Writing Prompts

Classic Storytelling

• books
• (mostly) one author
• often narratological structure

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball.

Writing prompts

• Often online
• Multi-authorship
• Loose creative structure
• Inspired by one "prompt"

Examples

• A wife kills her husband. Make me sympathize with both characters.
• You travel back in time to the 1900's, you take your tablet/smartphone out of your rucksack only to find that there is a WiFI hotspot nearby labeled "If you can see this, turn back."

Untitled Slide

• A new invention enables people to remember their dreams with absolute clarity. It turns out we were forgetting them for a very good reason...

Example stories

"Bad" prompt?

• "You find out your best friend is harboring a dark secret. You confront him/her to find out the truth."
• Problems here?

Untitled Slide

• What kind of a friend?
• What kind of a secret?
• What happens next?

Good prompts?

• "That's the beauty of a good prompt: it should serve as an invitation, not as a list of directions."

Try and find out for yourself!

Further inspiration/writing prompts?

• www.reddit.com/r/writingprompts