How to stand out among others? Utilize those prompts: don't write it normally; write it creatively, add in some originality. Make it unique, take a risk, use an uncommon prompt, and package it in your unique storytelling style. But it's easier said than done.
Some advice though is,
Don't - write a story opposite of what others have written.
Do - instead write a story that only you can tell.
Use your mind from the start, not comparing your idea to everyone else and forming a consensus of what's popular. Yeah, it will discourage you(referring to the rankings on Wattpad), but ranking at this point doesn't matter. You want to focus on your story, not rankings. Don't write for the sake of getting a high rank - i.e., writing a popular genre like romance.
Choose a prompt that is more open, with more ways of interpretation. Take for example prompt No. 4 - ' When life gives you balloons, you fly up into the sky.'
Don't take prompts literally; add twists to them (in a metaphorical sense). For example, you could write about a character who yearns to escape the world they are living in. This character achieves his/her greatest wish but then lands in a strange land—a parallel world or fantasy land that still resembles the world they lived in previously, showing how their problems don't disappear just because they went to a different place.
Alternatively, you could also explore the idea of a dream from their youth where they wanted to fly and float in space which might stems from a dream long ago (from the prompt). Or the character could develop an illness that makes them literally fly up to the sky, requiring weights to prevent them from floating away. The weights symbolize the things that the character needs to anchor themselves again.
Or, make the setting in a fantasy land where everyone lives in the sky with wings and the main character was the only one who couldn't fly which was the reason that he was looking for ways to make himself fly - and finally finds one at the end of the story. A twist to the plot maybe at the ending, 'When life doesn't give you balloons, you stay on the ground. Sipping tea and enjoying what's in front of the eyes.'
Understand and give the backstory, motives, character, arc, and ultimately the plot, allowing the full incorporation of the prompt in a way nobody else has.
Infuse originality by genre-switching your prompt. Try taking a romance prompt and make it into an action-adventure story or vice versa. It would certainly stand out more! Bending a prompt makes it a little more interesting and enhances your style to write something nobody else can.
As mentioned in the previous example, the teen fiction prompt with a dash of a strange land (fantasy) then adds some action-adventure into the mix. Think of Alice in Wonderland mixed with UP; that might make the whole story more interesting as well.
So, choose your prompts wisely. All the best!
Check out my story Oxy-Gen for ONC 2024.
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Serein Choo Website/Blog
RandomMy Personal Blog/Website where I write down my Writing Journey, the things/thoughts/tips that I discovered and learned along the way where I recorded/ written down in the blog. Since I self-publish my children book, the steps involved/used are also...
