Prompts and Ideas

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[creativepromptsforwriting]

Dialogue Responses Masterlist

"Where do we go from here?"

"You tell me."

"I wish I knew."

"Why do you ask me?"

"I honestly don't know."

"The only way is forward."

"Hopefully to a better place."

"Back to where we came from."

"We need to leave the past behind."

"Oh, but I'm horrible with directions."

"Doesn't matter, as long as we're together."

"I miss you."

"I miss you too."

"It's just temporary."

"I wish you were here."

"We'll see each other again."

"Well, that's too bad for you."

"Just a few more days, I promise."

"One day, I won't have to leave again."

"The truth is, I don't miss you anymore."

"I'm sorry, I can't change that right now."

"This wasn't the last time we've seen each other."

"It doesn't matter."

"Maybe not."

"It matters to me!"

"Maybe not to you."

"But you do matter!"

"It used to matter to you."

"You just don't know it yet."

"But it will matter, believe me."

"Well, I would say it does matter."

"You can't hide behind this facade forever."

"Don't you see that there are people who care?"

“How are you?”

“Fine.” (A lie)

“I’m fine.” (Honest)

“I have been better.”

“Not that bad actually.”

“Why would you even care?”

“I’ve been feeling worse before.“

"I feel like I should ask you that.”

“Well, it’s so nice of you to ask…”

“I’m doing quite well at the moment.”

“Probably a lot better than you look like.”

"I need your help." (x)

"Where's the body?"

"What's the problem?"

"You never ask for help."

"You can always count on me."

"Tell me what to do and I'll do it."

"You know I will always help you."

"Why does that sentence scare me?"

"That's a sentence I have heard before."

"Why do I feel like this is more than a small favour?"

"It seems to be important, if you are willing to ask me."

If you like my blog and want to support me, you can buy me a coffee! And check out my Instagram!🥰

[gingerhastoomanyobsessions]

I can’t breathe

[brawltogethernow]

Best wishes to these people obviously but I’m WHEEZING at the concept of a standard horror plot starter but the stranded travelers are an entire fully equipped orchestra.

[gleefully-macabre]

It’s the prequel to every other horror film. Their haunting spirits play the background music.

[gleefully-macabre]

Oh shoot, that actually would be a really cool concept. The film starts with no thematic music, and as each member of the orchestra is picked off, their instrument joins the soundtrack. Subtly, so you don’t really notice, and the end credits are a full orchestral symphony.

[thestraggletag]

DUUUUUDE

[transmadotsuki]

Call that a death note

[moonybyte]

That entire thing could also be used brilliantly for foreshadowing!

Like, you suddenly notice a string instrument in the background music and you haven’t seen a few of them in a while. And the more musically versed you are, the more you figure it out (like in a mystery novel if you happen to have in-depth knowledge about the current riddle) while the “normal” people can get fooled into twists.

The non-musically versed audience hears a new brass instrument and is like “Oh shit, the dude with the tenor horn is probably dead!”, but then he suddenly appears perfectly fine and one minute later they find the body of the Euphonium player.

And if the orchestra members can hear it as well, then it’s of course another layer cause THEY would probably recognize who is playing. And depending on the director, they could go full ‘Tomato in the Mirror’ and imply they know but Just. Not. Say it. (cause why should they, they all DO KNOW). So they are like “Oh no…. No…!” and start looking for the corpse while the audience is still stuck at “Ok, a violin player, but which???”

[whetstonefires]

immediately after dying you get a brief solo

[blueshelledbastard]

And since absolutely no music at the beginning would be kinda estranging, I’d suggest one singular instrument and it’s revealed early on that a member of the orchestra recently passed, leading into the reason why they visited the castle in the first place, yaddayaddayadda, the plot commences

[coalmine301]

The first guy who died played the triangle

[wafflewarrior111]

So... I found this and now it keeps coming to mind. You hear about "life-changing writing advice" all the time and usually its really not—but honestly this is it man.

I'm going to try it.

[missroserose]

I love the lawyer metaphor, because whenever I see “John knew that...” in prose writing I immediately think “how?  How does he know it?”  Interrogate your witnesses.  Cross-examine them.  Make them explain their reasoning.  It pays dividends.

[heck-in-a-handbasket]

All of this, but also feels/felt. My editor has forbidden me from using those and it’s forced me to stretch my skills.

[ineedthesons]

This is your "show not tell" advice explained!

[mareebird]

THIS

[kendrixtermina]

hm. im REALLY against any variation of “this rule is true in any context” because it defeats the point of creativity, but this is good advice for a) beefing up your descriptions and b) communicating emotional tension (eg, the MC has not admitted or processes this feeling but you want to show them having it)

That said, sometimes you would want to just state the character’s opinion. (& maybe contrast it with their actions, the situation) or use a shorthand when it’s like an introductory side detail. 

[porcupine-girl]

What I like about it though is that it’s NOT stated as a “don’t ever do this in any context” rule - it’s not a rule, it’s a challenge. Don’t ever do this for the next six months and see how it changes your writing. Not never do it again, just try it and then you can go back to using them but you’ll probably do it way more sparingly because you’ve built up other tools to use instead of those words.

[elidyce]

I am reblogging this because it will be very useful for some people but I will also mention that I HATE it deeply and profoundly and will never do it.

I like what I like. (retreats back into her box, hissing) 

[punchthegoose]

Teachers: Wikipedia is very unreliable *Hands out 25 year old textbooks instead*

[greenhouse-nurse]

Alrighty guys ,gals, and other genders and lack thereof I’m gonna teach ya a thing.

A lot of teachers will go on about not using wikipedia as a source.

“It’s bad,” they say. “I will deduct points if you do it.”

Well wikipedia is actually a great source of information and fuck what your teacher said, you absolutely can use it.

The key though is knowing

A.How to use it.

B. How to source it.

and

C. whether it is good info or trash.

NowFirst Lets look up something on wikipedia. Say your writing a paper on Gregor Mendel and Mendelian Inheritance.

So you zoom over to the Wikipedia page on Mendelian Inheritance.

Now there is a lot of information here. Not all of it is strictly necessary for that essay you are writing. So you read through and suddenly you see something that is good info for your essay.

Boy oh boy this information is useful. To bad your teacher said No Wikipedia Ever.

However there is a loophole.

It’s right there.

No. Go closer.

You see that little four? Its a citation number. Think of wikipedia as it’s own essay. It got it’s information from other sources out there. Just like you are trying to right now. And since there is a citation, it’s going to be listed at the end of the wikipedia article.

Look at citation number 4

Look at that you have your first citation. From Wikipedia.

And look. Do you see it. There is a link. It’s the blue words with the boxy arrow thingamajig.

That thing. Click it.

Why did you leave wikipedia you ask? Wikipedia is great. You have several sources from there. But There is more than what the put in to that wiki article. Those sources Wikipedia gave you are helpful. And now that you are at the source, you can utilize it.

But what if its a book that’s the source.

You can either head to your local library and see if they have it, order it, or avoid the book source. Online sources are just as valuable.

Also do not quote directly from the wikipedia. Quote from the source and then use quote citation.

And MLA citation. Use MLA citation. Since you are linked to the sources cite them. Not the wikipedia.

Your teacher will never know. And now you can finish that sweet essay you got planned.

You’re on your way to greatness.

[shatterstag]

For anybody not aware you can abuse the absolute fuck out of Wikipedia for any papers!

[tikkunolamorgtfo]

I’m an academic librarian and I 100% endorse this post

[gefionne]

I am also an academic librarian and I 100% endorse this post. CITATIONS are important.

[archivlibrarianist]

I am also an academic librarian who endorses this post. When you use Wikipedia like this, you are using it EXACTLY in the way it was meant to be used. Thank you, @greenhouse-nurse!

If you’re not sure how to do MLA citations, the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) has you covered.

[mystic-mongrel]

Reblogging for the kids

[write-it-motherfuckers]

Ko-Fi

Hello Darlings,

As you might of noticed, I’ve had serious issues with my laptop lately, and honestly it’s frustrated me to tears multiple times. It’s been on its way out for a long time, we all know that, and whilst I really didn’t want to do it, I think I finally need to just make this post.

First let me say that you are by no means obligated to donate to me. I am not withholding my usual content from you, nor am I saying that you have to support me in this way. Even once this laptop gives out completely, I will still try and find a way to get my writing done and ready for you all, it’s just going to be much harder to do so.

That being said, if you could donate even $1 I would be incredibly grateful. Even if only half of you did so, I would be able to purchase the laptop I need.

Please don’t donate if it’s going to put you in a bad position, but if it isn’t, then please consider it.

I don’t like asking this, and you’re more than welcome to simply ignore this message and carry on, or even block the tag #motherfuckingdonations if you don’t want to see this post, or posts like it in the future, because I am going to have to start reblogging this semi regularly until I get what I need. I apologise for that in advance.

Please help me if you can Darlings. 

https://ko-fi.com/its_me_darlings

[proofsaretalk]

Hi friends,

For the last two years or so, @write-it-motherfuckers​ has been creating some of the most interesting & unique writing prompts on tumblr. The amount and quality of content that this blog has produced in such a short time is, frankly, stunning. In addition to its 1374 #original prompts, it also has an extraordinarily high level of engagement with its audience. The mod has an extensive history of responding to nearly every substantive interaction with their work, despite receiving literally thousands of notifications daily.

They have also been struggling with severe laptop issues for the last 4 months. These have made it increasingly difficult for them to continue running this blog, so they set up a Ko-Fi for getting a new one. In characteristic WIM style, they’ve been very transparent with us this entire time, answering basically any question you might have. (Examples from their #faq tag: Why Ko-Fi and not Patreon? Why don’t you put ads on your blog? What kind of laptop will you buy? Why not just repair the old one?)

I want to support this present and positive force in the writing community. I don’t want to see us lose their prolific and unique voice because of “technical difficulties”. If you can donate a dollar or two*, please do. I would greatly appreciate it, and I know they would too :)

But if you can’t, I would also greatly appreciate it if you reblogged this post. I know that I don’t do a ton of writing content and most of y’all follow me for other reasons. I’m hoping that this post can help spread the word to a different group of people than might otherwise interact with WIM.

[ * For the US audience: a small bonus, their Ko-Fi page is in AUD so every “$1 coffee” actually costs you less than $0.70! ]

[write-it-motherfuckers]

I swear reading this, and your tags, made me damn near cry. Thank you for being so incredibly supportive Darling, and for putting such a shocking amount of effort into what you’ve written here.

This kind of support means so very much to me, to a point where I don’t quite think it could ever be properly put into words. Either way though, I’m very very grateful.

Thank you Darling one.

[write-it-motherfuckers]

I’m reblogging this version again, mainly because @proofsaretalk has been so much more detailed than I was, and has made the answers to peoples questions so much more accessible to everyone. I’m incredibly grateful.

As of right now, we are 28% of the way there, which is mind boggling to me, but I unfortunately still need a lot of help reaching my goal.

Thank you so much to all of you who have already donated, even if you were only able to donate a little. It means a lot.

I know a lot of people are struggling right now with the way things are, so please remember to look after yourself and your needs first, if you’re considering donating. The last thing I want is for you to put yourselves in a bad position.

[thisonesatellite]

[* for the European audience, 1 AUD is 60 cents /~50p]

[write-it-motherfuckers]

Thank you Darling.

[write-it-motherfuckers]

I’m reblogging this version because of all the info that my Darlings so lovingly collected in one place for me, but I probably should make a new one soon.

I think we’re actually at about 38% right now, but I can’t access the sight properly on my phone, to check. 

You have no idea how incredibly grateful I am to all of you 🖤

[lqtraintracks]

Okay, so do vampires drink from arteries or veins or both? Asking for a friend.

[l0vegl0wsinthedark]

@lqtraintracks This drew me in too easily, what the hell 👏😂

[renthebarbarian]

This guy is the Gordon Ramsey of blood.

“THIS BLOOD HAS SO MUCH FUCKING ACID IN IT, I’M SEEING TECHNICOLOR DEMONS!!!”

[anotherdayforchaosfay]

@vampireapologist

[salarta]

“I’ve never met a vampire” exactly what a vampire would say.

[tanzanitedepths]

Fanfiction Club: The Rules

This idea came to me when I woke up first thing this morning.

[madlori]

This is gold.

[jumpingjacktrash]

i do not see a flaw

[mother-of-a-murder]

[SLAMMING REBLOG BUTTON REPEATEDLY]

[nooowestayandgetcaught]

NORMALIZING COMMENTING EVERY TIME YOU KUDOS BECAUSE FANFIC WRITERS CANT READ YOUR MIND TO KNOW WHAT YOUR FAVE PARTS WERE PLEASE

[wotchild]

Comments make writers happy

[avatarpabu97]

Please comment. I would love to hear your thoughts on any fic.

[fairedoll-deactivated20250704]

i love having comments on my stories! makes checking my inbox daily worth it ^^

[call-me-dj]

Comments always make my day.

[crushing-on-nico-di-angelo]

I cry and show all my friends every time I get a comment

[wisedawn-whatever]

Comments are honestly the best thing ever and I always make sure to respond to each one too! They make my day!

[thislilfecker]

I cannot emphasize this enough, but as a fanfiction writer, I fucking LOVE comments; I am so socially deprived that a simple “good job” will send me straight to the afterlife and back, tenfold.

I literally CRY when I see a comment, whether that be a negative one or not, it means so much for getting feedback.

Like, I make it my mission to comment on every fanfiction I read or art I love-

[prokopetz]

Level 1: Unrequited pining.

Level 2: It’s actually requited, but neither realises that the other reciprocates their feelings because they’re both dumbasses.

Level 3: As above, but they’re failing to connect because each is in denial about their own feelings rather than the other character’s.

Level 4: Character A thinks it’s unrequited; character B thinks they’re already in a relationship; the discrepancy in their respective understandings of the situation doesn’t become apparent because of differing communication styles (and also, as above, because they’re both dumbasses).

Level 5: Each is aware that the other reciprocates their feelings, but thinks they can’t be together due to a misinterpretation of the situation at hand; neither realises that they’re on completely different pages with respect to why they can’t be together because somehow it just never comes up.

Level 6: Everybody else thinks it’s a mutual pining situation, but then right at the end it’s revealed that they’ve been in a relationship the whole time and they’re just a couple of dramatic weenies.

[writing-prompt-s]

A dying outlaw is approached by two people. An angel and a demon. Both are working together to save the world from something. Offering the mortal a chance at a new life and redemption, they become a pair of pistols. A worn and rusted one named Justice, and a beautiful one named Vengeance

[theclonewriter-blog]

“This is your daily, friendly reminder to use commas instead of periods during the dialogue of your story,” she said with a smile.

[onewordtest]

“Unless you are following the dialogue with an action and not a dialogue tag.” He took a deep breath and sat back down after making the clarifying statement. 

[joehywheelah]

“However,” she added, shifting in her seat, “it’s appropriate to use a comma if there’s action in the middle of a sentence.”

[tenoko1]

“True.” She glanced at the others. “You can also end with a period if you include an action between two separate statements.”

[cj-amused]

Things I didn’t know

[prismatic-bell]

“And–” she waved a pen as though to underline her statement–“if you’re interrupting a sentence with an action, you need to type two hyphens to make an en-dash.”

[jawnwats-deactivated20160713]

You guys have no idea how many students in my advanced fiction workshop didn’t know any of this when writing their stories.

[notesoftruth]

Okay, but someone please explain question marks when followed by a dialogue tag. How do?

[flootzavut]

“The speech tag is still part of the previous sentence,” she explained, ‘so it isn’t capitalised.“

“What do you mean?” he asked. “But there’s a full stop as part of the question mark!”

She nodded gravely. “I know!” she said. “A lot of people find this confusing. But the speech tag belongs to the line of dialogue, it’s still part of the sentence, so it’s wrong to capitalise it.”

She reblogged the post again, because she had recently read far too many potentially enjoyable stories marred by poor dialogue punctuation.

[dechart]

I’ve only seen this post in screenshots till now..

[eddiestarchild]

NOICE. Can’t wait to use this

[magpiefngrl]

“There are two more ways"—she pointed to the blackboard—“to punctuate interruptions. One is with the em dashes outside the quotations marks to indicate continuous speech. The action occurs at the same time as speech. The other—” she sipped from a glass of water “—is em dashes within the quotation marks to indicate interrupted speech.”

[protectionsyndicate-deactivated]

Paypal is https://www.paypal.me/saltygrassy

Cashapp is $saltygrassy

I'm not wanting to think on the why atm, please don't ask, but we're in a spot.

[dumbshit42069]

Help Us Get Out!, organized by Skylar Boyd

Around 2 years ago, I had to move myself and my children in with my mother and stepfather when I found my… Skylar Boyd needs your support for Help Us Get Out!

Please reblog if you can’t donate. I hate asking for help, but it’s not just me in this awful situation, but my children too. I forgot to add this in the bio on the fundraiser because I’m so stressed rn, but my 5 year old is autistic and my 4 year old has physical health issues and a bunch of food allergies that are extremely expensive to shop around (wheat, milk, eggs, soy, peanuts, and tree nuts all at once). If you don’t want to donate through GoFundMe, which is understandable, my CashApp is $VenomousKilljoy. Thank you so much to everyone who reblogs or donates, I cannot tell you how much it means to me.

[howtofightwrite]

How would an arrow affect bone? Break it? Bounce off? I suppose this depends on the type of bow and the distance, but I was going to have character A get shot in the shoulder. Character B wants the arrow out as soon as possible in case its poisoned, so he'd have to push it the rest of the way through her body? But what about the shoulder blade?

Break. You have a projectile traveling with enough force to punch it’s way through layers of metal, your bones aren’t going to fare well.

Pulling out an arrow on your own is, in general, a very bad idea. Pushing it through is actually worse. This will cause more damage than simply pulling it back out. Removing it will also clear any obstruction that’s slowing your bleeding. So, like removing a blade, pulling an arrow out carries a risk of increased bleeding and death. Leaving it there and moving around is also a bad idea, because you’re likely to cause more damage. (Not as much as punching it through, but this is still not something you want to mess with.)

If your character thinks the arrowhead is poisoned, they’re going to need to decide which is more dangerous, more poison exposure or bleeding out on the spot.

Although I’m not a toxicology expert, I suspect, if the arrow was poisoned, it’s already too late. This is kind of the point. Getting hit by an arrow is already a life threatening injury, and there’s no real way to soften that blow, so the toxins that actually have a home on an arrow are ones that will just make extra sure you die horribly, and quickly. You could theoretically lace an arrowhead with mercury or the like, but there just isn’t a reason to. It’s passively dangerous to the archer, and it’s not going to make the arrow more deadly. So you get stuff like snake or frog venoms which will kill in minutes, even if the arrow is removed. These tend to be complex protein toxins that do all kinds of horrific stuff to people.

In some cases there’s no treatment, and in others, you need to administer a specific anti-venom as soon as possible. These are not interchangable, you need the right antivenom, not a random concoction.

This is made worse by the fact that most poisons are attached to an arrowhead using a grease as a base. This will easily wipe off the arrowhead, especially once it’s been lodged in a wound.

So, your character’s probably toast.

-Starke

[kita-shin-deactivated20201226]

what’s wrong with author-inserts?? what’s up with the bad rep? maybe there’s authors out there who make themselves too op and perfect, but that doesn’t mean all author-inserts are entirely bad. i mean, if you wanna have cooler hair, go put yourself in a story. there’s no one stopping you. if you wanna be a serial killer but not face the consequences irl, go put yourself in a story. if you want to be a renowned scientist but you’re stuck in your mom’s basement with an english major, go put yourself in a story. if you wanna smack yourself in a story for the heck of it, go put yourself in a story. 

unless you are ebony dark’ness dementia raven way, then don’t. 

[foxdearr-deactivated20210115]

when edgar allan poe said “tell me every terrible thing you ever did, and let me love you anyway.” and when hozier said “i wouldn’t fall for someone i thought couldn’t misbehave.”

[headspace-hotel]

I feel like we really don’t appreciate TvTropes enough; that site taught me more about literary analysis than any class ever did

[headspace-hotel]

Especially because TvTropes focuses mainly on WHY stories work for their audiences.

Figuring out how to tease some abstract “theme” or “meaning” out of books doesn’t do much to teach you how to construct stories or even how to understand them. Every deep insight about that fucking conch shell in the Lord of the Flies in the world would not have helped me learn how to make a story with compelling symbolism.

Whereas TvTropes’s terms usually apply to how the audience is made to feel/think/respond by a certain device. “This symbol connects X thing to Y abstract idea” is nice but ultimately pointless in most cases. “The audience suspends disbelief for X because of Y” actually shows the functionality of a story.

(If a story needs a dedicated army of English teachers to shove its insights into readers’ brains, it doesn’t have functionality. But I digress.)

[h-brook-writes]

That site is a godsend. I learned more about writing craft from there than I ever did from an actual English class, not least because English class tended to focus more on regurgitating accepted interpretations than it did on personal insight. 

At least TVTropes contains examples from all kinds of media, is guaranteed to cover at least one story that any given person loves, and breaks things down into layman’s terms while also giving each trope and technique a clear name to reference. 

How could I not know how to put a story together after reading their entry on Avatar: The Last Airbender?

[bucketsiler-deactivated20200924]

Editing a tantalizingly-close-to-finished fairy tale today. Is it just me or at a certain point do you just have to print the damn thing off and attack it with a pen? Personally I can only get so far on the screen. I started this story way back in 2013 so I’m really excited to see it nearing the finish line!