Prompts and motivation to create something out of nothing

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About WritingPrompts

WritingPrompts is a place where people are inspired to write. Whether you want to inspire, be inspired, or just enjoy the inspired words, we are the place for you.

Before you start, make sure you are familiar with the basics. In the interest of running smoothly, there are specific guidelines for what you can post and how you can comment on this subreddit.

Full Rules and Guidelines

Submitting Prompts

• All posts require tags, which are automatically given flair. They must be written at the beginning of the title, capitalized, and in square brackets. This helps us organize and create filters for specific types of prompts

• Submit your post with a writing prompt in the title.

• Prompts should be phrased to inspire stories, not request specific plots

Writing

Finding Prompts

• The "hot" page of the sub is where you will find the "best" prompts, however you will find that several of them already have stories. Many feel posting there is hopeless to be seen, but because of the nature of reddit, newer comments are given higher priority over those with the most votes. This allows late stories to rise up without getting buried

• If you want to try and gain more visibility, try to find a prompt that's newer, but appears to be rising in score quickly ("top by hour" and "rising" tabs are helpful too). However, doing so may limit your creativity if you're not inspired by the current prompts

• If you want to be a true writing promptian, you should check the "new" tab (or even all the tabs) and look for prompts that speak to you

• Upvote any prompt you find interesting. The more votes good prompts receive, the better chance they reach the hot page

• You can utilize the search to find prompts by specific keywords or use the saved tag filters on the sidebar or here to filter on specific prompt types

• Go to /r/WritingPrompts/random for a random prompt!

Guidelines

• All top-level comments must be a story or poem and will be removed otherwise.

• Stories and poems may also be submitted as [PI] tagged posts when the original prompts are at least 3 days old

• Stories and poems must not be low-effort. While that is obviously subjective, this is enforced in the following ways:

  • 100 words minimum for stories, 30 for poems but include [Poem]
  • New work written specifically for the prompt
  • No joke responses (humor is fine)

• 18+ content is allowed to an extent (tagged appropriately) but sexually explicit content and trollish and harmful content is not tolerated

Reading

Finding Stories

• The "hot" page will most likely have prompts with the most stories

• Checking the "new" and other tabs will help you find the hidden gems. That's where the greatest stories start and without users reading and upvoting, they can be overlooked. Same goes for buried stories on large prompts (you can sort comments by new too)

• Upvote any story you find interesting. After all, they wrote the story for you (in a way)

• Consider commenting to let the writer know your feedback:

  • Even just a "nice story" goes a long way
  • Giving more specific feedback is especially helpful for writers
  • Leaving an in-depth critique makes you a superstar (criticism should be constructive and positive)

• If the story is especially outstanding, consider submitting it to /r/bestofWritingPrompts

• You can utilize the search to find prompts by specific keywords or use the saved tag filters on the sidebar or here to filter on specific prompt types

• Go to /r/WritingPrompts/random for a random prompt!

Guidelines

• Stories on prompts can be taken in many different ways. If you're expecting it to be followed exactly, you may be disappointed

• Not everyone has the same writing background. In fact, many people come here to practice their writing skills. You should take that into account when coming across any spelling or grammatical errors.

Features

• We have a weekly schedule of useful and interesting posts. Check the sidebar for links to the most recent:

  • Sunday: Smash 'Em Up
  • Monday: Writing Prompts Spotlight
  • Tuesday: Talking
  • Wednesday: Wildcard
  • Thursday: Theme of the Week
  • Friday: Follow Me
  • Saturday: SatChat

• Chatroom where you can meet other users

• Check out our related links

• Tons of other cool and interesting resources in the wiki

• We also have a /u/SurvivorType that does cool things and likes Ron Howard