The doors of the library shuffle and sort themselves. You wander through them, hands running along broken spines. You can feel the weight of the library surround you, the scent of slowly aging paper emanating a vanilla twang in the soft wind. Trees sprout from the deepest shelves, fertilized by mysterious means only the Pages know of. Your casual perusal is stopped by one thing, a call echoing across the shelves. Something flits out at you. It's obtuse, hungry. A creature in the depths, something screaming with need, with unfulfilled and unmet desires that will leave your mind strewn about the floor. Or, possibly, that may simply make your life frustrating and cruel.
Grasp the book. Pull it back, feel the weight of time and emotion on the spine, the heft of the pages. You can taste the age, the yellowing of the pages releasing vanilla and linden into the air around your face. Each page is scrupulously, hungrily blank, a detestable state for any book to be in. The cover is similarly blank, twirling geometric designs interlaced with a single piece of text.
Your name, as author.
There isn't really any other option. You open the book, and begin to write what fate wills.
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What Is This?
This is a monthly, rotating event that will be occurring on the Wanderer's Library! Every month, two prompts will be chosen by the winner of the previous month and the most active critiquer from the previous month. You'll have two weeks from the date of the prompt being posted to write and formulate an entry to the prompt, one week specifically to seek and gather critique, and one week to post, read, and vote. The prompts will not call for a long piece, but if you wish to go above and beyond you are more than welcome to.
How This Works
Roughly at the start of each month, prompts will be selected and then broadcast in an official forum post, after which we will allow the two week writing/one week crit/one week posting time. You don't need to sign up beforehand — simply post your piece in the forum thread for each contest and you'll be entered automatically! The winner of each round and the person with the most crit credits will go on to select the pair of prompts for the next month.
The Rules
- Every author may submit as many entries as they desire.
- Collaborations are allowed for the prompts.
- If a collaboration wins a prompt, they must jointly decide on a single prompt for the following month.
- The second prompt will be decided by the person with the most critique credits in author posts from the month. If two people tie for critique credits, both critters will be able to select a prompt for the following month.
- Galleries are allowed.
- Entries will be tagged writprompt and will be entered into our Collection Page.
- Entries must be written with the prompt in mind. Pre-existing drafts are allowed to be re-purposed as prompt entries as long as the majority of writing applies to the prompt.
- All entries must be completely original. No copycatting!!!
- Only entries which are posted in the monthly thread will be considered for winning.
- The winner will be selected by vote total at the end of the posting and reading period. If two works tie in votes, both authors will be able to select a prompt.
- If the same person wins WritPrompt and also has the most critique credits, they may elect to select two prompts.
- Winners and Critfreaks will be entitled to a month of the "WritPrompt Champ" and "CritPrompt Champ" roles on the Wanderers' Library Discord server.
Prompts
The first prompt will be chosen by the contest marshal. After that, each prompt will be chosen by the winner of the previous round. The prompts should focus on a few things, mainly creating something unique and interesting. Starting with the sound of a can falling from the top shelf, a street with one person, or a picture with an obscure liminal space. There are no real limits to it.
Submissions
Submissions must be made within the posting period (two weeks after the posting of the initial prompt). They can be done in any form—text, video, audio, poetry, prose, nonfiction. As long as it fits the prompt, with reasonably flexible interpretation, an entry will be welcomed with open arms and added to our collection. The submissions will be tracked by the WritPrompt marshals zipzipskins and
rumetzen — PM them with any questions.
Submission Groupings By WritPrompt
| Month | Prompt | Winner(s) | Winning Entry | Original Thread |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2025 | PRIDE | first kiss | WritPrompt 1 | |
| July 2025 | OUROBOROS | Journal Entry: Seasalt and Kerosene | WritPrompt 2 | |
| August 2025 | SYMBIOSIS | Tapeworm | WritPrompt 3 | |
| September 2025 | PATCHWORK | patchwork warrior | WritPrompt 4 | |
| February 2026 | STRENGTH | TBD | TBD | WritPrompt 5 |