Interest in a weekly or biweekly writing prompt?
One aspect of the Writing Prompts subreddit that frustrated me the most was that the submission that got the most responses was often the one that was submitted first. I found that in order to ensure that I got feedback and criticism, I often found myself rushing or submitting sloppy work so that I could submit first. Often times I would ignore prompts I liked because other posts had already taken off.
I’d like to try something here that addresses some of those issues. I imagine it working like this:
- The first post would be a number of prompts that participants would choose from to be that week’s prompt.
- After a prompt is chosen, I wouldn’t accept submissions for one/two weeks to give people time to develop their ideas and submissions.
- A new post would be created for submissions for the past week’s prompt and providing a new list of potential prompts for the following week.
- Go to 2...
So long as it is practical, I will read and provide feedback and constructive criticisms for every submission.
I hope this encourages people to develop fledgling ideas as they have the time to let their ideas breathe and they have the promise of feedback at the end of it.
Of course this isn’t meant to replace other casual writing prompts.
Edit:
For those interested a few questions:
- Is one week enough time to write?
- Would it be better for the writing time to include the weekend?
- Would you be okay with certain restrictions like 1,500 words? Is that too many words? Too few?
Edit2:
Okay, I'll try to set this up!
Over the weekend I'll think up some prompts. Here's how I see it rolling out right now. Feel free to suggest other things as it's all fluid right now. I'm open to any and all suggestions.
- Monday, Aug 20, I'll post three or four prompts. I'll leave voting up to participants? Or maybe allow the whole Tildes community to vote on the kind of story or theme they would like to read (hopefully to bring writers more feedback)?
- Tuesday, Aug 21, I'll announce the weekly prompt. Remaining prompts with good support will be carried over to the following week? Remaining prompts with little support will be removed from the pool?
- The following Wednesday, Aug 29, I'll open a thread for the past week's submissions and post a pool of three or four prompts to choose from.
Not sure how voting for prompts will work, I'm thinking of posting the possible prompts in the comments and using Tilde's voting system.
I'm not a writer at all, but I love reading /r/writingprompts, so I think this would be a great idea!
It should definitely have a distinctive tag, but I think:
Might imply that the daily writing prompts aren't deep or serious (I suspect these two suggestions were just off the top of your head though!).
If/when an official writing prompt group emerges, it might be a good idea to institute use of a mandatory [Daily] or [Weekly] descriptor in the title.
Edit: I called groups subreddits <:I
Sorry, just to clarify here, do you mean group? Not subreddit?
That was a typo! Thanks for catching that.
Can't believe I called the putative writing prompts 'group' a 'subreddit.'
Reddit has corrupted me <:I
It's corrupted us all O_O
Gee, anyone else suddenly getting the urge to circlekjerk about hating trump?
I could tag it with "weekly writing prompt" or "WWP".
Sorry, but what exactly do you mean by “not your regular WP”? From what I’ve seen, most WP get generally serious responses, and I don’t think the shorter, humorous responses that take another perspective on the prompt should necessarily be discouraged.
At least on r/wp it wasn't the norm.
Faster, shorter, more humorous responses are totally fine, I love writing those too. I think you get my goal though: I want to do a kind of prompt where someone could take a few days to think about their stories without worrying about it getting buried or forgotten when they're happy with it.
I've definitely raced through some stories just so I could be the first post and found myself disappointed.
There've also been times I've spent a little too long on a response I liked and stopped working on it because I knew it would get lost.
Hopefully this can be a space for people who don't want to make that compromise.
Ah, gotcha, you and @39hp's comments have cleared this up for me.
I really like this idea! Particularly this bit:
The narrow window for submission was always the biggest barrier to me participating in writing prompts online.
A couple years ago, I challenged myself to check /r/simpleprompts every Monday for 3 months. I would select one of the prompts at random and then write something. After three months, I had probably finished four or five pieces I was relatively pleased with. But I never posted any of them.
By the time I would finish a piece, five or six days had usually passed and the prompt was old news.
One thought on this:
What would you think of just making all the prompts eligible for selection?
On the one hand, it would offer a lot more freedom to the writers and give readers greater variety in the stories they read.
On the other hand, you would burn through a lot of prompts.
Unfortunately, I don't have much time to participate in writing prompts anymore, even in my private life :( But as someone who wished such a rule existed a couple years ago on r/simpleprompts, I thought I'd offer my opinion anyway!
tl;dr I think it's a great idea.
I thought about that. I guess if the prompts were all under an umbrella theme I would be okay with that. I think a single prompt or unifying theme would encourage people to comment on each other's prompts as they're all in the same sandbox.
I'm committed to giving good feedback on every story, so 3 stories would be fine for now :P
I really like your 100-word idea too, and maybe because of it's size was interested in posting. However, I just don't have the energy at this exact time. And also didn't want to be "first on the dance floor" if you know what I mean. I would love to see it as a regular thing!
Never studied writing and have always been terrible at it, but I want to get better. I'd participate at least for the first few.
What could I do to make something like this more welcoming and enjoyable for you?
Well I'm already pretty comfortable, I like my fellow tilderons. I guess having it open to everyone at all skill levels, but also knowing that someone will read it and give feedback. Kind of like there is an agreement and I have my side to uphold, its motivational.
I love this! I haven't written in years, and will likely continue to lurk, but really think this will be awesome!