surviving prompt months
Prompt months are a common challenge in fandom. There are all kinds of prompt months, including fluff, domestic prompts, whump, and NSFW. The thing they have in common is that all of them require some planning and organization to complete. This will hopefully help you get set up for success!
Preparation & Planning
There's a saying that goes "proper preparation prevents poor performance", and it's true. There are a number of details that can be decided on before the month even starts. That will mean that you don't have to scramble on the first day to make all of those decisions at once, when you really need all of your time and energy to write.
Writing time
Sometime before the month begins, set aside time for writing every day for a week or two, and then make a note of how much time that you could comfortably devote to writing, and roughly how much you got done, whether that's word count or fic completion. Did you have to fight to carve out an hour some days? Did you have a lot of time on the weekends? How much did you write? Do you feel like you could have done more? You don't have to write a whole novel every day. Whatever you get done is enough. It's more important, at this phase, to know how much time you can give the effort and how much writing is feasible for you to do every single day.
Prompts
Some challenges release the prompts ahead of time. Others don't. If you have access to this year's prompts, or to the previous year's, go ahead and look them over. Take notes, if that helps. Are there any from this month that don't work for you, because of squick reasons or they just aren't appealing? Does your challenge have wildcards? Do all of those work for you? If you only have last year's prompts, look them over and think about what you'd do with them. Being familiar with the prompts will save you some time in both the ideas phase and when you're scrambling later in the month looking for something you can write.
Social media
If you use social media at all, you've come across those posts about people's wild situations, or silly office potluck stories, or summoning a demon with badly done Latin homework, or weird and cool animal facts. If something sounds like it might be fun to write, save it to your computer or your timeline. These are invaluable when it comes time for prompts and you realize that you have the perfect idea in a post from six months ago, and you saved it so you don't have to find an image post that's so far down your timeline that you can't find a big enough shovel. Programs out there like Evernote, Trello, Notion, Obsidian, or even Google Docs/Sheets or Discord can be useful for this.
Real life care
It's essential to keep yourself healthy, both because you should be taking care of yourself as a matter of course, but also because a brain that isn't being fed or given enough time to rest isn't going to want to write. Begin this before the month starts; the effects are cumulative. Sleep! Eat! Hydrate! Take a walk! Self-care is important.
Pre-writing
If the challenge you're doing allows you to start before the month begins, then you have extra time to create. That does not mean that you have unlimited time. Do the math to figure out how many days you can realistically devote to each challenge day, and do your best to stick to that limit. That limit is part time, part how much you got done in the Writing Time section. In some ways this kind of challenge is easier, because you have that extra time to write something longer or larger in scope; in other ways, it's more difficult, because you have to be disciplined in getting the writing done when the deadline is self-imposed rather than the more obvious daily deadline.
Your challenge may not allow starting before the month begins, or they may not release the prompts until the month starts. In that case, having options that you've already given thought to is going to help greatly when you're scrambling for ideas.
In both cases, write down any ideas that you have that you aren't going to immediately work on. Scenes, snippets, lines of dialogue or fight sequences, all of these things are helpful later. This works even if you don't already know the prompts; prompts are usually one or two words, and you can stretch and bend them in any way that you want. There's no committee that grades your work. Everyone knows that inspiration takes you to many places, and some of them aren't going to be obviously inspired by the prompt. That doesn't matter. The important thing is that you made something, not how closely it fits the prompt.
The prompts
Once the prompts are released, you might find that one of the prompts is absolutely perfect and an idea hits you right away. You're full of new project energy and you're dying to write it, but oh no, that day is so far away! You might think, I should work on the first day's prompt and hold onto this idea for later, right?
Absolutely not. Write it anyway. The fics that spring into your mind immediately are incredibly valuable because you can sit down and look up three hours later with a completed fic in your hands. That sense of completion and confidence are extremely helpful, and they can help carry you through the rest of the month. Maybe you can finish something for the first day afterward, and maybe not; I would still do it. You can always catch up. And a lot of challenge months allow you to complete the month late, and to post fics whenever even if they're out of turn. This is a hobby; treat it like one. Have fun. Even finishing one fic is more than a lot of writers do in a month, and you've already done it!
Sometimes you get ideas that don't need to be written immediately, and those I would advise writing down and coming back to them later, on the right day. It's part of preparation, in that you're setting yourself up for future success, because you've got the basic idea ready, and you just need to write it out.
Take some time with the prompts on the first day and see what ideas come to you. You're not locking yourself in to these ideas; they're possibilities. Maybe you'll still like them when it's time to write, and maybe you won't. It's not really important at this point. Future you is going to have different ideas than present you. You don't want to forget a really good idea you had for a future day's prompt because you got tired (and you will be tired.)
Finding more ideas
If one of the days isn't immediately sparking ideas, or your brain has gone entirely empty because blank-page syndrome is real and can hurt you, here are a few methods to use when the prompts aren't quite working.
Social Media ideas
Go through those saved prompts from social media and see if you have anything. Curse when you don't.
The List
Make a list of everything you can think of for the prompt. Get out the ideas that are immediately bubbling up, even if you hate them, even if you feel like they're overdone, or you've already written that idea and you don't want to do it again. Write it down. Once you've written it down, then you've dealt with it and it'll be easier for your brain to move on to something you are interested in writing. Most events encourage you to go wild with your interpretation of a prompt: ‘coaches’ could mean sports team coaches, or a type of bus, or a person whispering in someone else’s ear guiding them through infiltrating a military base, or a Regency-era traveling coach, or… Try to be open to as many possibilities as possible. Flexibility is key.
Talk to your friends
It doesn't matter if they're in the fandom or not, but if you have people that you talk to about writing, then scream into their DMs, even if they're not there, or able to help you. This is a form of rubber-ducking, in that you're verbalizing the problem, which can help you sort out what the problem actually is. Then you can work on finding a solution.
Go sideways
Look at the prompts from different angles: maybe it’s looking for the intersection between two prompts, finding inspiration in art or a song, a list of cocktail names or pen inks, or even a list of literary techniques. Music and art affect the brain differently than simply reading text, and allowing your brain to drift and pick up entirely unrelated ideas may offer you a new angle on a prompt. Looking at prompt lists for entirely unrelated events for new ideas, or consider hopping to AO3 and tag-surfing to explore other ways people have tackled similar AUs. If you did a list of ideas earlier, revisit the list to see if any are speaking to you, or could be combined.
(if you're still struggling, check out Ideas: Gotta Catch 'Em All! by dei2dei!)
A note on curating your ideas
Prompts can take you all sorts of places. There's no telling what kind of ideas you'll get. Some of them are probably going to be longfics, or take more time than you can afford to give them in one day. It's important to be able to judge which of your ideas need to be set aside for later. One of the methods I use to do this is to write drabbles, or other forms of short fic in which there is an absolute limit on wordcount*. This is useful because it allows you to figure out the scope of the ideas you can fit in the allotted number of words.
*What that number is depends mainly on what you can produce in one day. If you can only afford to write drabbles, then do that. If you are one of those blessed people who can write 10k in a day, then my hat off to you, and do as you please. But don't commit to writing 10k every day - or 2k every day, or any amount that's more than you're comfortable with. Monthly challenges are a test of endurance. It's important to know how to pace yourself.
Making Words
There are lots of different ways to approach writing to a deadline. Most of them involve simply sitting down and writing, no matter what the current state of your inspiration looks like.
Do you either have a wordcount limit imposed by the event or have given yourself one for your peace of mind? If so, start writing down everything you know about the story: characters, events, locations. You might find you’ve got a bigger (or shorter) story than planned and can adjust scope accordingly.
Start writing, whether it’s just throwing words onto the page or as a synopsis. Having that one line or four lines or bullet points can help break up blank page syndrome, and you can always edit/tweak/adjust as you go, if you realize your first line really isn’t where you want to start.
No words are bad words. You’re figuring out what you want to say and how you want to say it, and even words you don’t end up using can be inspiration for another AU or story, so don’t throw them away entirely. Move them to the Isle of Misfit Words (a doc/file/folder somewhere) and then they’re there when you want them.
Decide if you’re writing a story with a beginning, middle, and end or if you’re writing a vignette. A story with a narrative arc (what most people think of as a 3 Act Structure) has a different feel than a vignette (which is usually illuminating a moment; it’s more Vibes than Plot). Vignettes are excellent ways to fill a prompt, capturing characters in this new setting for just a moment without having to come up with a plot throughline: they’re like verbal portraits of a moment in time.
If you’re writing a short story/shorter one-shot, focus on a one or two characters or a single event, with few (or no) subplots. If you write stories that like to grow and become complicated tangles, this may be a challenge, but it will help you finish the stories you start. Similarly, if you're the sort who likes to worldbuild, I'd recommend trying to let that go; there simply isn't enough time to fully think through every background detail.
Finish things. Even if it’s messy, even if it’s not quite what you want, finish it to a point you can be comfortable with posting. If you find you have some extra time you can go back and finesse it, run edit passes, add a subplot or flesh out descriptions, or do other work to make it even better, but get it done first.
Experiment. Maybe you absolutely love an idea but it just isn’t working in third person limited. What happens if you try it in first person POV, or third omni? What if you tried to write the story in script format, or epistolary format? What if you change the POV character?
Don’t be precious: if you have an idea, write it. If you think it’s ridiculous and over the top, definitely write it. Get out the wacky ideas, the amazing ideas, the crackship comedy dead dove ideas; prompt events are great opportunities to do so, and might spawn more ideas or an interest in an AU type you’ve never considered before.
Don't judge yourself: everyone knows what prompt months are, and that you're producing a lot of work in a very short time. The standards are lower. Maybe it isn't your best work, but that's okay. You're writing, you're finishing fics, and you're challenging yourself. Those are all important.
A note on starting the fic
Beginnings can be tough. Try to start as close to the inciting event or the beginning of the emotions as you can, especially if you don't have a lot of time. Strong statements that you then clarify and expand upon are a good option. So is an interesting bit of dialogue.
Some Short Story Structure Notes
A basic structure for a narrative arc short story:
Hook
Scene setting/atmosphere
Challenge
Confrontation
Resolution
You can do whatever you want with this - your hook, scene setting, and challenge could all be the same event or even line as a character comes across a body in a detectives (or criminals!) AU: here’s this body, why is it in my apartment, how do I get it out?
Pick one type of tension. The MICE Quotient can be helpful here; pick one type of “thread” as your tension/conflict. Adding more means adding complexity and words, but you can also throw each one of these at a prompt and see if one is more intriguing than the other.
Milieu: location.
Inquiry: question.
Character: character growth/change
Event: something external is happening to the characters
Some Vignette Notes
Where does the character begin? Where does the character end? Are those the same place? If not, how does the character get there? That's your plot/emotional arc. Write it while it's still fresh in your mind.
If they are in the same place, what is your character thinking about or feeling? Is this moment a specific moment in time in the canon? If not, what just happened? What's about to happen? Maybe there's a looming tension for the reader who knows that the character is about to die or find out that their father is Darth Vader, but the character is still living their life. That tension makes a great fic.
Do you like domestic fluff? That's a vignette right there. Enduring the worst moment of their life, finding out a secret that canon has kept from them, or meeting the sister they didn't know they had, these are all moments or single scenes that can be done in a relatively short amount of time.
Editing
Editing is hard. We all know it. You can post without editing; lots of people do. If you do want to edit, you're going to have to go through the fic just after you finish it, which can be hard. There are some strategies that might help:
Change the font in your document. This can trick your brain into thinking that these are totally new words that you've never read before.
Read it out loud, which engages other areas of your brain and makes repeated words and awkward sentence structure more apparent.
Do multiple read-throughs, concentrating on separate issues that you struggle with each time: for example, during one readthrough, you might concentrate on sentence structure, then on the next character voice, and only then look at your tenses.
If you want to run an editing program, look for one that isn’t trying to fix your errors for you, but only identify them. Many programs out there try to offer fixes and are designed for business use and formal language, but programs like Slick Write are identify-only and leave it up to the author to decide if they actually care what the jumped-up bits of code say, or if they’re leaving it to authorial judgment.
If you have a beta, find out beforehand if they’re available and ready to help you (especially during a whole month)! If you don’t have a beta, you might be able to find one (or more than one) willing to work with you for the month. It’s a lot of words, but it might be a chance for you to try out or get help from multiple betas and see who you work with best. You can also look into exchanging beta services with other people participating in the same event.
If you have a wordcount limit: this is the time to edit aggressively. Do not use five words when one will do. See where you can remove “walked slowly” and replace it with “strolled”, or where you can swap long descriptions for something more succinct. Drop “just”, “really”, “mostly”, and "that"s which aren't load-bearing; sometimes you can even cut “and then” and replace it with a full stop and a new sentence. Much depends on the tone and any other limitations you’re giving yourself.
Posting
Titles
Titles are the devil and there's no getting around it. You can pick a title scheme before the month starts, which can help; maybe you only want to use one word titles, or song lyrics, or colors on the Pantone scale. Don't stress too much about finding the perfect title. There simply isn't the time for it.
Summaries
Weirdly enough, summaries are also the devil. Here are two links that may help:
Book Descriptions by the SFWA - this is meant for traditionally published works, but can be easily adapted for fanfic
How to Write Fanfic Summaries, by @wolfstarlibrarian - a comprehensive analysis of what makes summaries tick
Remember that the purpose of a summary is to engage the reader's attention and to tell them what the fic is going to be about, so that they know whether they want to read it or not.
Tagging
The good news is that tagging is a lot easier when the fic is very fresh in your mind. What is your fic about? Who is in it? What common fandom tropes are you hitting? With all of these things decided, either go ahead and start tagging, or go through this infographic and figure out what fits. If you think of something that you forgot, you can just add it the next day. This is probably the section that is the most forgiving in terms of forgetting to do something.
DON'T FORGET TO POST. Do not save the draft and then wander off and make dinner. Post when you're done.
And then, the next day, do it all over again.
Try to enjoy yourself! Good luck!
(so much credit is due to my friend Dei, bless you my dear)
