CALLING ALL WRITERS. LETS MAKE #WRITINGPROMPTS A THING.

in writing •  7 years ago  (edited)

Listen, I love Steemit.

But I also love Reddit.

If I'm being honest, one of my favorite parts of reddit.. is their writing prompts sub.

And I think we need that tag here at Steemit.

For those of you who aren't aware, writing prompts is simple.

Someone posts a "prompt" (an idea for a story) i.e, "humanity involved from birds instead of apes. The year is 2020."

And then everyone posts their take on the prompt in the comments relative to the prompt.

What do you guys think? Think it's a good idea for steemit?

If So Please -

  • comment and upvote
  • resteem to draw awareness

Obviously, these actions aren't required, but if we want to make this an active, regular part of the community, it needs to first garner attention.

I hope you will help me in bringing writing prompts to steemit ; )

Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post.
If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!
Sort Order:  

This post received a 3.6% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @iamjustincscott! For more information, click here!

: D thanks randowhale!

I would love to see writing prompts on steemit. I have written a few imaginative snippets and called them prompts for lack of a better word. I didn't use any version of a writing prompt hashtag because visibility seemed more likely in creative and fiction. They aren't sentences like yours - more like broader outlines of setting to expand on. Just now I was thinking about 're-branding them' so to speak onto something else. Not very good as prompts perhaps but I still want to make them.

I know that comments would be more organized but a link in the comments to the post has more visibility and reach and potential for more creativity. I am reluctant to post original work itself in comments because I like to have them stored in my blog and I can easily find them again. Also would each take have minimum word count? Dialogue? Too much either is hard to scroll through in the comments.

It's settled, I'm starting the tag tomorrow afternoon : )

Just posted a writing prompt under the tag #Writingprompts. That's the same one as on Reddit to keep it consistent. Or would you like a different one?

No, I think it's best to keep it consistent. Myself and quite a few others came here from reddit, making it familiar would probably workout better.

Check your messages in discord

That's what I do. I follow that same structure on my own writing prompt series that I now host. Don't mean to redirect you from this post to something else, but there are a few of us out there if you'd like to post more written work. Us writers could always use more of us around here :D

That's not a good idea, that's a great idea :)

Yay! So glad you think so! Together, we can make it happen : D

Yup, had my last exam today. So starting tomorrow, I'll put more effort in promoting my contest.

Looking forward to it : )

Good idea

Glad you think so, I hope we can really get it popular : )

I love the idea of writing prompts, and I like this concept as well. The only thing I'd suggest is, instead of responding with the story in the comments section, having people write a separate post and linking it back to the prompt here in the comment section.

I don't agree. You can quickly navigate through all the 'top-level comments' (comments to the post, not comments to other comments) by clicking the minus sign.

If you'd have to click a link to another post to read a submission, return to the writing prompt post, click another link to read the next one... Now that would create clutter instead of preventing it.

Just posting the story in the comments is how it's done on Reddit too, and it works. However, when the writer decides he wants to write more (extra chapters for example), he links to his own blog. Than you can continue reading there.

Here's an example of how it works on Reddit. The top comment is a story in response to the writing prompt. But since it is so popular, the writer decides to continue writing on his own blog. I think this is how it should work here as well.

Well you and I have different understandings of cluttered. Scrolling down, and down, and down again, and down some more is a much bigger pain that opening a story in a new tab, reading it, and tabbing over. It also has the advantage of providing the author with the ability to earn rewards on the separate post, which has greater visibility than a nested comment. If the story is good, I'd want these comments to drive readers to the story itself so the author can be rewarded for content on top of the general interest it garners.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess. In the end, as long as people are writing, it's not relevant. At the end of the day it's @iamjustincscott's brain child. :D

I agree that scrolling is a pain, that's why I minimize a comment after I've read it. You can do that using the minus sign next to the comment.
Have you checked out the example I gave of how it works on Reddit? It's a wall of text and endless scrolling, but if you minimize what you've read, you can read it through in no time.
Of course, to each his own. If you still prefer linking to your post than you should do that. :)

I agree, I think that would be the best method as well. Although, theres no reason they couldn't do both either.

None at all! I think it would be a little bit less clutter and easier to navigate, but ultimately if we're posting, that's really the point of it :D

Exactly. That plus interaction : )

Love the idea.

Could probably just take a weekold prompt from reddit and throw it on here. lol

Haha but thats no fun! We gotta show a bit more initiative haha

"Bad artists copy, great artists steal.” -- Pablo Picasso -- Me.

xD something like that maybe... ; )

I don't really frequent Reddit enough to know how it works. But I am an article writer so that might be interesting to do.

Basically I come up with a story idea:

"The year is 3017. Humanity has just discovered interstellar travel and can move great distances. Although, theres a catch..."

And then users would take the idea for the story (above) and write their own short (or series) relative to the idea, putting their own take on it.

This gives you many different writers tackling the same idea. It's very cool and something I think steemit could really use.

Do we post the rest of the story as our own steem or in the comment? Do we post new writing prompts on our pages, then use #writingprompts as a tag? I won't lie, I lost interest in reddit for most things, so I haven't ever done one like this on a board like these. I feel old or slow... or maybe both ;)

You could do both! There isn't any reason you couldn't post the story in the comments of the original post and then make it its own post! Thats the beauty of this idea : )

To keep everything organized, it would be best to post it in the comments.
Only the people interested in the writing prompt would see it though.

  • This is a disadvantage for whales, since their large following won't be notified of their story.
  • However, this is an advantage for 'minnows'. Their story will be seen by all the people interested in the writing prompt, which is typically more than their small following.

In general, I would like to see more conversation and discussion on all posts on Steemit. So I would definitely post my story in the comments and not as it's own post.

Why not post it on your own and then a link in the comments?

I would prefer to just see all the responses to a prompt on one page instead of having to click on several links. This is the way it's done on Reddit as well. This works wonderfully. (example)
Of course, this is my opinion and @anarcho-andrei seems to disagree and prefer links as well. To each his own.

Since Scott originally expressed wanting more of a reddit type experience this makes sense. It's just the endless scrolling! I like to right click each link and open in new tab. Helps me think. Writers sure are funny with their preferences. Keeps things varied. Good luck on this endeavor :D

We could combine this with the #freewrite tag for those who want to just get their juices flowing!

Hey, thats not a bad idea! I wouldn't say we make it mandatory, but combining the two dads would definitely make it a better type of "space" for the type of content writing prompts would produce

Combine all the dads into one superdad.

it's... it's too much power...

You have to. It's the only way to save the moon.

You're not my friend, Justin Scott, who is married to Crystal and lives in Louisiana, are you?

I promise I am not xD

Shucks.

THIS, was funny. LOL

Glad you find tragedy so amusing, Jake.

Pretty darn cool my gung ho pen wielding friend. Gonna leave some links to maybe help you out: https://steemit.com/life/@steemtrail/trail-guide-category-map-and-opportunities.
.
This post has some links to writing and story TRAILS from @Steemtrail. You might be able to connect to the curator or discord channel to get your idea rolling. Also You can check out https://beta.chainbb.com/ which is like a forum version of Steemit. Maybe there's a way to get it also going there. ME? I got a backload of things to pump out into stories. But I fully support the rest of the authors getting their voice out there into gear.
.
I am wishing you luck in this cool idea of yours. can't wait to see what comes out of it.

Thank you for the resources, I'm already a bit involved in stem trail myself. Would love to talk more in depth over this on chat, message me when you have the time!

Sounds like an amazing idea :D Count me in!

Glad you think so : )

Omg I listen to tons of true scary stories from youtubers where ppl submit stories or they do research and find them. Some are from reddit. Never actually been to that site before though!

Sounds like you're talkimg about creepy pasta

That too but many users like urnaker, mr. Nightmare, Corpse Husband, Southern cannibal, pull stories from reddit! The only way i even heard of this site lol

Ironically enough, Reddit is how I heard of steemit xD

Lol wow how funny!

Great minds! I've been so wanting to do this - along with a bunch of other writery things (do you know any good Steemit writer groups?) Definitely count me in.

Are you doing Camp Nano Wrimo?

No actually, haven't found steemit groups geared specifically toward writers. But I'd love some info if you have any, and link me to Camp Nano Wrimo!

Sounds like a writing group needs to be started :-) Though hard to believe one doesn't exist in this virtual world. I'll dig! Here's login/signup for camp nano https://campnanowrimo.org/sign_in

:-)

Thank you for this! Will check out soon : )

Cool. It's more low key than it's 'parent' National Novel Writing Month (NanoWriMo) which is in November. The goal then is to cough up 50K words in an attempt to write the first draft on your novel in 30 days. I did it once and will never do it again. lol. I make daily writing a goal, but 50K words, though it was nice to say I did it, was just too much.

CampNano is like a mini version where you set whatever writing goals you want for yourself. If you hit your goals, there are prizes like free or deeply discounted memberships to writing forums - and my favorite 1/2 off the writing software Scrivener (seriously revolutionized my writing in terms of organization.)

There are various youtube 'events' and writing sprints and an entire community on the forums of NanoWriMo.Org . You also get daily 'camp care packages' in your Camp Nano inbox - and can find local groups in your area for meetups. :-) Enjoy!

Looking forward to checking it out more : )