Come on in and pull up a chair; first round of drinks are on me! (Because wow, do I need a drink.)

Can I have a drink? *GGG*

I just left a few prompts! They're lyrics, and I seem to prompt a lot of lyrics, because music (and lyrics) give me ridiculous amount of feels. So when I'm prompting I'm hoping someone will pick up the sentiment of the song and do something with it. It's always interesting seeing how people interpret something like that.

I'm a bit strange when it comes to picking up prompts. Sometimes I stick to the prompt, if the prompter is asking for something very specific. I try to give them what they asked for. But sometimes it's so much fun writing something completely unexpected :D

But of course! Would you like my signature 'Tall, Dark, and Ugly' or the 'No Regrets (Because You Can't Remember'? I highly recommend both, although not within 24 hours of each other. (Special exemptions can be made in the cause of bad break-ups.)

Song lyrics are great, especially because of the mood aspect. Regarding leaving prompts, I find that I typically have a scenario in mind when I put one up, and it's always neat to see how other people take them and run with it.

I missed the Big Promptathon last year (full confession: I hadn't even thought of writing an Avengers story when it was on, let alone found this beautiful bar) but I did do the Valentine's one and I think I stuck four prompts into one of the stories I wrote ... and it was so much fun. Like having someone hand you a script outline and saying, okay now, write the dialogue around THAT.

Coming up with lines for prompts is a lot harder, because when I have a really good idea (or some harebrained thought I think is a really good idea) I end up feeling all proprietary and wanting to write it myself ... To which my answer this time was to leave a number of them, so I wouldn't be tempted. Because, really, who has the time to write 6 stories all at once ...? ;-)

The bar hadn't been around very long then :) Ooo, if you enjoyed the Valentine's one you're gonna love the big one. Crazy days! :D

See, that's one of the reasons why I like prompting time - I can take all the ideas I'm never going to play with and let them loose in the world, without feeling like I've given up on the poor things *grins*. I also like how it snowballs, how you give away one idea and then you get another off the back of it, and you share that one, and then...

It's kind of like having a prompt sale - I have this idea and it's cool but I've tried to write it and nothing is coming but I still really want to see it happen so here it is, in all it's shining glory. Take it and do something wonderful with it!

This :D

And then LJ goes down *sigh*.

I get excited about prompts because I love ideas. I love sharing them, I love chatting about them, and I love giving them away, because I have too many to run with them all myself. I love that moment when I read someone else's idea, and something clicks inside my head, and then not only do I get to indulge in creativity, but then at the end of it, it's for someone, it's like a two-way gift :)

Yes! That. Plus, I was still all wibbly over finishing my angstiest piece yet and stressing over which of the three fics I'm working on simultaneously would work best to relieve the stress, and then the perfect prompt hits me in the head like a cream puff pie and now I'm writing THAT instead. Good times!!

I've been both a prompter and a writer of the last two prompt-a-thons. I like to think of the prompts as things that I've thrown out to the world. It's the starting place that I envision but that never means that I expect it to stay in that starting place. I'm offering inspiration! Not dictating where the story is going! If I wanted something specific, I would write it and/or pay someone to write it for me.

I know there are people who stress about writing from someone else's prompts but I don't think that anyone is putting limits on the prompts. It should be about inspiration! Does this inspire you? Than create something with it! Make something that YOU enjoy because those are the best creations, whether they be stories or art or gifs.

My most viewed/liked story on AO3 comes from the first promptathon. I giggled through the whole thing. I created it for me. Yes, the prompter and I had a conversation on the thread but it was mostly a OMG! I LOVE THAT IDEA! and then a YES! I THINK IT'S GREAT TOO. I wrote the story for me. It diverged a lot from what the prompter had left but the spirit was there. I felt comfortable saying it was inspired by the prompt.

I also love when two people create something for the same prompt. Seeing how two people take the same idea is always fun. We each have different places we're coming from and we bring different perspectives to the idea.

Also, I would like to point out that the first promptathon is what propelled the Clint/Natasha fandom from a corner of fandom to getting it's own floor! No corner for this bar! People found us (meaning fellow Clint/Natasha lovers, not necessarily just the bar) and decided to visit. Many of them stuck around! Hundreds of different creations came out of that promptathon! We made an impact!

I don't say that to pat our backs but I would like to point out that our part of fandom is still pretty active while others have flagged and aren't nearly as active. While I feel sad for those shippers, I'm super excited to be part of a group that is still so active and still loves their ship so much! Sure, a lot of us have other pairings that we write about but we always come back to Clint/Natasha.

See, this is why I don't do meta. I just get excited and ramble. In conclusion, I think we're awesome and I'm super excited for this promptathon. I hope that other people get just as excited and create A TON of stuff. Jump into the fandom! Bring others along with you! So no one posts something for your prompts... that doesn't mean it didn't inspire a part of a story or art! There were some prompts at the February promptathon that I didn't necessarily write for but that inspired other ideas or even a few that got me out of a corner. They inspired me to look at my ideas from a different direction.

In real conclusion, jump out of the box and prompt prompt PROMPT. After that write write WRITE!

...the first promptathon is what propelled the Clint/Natasha fandom from a corner of fandom to getting it's own floor! No corner for this bar! People found us (meaning fellow Clint/Natasha lovers, not necessarily just the bar) and decided to visit. Many of them stuck around!

Raises hand. Reading some of those stories prompted me to look up "be_compromised" and then to revive my mostly dead LJ account that I had done absolutely nothing with. And in turn led to me sticking around (and become immersed) in a fandom I had thought only to visit briefly, for one story.

Magic and wonder indeed. :-)

I think it's so cool that people came looking for the community because of all the stories!

Where did you hang out before coming back to LJ?

Well, I only got into fanfic in 2011 and had only one fandom before Avengers, so I didn't really hang anywhere! :-) Once I got over myself and started writing, I just kind of wrote my stories and posted them on FFN and eventually AO3, and got to know other authors via PM exchanges. (One is now one of my closest friends, so that method definitely worked for me!)

I joined LJ to comment on a story someone had posted there, and then immediately forgot about it again. My only social thing was my Star Trek:Voyager message board (VAMB); I still pop by there regularly. I got turned off another Trek site pretty quickly because intelligent discussion only ever lasted three comments, and then the trolls would move in.

So, yeah, this bar is pretty divine. :-)

I've almost always been at LJ so it's weird to think of fandom taking place on any other site! Even Tumblr freaks me out sometimes with all the different stuff that is there versus here.

I'm glad you gave us a chance and stuck around!

PS: I'm writing to one of your prompts now ... :-) (psst)

Very cool! I can't wait to read it!

I CAN'T WAIT TO READ ALL THE STORIES!!!!! HOORAY!!!!