Friday, October 10, 2014

Reddit for Writing Prompts

“What’s everyone doing on this fine Tuesday?” she tweeted to her followers.
“I’m probably going to head over to tumblr and find a writing prompt,” I tweeted back.
“There’s a Reddit for Writing Prompts, too! If that helps!” she replied.
“Thanks, I’ll keep that around for future reference,” I assured her.
What is even
happening here
Then I googled “Reddit for Writing Prompts
Then I googled “seriously how do I even use reddit”
I generally tend to stay away from stuff online that will take a week and a half to learn how to navigate. And I’m even more apprehensive about reddit, which I only ever hear bad things about. It’s as though the entire website is holding a sign that says “abandon hope all ye who enter; here there be trolls.”
It’s even more intimidating because I know there’s a reddit for, like, everything. Cows? Probably. Chick Fil A? Most likely. Sandwiches? I wouldn’t be surprised.
Also I have no idea what’s going on with any of the millions of arrows all over the place. Am I supposed to use them to like/not like certain posts? There are too many, and I am afraid I will be overwhelmed by reddit's cascades of arrows.
Even though I’m weirded out by the confusing website and convinced half the people who use the site will be jerks to me, once I calm down enough to actually look at some of the writing prompts, it’s actually pretty cool. There are some good ideas, and not just for original fiction. Today I saw a suggestion for a Harry Potter/House M.D. fanfiction crossover, and another for a Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares/Breaking Bad fanfiction crossover. There were several ideas for “last person on earth” stories, and a few for scenarios involving characters being at the gates of heaven. The most interesting prompt was “A time traveller from the 1930s travels to modern day in his time machine and wonders why his invention never caught on.” But my favorite was “You are part of a powerful order of mages. Some control fire, others, water. You however... Have the power of bread. That's right, you're a bread mage. Tell me about your day.
So even though I’ll probably never sign up and actually learn how to use reddit, I might head over to the writing prompts if I ever need an idea, or just a laugh.

1 comment:

  1. Tried commenting but it seemed not to work. Reddit is simple. Think of it like a giant forum with lots of subforums. WritingPrompts is just one such forum. It is heavily moderated so no trolls are allowed to exist or comment on it. The votes are just akin to liking something. :)

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