#for the love of whatever deity you subscribe to these fest organizers need to learn the difference between a prompt fest and a gift fest

[echoofawind]

I have a problem with 90% of the fests I see advertised with prompting. I love the idea of sharing plot bunnies or creative ideas. I don't like it when the prompt forms have a dozen fields outside of the prompt that further specifies anything. Ship, rating, characters, triggers, etc. A prompt in a standard fest is NOT a request for a gift. The writer is not obligated to write you a story. If you as a prompter have a list of requirements for the prompt, then you are not offering a prompt. You are saying, writer you must write me this exact story. I do not understand how that is seen as the norm in fandom right now instead of rude and limiting?

As long as you don't gift the story to the prompter, you are under NO OBLIGATION to follow any of those superfluous prompt fields. It's a prompt. A starting point for inspiration.

I cannot count how many fest prompts I've read through, found a prompt that sang to my muse and started crafting an idea only to then read 'Do Not Write: age gap relationship. Or only X or Y characters' . Who is this prompter to tell me what stories I am allowed to create? That is not how a prompt works! That is how a gift request works. Stop putting me in a fucking box.

#for the love of whatever deity you subscribe to these fest organizers need to learn the difference between a prompt fest and a gift fest #and not be conflating the two #because if I were to write the story that the prompt inspired me to write and that didn't follow the “extra requirements”... #... I would get labeled like a jerk for my participation which wouldn't be fair to any creator to be punished for their act of creation #if you are so dang bent out of shape that the prompt has to be used for wolfstar then write the dang thing yourself #prompts must be freely given #you do not retain any control of the final product by supplying a prompt #this is probably part of why authors refuse any prompts from fans #fandom discourse #fest discourse #prompting discourse #this whole thing makes me rage and Ive dropped out of fests before even officially joining the fest #e is for echo #A PROMPT IS NOT A GIFT #you are not entitled to the creators output #and you are not entitled to a writer creating a story to your preferences unless its specifically a gift exchange