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One could say I'm in a bit of a slump. I'm itching to write SOMETHING, but I can't seem to settle on anything in particular. I've found inspiration through prompts in the past, so I figured that's a good place to start!

What I'm looking for is 5-7 prompts from 5-7 different individuals. I'm allowing for a fairly broad definition of "prompt" for the sake of creativity. Themes, genres, tropes, character archetypes, or even short summaries. Short of anyone sending me an entire script, the sky's the limit!

I will craft a story around the first 5-7 prompts I receive, no matter what. Mind, the prompts are open to my own interpretation, so they may not come out the way you expect. Even if the ideas people give me are completely off-the-wall, or don't seem to fit together in any way, I absolutely guarantee I'll create something coherent out of it all. Somehow. xDD;;

Since it's what I'm in the mood to write, the only thing I'm deciding upfront is that this will be a BL story in some way, shape, or form. Other than that, I'm starting from absolute zero until those prompts start rolling in!

Feel free to either post here or PM me. :3

I've got all the prompts I need (for now)! Keep an eye out for our WIP thread sometime in the coming weeks.

In case you don't get to many people replying, here are two prompts: cyberpunk and AI.

On Valentine's Day, Henry received an anonymous letter asking him out. He hoped for that cute girl from the other class, he got the guy he can't stand.

A visual novel with a vampire will usually attract an audience.

Main character has a past where he's killed before... whether they were justified or not is not immediately clear...

ComputerArt.Club

I definitely considered the possibility that I wouldn't get very many replies, so thanks for being thoughtful! For the purposes of this experiment, though, I want to make sure I only use one suggestion per person. :3

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I like what I'm seeing so far, guys! This should definitely be an interesting story.

Just so everyone knows, I haven't yet received any PMs. I'll still be needing 1-3 more suggestions before I can get started! Let's be honest, though. I'm probably going to go with 7. xD

A supernatural nomad goes on a series of adventures. His ability - his subjectivity and senses can change, at will, based on the peoples he's met across his journey. He uses this to deduce truths.

Let's slip in some cat because why not

I'm going to give this thread until November 5th to run it's course, and then lock it, unless Offworlder asks me to stop early. It risks turning into something of a forum game if I don't.

Curtid21

I'm not quite sure I understand your prompt. Can you clarify what you mean by "subjectivity and senses"?

PyTom

I likely won't need until Nov. 5, since I'm only looking for one more prompt at this point. I will say, though, that I'm not quite certain how this could be interpreted as a game. The purpose of this thread is to generate ideas for a specific project, and no one here is communicating with anyone else in a way that would be game-like. I don't see how this is any different than, say, the "Ideas Dump" thread, or anyone else here in "Asset Creation: Writing" who's looking for help with their story.

Oh, just the open ended nature of it, and the way none of the posts really discuss each other like a normal thread does.

I think this thread is a good exercise in prompting, though I think establishing a good "prompt" would be helpful.

In the circles I hang around in, we usually prefer prompts to be vague enough to leave stuff to imagination but specific enough to give handles.

Something like, "You're home alone when the bedroom door opens." gives freedom for a single scene. "No one could pull the sword from the stone. You just did." could be an entire story.

Clearly my prompt was too specific, in hindsight, so lemme revise it.

"You just received a love letter from someone you hate."

What does everyone else feel is a good prompt to write from? What about you, OP? Which prompts do you find helpful, which are difficult to work with?

I'd love to see a story involving a spirit. For something more specific, this spirit was an apathetic person who sort of drifted through life with no ambitions. When they were killed, they thought new possibilities opened up to them for travel and entertainment, being that they were no longer bound to mortal barriers like money, food, clothing, borders, or weather. Alas, they soon found out that they had 'afterlife responsibilities' where they are now bound to the fate of some mortal before they can travel the world in their ethereal form.

Who they were, who they are bound to, and why, could be up to you.

And of course, if the detailed prompt is too limiting, feel free to simply include a spirit character.

Applegate

...Somehow, I'm very un-surprised the most detailed prompt yet was the one immediately after your post. xD;;
Anywho, I definitely agree with you in some ways. My biggest concern about your initial post, for example, was that you'd given the character a name. And another post here specifically gave a prompt for the MAIN character. Generally, I'd probably prefer super vague prompts, since it gives me the most freedom and doesn't give too much away for the reader.

However! In this case, I actually WANTED prompts that run the gamut. I figured there would be a mix of one-word prompts and multi-sentence prompts, which is why I wanted several. I want to challenge myself as much as possible, and trying to fit an array of prompts into a single, cohesive story is definitely challenging. Plus, it really gets the creativity flowing if one must take a pre-existing story (like Lucas Schneider's), but try to make it their own so it doesn't come out predictable.

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I've got all the prompts I need now! Thank you all SO MUCH for contributing to this experiment! If all goes well, I'm thinking I'll make more of these in the future. For now, though, I'll get to work fleshing out a plot. As an added bonus, I'm thinking I might give my partner complete control over visuals (instead of designing together, like usual). That way, I can focus 100% on writing. :3