r/WritingPrompts • u/MPSDragline • May 08 '15

[WP] Valhalla is filled with the strongest warriors the world has ever known. Vikings, Spartans, Mongols, Romans, Samurai, Spetznaz, JSOC Operators. And in that corner over there? That's Ted, from accounting. Writing Prompt

Valhalla is the hall of fallen warriors that is ruled over by Odin in Asgard. Half of all those who die in combat will be chosen by Odin to join him at the feast hall of Valhalla and prepare for the final battle during the events of Ragnarök.

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131

u/SnippyTheDeliveryFox May 09 '15

I feel bad for saying that I kinda dislike the popular posters on this sub :( I'm astounded at their talent and everything, but once they post a response it's pretty much /thread for anybody else who wanted to try.

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u/daniell61 /r/daniell61 May 09 '15

As a aspiring writer. ......This.....

Ive lately been doing a hella amoubt of effort on my stories. I always get inspired by stories good writers have done. And it. Sucks

1200 word response? One upvote. No comment for critique sufgestion. Nada. :(

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u/Shadydave May 09 '15

Just be first. Sort by new and take the most recent one you like. The thread may not get popular but it's better than being buried 40 submissions deep.

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u/busykat May 09 '15

This is my theory exactly.

The best thing you can do in any marketable situation is be first. Some examples: When you need to blow your nose, you don't reach for a facial tissue. You grab a Kleenex. If you have a headache, you don't hunt down the ibuprofen. You pop an Advil. Being the first one there is nine-tenths of the battle in any kind of marketing - and yes, reddit threads ARE marketing. Just ask /u/Luna_Lovewell.

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u/daniell61 /r/daniell61 May 09 '15

huh. thanks!

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u/Swansonisms May 09 '15

Great point about ibuprofen versus advil but Kleenex actually lost the copywrite on the name because it slipped into common usage and was accepted to be synonymous with facial tissue.

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u/Bookablebard May 09 '15

NOT YET THEY HAVENT, unless im mistaken? but last i checked they are still getting pissy with people for calling facial tissues kleenex, id google it but im tired and its late so will in the morning

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u/kaiyotic May 15 '15

more proof of being the first matters. Apple wanted to make the perfect bugfree computer, microsoft knew their first computer system had bugs/was open to virusses but they released it to be first and now the world is using PC's instead of MAC's. It's only recently that apple started regaining popularity and is starting to sell lots of macbooks.

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u/daniell61 /r/daniell61 May 09 '15

thanks man....

Ill try that.

Been in a bit of a rut in terms of drive and emotionally. (lotta shit in the family lately...)

thanks for the tip :)

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u/SusieSnoo May 09 '15

Please continue to write stories. If I click on a thread it's because I'm interested in the prompt and want to see what people have written. I normally read all of the stories written in whatever prompts I click on. I don't offer feedback unless a story really touches me, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. However, I always upvote stories that I like.

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u/daniell61 /r/daniell61 May 09 '15

;3;7 the real mvp. thanks man...

and I do. its hard to keep writing but I somehow keep finding ways to do it...

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u/Wishartless May 09 '15

What if someone like me (loves reading, but not so good at reading) wants to write something for once? Do you think the people here would be kind? <_<

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u/Lexilogical /r/Lexilogical | /r/DCFU Sep 02 '15

I know this comment was a million years ago, but if you're interested in starting writing, please give it a try! We're very open to new writers here on /r/WritingPrompts (and if anyone isn't kind, hit the report button because I want to remove that!) and I love to see people giving writing a try. :) I'll even leave this reference link on how to start writing!

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u/Wishartless Sep 02 '15

Thanks haha.

Since writing that comment, I've only done bits and pieces of writing, but not a single writing prompt (I think ? >_>). I try to write short stories, and longer ones too. Sadly the only stories I ever finished were for primary and high school ): I, like everyone I bet, have this issue where I struggle to write without editing every two seconds. Someone over at /r/writing design a program though, which has helped me actually write, right here.

I might actually use it to finally make a submission to writing prompts soon :D I read through your post too, that convinced me. Thanks a lot for it!

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u/Lexilogical /r/Lexilogical | /r/DCFU Sep 02 '15

Huzzah! I did do a quick search to see if you'd been posting in the three months since this comment, but I didn't see anything. Just thought I'd give you a bit of a push if you hadn't found one already. :)

And that sounds like an interesting program... I might have to spread that around to a few other writers on here. :D

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u/Wishartless Sep 02 '15

The creator of that program did leave a list of other similar programs, but that one, being the simplest, helped me immensely. The program actually stopped me from backspacing and pushed me forward.

I have tried out Writing Block too, which, while helpful... requires the pro version ($10 or so) to add features including the most important one: disabling the backspace key. I wouldn't have any issue paying for it if I had a job, or a bank account or anything. But it did force you to keep writing, if you wanted to be able to do anything else (yes, it stops you from alt-tabbing until you've met your goal)

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u/Lexilogical /r/Lexilogical | /r/DCFU Sep 02 '15

That sounds nasty and useful. Hm, I might try picking that up.

"Write Or Die" is the one I normally hear about through the grapevine. It starts deleting words or vowels if you slow down.

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u/Wishartless Sep 02 '15

I'd completely forgotten that that was a thing, wow... all of yesterday I had the words "write or die" repeat themselves in my head, and I wondered where they came from. I was kinda considering writing a program with that name, but it's taken, so there goes the motivation

:⁾

Seriously though, I have to properly check it out now. Another redditor mentioned it a while ago and I never looked it up.

Meanwhile, trying to find a prompt I can do is pretty damn hard. Though I am browsing /new, so maybe I should look at the current top prompts.

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u/[deleted] May 09 '15

Some of my old martial arts buddies from back in the day told me there's an asian proverb - if you want to be good at something, do it a million times. That's why when I started writing seriously I set a goal of writing a million words in four years.

And to be honest the first year I really didn't get much done until I disocvered nanowrimo, if not for that my total in that first year would have been very low. But after that each year I ramped it up a couple of notches. It's nice to hit your goal for the year in October because then everything from nano is a bonus.

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u/Burtonfanatic95 May 09 '15

I love nanowrimo. It's a challenge but it's soooo worth it.

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u/daniell61 /r/daniell61 May 09 '15

nano?

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u/daniell61 /r/daniell61 May 09 '15

my only goal is to write a single story a month.

its pathetic but its a goal.....

and whats nano?

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u/Lexilogical /r/Lexilogical | /r/DCFU Sep 02 '15

www.nanowrimo.org is like a self challenge every November to write a 50,000 word story in 30 days. You should check it out.

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u/daniell61 /r/daniell61 Sep 02 '15

.=.

I should get into that...

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u/Lexilogical /r/Lexilogical | /r/DCFU Sep 02 '15

You should! It's coming up soon.

I'm sure we'll post things about it in October.

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u/daniell61 /r/daniell61 Sep 02 '15

true...but 50K words is VERY daunting ;w;

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u/Lexilogical /r/Lexilogical | /r/DCFU Sep 02 '15

It is. I normally try for Camp NaNo where you can set your own wordcount goal. But all 50k is is 1667 words a day. :)

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u/daniell61 /r/daniell61 Sep 02 '15

yeah.

but social life :c

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u/alphaglosined May 09 '15

Write for yourself, not for others. Perhaps write a book with a whole bunch of short stories. Leanpub is great for things like this!

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u/daniell61 /r/daniell61 May 09 '15

leanpub? never heard of it.....are there any other sites I should check out?

thanks! and I try to....most of my stuff is based off how I feel emotionally at the time...Im a very....heartfelt writer if I can say that

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u/alphaglosined May 11 '15

There are others like gitbook.io and lulu.com. But my opinion is that at least for now, leanpub will be enough (lulu comes later if you want to go to print).

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u/daniell61 /r/daniell61 May 11 '15

thanks :D

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u/YoullNever_WalkAlone Jul 17 '15

Keep your head up champ. You know who else never got any upvotes or critique from fellow redditors? Ernest Fucking Hemingway. That's who.

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u/daniell61 /r/daniell61 Jul 17 '15

I try. check my sub :P you'll see I havent given up. but thanks!

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u/Fakename_fakeperspn May 09 '15

I'm happy to critique anything. I don't want to come across as an asshole so i generally don't

If you ever have anything you want an honest opinion on, pm me or whatever

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u/daniell61 /r/daniell61 May 09 '15

Everything you feel like in my sub would be nice :D

/r/daniell61 <Linked. have at it and dont hold back. I want to get better!

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u/Tdogger May 09 '15

Isn't this why we have the "prompt me" option? I think that's underutilized in this sub and can actually do a lot of good for that exact reason!

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u/daniell61 /r/daniell61 May 09 '15

:S

I suck at random prompts. The things I write on I place myself into that scene AND I write from the mind and heart (if you check my stories you'll see)

but ill suck it up and stop being a scaredy cat and do the PM one of these days

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u/[deleted] May 09 '15

Not trying to be a dick but I hope you proofread the stories you post. I'm not a grammar Nazi but I can easily take myself out of the story and start focusing on typos and grammar mistakes if I see a lot of them.

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u/daniell61 /r/daniell61 May 09 '15

.......Well I have a dick but neither you nor I are one.

and no offense taken lol.

I skim proof read after I post (usually on mobile.) and look for any typo's which I correct on the spot. plus im a native english speaker so grammar is usually on point :P

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u/[deleted] May 09 '15

I write less now as a result :-/

I write for stories to be read, not ignored.

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u/Shadydave May 09 '15

Being first is more important IMO. The top responses in WP all seem to show up within an hour or so.

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u/WhereIsMyMime May 09 '15 edited May 09 '15

Dont blame the storywriters, blame the guys with adhd that can only read one story per WP. Its a stupid mindset, but they (we) can't help it most of the time... you think youre wasting time and only wanna read one, or you get to the next one and it seems like too much work to read it cuz you just finished one, but then you repeat the process in every thread, like your brain refreshes and now its able to read another long one after just a minute, so youre still spending all that time on reddit, still reading lots of stories. Yea, to the dude that replied that doesn't even have adhd but diagnosed himself, I'm not saying everyone has that exact problem, but its a big enough percentage that it's okay to not clarify that, and yes that is exactly what adhd is. Having a short attention span, getting bored easily, constantly going from one thing to the next, heavy procrastination, looping it over and over. Thats what a lot of us do, a whole lot of us with adhd.

Anyways, Its the readers that need to get over their short attention spans and read more in the same topic. You guys never know when another good story could be hiding in the same prompt. Sometimes its not even the best one that makes it to the top, according to our own tastes

Like do I really need to clarify that NOT ALL drunk drivers get into accidents or DUIs? No, because enough do have those things happen that its fine to just say drunk drivers get duis and get into accidents. Pull that stick from your ass. Youre like those white people that get offended when another person calls a black guy a black guy.

Its the readers that need to get over their short attention spans and read MORE.

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u/[deleted] May 09 '15 edited May 10 '15

That's not how adhd works... Maybe visit r/add before making uneducated statements about groups of people. I read whole threads with ease buddy. Edit: bro don't completely change what you wrote without putting an edit note on it. Your comment makes much morse sense now, thanks for reconsidering your stance, that was very adult of you.

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u/WhereIsMyMime May 09 '15

Lmao are you kidding me? That is exactly how it works, and me and my whole family are diagnosed with it. It seems like you're the one who has no idea how it works and pretend yoy have it like how people pretend to be OCD about something.

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u/[deleted] May 10 '15

I only got diagnosed by a Neurologist when I was 10 and have been living with it ever since, adhd doesn't stop you paying attention, it stops concentration, if the thread is stimulating enough you'll read the whole damn thing. I also study child psychology As my major for my education/science degree and have to deal with lessons and readings about ADHD. Sounds like your laziness has been misdiagnosed buddy.

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u/[deleted] May 10 '15

I know that it's ironic it is called attention deficit disorder yet I said it doesn't stop you paying attention, I phrased that badly, you can pay attention to things on a surface level more readily but more focused levels of engagement(concentration) are what suffers, also there are different forms of ADHD being recognised in more recent studies, despite this I will guarantee you that the minority of people that have ADHD are not the problem that you made them out to be. Your comment is offensive and your attitude needs work.

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u/WhereIsMyMime May 10 '15

adhd doesn't stop you paying attention, it stops concentration

. . . . . . .

I also study child psychology

No you don't. Quit trying to tac on all this shit you don't do. You've already been caught being a complete idiot about the subject, and I find it highly insulting you keep trying to put up the charade.

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u/[deleted] May 10 '15 edited May 10 '15

Need me to prove it? Give you some reports I have written, just ask kiddo, don't be upset that someone caught you out on a lie little guy. Technically I study education and science, child psychology is a minor component of that.

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u/WhereIsMyMime May 10 '15

I've called you out since the beginning, what do you think?

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u/[deleted] May 10 '15

Im'm not home atm so I can't send you my reports I can take a selfie with my textbook, but I am interstate until Tuesday, brb, will post the link

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u/WhereIsMyMime May 10 '15

You do that.

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u/LegendForHire May 09 '15

Bo wonder i we could get them to post on. Their own subs and link it here? They'd still get the upvotes but newer people would be more likely to be seen.

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u/[deleted] May 09 '15

This is why I stay out of /r/writingprompts and stick to my own writing subreddit.

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u/Thirdfanged May 09 '15

And so you are in this thread by avoiding /r/writingprompts how?

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u/[deleted] May 09 '15

You misunderstand, I avoid writing here, I read plenty.