Prompts & Writing

 


I know that I can't be the only one who looks forward to prompts in order to help them write? Can I? I mean there are rare moments of creative output that make me go, "man I really want to write A & B happening!" 

But, most days I just honestly sign up for a fest, bingo card, or request and then find that I am stuck. Like where does one go with enemies to lovers? How the hell am I supposed to write another coffee shop au? in those moments I can feel my heart racing and panic start to kick in. Then I remember trusty google and Tumblr.  After all the whole reason I started writing fanfic was simple: I didn't see anything I wanted to see. Or I saw someone write something and thought, "huh I would have done this differently."

Now, keep in mind I never, ever, told the author that or the artist. Instead, I just sat back and started writing a fic that I enjoyed based on the "idea". Then I realized you can't do that without permission as 1) that's not fair to the original author and 2) I wouldn't like it. 

So, then I went online to figure out tropes and what makes them well... tropes and I stumbled across. Tumblr list of prompts and my life changed. They have almost all tropes and then some with phrases or ideas that can be used for writing. 

Now, don't get me wrong I like to still look around but, my go-to has been that website recently. Unless I am in a fest and I just magically I get a prompt I want. otherwise, I picked the main idea and then I go to that website to get more in detail and then I write and see where I am heading. 

What about you? How do you decide on prompts or writing? Do you usually have an idea before you write or do you have to get 'extra' help like I do?

Comments