Guide | Warning: Retired Article! | See Note at Start

Oddly, Now Accepting Prompt Responses

with Gustave Deresse

Photo by Sebastian Pena Lambarri on Unsplash

January 17th, 2023 — Henceforth, quick prompt responses will be accepted — and even widely appreciated — in the comments section. Still wish to submit a formal response? Check out: ‘The Ineclectic Publications’.

I’ve been running this fun little publication called ‘The Prompt Headlines’—

Submit to The Prompt Headlines

Open to All

medium.com

It offers writing prompts, in headline form.

Every morning, generally between the hours of four and five (EST), I publish a list of ten prompts generally based on a mix of my thoughts, feelings, knowledge and experience, plus anything interesting I can learn or glean in the moment from a book or — and let’s face it, most probably, because I’m a lazy bastard who simultaneously doesn’t mind sifting through resources — the internet. One piece, ‘Could You Have Shared A House With Vincent Van Goh?’, was created when I discovered between October and December of the year 1888, another artist, Paul Gauguin, had lived with him.

Again, laziness.

The question achieves two goals:

It offers the base of an idea for writing material.
It may propel the writer into an unexpected little rabbit hole of research on the topic, potentially even inducing in them fits of cognitive wanderlust— if I may be so vulgar.

Silly me.

All that preparation, and I’d offered no place for writers to know their work would be accepted!

Hence, our presence here at this time.

Now, these prompts are less intended for a direct response to their content, and more about inspiring new ideas in the writer as they go about preparing it.

Not that they can’t be used as direct prompts.

In such cases, still, I recommend — but don’t enforce— writers recompose headlines before publishing their stories.

How you approach each prompt will be up to you.

Some are meant to be easier to work with than others, others are targeted for specific types of writing, and so forth. You may send me articles, stories, poetry, technical guides, etc. It must only not be clickbait, among a handful of other things.

Let’s get into that now, shall we?

How to Submit a Response to The Prompt Headlines

First, I must add you as a writer.

Comment on this article this exact string of characters: “Prompts, or get out.” It helps when you smile as you type.

You’ll see.

There are no other editors but me at this time, so I’ll always do my best to take less than twenty-four hours to publish your work. In the case I would absolutely need to interject, I’ll leave you a private note letting you know what’s wrong and how you can fix it.

I’ll never make changes to your work without discussing it with you first. To make things simple, I’ll give you a list of things to avoid in your submissions:

any form of hate or segregation
erotic fiction

March 7th, 2023 UPDATE--
Okay, this is getting out of hand.
I was straight banning erotica?
Explanation below or not, that's
fucked up.

It’s a short list now; let’s hope it remains so.

Erotica was spontaneously added to the list as it occurred to me how easily any story could be made sexual, and figured not to start down this way while the pub is still young and easy to manage.

Next thing I know, there’s sex everywhere; it can’t be escaped. Which is fine— but as a distraction, it’d get completely out of control.

Maybe I’m overthinking.

Always.

Oh sh!t, the guidelines.

Yes— to submit, the first time, if you haven’t already been added yet, just comment on this article, I’ll add you as a writer to The Ineclectic Publications, and you’ll be free to click that three dot menu, select ‘Add to Publication’, choose ours, save your choice, and click the green ‘Submit’ button.

Formatting Guidelines

This isn’t a place for chasing curation — unless it’s what you’ve wanted to do all along. Then, you should follow your will.

Title

It’s appreciated you capitalize appropriately.

You can choose a setting from the title case converter I share with you in the previous sentence, or you can capitalize the first letter of every word and be done with it. If this is your interest, then either option will each soothe and please me and our audience as they scroll through the pub listing.

Subtitle and Kicker

Include at least one subtitle, the one directly beneath the title. Kickers are optional, but aesthetically preferred by the editor.

Cover Image

You should include a minimum of one photo in your submission. It doesn’t need to be anywhere near the title if you don’t want it to be, but it needs to be in there somewhere. Medium distribution standards are vague on whether placing an image directly beneath the title raises your chances of distribution, but I’ve read from larger accounts in the past that it counts.

Any photo flying solo in a story will automatically be set as the cover image upon publication. This is the Medium way.

Oh, and don’t forget to accredit.

Ready?

There are currently five-hundred and eighty headlines to choose from between fifty-eight sets.

March 7th, 2023 UPDATE--
We've officially reached 1350+ writing prompts in 
headline form. This is less than planned for this
timeline, and I'm vastly okay with that- if okayness
may be vast.

You might notice the earlier ones aren’t right.

It’s fine!

‘It’s The Fish From The Cover Photo’ — the Author | Photo by Carley Friesen on Unsplash

The pub was first called Ten Headlines and was only meant as a game for practicing headlines with a suggestion that writers could take inspiration and even swipe entire titles.

A couple should even have the kicker ‘FREE Headlines!!’

Experimentation.

But I’m gradually feeling better about this. Worst case scenario, no one ever joins and I get the whole place to myself. Responding to my own prompts and all.

Just be aware there’s room for you here if you’d like. 😉

I try very hard not to manipulate people into complying while trying to get them to do what I want; you’ll get used to it.

Oh, and don’t forget linking to the piece you used for a prompt! If you wish to follow this path my way.

Otherwise, do what you want, and I’ll mostly leave you be.

Maybe.

Now, ask away, all of your questions, in the responses, in case I forgot anything and will be needing to add it to the official piece later on.

If there’s nothing else, I must now sleep. Have a good day, a good night, and take care.

This will be made more official another time.

Indeed. 🙏 🙏

P.S. Subscribe to my stories by email for the best chance to catch my original works!

And Hook Me Up With Some SWEEET Peppermint Tea to Unlock Extra SECRET Content. Once There, Send Me a Message to Receive a FREE Poem Written Just For You!

ㅤ⬇️⬇️

My Introduction Page —

To Whom it May Concern [[FREE Access Inside]]

Welcome!