Noticed a big shift in prompt themes on this sub from 2022 to now

Back in 2022, it felt like half the prompts here were 'you wake up with superpowers' or 'a door appears'. Now, I'm seeing way more specific, grounded stuff, like 'a librarian finds a checkout slip from 1910 in a returned book'. I think the rise of those 'mundane magic' writing blogs caused it. What's a prompt trend you've watched come and go?

3 comments

3 Comments

casey_barnes2mo ago

Remember when every other prompt was about finding a mysterious key? I wrote three stories about a key that unlocked a basement, a diary, and a weird locker at the bus station. They all ended with the main character just shrugging and going home for a sandwich. The trend died out right after my last one, which might not be a coincidence.

eva_garcia562mo ago

Oh my gosh, yes! I totally did the same thing with those "door in the woods" prompts. Every single one of my characters just turned around, said "nope," and went to get pizza instead. I swear my boring endings killed that trend too, because people stopped posting them after my third story. It's like we accidentally made anti-climax into a superpower!

paul11712d ago

Yeah, the "nope, I'm out" ending is a classic. I actually read a forum post somewhere that said the whole "mysterious object" trope got killed by people like us who just refused to play along with the spooky setup. It's funny because I remember thinking the same thing about those prompts. I'd write a character finding a weird key and then they just toss it in a drawer and forget about it. That's more realistic anyway, who actually goes exploring a creepy basement? We basically made it so nobody could take those prompts seriously anymore, which is kind of impressive.