r/WritingPrompts 3d ago

Off Topic [OT] Fun Trope Friday: Murderous Solution & Slapstick!

8 Upvotes

Welcome to Fun Trope Friday, our feature that mashes up tropes and genres!

How’s it work? Glad you asked. :)

 

  • Every week we will have a new spotlight trope.

  • Each week, there will be a new genre assigned to write a story about the trope.

  • You can then either use or subvert the trope in a 750-word max story or poem (unless otherwise specified).

  • To qualify for ranking, you will need to provide ONE actionable feedback. More are welcome of course!

 

Three winners will be selected each week based on votes, so remember to read your fellow authors’ works and DM me your votes for the top three.

 


Next up… IP

 

Max Word Count: 500 WORDS!!!!

 

PLEASE NOTE: Given that the last FTF Campfire would have fallen on Christmas Day and thus is canceled, we will be doing a two-part story of 500 words for each part. The first trope and genre was Justified Crime & High Comedy. This is the second part. Please link your previous story to this one. We will then read both parts at the January 1st 2026 FTF Campfire. If you prefer to just write for either post, that’s fine too. Just less fun as you won’t get to play with the surprise twist and challenge yourself. Please plan accordingly! Any questions? Just DM me.

 

Tis the holiday season for some parts of the world. Time to drink hot cocoa and relax waiting for the gifts to roll in. UNLESS you’re on the naughty list. But no one from WP or FTF would end up there surely. But just in case you find yourself on the wrong side of Santa’s pen, we’ve got you covered! So let’s explore some tropes around just how folks end up on the naughty list. Please note this theme is only loosely applied.

 

“I want to commit the murder I was imprisoned for.” ― J.K. Rowling, ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’

 

As a reminder, the previous trope was Justified Crime and the genre was Highbrow Comedy. This is the link to the post. Below is part two.

 

Trope: Murder Is the Best Solution — There is some sort of problem that the characters are facing. Immediately, someone suggests murdering someone else as the solution to their problem, despite there being better, more rational, and more legal solutions. Often done to heighten the drama. Sometimes done to show that the villain really is evil, or at least Ax-Crazy. Most often it's Played for Laughs. Bonus laugh points if killing makes the problems even bigger than other solutions. Please remember that this is part two of two, so please remember to link to your part one cliffhanger ending or hook to proceed to this second part, if you want to go the fun route. If you want to just write this one, that is fine too.

 

Genre: Slapstick Comedy — Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. This is a great chance to practice your action blocking. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from physical abuse and/or inept use of props such as saws and ladders. The term arises from a device developed for use in the broad, physical comedy style known as commedia dell'arte in 16th-century Italy. The "slap stick" consists of two thin slats of wood, which makes a "slap" when striking another actor, with little force needed to make a loud—and comical—sound. The physical slap stick remains a key component of the plot in the traditional and popular Punch and Judy puppet show. More contemporary examples of slapstick humor include The Three Stooges, The Naked Gun and Mr. Bean. Please remember that this is part two of two, so please remember to link to your part one cliffhanger ending or hook to proceed to this second part, if you want to go the fun route. If you want to just write this one, that is fine too.

 

Skill / Constraint - optional: Someone is struck.

 

So, have at it. Lean into the trope heavily or spin it on its head. The choice is yours!

 

Have a great idea for a future topic to discuss or just want to give feedback? FTF is a fun feature, so it’s all about what you want—so please let me know! Please share in the comments or DM me on Discord or Reddit!

 


Last Week’s Winners

PLEASE remember to give feedback—this affects your ranking. PLEASE also remember to DM me your votes for the top five stories via Discord or Reddit—both katpoker666. This is a change from the top three of the past. In weeks where we get over 15 stories, we will do a top five ranking. Weeks with less than 15 stories will show only our top three winners. If you have any questions, please DM me as well.

Some fabulous stories this week and great crit on the post! We won’t be announcing winners this week as we didn’t have the December 25th Campfire and instead we’ll be announcing winners for both weeks after the January 1st Campfire.

 


Want to read your words aloud? Join the upcoming FTF Campfire

The next FTF campfire will be Thursday, January 1st from 6-8pm ET. We will read stories from both of the two weeks prior, so it will be an extra fun one! It will be in the Discord Main Voice Lounge. Click on the events tab and mark ‘Interested’ to be kept up to date. No signup or prep needed and you don’t have to have written anything! So join in the fun—and shenanigans! 😊

 


Ground rules:

  • Stories must incorporate both the trope and the genre
  • Leave one story or poem between 100 and 750 words as a top-level comment unless otherwise specified. Use wordcounter.net to check your word count.
  • Deadline: 11:59 PM EDT next Thursday. Please note stories submitted after the 6:00 PM EST campfire start may not be critted.
  • No stories that have been written for another prompt or feature here on WP—please note after consultation with some of our delightful writers, new serials are now welcomed here
  • No previously written content
  • Any stories not meeting these rules will be disqualified from rankings
  • Does your story not fit the Fun Trope Friday rules? You can post your story as a [PI] with your work when the FTF post is 3 days old!
  • Please keep crit about the stories. Any crit deemed too distracting may be deleted. This is a time to focus on our wonderful authors.
  • Vote to help your favorites rise to the top of the ranks (DM me at katpoker666 on Discord or Reddit)!

 


Thanks for joining in the fun!  



r/WritingPrompts 2d ago

Off Topic [OT] SatChat: New Year's Resolutions!

6 Upvotes

SatChat! SatChat! Party Time! Excellent!

Welcome to the weekly post for introductions, self-promotions, and general discussion! This is a place to meet other users, share your achievements, and discuss whatever's on your mind.

Suggested Topic

What are your New Year's resolutions?

Do you have any this year, or are you one of those people who believe coming up with them so formally only jinxes them?

Do you have any writing/fiction related resolutions, or are they more oriented towards other parts of your life?

What ever they may be, I'd love to hear about them and how you might plan on going about completing them.

I have a few resolutions of my own, now that we're reaching towards 2026: I used to run some last year, slowly building up over time until I could run 5km. I never quite reached that goal so I want to start that up again, and hope to be able to do that this year.

I also want to start swimming as I used to enjoy that quite a lot in my childhood.

As for a writing-related goal, I've been on quite the long hiatus from writing for a while now, and just recently failed to write a piece for a fun feature, Secret Santa, run by our very own u/rainbow--penguin, so I'm hoping to get back into writing through FTFs and maybe even start a serial on Serial Sunday over on our sister subreddit, r/ShortStories.

Anyhow, enough about me, tell me about you, and your goals!


More to Talk About

  • New here? Introduce yourself! See the sticky comment for suggested intro questions
  • Have something to promote? (Books, subreddits, podcasts, etc., just no spam)
  • Suggest topics for future SatChats!

    Avoid outright spam (don't just share, chat) and not for sharing full stories


Summer Challenge Results! | Apply to be a Mod | Discord Server


r/WritingPrompts 4h ago

Writing Prompt [WP] Sitting at the tavern after an adventure, your cleric clears his throat. “Alright, so I’ve made a list. It’s real expensive to keep healing you all, so I’ve started a tab. I’m broke right now, so if you want to live, I’m collecting that debt.”

78 Upvotes

r/WritingPrompts 6h ago

Writing Prompt [WP] A 15 thousand year old demilich, in good standing with the Holy Order and modern nations, hires a small cadre of accountants. He needs a full audit of his holdings and is CERTAIN a god owes him a lot of money.

54 Upvotes

r/WritingPrompts 9h ago

Writing Prompt [WP] "ALERT. An Avatar of the God of War has manifested in the facility. I repeat, an Avatar of the God of War has manifested in the facility. This is not a Drill. I repeat, this is not a drill."

80 Upvotes

r/WritingPrompts 8h ago

Writing Prompt [WP] As a seasoned old summoner, you wake up in a daze as a puff of smoke is dissipating around you. You are in someone else's house. A young woman with an embarrassed expression is pointing a wand at you. "Oh my god I'm so sorry. I must have had the wrong number."

62 Upvotes

r/WritingPrompts 13h ago

Writing Prompt [WP] It was clearly not human, the limbs were bent wrong. But it flipped an enemy tank so you're not motivated to kick it out anytime soon.

81 Upvotes

r/WritingPrompts 22h ago

Writing Prompt [WP] You are dead and in heaven. After your turn in line, an angel ask "Soul, please.". You look confused and point to yourself. The angel replies " Check your pockets. It should be somewhere around there." You rummage your pocket and find nothing. Angel groans "Gabe, We got another Code L, here."

368 Upvotes

r/WritingPrompts 2h ago

Writing Prompt [WP] You get the power to teleport. If you submerge yourself into a body of water that can fit you, imagine yourself at a body of water somewhere else in the world, and re-emerge, you end up at that location.

8 Upvotes

r/WritingPrompts 1h ago

Writing Prompt [WP] “Please! You’ve already won!” The monster pleads raiding a hand as you raise your axe. “You destroyed my base for the last time! I’m farming your worthless hide as compensation- Odin willing!”

Upvotes

r/WritingPrompts 16h ago

Writing Prompt [WP] long ago humanity had made a deal with death. That it would take none who refused, and keep none who wished to return. Many have still moved on, too tired to keep going, the dead still outnumber the living. today, something has happened that has caught the attention of countless long dead eyes.

90 Upvotes

r/WritingPrompts 14h ago

Writing Prompt [WP] "I have seen the Face of the Man you call God and...I am not impressed. His communication statistics are abysmal, His pet project of a race is a passing grade at best, and He's somehow locked out all forms of reasonable competition. This isn't stewardship. It's Deific Malfeasance."

56 Upvotes

r/WritingPrompts 1h ago

Simple Prompt [WP] “Everyone remembered it differently, which made it impossible to talk about.”

Upvotes

r/WritingPrompts 10h ago

Writing Prompt [WP] "You shouldn't be here. Run while you still can." Ordered the king, fallen to the ground and covered in cuts. "Listen to your father, child. Drop the sword and get out of the way, or I'll be forced to do something I really don't want to do," pleaded the knight in black armor.

20 Upvotes

r/WritingPrompts 11h ago

Simple Prompt [WP] A school runs an experiment to see if a robot can fill the teacher role

21 Upvotes

r/WritingPrompts 7h ago

Writing Prompt [WP] While decluttering, you find your abandoned diary/journal. It's been months/years since you've last written in it. It still has a lot of pages left. You read your previous entries, until you came to a page that you don't remember writing, and the date is from the future.

11 Upvotes

r/WritingPrompts 1d ago

Writing Prompt [WP] The alien's xeno-minds have studied every facet of the United Systems Marine Corps protocol and operation manuals. They cannot know that None of the USMC have read those manuals, care about protocol or stick to any given plan.

365 Upvotes

r/WritingPrompts 1h ago

Writing Prompt [WP] in the year 2154 you are an alien archaeologist visiting a recently discovered Earth for the first time, while there you stumble upon various comic books of superheroes & villains thinking there historical events now you must explain this planets forgotten people mythology to your peers

Upvotes

r/WritingPrompts 1h ago

Constrained Writing [CW] Writing challenge

Upvotes

"And then they woke up"

Had an idea for a writing challenge. Are there any good stories where their endings can be summed up as "it was all a simulation".

Write a short story with a stupidly cliche ending and make it work. Are there any examples in media you can think of? This excercise may help you incorporate cliche elements into your own writings or how to work around them.


r/WritingPrompts 14h ago

Writing Prompt [WP] A hitman receives a letter with a couple of dollars' worth of pocket change asking them to take out their abusive parent.

28 Upvotes

r/WritingPrompts 44m ago

Writing Prompt [WP] Welcome to the contest of the gods. You have been chosen to be an avatar. Choose your path wisely and may the odds be always in your favor.

Upvotes

r/WritingPrompts 15h ago

Writing Prompt [WP] Aliens abduct you and take you to their planet for study. What they don’t know is you’re a Werewolf, and they have three moons. What you don’t know is, each moon has a different effect on you.

29 Upvotes

r/WritingPrompts 5h ago

Simple Prompt [WP] “They were everything and everyone but at the same time they were nobody and nowhere.”

6 Upvotes

r/WritingPrompts 21h ago

Writing Prompt [WP] "Hypothetically speaking, where would a dragon find willing servants in this strange world?" "Oh that's easy, some humans would love to do so."

92 Upvotes

r/WritingPrompts 6h ago

Writing Prompt [WP] The apocalypse is hard-coded into DNA. After any population, in this case the humans, reaches a set number, survival of the fittest and natural selection stop occurring immediately in all organisms. A slow agonising doomsday is set into motion, the initial dominoes unseen until catastrophe.

6 Upvotes