Accepting Submissions: {What If} Prompt

Each week, we issue a writing prompt to our own staff, guest contributors, and readers like you. We welcome guest submissions, so if you’re interested in being featured or regularly contributing to the site, email your responses to kelaine.conochan [at] thepromptmag.com.

We find a lot of forks in a lot of roads, ones that force us to decide which direction to choose.

What if you turn left? The danger, the risk, the treasure.
What if you turn right? The simplicity, the certainty, the mediocrity.
What if you turned back? The boredom, the regret, the infinite cycle of ‘what ifs.’
What if you did nothing at all? Well, that’s a choice in itself.

Once presented with an option, our brains play out a game of complex scenario testing. We think through the alternatives and payouts. We consider the outcomes, risks, and rewards. We consider our own feelings and others’ feelings. And then we decide.

Well, you’re at a crossroads right now. Are you going to just sit there and read? Or wait, I’ve got a crazy idea here. What if you decided that today is the day you wanted to write for us.

This Week’s Writing Prompt: WHAT IF?

Sometimes you have to stop and ask yourself—what if? And with this week’s writing prompt, we want you to do just that.

We want to hear your hypotheticals. We want your tales of regret, of decision paralysis, and of success. We want your submission of 400-700 words that answer—or ask—the question on all of our minds: WHAT IF?

Write us anything that comes to mind when you think of WHAT IF? It can be a personal essay, a poem, short story, script, or anything else original and fresh. Just make it worth our while and we’ll publish it, include it in our newsletter, and give you the chance to join the creative, talented staff writers here at The Prompt.

Email your responses to kelaine.conochan@thepromptmag.com by Wednesday, February 28th at midnight EST.