The 2025 Prompt Selection Ballot: "You pick this bucket out?"

[brightknightie]

We have 32 nominated prompts. Thank you! Now, which do you most want to write or read?

As you know, in our challenge-style game, writers may choose to approach a prompt in any way (affirm, subvert, controvert). The requirement is that a reasonable reader must be able to perceive a prompt's influence in each story. (Stories come due May 24. Minimum 500 words.)

Vote: Reply to this post's poll by 11:59pm (Pacific Time) on Friday, March 21. All community members may vote. Voting is not a promise to write or read.

• Rank the prompts in the order you prefer them, from 1 (most-wanted) to 32 (least-wanted).
• Please do not repeat numbers. (I'll re-rank any duplicates as I see fit.)
• Exception: If you wish to leave any blank, may I ask you to please enter "33" for all those instead? (Or higher. 55, 99, whatever amuses. This eases the move to a spreadsheet; it isn't for calculation.) The more prompts we rank, the better ranking works, but 32 is a lot, for sure!
• Tip: Each prompt's box is below it (not above).

Tally: The top 3 (or possibly 4-5) ranked-choice preferences will become our common prompt pool, from which to use at least 1 in each story. Any prompt that gets 25%+ of the 1st-place votes outright wins one of our slots. Then, the prompt with the fewest 1st-place votes is eliminated, redistributing its 1st-place votes to what was the 2nd-place preference of its voters. Repeat until 3 prompts each have 25%+ of the votes (unless I see that 4-5 would reach more players). As moderator, I will break any ties in the direction of a widely-appealing diversity of prompts for everyone.

Questions? Comments? Please share!

Poll #32823 2025_FKFicFest_PromptsRanking

This poll is closed.
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 12

Transition

I have a newsflash for you--appearances can be deceiving.

"Tuck a knife with my heart up my sleeve"--Halsey and Suga, "Lilith"

Nick is shot in front of his partner

"I look to the future because that's where I'm going to spend the rest of my life."--George Burns, _How to live to be 100--or more_

A lucky break, a chance meeting, and a friend in need.

Reverse AU: Vampire/human status switch. The vampires are human and the humans are vampires. What's the reason for that? Creator's choice.

"All of a sudden in a wink of an eye / A Cadillac sedan passed us by"--Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, "Hot Rod Lincoln"

But what do you really want?

Blast from the past

"Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy."--G.M. Gilbert, _The Nuremberg Diary_

a journalist on a mission

Surely LaCroix has other hobbies than bothering Nick... (current or past hobby)

"Danger midwifes the heart's spring."--Traci Brimhall, _Aubade on a Ghost Hunt_

Modern technology can be a nuisance

"People have an annoying habit of remembering the things they shouldn't."--Christopher Paolini, _Eragon_

Keeping secrets

found among the second-hand books

"Light up, light up / As if you have a choice / Even if you cannot hear my voice / I'll be right beside you, dear"--Snow Patrol, "Run"

Alternative Universe

"Life is full of wonder, love is never wrong"--Melissa Etheridge, "Silent Legacy"

The antique hairbrush still held tangles of fine golden hair.

"I wrote it with the pen of mirth and the ink of melancholy."--Machado de Assis, _The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas_

Murder never expires

"The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future."--Oscar Wilde, _A Woman of No Importance_

Heist

Games Vampires (and Mortals) Play: What do our most beloved characters do to while away the nighttime (or daytime) hours?

"I feel like I'm comin' home / These are better days"--Bruce Springsteen, "Better Days"

I'm going to tell you something that you don't want to hear.

"We may shine, we may shatter, we may be picking up the pieces here on after / We are fragile, we are human, we are shaped by the light we let through us" -- Thompson Square, "Glass"

When Friday 13th is not just a date

Songfic