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I get what you're saying, but the best advice here is always to be the change you want to see. There are plenty of real world scenarios that show up, but unfortunately, most don't see their way past the /New page because they don't tickle people's fantasies the same way. For instance, posted not 30 minutes before you made this post:

[WP] The man with the tattoo

[WP] TIFU by freezing a coworker

The realistic prompts are there if you're willing to look past the 5 prompts of the moment. Honestly, I recommend it, but a lot of people get caught in this line of thinking that they'll only get attention for their story if they post in those top prompts. Which isn't particularly true even for those posts, most people don't read more than the top story or two.

Given that there are real life based prompts as well (Granted not as many), here's my suggestions for ways to help make this sub more what you're hoping to find:

• Post on any prompt that suits your fancy, not just the top ones on Hot. You won't get as much attention organically, but you said you were hoping for practice, not fame.
  
• Did you write something amazing on a prompt that got buried? Post it as a new topic under a [PI] tag and let us know what prompt inspired it. We'll sometimes even sticky the PIs if there's nothing else going on.
  
• Write something that seems pretty good but want a way to make it better? Post it under a [CC] tag and we'll try to get some Constructive Criticism your way.
  
• Or post it over on /r/writingcritiques if it's short, they try to guarentee a critique on everything that comes their way.
  
• Not quite that confident for a PI? The Sunday Free Write is up every week to share stories that didn't get much attention the first go around.
  
• Or come join our chatroom and share your story. We're always up to read a story or two.
  
• Other ideas for real life prompts, did you know that the chatroom has a promptbot that will also generate prompts? They aren't necessarily any more realistic, but they can help. So can the users if you ask someone to help you pick a prompt.
  
• Post a [PM] asking for realistic writing prompts! You'll have to write more than one prompt in 6 hours, but you should get a good chunk of awesome prompts.
  
• I'll just subtly plug this book of 1000 Writing Prompts, written by the sub's founder, /u/RyanKinder
  
• One of our mods, /u/dankolar62 posts a plethora of Image Prompts that are normally realistic pictures. Here's a search response for them
  
• And lastly, I've been putting some effort into trying to start a "Mundane Monday" movement, by posting more real life prompts on Mondays and upvoting all the ones I can find. You're welcome to help me out in focusing some effort towards this. Just throw up a realistic prompt or two and take a few minutes towards upvoting in /New. We'll get there eventually.
  
  Wow, that was more of a wall of text than I was expecting. Anyways, I hope some of my suggestions helped you out! It can be a bit frustrating to not find anything you feel like writing, but there's a lot of ways to make this sub work for you. Happy Writing!

This one's easy! In fact, it ties nicely into:

> self-promotions

TL;DR

Every so often, something I write takes off. Now this, alone, is a great experience. Coming back to a story and seeing hundreds (or thousands!) of upvotes is awesome, and even better is having my inbox explode with people who really enjoyed the story (having an audience enjoy my work is why I write, after all). And, of course, the inevitable calls for a continuation.

That's hard. The way I write is to start at the ending and work backward, so a lot - if not all - of what I write is self-contained and I don't have any greater intentions, so I don't usually do it.

Then this prompt happened. My story's the top one and like my other stories, I had that ending to the first part already planned out. It was super exciting that the prompt took off and I didn't have any plans to keep going, but it was by far the most popular thing that I'd ever done.

I'd (self-)published a book on Amazon before, something that was basically an in-joke for my friends, so I knew how it was done. And I wouldn't mind doing it again. But I didn't know if I could actually write a story this way, wholesale, just coming up with a longer-term ending for something that hadn't been bubbling up in the back of my mind for years.

But I thought up an outline, set myself a schedule for writing updates in my sub (1/week), and kept going. And people, much to my surprise, stayed with me. I expected a huge bounce rate but almost everyone stuck around. Another redditor even got me beta readers, which was enormously helpful.

So, finally, after I'd written and read and re-read and edited and re-edited over and over, and after I'd finally put it up on Amazon, there was only one more thing to do:

The Announcement

That was my best experience on Writing Prompts. Seeing the fruition of everything I'd done and having everyone enjoy it. People ranging from "I followed that and it's awesome to see it come out" to "I saw that prompt and wondered whatever happened" to just general awesomeness. It. Was. Great.

I don't write here expecting that kind of thing to happen. I've had prompts both before and after that one take off in similar ways, and never went anywhere with them. But for that one, everything came together. It was an amazing experience and I'm incredibly glad I did it, and it's all thanks to this sub. :)

The day he opened the box was the day his carefully woven lifestyle had fallen apart. He remembered it like yesterday, thinking back to that little purple package, tied with a bow and delivered to his door like he was being sent cookies. He recalled with a wry smile and a sigh how easily the rules he'd built had come crashing down.

---------------------------------------------------------------
"Two."

"Two!? I'd been told it was one...y-you sure?"

"You were misinformed. The price is two."

"Two hundred grand? You better be good."

The man laughed into the receiver, a deep chuckle that died softly almost as soon as it had begun.

"I'm the best."

Rule one: Don't ever sell yourself cheap.

Another day, another phonecall. The man shook his head as he hung up the payphone. He liked to take calls at payphones - in an age of convenience and, more importantly, surveillance, a payphone was an innocuous choice and it meant people were rarely late. If he told them to call x payphone at n time, they'd call. Rule two: Be careful and precise.

He lit a cigarette in the phonebooth, dark sunglasses letting him observe the crowds rushing around the busy city centre. To him, they looked like ants, scurrying around with their busy lives. To him, any normal life was a thing to be observed, critiqued, mocked.

His own life was far simpler. Or more complex, depending on the angle you viewed it from. His working life was about completion. His targets and bonuses were around one goal. His 9-5 about training, stalking, executing. Rule three: Research and know your target.

His business was death, and business was good.

The hitman had been doing this for a long time. Long enough to know there is a price on every man's head. Long enough to know that no one dies for free. Long enough to be the best, or one of them. Which meant, of course, his price was high. Two hundred thousand dollars a hit, rising in doubles for riskier or higher profile targets.

He had killed doctors, lawyers, lovers, fighters, escorts, strippers, judges, policemen, politicians, leaders. One thing was the same. He had never killed a man for less than his price. At least, he thought, not since the first.

He'd been an ex-military washout, desperate for work. He'd looked everywhere, travelling state to state in an attempt to pick up jobs as a security guard or bodyguard. Overnight stays in shanty towns and campsites, rubbing shoulders with the homeless and the degenerate. Things had gotten desperate, and a man had tried to take his food. That was his first kill. He'd gotten him in his sleep. No one suspected a thing. Another man had been his rival, and paid the hitman a hundred dollars. That was his first hit, and ever since his price had been high.

Then he'd found it.

It was simple really. Laughably so. On one of his many properties there was a small purple box wrapped like a cartoon gift, a pink ribbon bow tied around the top. Left on the doorstep of the back porch. At first, the hitman had been tempted to throw it away. It could have been a bomb, a deterrent, a threat. Anything.

But for some reason, some insane reason, he'd taken it inside.

He couldn't have told you why. He couldn't have told himself why. The obscenely cutesy gift, a child-like idea of what a gift should look like. It sat on his metallic table worktop, garishly out of place amongst the guns and knives littered in his apartment.

He'd opened it after some consideration, his fingers neatly undoing the bow and chuckling at the care someone had put into this. Perhaps it was because he'd never received a gift, merely saw them in cartoons. Perhaps it was the feeling it gave him: an excited, giddy rise in his belly that threatened to compromise everything he'd worked so hard to contain.

Inside had been a note, handwritten in the untidy scrawlings of a child. Alongside the note was a crumpled ten dollar bill and coins. He added them up slowly. They totalled $13.42. Added to the scruffy bill that was just over twenty dollars. He laid out the money on the table and turned back to the note.

Mister It said.
I think you can help me i have a problem and i think you can help me
The hitman looked around, his empty apartment chilly. He almost felt embarrassed to be reading the note. It was as if eyes were on him, knowing his lizard-like slits should not be cast across something as innocent as a child's note. Almost guiltily, he continued.
My daddy is a bad man. He hurts my mommy and he hurts me some nights he comes in my room and he tells me he loves me and hurts me in the bad way. mommy cries alot. she tells me well run away but then he always comes back.

Mister. I live near you and ive seen you soemtimes. i know u hide but ive seen your guns.

Please mister. I saved all my money that mommy tries to give me. my daddy takes it away to buy more bottles but i hided some.

Please mister my daddy needs to go away. he says he is gonna kill my mommy and ill be his new woman when i growed up. he says hes gonna put a baby in me but thats silly im a kid i cant have a baby. i dont want a baby mister.

here is all my money mister. i know you make people disappereah. please make my daddy disappere.

we live at 31 Oakfelt drive, autumn boulevard. daddy comes home late every night and works in the city. he is a teacher.

The hitman put the letter down, blinking back tears. He traced the lazy scrawl of the girls handwriting with the tip of his finger, imagining her writing it. Desperate, rushed. It would have been neater, he could tell, if she'd not been so afraid. The dots were absent, the curvature of her writing tilted right down as though she'd been writing flat-out. Against the clock, sort to speak.

She was against the clock, he understood that. She was probably waiting for him to visit her room again, her tiny body shaking in fear as she wrote this plea to him.

He shook his head, sitting down on his leather sofa. It had cost him ten thousand dollars, that sofa. A luxury easily afforded due to his rules. Rule one: Don't sell yourself cheap. A life was worth two hundred grand, minimum.

He thought of her letter. He picked it back up and looked at it for a long time, staring at the foot of the page.

Love from Melissa.

P.s dont worry i wont tell. i dont want a daddy anyway. daddys are mean

The hitman found his fist clenching, the paper crumpling in his hand. Tears gathered in his face and he stared at the last few words, hastily scribbled out by the girl. He noticed dark blotches on the paper, where tears had fallen and been stained forever into the sheet.

He thought back to his own father, a ghost of a man who was neither here nor there, ever-scornful and frightening but so often absent that the man had grown old thinking his father might have been imagined, rather than real.

He thought back to this desperate little girl, scrounging scraps of change to try and pay him.

Rule number one: Don't sell yourself cheap.

A kill might have been worth two hundred grand to the hitman he thought to himself. But, as he sat and read the note one last time, some kills are worth more than money.

No more rule number one. This time, the job cost $23.42. This time, the job would be worth that young girl's life.



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Edit: Wow, thanks for the gold kind sir, you've made my day! Glad you all liked it - I've always enjoyed writing and I'm now getting more serious about it so hopefully there will be plenty more from me, and possibly this hitman, in the near future.)

(Edit part two: I'm absolutely floored by your responses and thanks for the gold again. It's amazing to have entertained you all.)

(PART TWO IS HERE. I may have rushed it but I don't care you guys deserve this for the amazing response you've given me. Part three will be later in the week but this gives some closure. I'm going to turn this into a series. http://thecagedtype.co.uk/writing/breaking-rule-two-short-fiction-part-two/

PART THREE: http://thecagedtype.co.uk/writing/implementing-rule-three-part-three-short-fiction/

PART FOUR: http://thecagedtype.co.uk/writing/establishing-target-part-four-short-fiction/

PART FIVE: http://thecagedtype.co.uk/writing/purging/

PART SIX: http://thecagedtype.co.uk/writing/circumstances-change-part-six/

PART SEVEN: http://thecagedtype.co.uk/writing/mansion-part-7-short-fiction/

PART EIGHT (The end): http://thecagedtype.co.uk/writing/warehouse-part-8-short-fiction/

NOTE TO CURRENT READERS: There's now an eBook version out priced at $0.99, it's still free on my blog so this is mainly just a helping me out kind of fee. You can buy it at this link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hitman-Rose-Craig-Thomas-Boyle-ebook/dp/B00OA0379C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412778474&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Hitman+and+the+Rose

Part eight is the end guys. This has been fantastic and a great way to get my writing out to the world. Please keep following me either on my blog, on facebook or on /r/groundfighterwrites. Hope you enjoyed it!

To keep track of updates and send me suggestions please follow either my author page at: https://www.facebook.com/CraigThomasBoyle/

or subscribe to /r/groundfighterwrites)

Thank you kindly for your nice words!

Recommendations wise...hmmm. If you've heard of Zero Punctuation before, than the name Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw will be familiar. He has written two fantastic books: Mogworld and Jam that are in the comedic narrator lead style - I highly recommend them!

Anything by Sir Terry Pratchett, though usually in the third person style, I have found to be an easy and funny (edit: hilarious, clever, there-aren't-enough-pleasant-adjectives-to-display-my-love-for-his-writing) romp. Who else? Umm.

I'm struggling to think of more, sorry. Er, my novels? That is, when I get around to finishing the damn things.

/r/Books may be a good place to ask. I'm drawing a blank, sorry.

For UK: Silvertongue (Remnants of Magic Book 1) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07NTR9YY4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_yjZACbAK67GWN

Well done pal, great to see a dream come true! In the middle of a series right now but I love the concept, I’ll buy it and save it for later :)

I enjoyed this story quite a bit, and since points concerning plot and consistency have already been made, I thought I'd add a few technical notes:

• I see you wanted to keep the Thief's gender unrevealed. However, using "they" as a pronoun is awkward and impossible to translate into other languages. In fact, I noticed you slipped up a couple times, using "she" or "he" here and there, and one time even "it." I would recommend deciding on one gender. Then, later on, you can reveal that the Thief is, contrary to expectations, a man. Or maybe, one of the characters says to another, "What do you mean, 'he?' I thought Mel was a woman." It would be a lot less immersion-breaking that way.
  
  
• You tend to repeat and paraphrase details, making the language a little awkward all around. Try to be more concise with the longer chain actions. An example:
  
  > The first of the creatures’ attacks began, one of them lunging forward towards the group only to find the barrier blocking its attack. With a crash it hit the invisible field around them that Luther was maintaining, stunning it slightly. Luther knew he couldn’t keep the field up forever, even if he kept chanting the magic that formed it would eventually collapse from their attacks.
  
  I already know it's attacking, and I know it's facing the group. I also know that Luther is upholding this invisible field, and I can assume it takes some effort. How about:
  
  > One creature lunged forward, smashing into the invisible field. Luther flinched at the impact, but gritted his teeth and held fast.
  
  That way, it all happens a little faster, and the reader knows Luther is subject to some sort of strain, which builds a little more suspense than simply being told, "By the way, he can't uphold the barrier forever."
  
  Another shorter example:
  
  > Hannes responded to this by swinging down, the creature slamming into the ground below as its bones shattered from the impact.
  
  Could be worded a little more sharply like this:
  
  > Hannes responded by slamming the creature into the ground, shattering its bones.
  
  
• Finally, it's nice that you give an image of the colors and details of characters and apparel, but try not to slip into essay-exposition. Try to tie details into the action as best you can. This wasn't a huge issue, really, but it's my personal taste that goes against paragraphs upon paragraphs about auburn hair and perfect emerald eyes and porcelain skin etc. etc. etc.
  
  Don't let all this technical mumbo-jumbo discourage you, though. I thought your story was rather cool, and I liked the premise. For similar literature, you could check out Yahtzee Croshaw's Mogworld. It's a cool read.
  
  Good Luck!

"So let me get this right: you have the ability to create whatever you want - gold, jewels, platinum - at any moment, for effectively free -" Jeb paused, then decided to repeat this last bit to emphasize it even more - "effectively free - purely out of the energy from your 'dsyon balls' or whatever they are - and your price of admission is a former American President playing saxophone at the ceremony?"

The reply came back smooth and unconcerned, with the slightest hint of amusement at Jeb's incredulity - the perfect tone to really piss Jeb off. "Yes."

Jeb gripped the handle of his "#1 President" coffee mug until his knuckles went white and the blood pressure alarm started vibrating on his smart watch. "Now listen here, you alien or machine or whatever you are, the American people - and what's more, the people of Earth - are not fools. We know there's no such thing as a free lunch, we've lived and grown up knowing that, it's in our blood, in the blood of our forefathers and our fathers' forefathers, and what's more, we don't tolerate freeloaders. I'm not going to have you sit me through a 5 hour meeting to convince me you're some good Samaritan species so you can make a fool out of me and my country, or worse, enslave us with some fancy clause you forget to mention until the last moment, just to be a world of, of - galactic welfare queens." He slammed his mug on his desk as he spat the last words at his computer screen, splashing cold coffee onto his shirt cuffs.

"And don't think I believe for one minute your baloney about all the Koreans playing WoW being your 'researchers' gathering information on our culture and music because no actual Koreans would play WoW when they have better things in their country - frankly, I find it offensive you'd suggest we'd be foolish enough to believe it and -"

"Jeb, I assure you our intentions -"

"DON'T YOU DARE INTERRUPT ME," boomed Jeb, losing the last bit of patience he had struggled to hold during this ridiculous meeting with this smug, silver, sentient being before him. "I AM THE PRESIDENT OF THE GODDAMN UNITED STATES. AND, AND, and I am NOT, I repeat NOT, going to let you just absorb my country and my planet into your, your, collective or whatever you call it!"

The machine was making a frowny face - pissing Jeb off only more that they would condescend to him so much as to pretend human emotion.

Jeb felt a cool chill run down his back, and decided this discussion was over. "If America and the Earth enters space," he said, voice deadly calm in a manner he had practiced in the oval office mirror for dealing with the Russians, "it will be on America's terms, not yours." The machine mimed slight surprise back at him. "Until then, you'd better leave us the hell alone."

The president cut the connection, and slammed a button on his desk. "Susan, do we still have that supermajority in the Congress?"

"Yes sir, Mister President," came the reply.

"Tell them they're taking the budget out of medicare and slamming it into the defense budget, and pulling out that old Star Wars bill from Reagan and passing it immediately."

"Yes sir, Mister President."

--------------------------

P.S. - If you like this prompt, consider reading Year Zero: a Novel. It's absolutely hilarious, the idea being that humans are about to enter the galactic stage, but so many aliens have pirated human music that the amount of money owed humanity by aliens exceeds the amount of money in the universe. So, the aliens contact a human lawyer, and the following adventure feels very Douglas Adams.

Thank you so much, I'm really glad you've enjoyed it! If you have a few moments, consider dropping a review, it makes a huge difference :)

Either way, I hope to see you soon for Wanderer!

There was a prompt along the lines of "A long time ago, everyone had perfect control over one of the elements apiece, now everyone through mixed breeding has very small control over all of them." One of the posts went on to be published on Amazon, I loved the post and bought it, "Purity of Mind" by Roger Ostrander. If you like spy thrillers and magic, I'd check it out. Link

Not trying to dis your prompt, I'm excited to see what people come up with.

However, if you're interested in this concept, you might enjoy Mogworld. Written by Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation fame.

Thanks for this post. It was fun seeing that someone here noticed it was free. Here are the links for all the english speaking countries that Amazon covers:

USA Link | UK Link | AUS Link | CA Link

If you have a Kindle, a phone/tablet/or pc with the Kindle app... Go grab it now. If you'd rather have a copy of the physical book go here and use the discount code 87XCBFJU for 25% off.

Read it, loved it. Bought a copy to support oyu, left a review as well. Looks like I was the first to review it on US Amazon.com.

Also may want to provide a US amazon link, for the lazy people who click into amazon.co.uk and dont bother buying it on the US site.

US LINK: http://www.amazon.com/Hitman-Rose-Craig-Thomas-Boyle-ebook/dp/B00OA0379C/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1412796930&sr=8-2&keywords=the+hitman+and+the+rose

People above are mentioning similarity to Garth Nix. His Old Kingdom series is among my favorite books ever. The first one is called Sabriel. Definitely worth a read if you liked this.

(Jarmo)[www.amazon.com/Jarmo-Adam-Spielman-ebook/dp/B0075JS1HI/] is my baby. And I'll have an illustrated novella up in the coming months thanks to this sub. Absolutely love this place.

And there's a space on my kindle reserved for your book, right between Chess Tactics and the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. I hope you sell a thousand of em.

Your goddamn blurb is pretty good btw.

eh, messed up the link but it works

You'd absolutely love Mogworld.

See 1,000 Awesome Writing Prompts - Ryan Andrew Kinder.

BTW, /u/RyanKinder is /r/WritingPrompts' Founder / Co-Lead Mod.

There is a fantastic book about this very subject - https://www.amazon.com/Year-Zero-Novel-Rob-Reid/dp/0345534514

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00BEQP50Y/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504727541&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=john+ringo&dpPl=1&dpID=61erO6oqYBL&ref=plSrch

Free on kindle for us Englanders.

Honestly, you need to just browse this subreddit. Search for the word "dystopian." Likewise, /u/RyanKinder has a book of 1,000 prompts you might want to check out. You'll find a lot more ideas this way than by waiting for someone to respond with one prompt, and then waiting for a second.

Just to inform you and all german redditors:

Amazon DE has your physical copy IN STOCK: https://www.amazon.de/dp/1540338371/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1479481605&sr=8-2&keywords=rex+electi

Kindle Edition: https://www.amazon.de/Rex-Electi-English-W-P-Kimball-ebook/dp/B01N03B1AJ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479481605&sr=8-1&keywords=rex+electi

Your book will be on my wishlist for xmas ;)

For those interested, and this one in particular reminded me of it, you should check out a book called Mogworld.

If you like this concept check out the Off to Be the Wizard book and series.

Hey, you posted 4 months ago to ask someone to message you when Writteninsanity came out with a new part to his story. Well, he just came out with a book! https://www.amazon.ca/Evergreen-Jackson-Haime-ebook/dp/B01D9990R2/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1458623143&sr=1-3&keywords=Evergreen

Sounds a little like something from Yahtzee Croshaw's book

I'm not sure if I completely understand your question, but this is what I think you're asking: if you wrote the stories then you can publish them. They are yours. Someone actually did exactly this, publishing their /r/WritingPrompts stories on Amazon.

Edit: also, there are a lot of authors that have published books that expanded on prompt responses.

For those interested, someone actually made a book series around this.

https://www.amazon.com/William-Shakespeares-Star-Wars-Doescher/dp/1594746370

Has books for up to 7. Not sure about Rogue One or TLJ though.

I've got the first 6, but I haven't gotten around to reading em.

You piqued my curiosity... What's it about?

E: Is it this novel?

Here is the UK link directly.

Here is the link to Verily, A New Hope.

The others can be found in the "Customers who viewed this item also viewed" bar down below.

IT HAPPENED

UK link

https://www.amazon.com.au/Star-Child-Places-Leonard-Petracci-ebook/dp/B076PGG2XK

Here you go!

"[Prompt Me]".

First thing I thought of:

https://www.amazon.com/Jam-Yahtzee-Croshaw/dp/1595829571

Shades of Ben Elton's "Time and Time Again".

I'll post a link later, but check out Off to Be the Wizard. It's literally a whole book series about this.

Edit link, as promised, and Wikipedia article

Off to Be the Wizard (Magic 2.0) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1612184715/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_6HElDbAQ230Z0

Reminds me of "Off To Be The Wizard"

https://www.amazon.com/Off-Be-Wizard-Magic-2-0/dp/1612184715

It's been done. Three book series actually.

https://www.amazon.com/Off-Be-Wizard-Magic-2-0/dp/1612184715

Scott Meyer did it!

https://amzn.com/B00EF8Z32I

I'll just leave this here

Just bought it! Had some trouble with amazon.co.uk because I'm not in the UK. Here's a standard amazon link to the story: http://amzn.com/B00OA0379C

Here are the links:

A Hymn Before Battle (Book 1 of the Legacy of the Aldenata)

Gust Front (Book 2 of the Legacy of the Aldenata

Readable on Kindles and any device with the Kindle app

Max Brooks actually wrote an official short story that is literally vampires in Southeast Asia and dealing with the worsening zombie apocalypse. This is literally what you're asking for already.

https://www.amazon.com/Max-Brooks-Extinction-Parade-1/dp/1592912346

> UK LINK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00JOVSYC2

And the rest of Europe can go ** themselves (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

More seriously, I find that this is a wonderful idea and just the kind of book I might need, I'll seriously consider buying it after that time where I'm supposed to study for the finals. Thanks!

Edited for bad language

That space may have killed ya too. Jarmo did it work?

Http:// and ditch the space. Science!

OP and others might be interested in John Ringo's series on this very topic. The series is referred to as the "Legacy of the Aldenata" or the "Human Posleen War Series". Whichever you choose to say, it begins with A Hymn Before Battle.

tldr: There is an alien federation with loads more tech than we have. Unfortunately for a lot of assorted reasons (ranging from ultra-pacifism to a brain alteration that kills the person engaging in violence) every single member of the federation is completely incapable of engaging in violent acts. So they come to us for help.

I'm currently reading a series where a galactic federation of pacifist herbivores gets attacked by a massive army and just has no fucking idea what to do so they make first contact with earth (something they'd been pointedly avoiding, because we're terrifying) in hopes of arming us up with scifi tech and sending us to war against them.

EDIT: Legacy of the Aldenata by John Ringo (freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee)