The 2019 writing prompt about "room 314" turned into 57 copycat stories within 6 months

I was digging through old prompts last week and noticed something weird. Back in 2019 someone posted a really specific prompt about a hotel room where guests vanished. It was unique, creepy, had a whole backstory. Within 6 months I counted 57 stories on Reddit and Wattpad that used the exact same premise with the numbers swapped out. The writing quality tanked because everyone just copied that original idea. Has anyone else noticed a specific prompt get completely run into the ground like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

scott.olivia13d ago

Oh totally, I remember that prompt. There was this one about a weird staircase in the woods that popped up everywhere for like a year, and by the end people were just writing the same stuff with different names.

stella_scott9613d ago

Yeah I read somewhere that the staircase thing actually got traced back to a creepypasta from like 2015, just repackaged with slightly different spooky details. @scott.olivia you're spot on, I swear half the stuff on those sites is just the same three ideas in a trenchcoat. It's a shame because that original hotel room concept had real potential before everyone squeezed it dry.