xwhy t1_ixwaaur wrote
Greetings! This is u/xwhy, and many of my prompts appear in r/xwhy. I also have a book of flash fiction "In A Flash 2020" from eSpec Books under the name Christopher J. Burke available on Amazon. Twenty flash stories and a few of them started life as prompts from this board. I also have three flash pieces in their anthology "Devilish & Divine", two of which were inspired by prompts here.
(Note that at most one of those stories might even shown up here in some form or other. Most were written after the prompts fell into obscurity, so I didn't "waste" them.)
Favorite prompts are hard to pin down. I'm all over the map. Of my published stories, there are no Supers pieces, but if I have a followup, there will be a bunch because a bunch of them just clicked. I have written a few time travel pieces, but those start to get repetitive. And I seem to like fantasy or fantasy elements in a modern story just because I get to make the rules, and I might not know the science rules.
There are times that when I think I've clicked so well with a prompt but it goes nowhere (sometimes the prompt has no votes and sometimes the prompt and other responses take off but none languishes). But if I looked at my top 5 stories by votes, I'd wager at least 2 would be head-scratchers, meaning I didn't think them to be among my greatest work.
I do like the chance to be silly, so I can blow off a little steam, but I don't need the silliness spelled out in the prompt. I can find the silliness, whether it's three hobbits in a trenchcoat, or a guy finding a lamp on the beach and the three genies inside turn out to be a bit stooge-ish (that last-part was not part of the prompt).
One of my favorite stories in a soon-to-be (I hope, I hope) collection is about a demon hiding an angel in hell ... I totally misread the prompt, but I went with it anyway.
As I tell writers who reply to my prompts: a prompt takes you where a prompt takes you. It's a starting point.
Anyway, I'm rambling and this is turning into a short story of its own, so I'll point to r/xwhy again and mention that comments are always welcome. And, hopefully, updates will be coming soon, but my job has been keeping me busy, and blocking reddit. Sigh. Makes it difficult.
MajorParadox OP t1_ixxoq6c wrote
> I do like the chance to be silly, so I can blow off a little steam, but I don't need the silliness spelled out in the prompt.
I used to love doing silly prompt responses. I should get back into it!
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