Monthly Writing Challenge Prompt Suggestions

[JamesMartin]

Hello Sanctum Dwellers!

As some of you have noticed, there has not been a writing challenge posted for this month. This was an unfortunate consequence of some (now resolved) dental issues on my part. As of right now, the plan is for them to resume as they were in August.

Rather than waste this month, I'm opening up this thread to get suggestions for future writing prompts. Post your ideas below! Just a few quick rules of thumb:

1. Prompts should be brief

2. Prompts should be able to be approached from a lot of different directions

3. Prompts shouldn't be so broad that they don't place any limits on the writers; It is a challenge, after all

Please try to make suggestions that you yourself would enjoy responding to. If you think you would enjoy someone else's prompt, be sure to give their comment a like. This tells us what kind of challenges people want to see more of!

Looking forward to your suggestions!

 

[angelicmadrigal]

I actually have few suggestions, and more may follow.
*********************
IDEA 1
Unlike most of our challenges that are purely fiction based, I propose a non-fiction challenge. Not only is it a non-fiction challenge, but it is also autobiographical. Write a story in narrative or essay form about a time you were betrayed. Yes, real life. You may change the names to protect the guilty if you wish, or leave out names entirely, but it must have really happened. This does NOT necessarily have to be written in first person either; though that might be an extra challenge unto itself.

IDEA 2
Write a love letter to your ideal mate. Yes, this will be in letter format. If you already have an ideal mate, feel free to write it to that person directly. Let's show off our romantic sides folks!

IDEA 3
Choose two of your favorite characters that you've ever written and have them argue over something. The subject of the argument can be anything you want.

IDEA 4
In a single paragraph (no more than 10 sentences), describe something that you find beautiful that others might find ugly, weird, or disturbing. Do not name the thing in the description or the title. Half the fun is keeping the reader guessing!

 

[prettykittythekitten]

Prompt #1

"Dare I ask why there is a jar full of souls on your desk?"


Prompt #2

You're alone in the forest with your camera. As you're walking, you accidently turn on the thermal mode. Suddenly you can see the heat profiles of hundreds of people surrounding you.


Prompt #3

You rush into a church to stop the love of your life from marrying the wrong person. Not paying attention, you barge into the room and yell, "I OBJECT!"..... You realize it's a funeral you just barged into. The deceased person immediately rises from the casket in perfect health. All eyes in the room turn to you- shocked.


Prompt #4

A forest is struck by lighting. Clearly it wasnt a normal bolt of lighting since the electrical charge that pulsed through the ground gave every creature in the forest, including you, special powers.


Prompt #5

"You survived what you thought would kill you. Now straighten your crown and move forward like the queen you are."


Prompt #6

In the future, telepaths provide the only way to send "faster than light" messages across the universe. Anyone with the gift is forced to work for the Government Office of Interplanetry Communication.


Prompt #7

You are a recently hired Psychiatrist at a mental hospital. Some of your patients are insisting that they were once staff of the hosptial too, but are now being held prisioner by the actual patients that now run the hospital.


Prompt #8

"Come here"

"Why?"

"Just come here."

"No, You're just gonna hit me."


Prompt #9

Since you've been going out for quite some time with your significant other, they've decided it's time for you to meet their parents. You arrive to the house and enter thru the front door, you hear your partner behind you whisper, "I'm so sorry." before shutting the door behind you.


Prompt #10

One evening, a portal to hell opens up at the foot of your bed. A demon walks out of the portal, rips the covers off of you then grabs you and drags you thru the portal with him. "You're going to help me settle a bet."


Prompt #11

A week ago you sent your DNA into an ancestry site for testing. It was supposed to be a fun little thing. However, Today at work you are surrounded by heavily armed federal agents.


Prompt #12

Its 3AM and an alert on your phone wakes you up. The official alert reads, "Do not look at the moon." You have hundreds of texts from random numbers sending, "Its a beautiful night tonight. Look outside."


Prompt #13

To say the wedding wasn't going as planned was an understatement.


Prompt #14

Villains are feared and have to be destroyed. Its the job of a superhero to be fearless and destroy the bad guys. No one ever told this superhero if you don't die a hero, you live long enough to become the villain. Tell the story or dying days of a superhero turned villain.

 

[Bunzo]

1. There's a stray cat who wanders your apartment complex and every once and a while you feed it. One day you save the cat from (insert dilemma) and he offers to tell you stories about your neighbors in return. You're understandably shocked at a cat speaking English, but even more surprised about the secret lives of your neighbors.

2. You're about to quit your shitty retail job in the most epic way possible.

3. You summoned a demon only to make them do mundane shit around the house.

4. Write something about clowns!!!! AHHHHHH DO IT! WRITE ABOUT CLOWNS.

5. A story about your pet, from their perspective.

6. How bout you write a story that has so many Bee Movie references jammed up in there, as many as possible, com'on, you can do it

7. Write a really bad 80-90's sitcom featuring the first 5 forum members in the "Members Online Now" list.


Here's some shit I stole off of Pinterest's writing prompt section, enjoy:


1. You have a friend who constantly apologizes for things that couldn't possibly be their fault. Then you find out it is. All of it.

2. You come across a love potion and as you try to sneak it into your target's drink, someone else drinks it instead.

3. You're a hitman with a conscience- before every kill, you help the victim check something off their bucket list

 

[Morpheus]

I'm afraid I don't have as many ideas as everyone else has right now but may come up with more in the future. That being said I may amend this post in the future to include more prompts.

Prompt #1 - (I actually came up with this one and got some great responses.) One of your characters dies and is reincarnated as the voice inside someone's head.

Prompt #2 - You get an e-mail from one of your previous characters. This character belonged to an RP that you effectively killed and demands an explanation. Defend yourself.

Prompt #3 - Your most recent character walks into a bar (or bar equivalent area) and meets the first character you ever created (or at least the earliest one you remember). What happens, and what conversation do they have?

 

[Scarlet Thread]

Prompt #1

Your parents take you aside and tell you that your entire life has been a complex experiment. What was their hypothesis they were trying to prove or disprove?

Prompt #2

A character from your favorite video game kidnaps you demanding answers.

Prompt #3

Write what your life would look like as a fairy tale.

Prompt #4

Take a fictional character and turn their story into a reality TV show. Then describe the commercial.

 

[Bunzo]

Here's some more prompts I stole off of Pinterest:

1. Your alternate-universe self/character comes to kill you/themselves. The only thing is, you/they are the evil version.

2. A man who sees ghosts checks himself into a mental institution, oblivious to the fact that the facility has been closed for almost 30 years.

3. "Don't pray. Whatever the fuck you do, do not pray. Because the ones that are listening, you don't want them to answer."

4. You're mysteriously trapped in a cheesy sitcom with a seemingly random laugh track. After a string of murders, it becomes apparent that the laugh track signals when the killer is near.

5. As a child, you often daydreamed about a world you invented and would occasionally write about it. 10 years later, you hear many different voices whispering to you. They are the prayers of the inhabitants of your imaginary world. To them, it has been 1000 years since their god abandoned them.

And something original from me

1. Once every month you wake up someplace completely different.

Screenshot the location you get on MapCrunch - Random Street View and write about how you get home.