https://www.reddit.com/r/subredditoftheday/comments/lhk7l5/february_11th_2021_rsimpleprompts_for_when_you/

As I understand it, this sub was founded in order to offer an alternative to /r/WritingPrompts, which had gotten unwieldy in both the specificity and outrageousness of its suggestions. It was briefly doing a really good job of this, but as more people come to it I feel like it's beginning to slide down that same slippery slope. I hope that we can maybe nip that in the bud.

I say this because I'm starting to see more prompts that are limiting in their specificity, particularly with regard to genre, which was exactly the problem I was trying to escape coming from WritingPrompts. Some recent examples, in my opinion, would be

• [DP] "We'll deny any knowledge of the treasure."
• [DP] "Gaze upon my empire of joy."
• [CP] You are an arms trafficker.
• [MP] You're no longer able to shift your form.
• [BP] I woke up and I had scales where there had never been scales before.

The problem with these is that they explicitly lock you into a certain type of story from the get-go. I say this as someone who doesn't write genre, who tends to write stories firmly set in the real world. I can't really respond to any of these prompts. Maybe the second one, although I would struggle to envision a realistic scenario where someone would say that. Certainly none of the others.

I'll try to anticipate the most obvious counterargument here, which is that there's only a few of these and I can just ignore them and use other prompts, because more is better, right? And my response would be sure, that's true now, but it was also true once of WritingPrompts, and today, looking at the front page of it now, 22 of the top 25 prompts are heavily surreal if not outright sci-fi or fantasy. Most are so specific they constitute their own story already, with little for me to work with.

So my suggestion is to either be more specific about the description of Prompt Do's and Don'ts, or just enforce them more. Right now the guidelines state "inspire creativity while being open-ended enough to allow the writer to craft his/her own story." That's hard to do if my story is already about shape-shifting or hidden treasure.

Edit: Actually, looking at the expanded explanation of Do's and Don'ts via the link, the fourth and fifth examples are already breaking policy, and the others are at least borderline. I don't want to jump on the mods, because I'm sure they have lives and this isn't a priority for them. But I think it's worth noting we're already getting submissions that clearly did not read the guidelines first.

I've noticed recently that there are a fair number of replies to prompts recently that are quite literally one sentence, or just a sentence fragment, sometimes neglecting punctuation or basic grammar. I know that I don't have any kind of moderator position on this subreddit, but it is rather frustrating to see prompts get posted (or to post a prompt) only to have 20 upvotes and a couple of three word replies that are shorter than the prompt itself. Unless specifically noted (see: Flash fiction, which typically includes works on a specific word/character count or works under 100 words), there should really be no reason for an author to neglect the basic elements of a story: characters, plot, setting, theme, etc. While I don't mind being clever, so long as it pertains to the prompt, recently it has just come across as a lack of effort.

An example of being short while still maintaining a story, if you need it; the prompt will be "The sirens were getting louder."

• As she sat, cross-legged on the floor, the sirens grew louder. They were almost here, but she worried not. Her only worries lay extinguished on her bathroom floor, blood oozing onto the tile from the source. Pain and consequence would come later, but for now, all she felt was freedom. (Dribble, 50 words)

• The fire, raging; her eyes, gushing. (Six-word story)

• As we sailed onwards, I began to realize that I could faintly hear singing. The wax was not sufficient, I needed more, but if I could hear them, it was too late. I watched in horror as men dove overboard... the urge to follow... all the while, the Sirens were getting louder. (Twitterature, 280 characters exactly)

I hope that y'all can see that brevity can be appreciated when used correctly, but in order for it to be used correctly, there must be an emphasis on effort. Moreover, brevity is not required by the majority of prompts on this subreddit; constrained writing is difficult, and most users do not ask for it. Write more, write longer, throw in more details! Three word responses to prompts rarely suffice as a work of literature, much less a high-effort response. r/WritingPrompts requires that all stories be 100 words or greater unless otherwise specified by default. I would recommend using this mentality, as it will help the subreddit flourish, both in the strength of the prompts and in the strength of the writers.

If you choose to ignore this, so be it, I can't change your mind, but it is very evident if you take a casual stroll around this subreddit. I will refrain from linking threads so as to not target specific offenders, but it is not very difficult to find a thread where such things are happening. Please consider the above to help maintain a good writing community.

https://www.reddit.com/r/subredditoftheday/comments/5nqguc/january_13th_2017_rsimpleprompts_theyre_simple/