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The Short Fic Weekly Challenge Thread!


elliotcat

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Week of November 4, 2022

Paparazzi: While they might not start that way, our characters end up famous in their stories. And while that gains them a lot of goodwill and deference (or terrorized submission, if they’re villains) it must also attract a good deal of unwanted attention as well. Who’s your character’s “biggest fan”? Who’s trying to expose the rust beneath their shining armor? Who’s looking for evidence that the evil emperor likes puppies? Is anyone trying to get an unflattering photo of your character? Why are these people so determined to tear down your character, or at least get others to laugh at them? Most important: how determined are they, and what does your character do about it?

*Feel free to continue submitting stories for any prompt.  A masterpiece missed the deadline?  Don’t let it gather electronic dust, share it anyway!

*This week’s prompt not for you? Look for something more to your taste in the Prompt Archive. Consider all the prompts active and waiting to inspire you.  

This week’s featured previous prompts are:

Rock Your World: When has your character received unexpected, life-changing news? Was it good or bad? Both? Maybe they learned about an otherwise-unknown relative, received a large inheritance, or acquired a large debt. Perhaps they received medical news--positive or negative.   A domestic animal showed up on their doorstep and decided it lived there. Whatever happened, their life is different from this day forward, and it isn’t their choice. What do they do?

Deadlines--Time is running out. Your character has something to do, to complete, to finish, to arrange, and their time grows short. What were they doing? Was it something they put off until it was critical? Did they plan for a long time and only now the pieces are coming together? Did the situation arise suddenly and demand a quick response before the critical time? Was it self-imposed or did another character impose it? A deadline is nothing more than a date or time by which something must be ready or complete. Write about it this week.

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Week of November 11, 2022

I Regret to Inform You: ...what? Who is speaking to your character, and what news are they delivering? Is it legitimately bad news, or is the messenger being ironic? It is news that your character must receive as bad for social reasons, but they’re secretly delighted? Are they devastated by something everyone else sees as sad, but not that sad. How do they deal with the person who delivers the news? “Kill the messenger” is a trope for a reason.

*Feel free to continue submitting stories for any prompt.  A masterpiece missed the deadline?  Don’t let it gather electronic dust, share it anyway!

*This week’s prompt not for you? Look for something more to your taste in the Prompt Archive. Consider all the prompts active and waiting to inspire you.  

This week’s featured previous prompts are:

Nicknames–Does your character have an in-story nickname? How did they earn it? Was it accidentally bestowed or deliberately cultivated? Do they prefer it to their given name or hate it? Give it out or hope no one ever finds out? Do they even know they have one? Maybe their enemies (or friends!) only use it behind their back. Or is your character the one giving nicknames to everyone else?

Cooking: We’ve had several prompts about food, but how about its preparation? Does your character cook? Does their species prepare food at all? What counts as preparation--and how literally do they “gather” or “hunt down” ingredients? Do they like cooking but usually leave it to someone else? Are they terrible at it but clueless to that fact? Are they really quite good cooks, whether they enjoy it or not? Do they only ever prepare one certain dish? Or are they perfectly content to survive on their world’s equivalent of instant ramen, military ration packs, or cheap takeaway?

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Week of November 18, 2022

Testing, Testing: Is your character verifying communications work? That a student retained their lessons? The loyalty of an underling? The faithfulness of a love interest? Was your character the one doing the testing, or the one being tested? How were they tested? Did they pass or were they disappointed in their or another’s performance?  

*Feel free to continue submitting stories for any prompt.  A masterpiece missed the deadline?  Don’t let it gather electronic dust, share it anyway!

*This week’s prompt not for you? Look for something more to your taste in the Prompt Archive. Consider all the prompts active and waiting to inspire you.  

This week’s featured previous prompts are:

I HATE This Song: We've had several prompts regarding music, most of them positive. How about that one song or genre your character can't stand? An ex's favorite song? The song that reminds them of a bad time in their life? The song that played over and over and over and over until they couldn't stand it? A song they mistake for one they enjoy and it disappoints them every time? A song that grated on them from the beginning and their opinion went downhill from there? Write a story about your character and the one (or perhaps several) pieces of music they absolutely hate.

Not My Holiday - No holiday is universal, even on Earth. Are your character’s holidays in line with the culture they live in? Do they celebrate something different at a time no one else does? Do they feel left out on either occasion? Their reasons don’t have to be cultural; they might associate bad experiences with a popular holiday or good ones with something obscure. There are stories in any of the permutations. Write one.

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Week of November 25, 2022

Best Deals Anywhere: Is your character the kind who loves bargain hunting? Do they love to haggle with merchants and always hold out for a sale? Do they need to pinch pennies or is it more like a game to them? Did they grow up scrimping and old habits die hard? Were they more wealthy at one point and now have to watch their money? If they’re the seller, are they really offering a fantastic deal or does it just appear that way? Do they enjoy the back-and-forth bargaining at least as much as making a sale, or is their list price always final? How does your character deal with a day or time or event when everything is on sale?

*Feel free to continue submitting stories for any prompt.  A masterpiece missed the deadline?  Don’t let it gather electronic dust, share it anyway!

*This week’s prompt not for you? Look for something more to your taste in the Prompt Archive. Consider all the prompts active and waiting to inspire you.  

This week’s featured previous prompts are:

Bad luck- Sometimes things go wrong. No reason. It just happens. For some characters  it's an occasional annoyance. For others, well, without bad luck they'd have none at all. Or, like Obi-Wan, your character might believe “there's no such thing as luck.” Given that for a writer, it's fun when our characters get into trouble, write about a time when things didn't go quite right for them, how they dealt with it, or how they felt about it.

Finders Keepers: Losers weepers! When has your character found something of value that was obviously not theirs? Did they keep it or make an effort to find the rightful owner? Maybe they only borrowed it for a time and returned it to where they found it (mostly) good as new. Are they ashamed of their actions or not at all worried; after all, losers weepers? Perhaps, in your character’s culture, it’s appropriate to keep a found item to help their own family or situation. If it was valuable to the original owner, they would have taken better care of it. What happens when the loser searches for their item and finds your character with it?

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Week of December 2, 2022

Retreat!: When has your character had to call retreat? What battle were they losing and where was the safe place to go? Who was the opposing force? Was it always a losing battle or did the tide turn for the worse? It need not be a literal battle of arms. A pitched argument or even a heated disagreement over sandwich options qualify. 

*Feel free to continue submitting stories for any prompt.  A masterpiece missed the deadline?  Don’t let it gather electronic dust, share it anyway!

*This week’s prompt not for you? Look for something more to your taste in the Prompt Archive. Consider all the prompts active and waiting to inspire you.  

This week’s featured previous prompts are:

Losing Confidence - everyone has a crisis of confidence at some point. For a character, it might be a minor setback early in their story, setting them off on their path. It could occur later, where overcoming the self-imposed obstacle is the dramatic moment. Or it could even be a recurring theme throughout their story. This week, write about a time your character lost confidence in their skills or abilities, and what they did about it.

Cooperation--Some characters are loners by nature but even so, they can’t do everything by themselves. They’ll have to cooperate with others. Whether it’s a willing partnership where they all gain or coerced and barely tolerated, there’s ample room for conflict. Maybe they plan to betray their partner at the first opportunity. Maybe they prefer to remain on good terms. Maybe it’s an alliance of necessity and they’ll part on neutral ground. Whatever the reason, whatever the outcome, this week write about your character cooperating with others to achieve a goal.

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Week of December 9, 2022

Major Award: Our characters do all kinds of heroic things. The kind that get them thanks and accolades and rewards. When has your character received a solid, tangible award for something? A trophy for a winning team, a medal for winning a contest, a peer-awarded statue in recognition of their amazing work? A big pile of cash? Was there a ceremony? Did they make a speech? What does the award look like? Do their family or companions rejoice, or do they not care, or do they feel it’s undeserved? What about their rivals or enemies? How does your character feel about it? Write about a time your character won a Major Award.

*Feel free to continue submitting stories for any prompt.  A masterpiece missed the deadline?  Don’t let it gather electronic dust, share it anyway!

*This week’s prompt not for you? Look for something more to your taste in the Prompt Archive. Consider all the prompts active and waiting to inspire you.  

This week’s featured previous prompts are:

Far from Home: Our characters travel, relocate, deploy, or for any number of reasons end up very far from where they started. How do they deal with that fact, especially when an important event comes along? How do they feel celebrating an important cultural holiday when no one else around them does? What about a personal event like a marriage or a birth? Traditions that no one shares? Are they happier away from the people they grew up with? Do these milestones bring a bittersweet nostalgia? Maybe they’re thrilled they never have to celebrate that stupid holiday again. Do they still receive “care packages” from people they haven’t seen in ages? How do they feel about it and what do they do with them? 

Good Things Come in Small Packages: write a drabble, around 100 words, on any previous prompt or none at all. Some sources put drabbles at anywhere from 53 words on the low end to 500 at the upper end. We had an unofficial drabble week a long time ago. This time it’s for real.

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Week of December 16, 2022

Ugly Sweater: ‘Tis the season for Ugly Christmas Sweaters. Ugly covers a lot of ground: over the top, clashing colors, light-up or musical, or just plain hideous. Is there a holiday or event in your character’s world associated with famously ugly clothing? Maybe it’s a different article: hats, shoes, corsages that have grown all out of proportion, dresses, or full suits. How did the tradition start? Has it always been the same, or have styles changed such that the traditional attire is regarded as ugly? Or silly? Or both? Do characters wear it because they genuinely like it, or is near everyone being ironic? Where does your character fall on that spectrum? Do they participate at all?

*Feel free to continue submitting stories for any prompt.  A masterpiece missed the deadline?  Don’t let it gather electronic dust, share it anyway!

*This week’s prompt not for you? Look for something more to your taste in the Prompt Archive. Consider all the prompts active and waiting to inspire you  

This week’s featured previous prompts are:

Spring Cleaning: Time to clean out the WIP folder. Pick something and finish it, whether it’s old and cobwebby or just a few sheets down from the top. Even if you thought it solidified into a shale-like mass under the pressure of all the other WIPs. Crack it open and see what’s inside. Sometimes pressure and long aging makes a diamond. All it needs is some polishing to shine. 

Meeting Old Friends- Some old friends are nearly forgotten, others are close as ever. They might be separated by time and distance or right across the hall. This week, have your character meet with one of them. It could be a planned reunion, scheduled months in advance, as simple as knocking on a door for their daily tea together, or as accidental as running into them at the market. Write about a time when your character met with an old friend, however you choose to interpret it.

Edited by alaurin
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Week of December 23, 2022

Longing: For all the Christmas carols celebrating togetherness, family, gift-giving, and joy, there are some touching on other emotions, like loneliness and longing. Can your character relate? The first holiday without a loved one: long-distance separation, a breakup, illness, or even death. A gift desired but impossible or utterly impractical or maybe simply very unlikely.  nostalgia for the holidays of their past when the world as they perceived it was simpler. Feeling out-of-step with the rest of society celebrating; wanting that togetherness, but not being able to share it. When has your character experienced longing?

*Feel free to continue submitting stories for any prompt.  A masterpiece missed the deadline?  Don’t let it gather electronic dust, share it anyway!

*This week’s prompt not for you? Look for something more to your taste in the Prompt Archive. Consider all the prompts active and waiting to inspire you.  

This week’s featured previous prompts are:

Overindulgence--It is possible to have too much of a good thing. The consequences vary, from a mere stomach ache to a hangover to an arrest record or worse. Some characters are more prone to overindulgence than others. Has your character overindulged? Maybe they were the voice of reason while everyone around them consumed to excess. What happened? Did the incident become an embarrassing story? Tell it! 

Face Your Fears: Write the kind of scene you find most difficult. Falling in love? Action? Smut? Exposition? Description and scene-setting? High emotions? Every writer has something they find hard to write. It’s only human to avoid including it. But at some point your story will need that kind of scene. Face your fear now.

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Week of December 30, 2022

Honor Among Thieves: The phrase is usually interpreted as “don’t rat out your partners in crime.”  But it could be more than just keeping your fellow criminals out of jail. Is there a code of conduct that goes along with being part of a thieves guild? What rules does it specify and why? Is it more an informal agreement that everyone just knows, or is it spelled out somewhere? What kind of honor can exist among people who discarded the rest of society's rules, and how is it enforced?

Feel free to continue submitting stories for any prompt.  A masterpiece missed the deadline?  Don’t let it gather electronic dust, share it anyway!

*This week’s prompt not for you? Look for something more to your taste in the Prompt Archive. Consider all the prompts active and waiting to inspire you.  

This week’s featured previous prompts are:

Special Delivery--Has your character ever ordered or commissioned something? A weapon, an outfit, a portrait, or a story? Are they patient waiting for it to arrive or be completed or do they inquire every day? Do they micromanage? Track their package down to the minute? Or do they forget about it entirely until it shows up? Perhaps your character is the one doing the delivery. Do they get lost? Wonder what’s in the mysterious box? Write about your character’s encounters with deliveries and orders. 

Time Flies (Except When it Doesn't): When has your character seriously misjudged the passage of time? Was the party over before they realized? Did they miss their curfew or an important appointment because they were so engaged in an activity? Did the council meeting or visit with grandma last 497 years? Write about a time when your character was so engaged time flew by--or a time when it felt like it stopped.

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Week of January 6, 2023

Under a Rock: No one can be aware of all current events and drama, no matter how connected they are and what form those connections take. Some characters deliberately limit their social knowledge. Others live more on the outskirts--literally or figuratively. What big story or juicy bit of gossip have they missed? The one that everyone knows about. How do they find out? When? --or do they? What happens? How is it that your character missed this tidbit?

*Feel free to continue submitting stories for any prompt.  A masterpiece missed the deadline?  Don’t let it gather electronic dust, share it anyway!

*This week’s prompt not for you? Look for something more to your taste in the Prompt Archive. Consider all the prompts active and waiting to inspire you.  

This week’s featured previous prompts are:

Luxuries - It’s easy to think in terms of expensive things: fine wine, silk, exquisite meals, and panoramic views. Luxuries don’t have to be expensive, or even things. One character might consider time alone a luxury. For another, enough to eat and a safe place to live. Yet another may relish the privileges their wealth affords them. What does your character consider a luxury and how do they indulge? 

Forgotten Places--A ghost town, an ancient ruin, a hidden valley, an island settlement, now abandoned. Places where people were, but no longer are. What does your character think about them? When has your character encountered one? Did they stumble on it? Seek it out? Read or hear a tale about it? Does it, like El Dorado, exist only in stories?

 

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Week of January 13, 2023

...We Have Cookies: Usually following “come to the dark side.” It’s a meme; no one considers cookies a serious reason to change allegiance or even behavior. However, it’s common for characters (and real people) to assume another wants what they want, and offer up as temptation the thing they themselves most desire. Or to offer something they have in abundance but don’t value at all. Or to promise fun and freedom while not being able to grant it. When has your character been in a situation where the promise or gift offered is something they don’t value at all? Has your character been the one tempting another away from their principles? What did they offer and was it accepted?

*Feel free to continue submitting stories for any prompt.  A masterpiece missed the deadline?  Don’t let it gather electronic dust, share it anyway!

*This week’s prompt not for you? Look for something more to your taste in the Prompt Archive. Consider all the prompts active and waiting to inspire you.   

This week’s featured previous prompts are:

Omens and Portents - Whether being born under a Blood Moon or according to the signs in an ancient prophecy or just picking the winning lottery numbers two weeks in a row, our characters’ lives are filled with omens. Do they put any stock in the superstitions or consider it a bunch of baloney? Are the portents more important to their companions who expect them to be the hero? Is it a sign they should buy another lottery ticket? Omens can be good or bad, and the way your character deals with them likewise so. Explore it. 

Conversion or Proselytizing: You! Yes, you! Can we talk for a bit about...what? What ideas does your character hope to pass on to others? What ideology moves them? Did they convert to their current mindset from a different one? How and why did they make the change? While religion and politics are most obvious choices with this prompt, consider also scientific theories, dietary or exercise regimens, brand loyalty, or comic book heroes. Which version was better, the movie or the book? Why? Does your character have to win the debate, or are they most invested in the discussion itself?

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Week of January 20, 2023

Walking on Eggshells: When has your character had to tread lightly around another? Whether literally--no loud noises please!--or figuratively? If literal, what was the reason? A sleeping baby? An abusive roommate? Don’t want to alert the guards or homeowners during the daring caper? If figurative, was it a particular topic? Do they have a short temper or are otherwise unpredictable? Was your character tired of their rants or constant corrections? Does someone have a hangover and no patience for anything?

*Feel free to continue submitting stories for any prompt.  A masterpiece missed the deadline?  Don’t let it gather electronic dust, share it anyway!

*This week’s prompt not for you? Look for something more to your taste in the Prompt Archive. Consider all the prompts active and waiting to inspire you.  

This week’s featured previous prompts are:

Lone Wolf - Our characters rely on companions, but sometimes they have to do something by themselves. It could be a classic “come alone” challenge, something they need to prove to themselves, or maybe the transport only seats one. Maybe they’re the only one capable. Regardless, they’ve only themselves to rely on. Their skills and experience alone. How do they fare? 

Small Talk--It sounds easy, but writing small talk can be difficult. What do the characters discuss if they meet casually on the street, waiting for food to arrive in a restaurant, waiting for a bus, at the well or water cooler? With a co-worker, with a friend, with an ex, a shopkeeper or receptionist? It doesn’t have to be meaningless filler, stuff you know will go away in editing. Use small talk to tell your reader about the world, about the character’s job concerns, about their family, about story-world politics. If your character hates small talk and wants to escape the situation as soon as possible, that’s a story too! 

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Week of January 27, 2023

That’s a Problem for Future Me: Characters (and their authors) make decisions all the time. Interesting ones have consequences that are fun to explore. But, like their writers, your character probably isn’t aware of all the potential consequences. Write about a time when they were. What problem did they solve and what solution did they come up with? What problem did they set up for themselves and how did they solve that? Or is it still a problem for their future?

*Feel free to continue submitting stories for any prompt.  A masterpiece missed the deadline?  Don’t let it gather electronic dust, share it anyway!

*This week’s prompt not for you? Look for something more to your taste in the Prompt Archive. Consider all the prompts active and waiting to inspire you.  

This week’s featured previous prompts are:

Midnight Sun/Polar Night: At this time of year, on some parts of our planet, the sun never sets or never rises, depending on your location. Days past must be counted by hours elapsed or perhaps the motion of the stars. Has your character ever lived in a place where the day-night cycle most of us take for granted doesn't exist? This needn’t be in a polar exploration station or primitive camp--a starship can fix its own cycles or have none at all. There is no solar guide to days underground or deep underwater. They might live in a City That Never Sleeps, on a world with multiple (or no) suns, or work a job where their hours are opposite everyone else’s. Does your character need dark to sleep? Will coffee wake them up when there’s no dawn? Can they deal with the monotony of unchanging, artificial light? 

Phobia: From Phobos, the personification of fear in Greek mythology, in English a phobia is more than just being afraid.  Phobias are rarely rational. The brain is often eager to label anything as a terrible threat regardless of whether it's logical. A true phobia can be debilitating, where the sufferer avoids any situation that might trigger their fear. Does your character have such a disability? What about one of their companions or someone they meet? Is it a common or reasonable thing to fear? Something others sympathize with even if they don't appreciate the severity? Or is it something rare or mundane? Some thing or condition, made all the worse by the fact that literally no one else understands why it provokes such a reaction. How does your character deal with it? How do they help a companion through an episode? 

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Week of February 3, 2023

Playing Favorites: Does your character pick their friends for special or important tasks? Do they accommodate their favorites in ways they might not otherwise? Do they curry favor with a superior who will do the same for them? The obvious end point of this tendency is a romantic relationship, either real with real emotions or transactional and manipulative. What about the natural opposite: slighting and sidelining those they don’t like or don’t get along with? It’s only human to do either one, but the tendency can cause all kinds of problems long before it goes to extremes. When has your character played favorites, taken pains to avoid the appearance of doing so, or been passed over because they weren’t the favorite? 

*Feel free to continue submitting stories for any prompt.  A masterpiece missed the deadline?  Don’t let it gather electronic dust, share it anyway!

*This week’s prompt not for you? Look for something more to your taste in the Prompt Archive. Consider all the prompts active and waiting to inspire you.  

This week’s featured previous prompts are:

You Are Not Prepared!: It’s an old meme, but it checks out. Most often, our characters are ready for the things we throw at them. Suppose they’re not? Perhaps the situation is more complicated than they expected. Maybe they prepared for every situation except the one they’re in. Perhaps an old enemy is pulling strings behind the scenes and making things more difficult. Maybe your character didn’t bother assessing the situation, or assumed they knew what was going on. How do they deal with it? Are they able to salvage the situation? Does it go from bad to worse and then even worse? What, exactly, were they prepared for, anyway? 

History--Personal or World, history informs your character's actions. What part of the past shapes their present? Are they aware of it? How so? This week, consider your character's history and its influence.

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Week of February 10, 2023

A Leg Up: Once they have an established reputation, your character’s words and recommendations carry weight with others in the story. When have they provided a boost for another character? Was it unintentional? Applied to the wrong person? Taken out of context or misinterpreted? Or was it genuine and deserved? Was the other character grateful?  Did your character expect a return favor? Did they get one anyway? 

*Feel free to continue submitting stories for any prompt.  A masterpiece missed the deadline?  Don’t let it gather electronic dust, share it anyway!

*This week’s prompt not for you? Look for something more to your taste in the Prompt Archive. Consider all the prompts active and waiting to inspire you.  

This week’s featured previous prompts are:

Constant Companions--Who's with your character through all their adventures? Who's their right hand, the one who's always there? Who's Samwise to your Frodo? Why are they there and why do they stay? This week write something featuring the person or people your character relies on.

Roadblock: Something's in the way, physically or metaphorically. Something preventing your character from getting what they want. What is it? Why is it there? What does your character want and who wants to stop them? This week, throw a roadblock in your character's path. Let's see how they navigate it.

Edited by alaurin
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Week of February 17, 2023

One Night Stand: Some characters might not be looking for a soulmate, significant other, or a marriage. Others might hookup to hurt their partner. One might be polyamourous, where casual sex is within the bounds of their relationship with their partner(s). Another might be cheating, where it most definitely is not. Maybe they do want a soulmate, just not with this person, but they want to be with them anyway if only for a short time. Perhaps it grows into something more; maybe it doesn’t. They might have regrets the next morning. They might remember the evening fondly. They might approve for others but not themselves, or vice versa. Consider your character’s experiences surrounding one night stands.

*Feel free to continue submitting stories for any prompt.  A masterpiece missed the deadline?  Don’t let it gather electronic dust, share it anyway!

*This week’s prompt not for you? Look for something more to your taste in the Prompt Archive. Consider all the prompts active and waiting to inspire you.  

This week’s featured previous prompts are:

Bribery: Can maybe get you anywhere, but also might get you nowhere. Interpersonal relations at their most transactional: exchange money for information or influence. Does your character move in circles where this is the norm? Has anyone tried to bribe them? Is this an exchange that doesn’t occur to them to try, or is it their go-to solution? The currency involved can be something other than money, as well. Maybe your character can make a connection for someone, or keep them out of jail. How faithful are they to the bargain, or will they turn when someone else offers a better deal? What does this do for their reputation? Does it work or make the situation worse?

Temptation: It comes in all flavors, all kinds, all things. And it need not be a physical thing at all, but an experience or emotion. It's usually, but not always, a vice. What tempts your character? What siren song do they find irresistible? Do they crash on the rocks following it, do their friends help them avoid it, or do they manage alone? Not all temptations are bad, of course, and not all can be neatly avoided.

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Week of February 24, 2023

Opportunity Knocks: It might be the chance that sent your adventurer on their way. It might be a chance to evade punishment for things they’ve done. Maybe it’s smaller: a job opening they didn’t expect, a contact from an old friend, or an invitation to a special event with a plus one--and they know exactly who to ask. Or their favorite person asks them to be their plus one! What opportunity--large or small--knocks on your character’s door this week?

*Feel free to continue submitting stories for any prompt.  A masterpiece missed the deadline?  Don’t let it gather electronic dust, share it anyway!

*This week’s prompt not for you? Look for something more to your taste in the Prompt Archive. Consider all the prompts active and waiting to inspire you.  

This week’s featured previous prompts are:

Athletics: Sports and athletics contests are story staples, and the drama doesn’t have to be all backstage. There's real drama in the competition itself, with how well one character scores compared to another and why. Who makes mistakes? Who’s flawless? Who throws the game on purpose, and who cheats to win? It can be a significant, official competition, as in the Olympics, all the way down to a pick-up game with friends (or enemies!). It might not even be athletics in the sense of sports. There are plenty of athletics pursued solo, where the challenge is overcoming the environment or personal limitations. This week, make your character’s performance tell the story.

Heart Eyes: The emoji commonly suggests love for, being in love with, or infatuation with a person or thing. So who would your character send heart eyes to? What thing inspires heart eyes for them? Consider this week something or someone that your character would definitely respond to with heart eyes.

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Week of March 3, 2023

The Big One: Kill a Canon Character Starting out with a bang! Maybe literally! It could be a character you hate. It could be one whose close call ought to have (or could easily have) been fatal. It could be one you love, but their death would change the story in dramatic and interesting ways. Maybe it’s a character that canon revived but shouldn’t have (looking at you, Palpatine). Their death might grant another character closure, or vengeance. Maybe they’re just extra and removing them tightens the tale. Their death could be funny or gruesome, or they might have never existed in your new continuity. This week, someone dies.

*Feel free to continue submitting stories for any prompt.  A masterpiece missed the deadline?  Don’t let it gather electronic dust, share it anyway!

*This week’s prompt not for you? Look for something more to your taste in the Prompt Archive. Consider all the prompts active and waiting to inspire you.  

This week’s featured previous prompts are:

Paying the Bills: Adventuring often pays well-- if erratically. Some characters ply a trade or rely on other, more reliable, income sources. At the same time, our characters incur expenses less adventuring types never worry about. How does your character deal with routine bills? What constitutes "routine" for your character? Can they trade the "good laying hens" they received from a villager in gratitude to the local temple for a curse removal? Suppose Republic Credits are no good and they need something more real? Write about a time when your character had to balance their budget.

None Shall Pass: Gates and those who protect them keep your character out of places they want to go. Physical ones and the associated guards might bar the way to the castle, the detention block, or the treasure they want to steal liberate. Physical gatekeepers overlap some more figurative: the ones who decide, based on their own criteria, who gets into a space. Those criteria don’t have to be (and often aren’t) logical, and may be changed on a whim to keep the “wrong people” out. They might be the security around the concert or ball your character wants to attend. They might be the superfans quizzing someone new on fandom minutia. Perhaps your character is one of the guards at the gate, keeping out the “undesirables.” Write a story involving your character’s interactions with gatekeepers, physical or otherwise.

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Week of March 10, 2023

The Other Big One: Retcon a Canon Character Death, or Resurrect a Canonically Dead Character: They didn’t deserve to die. They were fridged to further another character’s story. Their death was pointless. Their death was dramatic and appropriate--but what if they lived? A character you like. A character you hate--but they’re fun to write and died just when they were getting interesting. Maybe they’re now undead: a vampire, zombie, ghost, or ghoul. Whoever it is, how and why they died in canon doesn’t matter. This week, someone lives (or comes back from the dead).

*Feel free to continue submitting stories for any prompt.  A masterpiece missed the deadline?  Don’t let it gather electronic dust, share it anyway!

*This week’s prompt not for you? Look for something more to your taste in the Prompt Archive. Consider all the prompts active and waiting to inspire you.  

This week’s featured previous prompts are:

You Made It: What situation did your character face and make it out alive? A battle, a terrifying mission, a trip back home to visit family? They faced the situation and came out the other side. Not necessarily unscathed--perhaps they have new scars or trauma or lost a companion--but your character made it. What happened, where are they now, and what happens next?  Do they get a breather between situations or are they heading right back out into the fray? Or is this it, the end of their adventure, time for a well-deserved rest?

Threats: Usually violent or of harm, threats are the stick to a promise’s carrot. Does your character threaten others? Been threatened? Legal action or social embarrassment is potentially as threatening as the more-obvious beat down. Are the threats empty, hoping to force compliance without intending on follow through? Or were they promises of the hostile kind, where your character or their enemy merely states what will happen?

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Week of March 17, 2023

OTP/NOTP: What non-canon pair ought to be together? What canon pair shouldn't exist? How they get together/break up is all up to you. They don’t have to be your OTP/NOTP, just interesting relationships to change. Romance doesn’t have to be the center, but rearranging those canon relationships has ripple effects on the rest of the cast and the plot. Apply to platonic relationships too! 

*Feel free to continue submitting stories for any prompt.  A masterpiece missed the deadline?  Don’t let it gather electronic dust, share it anyway!

*This week’s prompt not for you? Look for something more to your taste in the Prompt Archive. Consider all the prompts active and waiting to inspire you.  

This week’s featured previous prompts are:

Difficult Conversations: Granted, any conversation can be difficult, but what’s a topic your character really doesn’t want to discuss? A change in relationship with a significant other? A temporary separation for a dangerous mission? A part of their past they want to keep hidden, or would rather not bring up? Maybe it's a long-running sore subject that never gets resolved. An argument that reaches cease-fire status whenever it comes up, but never peace? It could be a health issue, the death of a friend or family member, an unexpected child, an unpleasant marriage. Or maybe a disagreement over redecorating. Again. Your character’s in for a difficult conversation this week.

Don’t Stop Believing: Countless writers guides council you to include the moment when your character considers quitting. For some stories, it’s the centerpiece, if not the center. Somehow, they go on. Complete the quest, finish the journey, save the world, make a difference. This week, write about your character facing such a moment, and not giving up. Finding the strength to go on.

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Week of March 24, 2023

Given that it's a stupid-ass decision, I've decided to ignore it: Games update, movies and books have sequels, shows continue running, so canon keeps changing. What canon development do you dislike so much that your stories will go on as though it didn't happen? The magnitude of the development is irrelevant. It can be anything from a character’s preferred wardrobe to an entire setting, tone, or theme change. If you’re looking at your own work, consider some experimental tweaking--as much or as little as you like. 

*Feel free to continue submitting stories for any prompt.  A masterpiece missed the deadline?  Don’t let it gather electronic dust, share it anyway!

*This week’s prompt not for you? Look for something more to your taste in the Prompt Archive. Consider all the prompts active and waiting to inspire you. 

This week’s featured previous prompts are:

Work for It: A broad theme in fiction is that our characters want something and then do what they have to in order to get it. They earned their reward, worked for it, therefore they deserve what they have. Villains and antagonists also “earn” their defeats: they opposed our heroes and get what they deserve. But...did they? Friendship, love, forgiveness--these are freely given or not at all. Social positions have elements of both. Consider this week what your character gained by actually working for it and what they feel they deserve--whether they do or not.

Networking: What’s your character’s preferred way to make connections, gather information, or acquire favors? Do they go to or host parties? Use whatever social media exists in their world? Talk to friends? Take out advertisements? Hang around where they think the kind of person they need is likely to show? How subtle are they? Do they make friendly overtures first or bypass the social niceties? Do they get aggressive when they don’t get their way? How does that manifest: throwing punches or throwing shade? Why do they choose their approach? Are they consistent or do they change depending on the situation and what they need?

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Week of March 31, 2023

FixFic Free Space: Previous prompts didn’t hit the mark? Here it is, the chance to change any canon thing you want. Fill in those plot holes, rewrite the ending that fell flat, add characters, combine characters, complete the arcs of ones who faded away. Big fix, little fix, any fix. Fiction is a sandbox; build what you want.

*Feel free to continue submitting stories for any prompt.  A masterpiece missed the deadline?  Don’t let it gather electronic dust, share it anyway!

*This week’s prompt not for you? Look for something more to your taste in the Prompt Archive. Consider all the prompts active and waiting to inspire you. 

This week’s featured previous prompts are:

Hero Worship: Who does your character think of when they hear the word "hero"? Is it a specific person? A type of person, or a person in a specific occupation? Have they ever met their hero(es)? Who sees your character as a hero--no matter how venal they really are? How do they show it, and how does your character deal with it?

What Goes Around Comes Around: If the Golden Rule is “treat others how you wish to be treated” then this is what happens when you don't. Cheaters will be cheated, liars lied to, and bullies bullied. Write about a time when your character's behavior came back to haunt them, or when they had an opportunity to visit retribution on someone who wronged them.

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Week of April 7, 2023

Practical Jokes: Practical jokes sit on one end of a continuum through harmless (if annoying) pranks, and outright bullying. All too often people hide their malicious intent behind the word “joke” to minimize the victim’s pain. But practical jokes can be fun when they end with everyone laughing, and even annoying pranks do no real damage. When has your character pulled a practical joke? Been the butt of one? Watched it go down? Was it really a joke, or torment in disguise? Was it all an honest mistake that ended up being a joke--and maybe a hilarious story to relate to their friends?

*Feel free to continue submitting stories for any prompt.  A masterpiece missed the deadline?  Don’t let it gather electronic dust, share it anyway!

*This week’s prompt not for you? Look for something more to your taste in the Prompt Archive. Consider all the prompts active and waiting to inspire you.

This week’s featured previous prompts are:

Partners: Who is your character’s partner? Or perhaps who are your character’s partners? Romantic partner(s) aside, who are some of your character’s other allies? They can be friends, business relations, co-workers, or even partners in crime. How loyal are they to your character and vice-versa? Not every partner would follow your character everywhere. Some might be reliable only so long as the money (or whatever they get out of the arrangement) lasts. Your character might feel the same about them too!

Curve Ball--as writers we plan our character’s encounters. This week, throw them into something new. Something they didn't expect. Something they never saw coming. Who panics? Who takes it in stride? Who stumbles but runs with it?

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Week of April 14, 2023

Critical, Need-to-Know Information: Your character’s going to be In A Situation--what do they need to know? Do they get it? Who do you have deliver it and how--both to your character and your readers? Are they deliberately denied helpful information, or is the intelligence just not available? Was a crucial bit overlooked by those preparing the briefing? Does your character ignore the vital detail(s) and focus on less important things? Do they immediately grasp that critical piece and its significance?

*Feel free to continue submitting stories for any prompt.  A masterpiece missed the deadline?  Don’t let it gather electronic dust, share it anyway!

*This week’s prompt not for you? Look for something more to your taste in the Prompt Archive. Consider all the prompts active and waiting to inspire you.  

This week’s featured previous prompts are:

Silent Partner - One of the participants in the conversation cannot be heard or understood directly by the readers. Maybe their speech is inaudible or garbled. They might speak a foreign or nonhuman language. Perhaps your character is rehearsing and anticipating audience questions. Their partner might simply not speak for biological or personal reasons. One character does all the talking, but the reader still needs to follow the conversation.

Looking Back: Whether it's with fondness or relief, everyone thinks about their past sometimes. Something that held them back, or something that propelled them forward. They might consider time with a mentor, a formative event, or just a memorable vacation. Write about your character reminiscing.

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Week of April 21, 2023

Fortune Telling: Who doesn’t want to know the future? What can your character do to find out? Are there methods like horoscopes or tarot? Tea leaves or I Ching? Dreams or visions? What omens do they see and what do they believe they foretell? Are any of these methods reliable or are they all superstition? Do some of them work but not others? Or does the talent or skill lie with the practitioner, not the method? Most importantly: are the predictions reliable? Are they vague enough to be true whatever happens? Does your character have real options, or are their actions preordained?

*Feel free to continue submitting stories for any prompt.  A masterpiece missed the deadline?  Don’t let it gather electronic dust, share it anyway!

*This week’s prompt not for you? Look for something more to your taste in the Prompt Archive. Consider all the prompts active and waiting to inspire you.  

This week’s featured previous prompts are:

Credit Where Credit is Due: When a companion or an advisor comes up with a good plan, will your character act on it? Suppose it was someone they disliked? A rival? When it comes time to take credit, will they acknowledge the help? What about a time when a mentor or superior used your character’s advice or idea? Were they praised? Or blamed, if the plan didn’t work so well? Did your character throw someone under the bus? Was your character the one run over? How do their actions affect the rest of their story? Is your character willing to give credit where it’s due, or do they hog the spotlight (except when it’s inconvenient)?

Beneath Notice: What things in your character's life or world are invisible because they’re common or believed to be unimportant? Cooks and cleaners are often beneath notice, giving a clever character a way into a secure place. Or, an enemy a way into your character’s stronghold! Most such duties are also necessary--so what happens when your cyborg character’s mechanic is kidnapped, or their janitorial staff quits en masse? Could your character cripple their enemy by stirring up unrest among their underlings? Notice who’s usually overlooked this week.

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