fifth by /u/Ryter99

*Crit superstars will now earn 1 crit cred on WPC!

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• Want to know how to rank on Theme Thursday? Check out my brand new wiki!

• Join Discord to chat with prompters, authors, and readers!

• We are currently looking for moderators! Apply to be a moderator any time!

• Nominate your favorite WP authors for Spotlight and Hall of Fame!

• Learn tips from some of our best writers with our new Talking Tuesday feature!

• Want to try collaborative writing? Check out Follow Me Friday!

• Come check out our brand new feature on r/ShortStories to chat about all things writing: Roundtable Thursday

• Serialize your story at r/shortstories!

• Try out the Micro-Fic Challenge at r/shortstories!

• Love the feedback you get on your Theme Thursday stories? Check out our newest sub, r/WPCritique