Noticed how writing prompts got way more specific over the last 10 years

I was scrolling through old prompt threads from 2014 and they were all stuff like "write about a door" or "a stranger gives you something." Now every prompt has a full paragraph of setup and three rules about genre and word count. Did the community just get more demanding, or did we all get tired of the simple stuff? What kind of prompts do you actually prefer writing to?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_wren1mo ago

Lol nah I'm definitely part of the problem cause my last prompt was like "write a 500 word noir story where the detective's fedora has psychic powers but only on Tuesdays." I mean maybe it's just me but I think we all got burned out on "write about a door" because that's way too open ended and I'd just sit there stressing for an hour. Simple prompts feel like a trap now cause there's no guardrails you know? But honestly I miss the chaos of the old days where someone would post "write about a door" and you'd get a surrealist poem and a grocery list in the same thread.

finleyfox1mo agoTop Commenter

Oh man, @the_wren this hits too close to home, haha. I swear I've seen like fifty "psychic fedora" prompts in the last week alone. But yeah, the "door" thing was pure gold back in the day - you'd get someone writing a full-blown fantasy epic and someone else just listing their grocery store receipts in haiku form. Now it's all "write a noir story about a door that can also time travel but only on leap years." I miss when simple prompts actually meant something, not just people overthinking every single word.