Tildes Monthly Writing Prompts! (April 2025)
Welcome to the April Tildes Writing Prompt! Hopefully the first installment of many monthly writing prompts.
This is an offshoot of the writing contests hosted by @TheMeerkat, but a bit less formal and running all month long. Though we'll still have a contest, with a prize of a $20 gift code for Proton or Tuta courtesy of Meerkat. That said, the ultimate goal is to just have an excuse to write.
Among the changes: we have two options for prompts this time!
The Traditional Prompt: The arrival of spring brings a clearer mind, and new revelations.
The Keywords Prompt: Rain, Spring, Renewal
You can choose to do either one, combine them, or do both in separate stories! The keywords are a bit experimental, so while ideally you should aim to incorporate all three, you can choose to use just one or two. I chose words that can be interpreted in a few ways, so don't feel like you have to write about renewing library books on a rainy day in spring.
General Guidelines
- Creative writing only. Any format is allowed—prose, poetry, fanfics, creative nonfiction, branching narrative, what have you. Just keep it creative!
- The contest is optional. Some of us just want to dip our toes into writing or share our creations with no pressure or interest in prizes. So just state if you want to opt in or out.
- Length. Soft rule of 1,000 to 7,500 words, especially if you opt to enter the contest. However, any length is acceptable. Got a two-sentence horror story? Go for it! Somehow hammer out a full 60,000 word novel in a month? No guarantees many people will have time to read it, but that sort of effort deserves to be shared! (Seriously, you'd earn those bragging rights.)
- The contest winner will be decided via a poll. @TheMeerkat will post a link when the time comes. We'll be doing ranked voting rather than picking just one. So please read all the stories you can!
- You can write multiple stories, but only one can be entered in the contest! This rule was particularly made with shorter entries in mind, but the big goal is just to write. So if you've got multiple ideas, don't feel like you need to pick just one!
- Formatting notes. As with the contests, please use collapsible formatting if posting directly to the comments. If posting externally like with Google Docs or a PDF, just keep in mind that people are reading this on all sorts of screen sizes so fixed formats may not work the way you like.
The contest deadline is Saturday, April 26th, at 11:59:59 EST.. This should hopefully give everyone plenty of time to write and read entries before voting starts, and enough time to announce a winner before the end of the month.
And as a final note, please leave feedback on other stories when you can! Getting feedback is one of the best parts of being a writer. I know I always get a big grin at even just simple heart emoji, though you should probably leave a bit more than just that in your feedback here.
Happy writing! I look forward to seeing what everyone comes up with!
A bunch of people asked to be pinged for the monthly writing contests, so here's your notice about the monthly writing prompt! I originally hesitated to ping everyone this since this technically isn't the same as the writing contests, but after sleeping on it I figured this is basically the same. (It also still has the contest, just a little more laidback and optional.) Just comment if you want to be removed or added to the ping list for future months!
@fefellama @Grzmot @Rudism @GoatOnPony @kfwyre @LackingInThought @Tiraon @chocobean @0d_billie @Fiachra
I’m happy to be included on this too! Thanks for the ping.
Thank you kindly!
Thank you for the ping and for picking up the writing prompt mantel!
Hell yeah! Thanks for giving this another try. And amazing prompt.
As always, I look forward to seeing what everyone comes up with!
I wouldn't know where to begin since northeast Brazil barely has seasons and when someone says "spring" the first things that come to mind are stock photos and perhaps the movie Annie Hall :P
While I definitely had "April showers bring May flowers" in mind when coming up with the keywords, spring doesn't necessarily have to refer to the season. It can also be a verb, metal springs, or more metaphorical.
As for the traditional prompt, spring itself doesn't matter as much as the "clearer mind and revelations" aspect. I got the idea because I've noticed over the years that my writing ideas tend to feel lighter and fresher at the start of spring. Plenty of people also experience seasonal depression in winter that clears up a bit with spring.
Within a story, it could also be that some event happens coincidentally during spring rather than the season itself. Like someone coming home, an annual festival/holiday, or even just good old "spring cleaning" or students going on spring break to the snowy Himalayas. I wanted to leave room for plenty of interpretations, so I hope this helps!
Is the second prompt the keywords? Sorry I was a touch confused!
Yep! I can probably make it a bit clearer that they're separate prompts.
You could focus on some combination of “rain” and “renewal”. 😺
Oh heck yeah. I was unable to participate in the last one unfortunately due to some real life responsibilities but hope to participate here. Thank you again to everyone involved in organizing this, all the writers, and anyone who reads any of the stories. Best of luck to everyone!