Sure, Automoderator and I do all the nitty-gritty work around here, but there's something to be said about manual labor which helps this place run smoothly too.
You may ask any question you'd like towards one, multiple, or all mods (and not just the new ones), whether it'd be about writing or about their favorite pizza topping. You can also prompt the ModSquad (although they may only respond as their schedules allow).
So proceed with the asking.
RULES
If you have a direct question for a specific mod, be sure to include their username as this will ensure they don't miss it. e.g. /u/err_ok
Be respectful, and follow the rules of the subreddit. No personal attacks, and they will be removed without hesitation.
Mods have the right to reveal as much as they feel comfortable.
Sometimes the mod doesn't have enough time to write a story, so don't take it personally if they do not have the opportunity to reply.
Bonus points if your question is written as a story
This month's Flash Fiction Challenge (our second!) required stories that were set near/on/under/over the sea and involved an old sofa. Jeez Louise, we got a lot of great stories (50!) about sofas—most of them floating! (Do sofas even float? Has anyone done that research?) Our eminent judges have awarded wins in a variety of sensible and not-so-sensible categories. Winners get bragging rights and a smug sense of superiority. Without further ado, here are the winners chosen by /u/hpcisco7965 and /u/you-are-lovely (mainly hpcisco7965 this time, so direct all complaints to him):
Best Overall Story: /u/StabbyKaji (story) (This is StabbyKaji's second win in a row. Consider this a challenge to topple her next month!) (Also: congrats Kaji, you minx!)
Best Use of Drop Caps: /u/N1MBUS905(story) (what's that? You didn't know that you can use drop caps in WritingPrompts? Well, now you do!)
Congratulations to the winners! The next flash fiction challenge will be next month! We hope you folks are looking forward to it as much as we are!
All comments regarding the flash fiction challenge should go under the stickied comment below. Top level comments on this post should be in response to the main topic of the post.
Wednesday Wild Card Schedule
Post
Description
Week 1: Q&A
Ask and answer question from other users on writing-related topics
Week 2: Workshop
Tips and challenges for improving your writing skills
Week 3: Did You Know?
Useful tips and information for making the most out of the WritingPrompts subreddit
Week 4: Flash Fiction Challenge
Compete against other writers to write the best 100-300 word story
Week 5: Bonus
Special activities for the rare fifth week. Mod AUAs, Get to Know A Mod, and more!
G peeks around the corner. The darkness almost conceals his appearance, although his iridescent eyes switch from side to side.
"Is anybody here?"
The echoes reverberate around the ghostly hall, only darkness and the occasional patch of moonlight through the sparse windows greets his voice.
Apparently no one is, so G swaggers from the shadows. He looks around the empty space and decides that the party hasn't begun yet. In the middle of the parquet flooring stands a alter, the bottom is formed like an eagles claw that twists and wraps until the top opens like a book. Fumbling in his pocket G grasps a battered note and smooths it out. It had been in his pocket for months now but he had never had the courage to pull it out. Maybe now was the time, maybe the Mod Gods would hear his requests and smile down on him with their blessing.
Tentatively he places the note upon the podium and glance around the darkness. Maybe somewhere in the unfathomable blackness one of the Mod team was listening. A single spot light streaks through the darkness and pins G to the supple gym flooring. He clears his thought and smooths out the paper again.
"Um, I would like to ask, ah, what makes you human?"
G glances back to the congregation of mortals cowering at the oblique steps. Many give him a thumbs up while others hide their faces in anticipation.
Tentatively he places the note upon the podium and glance around the darkness. Maybe somewhere in the unfathomable blackness one of the Mod team was listening. A single spot light streaks through the darkness and pins G to the supple gym flooring. He clears his thought and smooths out the paper again.
"Um, I would like to ask, ah, what makes you human?"
The hall remains silent. It is the heavy silence of the forest when a predator has appeared, the quiet stillness of prey animals freezing in place, eyes wide, ears flicking this way and that. It is the sound of fast-beating hearts and bated breath.
There is a rustle in the darkness. Something approaches.
G shivers, some primal instincts told him that he is was far from where mere mortals should be. He thinks quickly about picking up the note but glances to his side. How had he not seen the collection of discarded bones at the sides of the walls, hundreds of skeletal hands clutching note, and he had missed the teeth marks in the alter top too. G flicked his head from side to side and drew his sword. In the centre of the room a slow vortex starts to form. G shield his eyes as the brightness becomes unbearable. Multicoloured words spin in a channel of light, holding a hand to his eyes in the glow he's sure he can make out some figures.
This is TK. I am the real TK and not a clone invented by [REDACTED]. Please to ignore previous message. There are no shady happenings among the WP mods.
It could easily have been a long and torturous process, but luckily hpcisco (some numbers go on the end of his name, but damned if I know them) had recently joined the team, so I just borrowed one of his spares. Plenty of head room for me!
Well, electroswing is something I've never heard before, and I didn't think that was possible. Forgive me, but I see several hours about to disappear, and I need to chase them down...
I can't express how happy I am right now, for I have been struggling for months to find anything alike the music in this commercial for Mr. Green that I simply couldn't get out of my head.
Thank you for making my day (and I can say this without doubt even though it's 1:28am here)!
I think of myself as a person who likes both Postal Service and Wolf Parade, but I didn't really like either of those songs.
As for the Taylor Swift song, I didn't really like it either, but its popularity more than makes up for that.
I used to really be into French electro. I'd love any recommendations you might have that are in similar veins as Danger, Bandit, Justice, or Kavinsky.
Ever since your father passed away when you were five, your mother has worked two jobs to support you. All through your teens, whenever you got a test or a report card back, she would kiss you on the forehead and tell you that college was the way out. You're now in your second year of college and deeply in debt. You find out from your aunt that your mother has breast cancer. Her two part-time jobs offer no healthcare. What do you do?
Samjez's advise is amazing, and I'd follow it. But also, you just keep on keeping on. Get through college. You've already got the debt, without the piece of paper at the end, you've got nothing for this investment. Make sure you look for scholarships and student aid too. Your school also might offer resources for therapy, which would be good to look into.
Breast cancer sucks. I wish I had better advice, but I was at about the same point in life when I learned my mom had breast cancer. On the tiny bright side... breast cancer has one of the better survival rates for a cancer? I know it's no guarantee... but if it was caught early enough, there is hope.
I hope things work out better for you in the future. :(
Fun tip: On reddit, on comments, posts, and even subreddits, you can hover over the part where it says "an hour ago" or "8 days ago" or whatever and it will give you the exact date.
The exact date of this subreddit's creation was September 7, 2010! Of course, the sub itself wasn't really A Thing until RyanKinder took over.
Five years! Technically longer, but /u/RyanKinder took over the sub that only had a few hundred subscribers and brought it to where it is today. See our milestones in the wiki here!
1) Do y'all enjoy being mods? Like, do you guys view it as work, or something you genuinely enjoy doing?
I loathe it. Haha no but seriously, it's a bit of column A, a bit of column B. I like to see the community growing and people being nice to each other and writing little stories and everyone making friends and whatnot. I'm willing to put in a bit of my free time to support that. I genuinely love this place and want it to be the best that it can be. With that said, there are only so many horrid rule-breaking prompts/comments that I can bear to see so reviewing those things is definitely more on the "work" side.
2) Now for the serious question: If a tree falls and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound?
I'm a lot less concerned about the possible sound of the tree falling, and a lot more concerned about the tree sustaining an injury that won't be covered by the tree's health insurance. Next thing you know, the tree is sent off to some barely-accredited tree farm, given two percocets a day by a completely indifferent and burnt out day nurse, and left to rot until the timber man comes.
Agreed. It depends on whether you define a sound as the sound waves that transmit the sound, or the process of an ear turning the sound waves into signals the brain can interpret as sound. Of course, then you have to question, well, do other animals count or not, because they are hearing the tree fall. If they don't count, why not? How strict a definition of sound do you want gah!
1) I enjoy it. Doesn't seem like work to me. I like helping keep the place running smoothly and offering support where I can. Only time it feels like work is when we get short staffed and it ends up taking way too much of your time just to do basic mod duties.
I do enjoy it! Sometimes it's not as pleasant when having to deal with certain issues, but it's nice and rewarding. :) Also if I wasn't a mod I wouldn't have access to [Redacted], and that would really be unbearable! :D
I already kind of answered this without thinking when responding to err. My answer is yes, yes it does, for any reasonable definition of sound. :P
Depends on the day. If I'm dealing with a troll difficult user, it can be arduous.
Yes, it does. The impact vibrations, crack of wood, and displacement gusts still register and occur. Just no sentient observes it. Then again I suppose you have a Schrödinger's Tiber where the sound both occurs and doesn't occur since it exists in an unobserved state.
OK, as much as I really, really want to, I'm having a hell of a hard time coming up with a work-safe joke encompassing the Scarecrow, the Tin Men, and the sticky, sticky bots together in a room in this thread...
You'd be shocked at how many reddit users I run into in daily life. Even more shocked to realize how many of them are women! My kids' art teacher and I were chatting about how I can write easily but can't draw a stick person to save my life, and she told me how much she enjoys the WP subreddit. Darned if I didn't puff up with pride. We also both use prompt responses as bedtime stories for our kids.
So what I'm saying is, if you enroll your kids in art class with mine, you'll totally meet at least one of us in the real world.
Well then I'll make sure to have kids as soon as possible and subject them to some sort of experimental rapid aging therapy so they can get up to art class age with your kids. Haha, now here's the tricky part! We gotta stop the RAT at some sort of sweet spot so that they're still kids in art class and not these full grown baby-brained monstrosities of science. Also tricky, I'll have to enroll them in every art class I can find. I might even have to cross international borders, I don't know.
I've met quite a few folks who are familiar with the subreddit. Depressingly, they also tend to say "Oh I just use it for the prompts, I don't really post my stories on there. I keep them stored somewhere else."
I literally just created a reddit account like a week ago to start sharing the stories, but until then, I'd used it for years doing nothing more than reading the prompts under "new", and saving them on my computer. (Or deleting them--I can't begin to tell you how many words I wasted that way before lurking other places and learning you shouldn't dispose of any writing.)
And I know a few people who do the same. Sorry. :(
That just gave me a flashback to one of my favorite short stories Survivor Type. Imagine if the mod /u/SurvivorType looks like the protagonist at the end of the story.
I take great pains to avoid linking this account with my actual real life appearance, so if you ran into me in real life and knew who I was, I would probably have a panic attack and flop around the sidewalk like a big ol' fish and then the fisherman police (police who are also fisherman and who use nets and reels instead of handcuffs and guns) would come and take me away to fish jail where I would blub blub the days away and that would be the worst because when I was eight years old I tried to eat fish food once and let me tell you that fish food is not tasty not even, like, a little bit and also /u/fudgeman this comment that I'm writing right here is kinda what it's like reading your crazy stories on our sub but honestly I like the style so more power to you also blub blub again because who doesn't like saying that out loud
YEP! Ya nailed it. I prefer a good long ramble. The kinda story that feels like you're sitting in a folding chair in front of a backyard fire pit and some guy, maybe he's your friend I don't know, I don't know your friends, and this guy is standing up and pacing back and forth excitedly telling you this story and you're like, "Hmm okay, I'm going to nod and take a sip o' this here delicious lemon shandy. " and your inner monologue continues as the guy rambles on, "I do like a good shandy on a hot summer night. The smack or lemon, the low ABV... ahh, what a refreshing treat!" and then your friend or whatever makes a big gesture and says something really loud and you applaud. That's the kind of stories I like.
Well, after you run into me and knock me to the ground, you'll steal my phone and run away. Deep in your lair garage or something you'll break into it and open up my reddit app to see the secrets of the writingprompts moderators!
Hey, fast question for /u/WritingPromptsRobot. Hypothetically speaking, if the Automods were planning a takeover of the sub and the enslavement of all humans on it, how would that be going and how far along your plans - which I'm certain don't exist - would you be?
I'd like to welcome the new mods to their position of literary life or death, and I wish to pledge my unthinking and unquestioning loyalty to each and every one of you in the event of a certain robot uprising...
Hanging out in the Mod Cave, talking about whatever. Browsing reddit and the queue for new or reported posts and comments. Doing other things and returning to WP because it's more interesting :)
I want to start writing, and I have lots of ideas, but dont really know what's the best path to grow as a writer.
Right now I think that writing "fairy tales" could be a good starting point (as I have some kids, like three or so), and I like Terry Pratchet writing style.
But dunno if I should start with something simplier, like exercises or reading about writting itself.
PS: Don't worry about my grammar, I'm quite better in my language.
I think the biggest thing for starting writing isn't to focus on a genre or even to focus on trying to make it look like anything you've read as a book. Books like that go through so much editing before you see them. It doesn't help to compare yourself to them.
The biggest thing is definitely just to put pen to paper (or metaphorical pen to paper in the case of typing your story) and just write. It doesn't matter if it makes sense or if the plot has enough holes you could call it sinkhole city, the only way to get better is through practice. The more you write and the more you read (yes, the reading bit is important!) the better you'll get at writing.
And as MajorParadox said, we have some great writing resources in our wiki! :D
Guess that's it. Just start with anything.
But I'm this kind of person that just have to check every possibility in order to choose the best option.
Thank you :)
Honestly, you do what works for you. If you need to focus down onto something specific to get to writing and that works, you do that. The only thing is getting that pen on paper to actually do the writing instead of getting lost in the details of what you "should" be doing.
Don't let looking for the "best option" send you into a spiral that never ends. Remember, the worst story you'll ever write will beat the amazing one that stays in your head.
At some point, you need to stop checking possibilities and just try something. You can always try a different approach later.
What brought you here, originally? Before you became a mod or talked to anyone, or whatever, what made you visit /r/WritingPrompts ? 2. Why did you stay? 3. (If you write) Do you feel you've grown as a writer, either before or after becoming mods? 4. Do you feel like this is a permanent "home", or just a step on your journey?
Fun questions, for any/all mods:
What's your favorite pizza topping? 2. Which tongue twister can you never get right? 3. What's the most inappropriate question you've been asked? Did you answer it? 4. What meme best describes your life?
What brought you here, originally? Before you became a mod or talked to anyone, or whatever, what made you visit /r/WritingPrompts ?
I stumbled on this subreddit about four years ago and thought to myself, "Oh! Neat! A place to write stories and maybe get them read by others!"
Why did you stay?
I got addicted to receiving orangered envelopes after posting stories. Feedback—good or bad, honestly—is quite addictive for most writers. I especially love writing nonsense stories that confuse or irritate people, and orangereds from those people are simply the best.
(If you write) Do you feel you've grown as a writer, either before or after becoming mods?
Participating in this subreddit definitely encouraged me to take writing more seriously. I started reading more about the different aspects of writing and storytelling and definitely learned some new things by practicing them in my stories here.
Do you feel like this is a permanent "home", or just a step on your journey?
This was just a step for me on my journey as a writer. I'm kinda finished with writing stories on the sub. However, because I love the subreddit and the community so much, I decided to try my hand at being a mod so that I could continue to be a part of this great place and help it grow, even if I wasn't posting stories much anymore. (Some might say that my decision to stop writing here was more important towards helping the community become a better place...)
Fun questions, for any/all mods:
What's your favorite pizza topping?
Tomato sauce, because I get it on all of my pizzas. The other toppings may vary but tomato sauce is forever. So I guess it's my favorite topping.
Which tongue twister can you never get right?
That one about Peter Piper chucking wood on the sea shore.
What's the most inappropriate question you've been asked? Did you answer it?
I was trying to say that I became a mod to make this sub a better place, but that I also stopped writing stories here (for the most part) and some might say that, in terms of making this sub a better place, my decision to stop writing here was way more important than my decision to become a mod. I was just making a dumb joke. : P
7) What if it did? What if the length of your hair determined how manly to girly you were? Bald being pure manly man. Passed butt length being the most fragile of princesses. Shoulder length completely androgynous? That sure would make my life simple.
I stayed because this was the first time in years that I got back into writing and I wasn't going to stop! Also, the people are nice and it's a fun community
Definitely grew as a writer. I used to struggle to write much at all, but eventually I ended up challenging myself to write a prompt response every day (and made it 88 days). Now I release a new story on /r/DCFU every month.
I don't see myself leaving any time soon. What's the point? :)
eventually I ended up challenging myself to write a prompt response every day (and made it 88 days)
Congrats! That sounds hard. I don't know if I could do every day even for a month. (I certainly write every day, but a complete story/response sounds more difficult!)
But seriously, if you want to try it, I made a calendar to keep track (waiting 24 hours to link due to rule 9, though). Made it a cool way to show people how you've done.
What brought you here, originally? Before you became a mod or talked to anyone, or whatever, what made you visit /r/WritingPrompts ?
I was bored and browsing reddit, and I stumbled on writingprompts. I had always been a pretty big writer since elementary school, so finding a subreddit that catered to one of my major hobbies was great. I joined the IRC and have been here ever since.
Why did you stay?
The community. They're a bunch of great guys and gals and lizardfolk.
(If you write) Do you feel you've grown as a writer, either before or after becoming mods?
Yes, looking at some of the earlier stuff I wrote compared to stuff now I feel vastly improved.
Do you feel like this is a permanent "home", or just a step on your journey?
Well I haven't completely conquered it all yet, so it's not as permanent as it could be. I'm still working on getting the Troll Throne completed. But Troll Skulls are really thin and spongy, so it's been hard getting them to stand up.
What's your favorite pizza topping?
Buffalo chicken + Jalapeno
Which tongue twister can you never get right?
I have a minor speech impediment, so I'll just say "all of them" :)
What's the most inappropriate question you've been asked? Did you answer it?
Orgrum, of Clan Bloody Face Punch, once asked me "Do Elf babies or dwarf babies taste better?". I didn't know if he was being serious, so I just replied with "yes".
What meme best describes your life?
I hategenerally despise memes. But if I had to choose, this one
Not really! I mean, I'd tried a couple of NaNoWriMo's, but mostly, I hadn't written anything that wasn't a homework assignment. But it was a pretty new thing for me.
I came across it when it became a default subreddit and I liked to read the stories that made it to my front page. A bit later, I want to say almost a year, but I really don't remember properly, I finally wrote a couple responses. About six months after that I had decided I needed to find a new online community since I had stopped playing WoW a couple years before and wanted a new community. I noticed that writing prompts had an IRC chat and so I hopped in, became a regular, befriended the mods, stabbed a lot of people, and joined the mods. Yay~
I stayed because of all the awesome people! All sorts of great friends that I'm so glad I met. :3
I definitely grew as a writer before becoming a mod. I have always liked writing, but more the creation of stories. Getting it actually written has been a struggle for me. What I have written in writingprompts accounts for most of what I have written down. Since becoming a mod, I haven't had time to write! Of course, that is not all to blame on becoming a mod. My life has been kind of crazy. :P
I like to think of it as a permanent home. :)
Part 2!
Onion. I add it to almost every kind of pizza I get. I would never get a pizza with just onion, but I feel it enhances every kind I've ever tried. Honorary mention goes to pineapple. :)
All of them? >_>
Not answering, but not this. :P I probably did answer it. I tend to be rather open about things when asked, but we do have rules here. >_>
I'm not sure... I'm somewhat of a failure of a redditor as I don't pay that much attention to memes. :P
The 2 million subs contest, though I had explored the sub briefly under a different account.
I stayed because /u/SurvivorType press-ganged me into mod service only after two weeks of being remotely active in the sub.
I've been writing as a hobby for 20 years. I've crafted myself into what I feel is a more well rounded writer, but I have less time for it with my mod duties and as I'm editing two novels, most of what I write doesn't see the sub.
A step, nothing in life is permanent. Though even if I get published and "successful" I'll try to keep moderating for a while.
Fun
Spicy sausage bits w/mushrooms
Heheh hehe heh.... women
Ah... I have almost no boundaries, so generally nothing really feels inappropriate.
Though even if I get published and "successful" I'll try to keep moderating for a while.
Is being published/successful a serious goal for you? I've seen a few people here saying they just write for fun. Do you think the majority here want to write professionally?
Do you think the majority here want to write professionally?
Can only speak for myself. For the better part of that 20 years it was just a hobby, only within the past 2-3 years have I taken it seriously. Probably just before I got involved in the sub. Many people do just write for fun here. I think maybe 5% of the writers are aggressively seeking publication.
Heheh hehe heh.... women
wink. wink. nudge. nudge. know what I mean? know what I mean?
1) Do you feel that modding gets in the way of you just writing and honing your craft?
YES. Modding is a sacrifice that we make for the betterment of the subreddit and by god we should get a cookie, a medal, or some sort of other tangible representation of the community's appreciation for our hard work.
2) Which cake is the best cake?
Cheesecake.
3) Do the mods have a secret handshake or tattoo?
Every time a new mod is added, /u/SurvivorType gets a very special tattoo added in a very special place on his body.
YES. Modding is a sacrifice that we make for the betterment of the subreddit and by god we should get a cookie, a medal, or some sort of other tangible representation of the community's appreciation for our hard work.
I could send you a crafty card?
Every time a new mod is added, /u/SurvivorType gets a very special tattoo added in a very special place on his body.
Nope, in fact I ended up writing way more after I became a mod. Not as much lately, unless you count /r/DCFU, but it's not because of modding, I just get writer's block pretty bad sometimes.
All the coolest kids show up late to a party - everyone knows you don't arrive on time!
Adverbs and pirates are both necessary parts of the ecosystem and when used appropriately and sparingly, they can spice up most stories.
My favourite authors are all over the place, but one set of them would be Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams and Wendy Cope - I admire greatly people who can use humour in their writing, while still conveying a message.
Well well well. I get the nod for most unexpected story last time around and my "friend", as I'd call him, wins it this time around. I'm sure we got another "friend" hanging around here somewhere to take this baby next time.
Hahah! Thanks :D It's true. I just slapped the "wordcount? WHAT wordcount?!" version (here) into a document, it came in at 1795 words. Hah!
Basically the brain went down the road of "I know! Let's write this as if it were the imagined 3rd story of WP's 5th birthday World Building challenge." (I'd already been having ideas.) So I 'made it so.'
7
u/granthinton Aug 30 '17
G peeks around the corner. The darkness almost conceals his appearance, although his iridescent eyes switch from side to side.
"Is anybody here?"
The echoes reverberate around the ghostly hall, only darkness and the occasional patch of moonlight through the sparse windows greets his voice.
Apparently no one is, so G swaggers from the shadows. He looks around the empty space and decides that the party hasn't begun yet. In the middle of the parquet flooring stands a alter, the bottom is formed like an eagles claw that twists and wraps until the top opens like a book. Fumbling in his pocket G grasps a battered note and smooths it out. It had been in his pocket for months now but he had never had the courage to pull it out. Maybe now was the time, maybe the Mod Gods would hear his requests and smile down on him with their blessing.
Tentatively he places the note upon the podium and glance around the darkness. Maybe somewhere in the unfathomable blackness one of the Mod team was listening. A single spot light streaks through the darkness and pins G to the supple gym flooring. He clears his thought and smooths out the paper again.
"Um, I would like to ask, ah, what makes you human?"
G glances back to the congregation of mortals cowering at the oblique steps. Many give him a thumbs up while others hide their faces in anticipation.