This week: To Prompt or Not to Prompt Edited by: Cinn  
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I was looking through some of the results for "What attracts you to a contest?" , and I got to thinking about the different motivations for entering contests. One of those motivations is certainly inspiration, but that's not the only one. Prompts may not be the right fit for every contest.
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| ASIN: 197380364X |
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Amazon's Price: $ 15.99
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When it comes to prompts, it seems like everyone has an opinion. Yes. No. Single-word only. Concept only. Image preferred. Whatever it is, people will have some thoughts on it. Over my years on WDC, I have gone from loving prompts to hating prompts. Now, I'm in that depends-on-the-prompt area (but still mostly not a fan).
So how do you decide whether to require prompts for your contest? 
I think that you need to consider who you hope to attract with your contest. I have run several short and lengthy surveys on contest preferences, and they're all over the map in most areas. Most prefer open rules (the fewer restrictions, the better). Most are open to any and all prizes (newbies slightly more attracted to gift points). Many prefer contests that allow both poetry and short stories. But motivation for participating is pretty much split into two categories:
1. They're here for the prizes.
2. They're here for the inspiration.
Your contest is likely a "here for the prizes" type if your prizes are excessively large or expensive or exclusive. Accept it. Likely, people will tolerate prompts in this case, but they're not needed or even wanted at times.
If your contest doesn't offer excessive prizes, they're likely here for the inspiration. Now, in the case of a challenge, no prompts are required... sometimes the "challenge" of writing a story every day or one poem per week or whatever is enough inspiration. Combining that type of thing with prompts could mean dwindling participation. I know even from my own experience, if it's a long challenge and I come up to a prompt I hate, I tend to just... not go further.
If the contest isn't prize heavy and is just a contest (as opposed to a "challenge")... then prompts will probably be helpful to attract people and get people writing. The type of prompt likely has lots to do with it... music, image, word, idea, etc. Too specific, and people won't be inspired and may even become frustrated. Not specific enough, and it might not create that spark. Some people have very effectively overcome this by offering multiple prompts, sometimes even in different formats (e.g. image, phrase, and song).
On a final note here, you know how I said that people overwhelmingly prefer less rules and more freedom in contests? I've always been a big fan of optional prompts.  There is no required prompt, but there are prompts included for those looking for a little inspiration. If your contest gets stale or seems to experience a dip in interest, changing it up might be an interesting experiment. 
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| ASIN: 0910355479 |
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Amazon's Price: $ 13.99
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 Are there any kind of prompts that you dislike?
What's your preference: Word or Picture prompts? |
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Contests & Activities: April 22, 2020 Issue [#10136]
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