(Monthly) Short Story Writing Prompts

There was a little yellow bird
She was lonely in her little white world
No other birds to keep her company but herself
So she rolled to the right
Seeing nothing change, she tried again to distract herself
So she rolled to the left
And she's still alone
She continues rolling here and there
Hoping for something different to come
For something to change
But she's stuck in that loop
Stuck in waiting
For company that never came

Inspiration:



Edit: oh wait... the prompt changed, nvm

 

interesting idea
count me in

I had many stories in my mind but never wrote them because of the lack of experience
this should be a great practice

 

This should be called the monthly short story writing competition instead as that is more or less what it is. It would be nice to have a (short story) writing group in NUF, though. I mean, as far as I know, people in a writing group give each other critics about their stories, but I don't think they are supposed to have deadlines or themes for their stories. It would be nice to have a thread where you can post a short story or the beginning of your novel and have people tell you what they found good and what they thought could be improved.

Now, more on topic. I find the idea of writing the downfall of a powerful organization really appealing

 

who and how will it vs judged.? Will it be volunteers or will it be fine community poll?

 

There wasn't originally a plan for there to be judges or a poll or awards of any kind (unless this is something that people want to do, somehow; maybe we can figure something out together). The current setup is more so: Submit your short story and critique each other's stories, but it's not really a competition and there's no prizes or judges (at least right now).

@Senros had a point that this was competition-like in the sense that there's a submission date and there are submission rules, and it's not free-for-all... For me personally, I put in a monthly deadline because I lose motivation to write fairly easily, and if I don't have a deadline, chances are I won't write anything (because I'm lazy). XD I mean, honestly there isn't that much difference between doing this in a group vs. by yourself+picking random writing prompts off the Internet. However, I just happen to feel more motivated doing something if it seems more official or lots of people are doing it.

...kind of like how NaNoWriMo is an excuse/motivation for people to write (and finish) a novella they always wanted to write, but didn't have to persistence to do in the past.

But then again, this is really open-ended right now. If people think that having this in a contest format would be more motivating, I think we could do that! It's just that somehow the logistics need to be figured out, and I don't have very good ideas. x3

 

haha what an interesting idea for a such all year long , always active forum such as this, hahaha *cough* *cough* ( i need some water ).
well , well what a waste i wanted to join but am always busy so T T i can't . ( maybe next time or so ( i don't know tho when that will be ) )

 

Yeah, I understood that it was a competition, I was simply expressing my thoughts on a relating matter. And I know how you feel. I always tell myself, "Man... you should write something," and then I rarely do it. When I write it's just bits and pieces of stories I think would be interesting to write... they never get many chapters...

A competition is good to motivate people to write sort of consistently and it may keep them writing for quite some time which is awesome, but what I wanted to say, that I really didn't say lol, is that it would be nice to have a group that is more casual. A group where if you find yourself writing a story about whatever but you aren't sure if it's good or not, then you can go into that group, post your story and get eaten alive by the critics. Well, not really, but it would be nice to have a place where people help each other out when they have crazy or weirds ideas for a story. I'm the guy who writes a bunch of first chapters for a bunch of stories, but never continues them even though I find them interesting, so I guess I want something a bit more casual as I would like to write a book someday and it seems like it's going nowhere for me. Short stories are fine for me. Less than 10k words doesn't kill my interest.

There is a difference between what you can pick up in the internet that you think you should improve in your story, than what a third party would think and I think many times we can be satisfied with something we think is good, but it is actually something mediocre at best. That's why a writing group for "casuals" would be nice. I'm too lazy to make it and mantain, though. I'm sure you have realized that xD Also, what I have in mind is too idealistic. If people don't go to that thread often, it will be soon forgotten and then no one will read the works that people post in it... logistics suck...

 

This got potential

 

I think what you and Yuzu-chan suggested are the same thing... This isn't a competition, it's just something for fun, to write and compare your with others, that's how I'm viewing it at least.

The specific topic and the deadlines are only there to make sure we have some pointers in what to write, and a limit to when we should write it, so that we don't take forever to write, it's an incentive mainly, nothing more, it's quite casual.

 

True. Absolutely agreed on the fact that without deadline, people tend to be lazy. The prime example is yours truly, hehehehe~! And this is just a platform for people who like writing to increase their skill. And I like that we will critique each other's work but not in a sense of someone judging them for a competition to see who is the winner and the loser. I think this is a very good idea~!
Ah, maybe just need to make a good rule about it. As in word limit, maximum and minimum and can it be R-15 or even R-18 type of story. You know, all thus stuff. Have you make that? I might missed that.

 

500-7500 words dear, I don't think there was any limit if it was R-15, R-18 or whatever, I guess it's pretty much free on that regard.

 

Ah, Okay~! I did say that I might miss them~! Hehehe~! Thanks, dear~!
Hmm....I really hope I can do finish writing a story. Well, hope for the best, I guess.

 

I don't know about a word limit. The only limitation I think it should be is the short story must have a beginning, middle and end. The longer it is the more discouraged others would be to reading it, thus it will give the writer the mindset of being wary not to overdue it. Also as time passes, some of the writers might (most likely will), gain interest from others, to the point they will read anything that person writes, no matter how long. An interesting thought, no?

 

Wrire as far you can! As far I find free time and as far don't boring me too much, I will read it to the end and give my opinion!

 

This sounds neat. Let me know if you need anything!!

 

So it's been about a day, so I'll officially declare the strawpoll closed! (I would lock it if I knew how, but I don't. xD)

The winner is option 2! This is our topic for November's MoShoStoWri (Monthly Short Story Writing)! Please write a short story (500-7500 words) related to this topic before November 15th! Feel free to tweak this prompt for your needs -- the topic is just a starting point to get ideas running, so feel to interpret it however you like!

2. What happens after death?
Where do the dead go after they die? The Greeks believed in the ferryman at the River Styx, and the Norse believed in Vahalla. In your world, what happens after death? This cannot be a reincarnation or sent-to-another-world story.
(source: Glaurung's suggestion)

The vote counts ended up being:
1 - 11 votes
2 - 16 votes
3 - 9 votes
4 - 10 votes

EDIT: Always check the first post for updates! I'll always update there, so if things get buried and are hard to find, the first post will always be up to date! When it gets closer to November and people start posting in with their stories already, I might make another thread with a master list of all the submissions -- it might be good to separate the critiquing and the administration parts of this... hm....

 

4 seems really nice. It sounds rather hard to actually write a good story on.

 

So where do I post my story?

 

I think OP said in this thread. made an account earlier because I was interested in this, actually.