'Prompt' Exchange

Chatterbox: Inkwell

'Prompt' Exchange

'Prompt' Exchange Thread!

A thread for random ideas you thought up but are probably never going to write/a place to brainstorm cool plots, whether or not you end up going any further.

Maybe you'll inspire someone else with cute, heartfelt, mysterious, angsty, or flat-out weird ideas? Maybe you have a really cool first line or interesting premise, but don't know where to use it? Maybe you're looking for something to motivate or inspire you, but don't know where to start? Or perhaps you just want to design an OC without writing a whole story, or concoct an outline for an overly-convoluted scheme? Perhaps you really want to see more post-apocalypse cyberpunk or a fresh take fantasy or pure fluff-mance stories, or something niche and oddly specific, and want to egg random people on until they finally write it for you?

Well why not try exchanging with others? Drop off ideas that you might not want to write an entire thing about, and pick up other people's ideas to test them out. Maybe you'll find a new favourite genre or writer; maybe you'll finally cure your writers' block. Challenge yourself! And of course, have fun! 

submitted by Jaybells, age Obscure, Lost in the Universe
(December 17, 2021 - 12:28 am)
submitted by Poinsettia, top
(August 21, 2023 - 4:33 pm)

1: an old man named moses aberdeen learns to perform magic by tap dancing in four dimensional shapes

2: society of children who live in tunnels below a walmart, and live by hoarding supplies.

3. judith gets kicked out of college, so she steals a motorscooter and rides across the country seeking the Secret College

4: a teenage girl gets glossolia, and starts speaking in a mystery language. she is proclaimed a prophet, and linguists study the language only to discover she's been saying knock knock jokes the whole time.

5: a group of enthusiastic dumpster divers find the holy grail, and are forced to defend it against the men in black 

submitted by Lord Entropy
(August 21, 2023 - 8:04 pm)

Super cool ideas, do you mind if I use some of their *waves her fingers around* potential? Especially 2 & 3? 

submitted by Nyxie, age eons, smwhr
(August 22, 2023 - 7:36 am)

yea dude that'd be so awesome

submitted by Lord Entropy
(August 22, 2023 - 3:37 pm)

SWEET! Thanks! 

submitted by Nyxie
(August 24, 2023 - 11:13 am)

I might write this...I'm not sure. 

It's the apocalypse. Well not really, the world is fine, trees are growing animals are flourishing. 

But not humans. After the discovery of a mysterious puzzle (nicknamed the "Ideal Cube"), that looks like a Menger sponge, and when solved, was said to give the solver immortal life, most of population has looked themselves up in there homes, trying to solve it, trying to reach immortality. But they don't realize that while they are doing it, they are dying. Thousands of people die everyday, usually out of dehydration or hunger because they are mesmerized by the cube, by immortality, and can't take their eyes off it.

With immortality right at your fingertips, why would you need to do anything else?

The thing is, nobody has solved it yet. But that doesn't mean it's impossible right? Everyday people are picking up these cubes and thinking they will be the first to solve it. And when they fail they try again, and again, and again.

It would be better if I solved it then if I didn't. That's what they all think. Not you. At the time of its discovery, you were chasing your dreams and you didn't care about a stupid cube. 

But now that's all changed. What if, I could solve it...and become immortal? I'm good at solving puzzles...right? And I definitely wouldn't become addicted like everyone else, why would I? That's what you think.

So what do you do? Do you get a cube for yourself, join the rest of the population, and try to solve it or do you continue your life and resist the pull of life at its finest form?

submitted by Peregrine Falcon, age Fledgling, At the tree
(August 27, 2023 - 6:38 pm)

Ooh, I really like the concept! It's a really cool idea, and is written so cleanly it has a great powerful effect!

submitted by Jaybells, Lost, somewhere
(August 27, 2023 - 7:32 pm)

Thank you!! Anyone is open to using my prompts!

submitted by Peregrine Falcon, age Fledgling, At the tree
(August 28, 2023 - 12:24 pm)

1. A supernova explosion in the galaxy grants a small percent of the population strange powers (including the main characters), and also sends the earth into an ice age apocalypse. How shall they survive after society collapses?

2. You wake up after dying in an accident to find that you've been reincarnated as a young fox in a strange enviroment... What happens?

3. The main character discovers a strange app on their phone that allows them to access all the technology blueprints and detailed information of every single person in the world 10000 years from now, when the earth was invaded by aliens and humanity went extinct. How do they plan to use this knowledge to change the future, when they notice that their own changes in the present can refresh the info on their phone?

4. The main character always finds themself transported to another world in their dreams. They don't think too much of it... until they find that they can bring any item in the dream back to the real world and vice versa as long as they keep a hand on the item before they wake up. The dream world does not seem to be happy with their discovery... and why does the pain in the dream feel so real?

5. You wake up to find that you're stuck inside the world of your favorite book series as a side character. To get out, you need to help the protagonist confront their enemies and defeat them... but you were supposed to die in the middle of the first book. Not now though, when you know every single plot twist by heart! How are you going to survive and escape the series?

6. You get a terrarium for your birthday. Strange, you live alone. Who could know it was your birthday? And also strangely... the terrarium seems to be empty. It looks kind of like a medival scene, with a castle and village for decoration, and small hills. Wait, what was that? A small person? Did they just come out of that straw house?

submitted by Ultimatum
(August 28, 2023 - 1:02 am)

From Tsuki's prompt on page ten: "Stop telling me how to live my life!"
"I'm your conscience.  That is literally my one job."

A14 stared silently at Farther. "You saw everything, didn't you?" He asked from his place on the ground.

"Not all of it." Farther admitted. "I was asleep for the first half, I think- I woke up when Ceres was hugging you." He sighed, an uncomfortable expression coming over him, and floated a bit straighter. "I used to be the only person to see him like that, when we were students. I'd thought that he would have grown up a bit, now that he's nearly 26."

"He's still the same. Deep down. On the outside, he has another face for his work." A14 said, looking down at the white ground of his dream-space as he tried to put Ceres's shivering sobs out of his mind. "I'm the only person who he can trust."

"So I've seen. He needs more love, and care. He never had enough of that when he was a kid." Farther murmured. "That's up to you to provide."

"I can't."

"What?"

"I can't give him that." A14 said dejectedly, one of the few emotions he was allowed to show. "I can't even express myself. I can't cheer him up when he needs me. I can't give him a family. I can't be his family. Not now. Not like this."

Farther nodded, understanding showing in the fuzzy image of his projection. "Yet you promised him that night, when his family wanted nothing to do with him."

"That was when I knew I could help him, before the war. Then Kaspar left, and Meridan left, and Renita and Jennifer... Now I can't get to him, or even get out of myself. He closed himself up and all I can do is stand by and watch him being rattled into a shadow of what he was. Do you think that's what a responsible person would do?"

"You can comfort him, A14. You do that with your presence alone, and you're taking that away by staying away from him."

"He keeps ordering me to do that. I can't go against his orders."

"You have to try. If-"

"You don't know what it's like. Stop telling me how to live my life. It's hard enough without someone like you bothering me every night."

"I'm your conscience. That is literally my one job." Farther retorted with a slightly pained expression. Then he corrected himself. "Emotion module, actually. But I'm sure you get the point." His flickering figure crossed his arms and floated to the side glumly. "I care about him as much as you do, but you're the one with the body, A14. I'll shut up and leave you alone if you want to. I've been dead for six years, you know."

submitted by Ultimatum
(August 28, 2023 - 1:54 am)

An aunt that you never got to know recently died and left your family her cottage, your brother all her books and you her favorite lamp. You feel very disappointed because you love books more then a stupid lamp! And plus your brother hates books! Your parents are planning to sell the cottage, since they didn't like your aunt at all. But you convinced your parents to stay there for winter break. Then you discover something [magical] about you lamp. What could go wrong?

submitted by Peregrine Falcon, age Fledgling, At the tree
(August 28, 2023 - 12:38 pm)

Alair turned to face him, her blue eyes shining with tears.

"It would be so nice," she said, "not to be loved in spite of who I am, but because of it."

submitted by Poinsettia
(August 28, 2023 - 2:50 pm)

No, stoppppp.... I will cry. :(

submitted by Jaybells, Lost
(August 28, 2023 - 5:29 pm)
submitted by top
(November 12, 2023 - 7:34 pm)
submitted by top
(January 7, 2024 - 11:52 am)