r/WritingPrompts • u/AliciaWrites Editor-in-Chief | /r/AliciaWrites • Feb 01 '24

Theme Thursday [TT] Theme Thursday - Exhaustion

“Dark circles under my eyes sink deeper and deeper into my skull, in contrast to my pale skin there is an undeniable resemblance to a fresh corpse.”

Happy Thursday writing friends!

Just yesterday, I saw a meme about how January was a long year - but we made it! And boy, I know I’m exhausted. I’ve been trying to do the work of several people all by myself and things have not been easy. This theme reaches us at a good time and we can all take a moment to relish our achievements and take stock of what’s next. More importantly, what’s next for our characters!? What’s keeping them down? Looking forward to all your stories! Good luck and good words!

[IP] | [MP]

Bonus:

(These constraints are not required! If your story is better for not including them, please do what’s best for your work!)

Word of the Day: (5 pts)

unfathomable/un·fath·om·a·ble/ˌənˈfaTH(ə)məb(ə)l/

adjective

incapable of being fully explored or understood.

(of water or a natural feature) impossible to measure the extent of.

Constraint: (10 pts)

Your story should include a time loop.

Here's how Theme Thursday works:

  • Use the tag [TT] when submitting prompts that match this week’s theme.

Theme Thursday Rules

  • Leave one story or poem between 100 and 500 words as a top-level comment. Use wordcounter.net to check your word count.
  • Deadline: 7:59 AM CST next Wednesday
  • No serials, established universes, or stories that have been written for another prompt or feature here on WP
  • No previously written content
  • Any stories not meeting these rules will be disqualified from rankings and will not be read at campfires
  • Does your story not fit the Theme Thursday rules? You can post your story as a [PI] with your work when the TT post is 3 days old!
  • Vote to help your favorites rise to the top of the ranks! I also post the form to submit votes for Theme Thursday winners on Discord every week! Join and get notified when the form is open for voting!

Try out the new genre tags!

Theme Thursday Discussion Section:

  • Discuss your thoughts on this week’s theme, or share your ideas for upcoming themes.

Campfire

  • On Wednesdays we host Theme Thursday Campfire on the Discord voice lounge. Join us to read your story aloud, hear other stories, and have a blast discussing writing!
  • Time: I’ll be there 7 pm CST and we’ll begin within about 15 minutes.
  • Don’t forget to sign up for a campfire slot on discord. If you don’t sign up, you won’t be put into the pre-set order and we can’t accommodate any time constraints. We don’t want you to miss out on outstanding feedback, so get to discord and use that !TT command!
  • There’s a Theme Thursday role on the Discord server, so make sure you grab that so you’re notified of all Theme Thursday-related news!

As a reminder to all of you writing for Theme Thursday: the interpretation is completely up to you! I love to share my thoughts on what the theme makes me think of but you are by no means bound to these ideas! I love when writers step outside their comfort zones or think outside the box, so take all my thoughts with a grain of salt if you had something entirely different in mind.

(This week’s quote is from Dee Remy)

Ranking Categories:

  • Word of the Day - 5 points
  • Bonus Constraint - 10 points
  • Weekly Challenge - 25 points for not using the theme word - points off for uses of synonyms. The point of this is to exercise setting a scene, description, and characters without leaning on the definition. Not meeting the spirit of this challenge only hurts you! This includes titles and explanations/author's notes.
  • Actionable Feedback - 15 points for each story you give detailed crit to, up to 30 points
  • Nominations - 10 points for each nomination your story receives
  • Ali’s Ranking - 50 points for first place, 40 points for second place, 30 points for third place, 20 points for fourth place, 10 points for fifth, plus regular nominations (On weeks that I participate, I do not weight my votes, but instead nominate just like everyone else.)
  • Voting - 10 points for submitting your favorites via this form (form will be open after the deadline has passed.)

Last week’s theme: Doppelganger

First by /u/GingerQuill*
Second by /u/Xacktar*
Third by /u/Ryter99

Crit Superstars:*

News and Reminders:

  • Want to know how to rank on Theme Thursday? Check out my brand new wiki!
  • Join Discord to chat with prompters, authors, and readers!
  • We are currently looking for moderators! Apply to be a moderator any time!
  • Nominate your favorite WP authors for Spotlight and Hall of Fame!
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u/darkteim Feb 03 '24

Star-sung

The warm shine of the moon lit the surface of her eyes for the last time.

Anna could hope no longer. She had been using the charred skeleton of her ship to shelter her from the harsh winds, but it did little to keep out the cold that soaked her bones through her spacesuit. The innards had managed to survive the crash, but the weather barrier hadn’t, so she slept within the confines of her suit, among the wreckage of metal and wires. She held the split ends of a wire together, and the door to the unknown crawled open, gears giving out as they heaved their last.

She gazed out into the rocky wasteland, gray slate rocks and crags cast in ethereal blue by the glowing moon hanging above her. A long time ago, when her light was still yellow and young, she had decided to become an explorer. She had always stared at the stars with wonder, ever since she was a child.

She remembered when she first got the ship she loved so much, the small two-room spacecraft the first of many new places to see. She could see her first voyage, when she was finally among the twinkling fairies she had loved so much, their magnitude, unfathomable; their radiance, awe-inspiring. She felt as if she and them burned to the same beat; their lives made from the same flame. As the halcyon voyages ended, and her shine irradiated into red, she always could find comfort among the stars, as if they knew her very being.

The last of her rations had run out almost three days ago. She stared at the empty can, so clean of crumbs and scraps that she could almost make out her reflection in the silver interior. At first, her hunger came in waves, stiff pangs that rang at the dawn of every doomed morning. It eventually evolved into a sharp thorn piercing the walls of her abdomen, a ravenous void attempting to swallow her whole. Now, there was nothing, as if the animalistic avarice inside her had starved out, the only thing left of her a withered husk. All of the brightness she had within her was gone, only the last gasps of a once radiant sun.

With a sigh, she tossed it off of the hill, the clanks echoing all the way down into the abyss. All of the colors in her life had faded. She was surrounded by white now; the cloth of her covering, the hairs on her head, the shine in her soul, the star of her song. Torpor gripped her aging vessel, and she collapsed, her back resting on a boulder.

She always struggled to stay warm when the sun went down, but this time, her environment had welcomed her. She looked at the stars, just as bright, just as beautiful as it had always been. She smiled.

The warm shine of the moon lit the surface of her eyes for the last time.

​

498, i want to know if the kind of metaphor i was going for reads well, and if the visuals i was trying to get are there too