I hope I’m not blowing anybody’s mind when I say that writing has never been about ideas (ideas are cheap and easy and we’ve all had a million of ‘em), writing is about execution. There is no idea so squirrely that it’s unworkable in the hands of a skilled writer. Jim Butcher once said the same thing and somebody called him out and said “okay fine, write a book where the lost Roman 9th Legion all get Pokemon” and then he went and did exactly that. A swamp Western about guys who ride hippos? Sarah Gailey crushed it.

So here’s how this week works. When you sign up, I will craft you a terrible prompt. Just the worst shit I can think of. And I want you to make it work. They won’t be vague like “a man goes on an adventure”, they’ll be extremely specific and squirrely (like, for example, “a Western about a mercenary company who ride hippos”).

Also, when you sign up, I’d like you to post your own terrible prompt. Anybody who feels unhappy with the prompt I’ve given them can use yours (EXCEPT YOU, YOU CANNOT USE YOUR OWN), but I am trusting y’all not to half-ass them. One person per hellprompt, post inthread if you want to claim one. When you trade it in, your old prompt goes into the hellrule pile. You can also trade prompts (hellprompt or regular prompt) with somebody else if you wish, though both parties need to agree and post inthread. When writing hellrompts, consider River of Teeth and The Furies of Calderon as a good guide for the sorta shit I’m looking for; go big rather than small, pulp absurdity and tabloid weird rather than abstract and floaty. Give it teeth. I'm going to try to fire off the first patch of prompts really quickly so folks can have more examples for writing their own hellprompts, so if you sign up fast you'll get a very fast turnaround (and also please use the prompts I'm handing out as further examples re the vibe).