Here's a list of all the prompts we've used, in the order that we've used them.
I'll update this as soon as I can after every writing day, and add a link to the day's stats post when it comes up.
Feel free to take any as inspiration, just mind the time ;)
(I've divided each day's groups just to make it clear which ones were posted as a set, but please feel free to pick and choose from the list as you like)
02 JuneTo be continued
Crash
To wake up without knowing where you are wasn't a good omen
Optimist sees donut. Pessimist just sees hole.
Too much/Not enough
Song:
Lady Gaga - Bad Romance 05 JuneSong:
Within Temptation, See Who I AmTask: Write for a character/pairing/genre/continuity you usually doesn’t dare to write.
Waiting
Beginner's Luck
Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose
You know what you need
09 JunePeace comes with a price
Initiation
Song:
Cocorosie, Not for SaleDon't take life so seriously, it isn't permanent
Connection
You're going to have to try better than that
12 JuneTask: Write your OTP from your current favourite continuity in your favourite genre.
Task: Romance in an unexpected situation.
See here for more detail on this one.
Incompatibility
Song:
Fuel, by Metallica.
Nostalgia
It wasn’t clear where it all went wrong
16 JuneHappiness is…
Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before.
"The sun shone, the flowers were in full blossom, the day was overall disgustingly perfect, and my life had just ended..."
Worth waiting for
First kiss
"We all need discipline." (Black Narcissus)
19 June Thus spake Zarathustra"This conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye." - HAL 9000
This pictureTechnical assistance required
Task - Choose a character you wouldn't usually write about, and describe a small moment of triumph in their life. What happens? What makes it such a good thing? Does it have any lasting impact?
Deception
23 June"True friends stab you in the front." - Oscar Wilde
Bored to tears
Pandora's box
PictureTask - Write one character from the viewpoints of three separate characters (can be in the first, second or third person, you choose)
Song: Drowning Pool - Reborn 26 JuneEvacuation
Scenario - Trying to sleep/recharge in a very uncomfortable place
PictureClear advantage
"Sure, you got it in, but are you going to be able to get it out again?"
Break/Rest/Pause and From enemy to ally
30 JuneCrossing the line
Scenario - Finding something good where it was least expected
Song: Tim Hardin - How Can We Hang On To A DreamReward
Trial by combat
Scenario - Unable to say goodbye
03 July"I can't lie to you about your chances, but... you have my sympathies." - Alien
The eye of the storm
A Picture"That's not the word you were looking for."
Song: Florence and the Machine - A Kiss with a FistGetting lost
07 July Song: H-Blockx - Countdown to InsanityBreakages must be paid for
At all Cost
A PictureTask - Choose a character. Write a scene in which they confront something that truly frightens them.
Snow/Ice/Cold
10 JulyFreak
Task - Choose a character. What's the one thing that would make them happy above all other things? Write a scene describing their reaction to getting that one thing.
A poemExclusivity clause
Alliance
A picture 14 JulyScenario - two characters from the same faction hate each other, how did they meet?
Song: Orgasmatron by MotörheadTask - Write a trailer/prologue of a story, which, in your opinion, needs to be written/you want to read.
Task - Write about the favourite place of your character of choice."The worst possible person with the worst possible timing shows up... at the worst possible time."
Communication difficulties
17 JulyStaking a claim
A distant glow of hellfire
"The only thing you can do with virgins like that is pounce!" - (Cabaret)
A PictureGoing for a spin
Song: Metallica - King Nothing 21 JulyMutual attraction
When I look at you its plain to me ~ You ain't got nothing that I need ~ But baby you got everything I want (from 'Everything I want', Jace Everett)
A PictureHow to be...
5 things I shouldn’t have done...
For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: It might have been. - John Greenleaf Whittier
24 JulyBetrayal
Time heals
NadirA PictureScenario - Watching someone else make a very bad choice
Scenario - Medbay during a medical emergency
28 JulyThe heat of battle
Task - Choose a character, and write a scene in which they convey an emotion through action, with no dialogue.
It's not the fall that hurts - It's when you hit the ground (from "It's not the fall that hurts" by The Caesars)
Helpless, by Crosby, Stills, Nash and YoungWeightless
A picture 31 July"I am the wrath of God. Who else is with me?" (Aguirre, The Wrath of God)
Song: Nickelback - Just forAmnesia
A PictureToo much information
Monitor duty
04 August"How do you even fit in there?"
Beauty
Task - End your story the same as how you began it. It doesn’t matter if it’s just the same word, or sentence or a whole paragraph. Just make clear how the meaning of this text element changed during the story.
The loneliest number is number 1
Tradition
Song: Metallica - Wherever I May Roam 07 August"It's not wanton destruction, it's aggressive redecoration."
Scenario - Abandoned on an alien planet
"Oh shit..."
Song: June Tabor-The Band Played Waltzing Matilida"I was trying to escape. Obviously, it didn't work."
A Picture 11 AugustNot the desired outcome
Avarice
Fenced-in
A PictureConfession
"Convince me."
14 AugustDenied
"I'm not hurt, just humiliated."
"It's not psycho, that's impetuous."
Song: Fall Out Boy - I don’t careTask - Choose a character and an animal (any non-sentient organic being), and write an interaction between the two.
Cooling Down
18 AugustFalling
Worth keeping in mind
Go through the Master List of Prompts, choose one you like and write for it.
A Picture Song: Flaw: Worlds DivideWelcome
21 AugustDoing the decent thing
"Hey guys, look what I found!"
Hell is other people. - Jean-Paul Sartre
"I think I shot him..."
Scenario - Getting to know your enemy
6 Song: Les Miserables - Stars 25 AugustJudgement
Borders
"I'm nobody's fool, least of all yours." - (All About Eve)
Song: The Sounds - Tone the Beat"I'm a monster."
Upgrade
28 August"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room." (Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb)
"Are we feeling awkward yet?"
Go through the Master List of Prompts, choose one you like and write for it.
Choosing a path
A PictureTask: One character writes a letter (or series of letters) to another.
01 September"The Truth can wait; it's used to it."
Go through the Master List of Prompts, choose one you like and write for it.
This PictureProtective
"He'd thought it was just a bad dream."
Interruption
04 SeptemberLiving the dream
"This is history in the making."
Task - An hallucination or vision about the future.
This image.Scenario: One character witnesses something that shocks him. (or her, or it, or,...you know.)
Incarceration
08 SeptemberMagnetism
This image'Leave each one his touch of folly; it helps to lighten life's burden which, if he could see himself as he is, might be too heavy to carry.' John Lancaster Spalding
Go through the Master List of Prompts, choose one you like and write for it.
Memorial
Running low...
11 SeptemberBetrayal
An embarassment of riches
Scenario: two characters each give different advice to a third.
Song: U2 - I Still haven’t found what I’m looking forSilver lining
A Picture 15 September A Picture Song: Franz Ferdinand - The FallenBeginning/Ending
Congratulations
Rite of Passage
Scenario: A character makes a bad first impression
18 September Song: Scouting for Girl - This ain’t a Love Song Song: The Bates - Independent Love SongSetting the world to rights
Acceleration
Master List of Prompt
This image 22 SeptemberReunion
Downgrade
Snapshot
Master List Prompt
"There you go, as always, being a scary person who just makes enemies."
Tarot Card: The Tower 25 September"There's disaster in your past - Boundaries in your path - What do you desire when lift you higher?" from Mattafix - Living Dafur
To the bitter end
Song: Placebo - Infra RedThe perils of time travel
For the love of war
This image 29 SeptemberMaster-List-Prompt
Loss
Trigger happy
Scenario - A choice between a selfish and selfless act
"Hope is the mother of all men." - Lt Anderson, Halls of Montezuma
Song: Kansas - Wayward Son 02 OctoberEvidence of things unseen
Master-List-Prompt
"I can do anything I want. And so can you." (Donnie Darko)
QuintessenceScenario: Giving an ultimatum
Tarot Card: Page of Pentacles 06 OctoberFree Fall
This imageIsolation
Flight
In denial
Beginning: "Where were you last night?"
09 OctoberTask - Write! Without plotting, without thinking about what to write. You might take another prompt (from the
Master List) to have a beginning and just write from there, without reading what you’ve written before. When you post, just correct the spelling and/or grammar mistakes, but otherwise post the quintessence of your spontaneity.
Farther, higher than the sunrise
Light, space, daydream
Rays-singing
The fear is long since gone
The silence flies ahead
We are up here and this is what it looks like
Other people’s stars wave from a distance
Dreamer from the inebriation
Worldwide away and worlds afar
(Translation based on "5000 Meilen" by Selig.)
"All speech is vain and empty unless it be accompanied by action." Demosthenes
Blush
Collison
Twisted
13 OctoberHitting one’s head
Song: Metallica - Carpe Diem Baby"This wasn't supposed to happen."
Blue
This imagePriorities
16 OctoberMaster-List-Prompt
Song: Guns’N’Roses - Knockin’ on Heaven’s DoorToo far
Ingratiate
Irregularity
"If you're looking for a fight, you've got one."
20 OctoberMaster-List-Prompt
Oblivious
Undeniable truth
"Don't fight it son. Confess quickly! If you hold out too long you could jeopardize your credit rating." (Brazil)
Gravity
Intervention
23 October1. "I could do with a little help here"
2.
Song: Die Toten Hosen - Pushed Again3. "Always in history, it is the pioneers who suffer for ultimate victory."
4.
This image5. Cosmic rust
6. A flashback
27 October1. Master List Prompt
2. Celebrate!
3. Lighten the load
4. Coincidence
5. Scenario: captured by the enemy
6. Tensile Strength
30 October1.
Song: Beatsteaks - Monster2. Master List Prompt
3. Our last defence
4. Collapse
5. Eventuality
6. Shared history
03 November1. Master List Prompt
2.
This image3. Master List Prompt
4. Taken for a ride
5. Master List Prompt
6. Sacrifice
06 November1. Setting - a room with an empty seat which should be occupied
2. Choose from the Master List of Prompts
3. Chaos horizon
4. Task - Choose a character. They need to find a gift for someone who isn't a Transformer. What happens?
5. Scenario - the moment of victory
6. Choose from the Master List of Prompts
10 November1. Grudge
2. Paved with good intentions
3. Scenario - forging alliances
4. The worst of all possible worlds
5. Setting - the bridge of a space-craft
6.
This image 13 November1. Darkness
2. Task - Write a story from the ending backwards. Begin with the ending and tell which events lead to it.
3. Scenario - hiding in the enemy's base, a character observes more than they ever wanted to
4.
Kashmir by Led Zeppelin5. Embrace
6. Schadenfreude
17 November1.
Song: New Order, 60 Miles and Hour2. Master List Prompt
3. Chance
4. Unintentional harm
5. "Sometimes, it's the boring stuff I remember the most." (Up)
6. Setting - At a memorial ceremony
24 NovemberFrom Hell
Thinking big
"You’re only in trouble if you get caught."
Scenario - a missed opportunity
Setting - at night during a meteor shower
#6 Scenario - An individual's first contact with an alien race">
27 November Cowboy Bebop - Gotta knock a little harderThe Things Inside
Attack is the best defence
Setting - broken washracks
Scenario - preparing for battle
Master List Prompt
05 December"You were a stranger once."
Scenario: Three people in a small room (closet, small briefing room, cave etc). At least two of them dislike each other, at least two of them are from different factions/combiner teams and at least two of them had interfaced at least once in the past. Have fun.
Alone together
Two's company; three's a crowd
12 DecemberStaying in tune
Task: Put your playlist on shuffle, and write a fic (not necessarily a song-fic) for the third song that is played. ;)
Cacophony (also can be used figuratively)
Task: Write a conversation consisting of song lyrics (of different songs) - if you don’t find the right line, then you can improvise, but try to stick on lyrics of several songs.
19 December"Once upon a time…"
Task: Write the most intense scene you can write in 500 words (hottest smut, angstiest angst, most joyful romance etc). It’s fine if you write 550 words or 450, but please try to stick roughly to the 500 words limit.
Song: Iron Maiden - 2 Minutes to MidnightEnd of Days
Advent CalendarAdvent Calendar Prompts 2010
Longing
"You. Me. Tomorrow night. I’ll pick you up!"
"Luck of the Draw"
Intransigence
"Snow white"
Scenario - trying to prove a point
Getting Lost
Snow
Joyful
Task - Choose a character. They are surrounded by enemies in hostile
territory. What happens?
He/She’s not always like that.
Energy
This image
"Longing for something that has been lost"
You can’t always get what you want
Entrenched during a long-running siege