Weird thing I noticed about writing prompts over the last 5 years

I was looking back at old writing prompt threads from 2019 and the difference is wild. Back then almost every prompt was about fantasy or sci-fi stuff like "you wake up with a superpower" or "you find a portal to another world." Now I see way more prompts about everyday drama and emotional situations like "your neighbor leaves a note on your door" or "you find out your coworker has been doing something strange for 10 years." My guess is that people got tired of big epic setups and wanted stuff that felt more real and relatable. Has anyone else noticed this shift in what prompts get the most replies?

2 comments

2 Comments

morgan.mary15d ago

The really interesting shift is in the tone, not just the setting. Older prompts felt like invitations to play in a sandbox, while newer ones feel like opening a conversation about something uncomfortable. Maybe people are using prompts now to work through real feelings instead of just escaping from them.

tarajenkins15d ago

Three of the top ten prompts on the front page right now are fantasy based, like the one about a dragon living in your backyard. The big epic stuff still gets massive reply counts, maybe even more than before because people have more practice writing now. That emotional neighbor note prompt you mentioned only got 12 replies last week, so the real world stuff might be getting more attention from new users but not from the writers who actually finish stories.