Short Story Prompt Challenge

If you'd like to write more short stories but are coming up short on ideas, here's a list I saw over on Tumblr that offers a weekly prompt you can use:

"52 short stories in 52 weeks
1. A story entitled “A New Beginning”.
2. A story about rising to a challenge.
3. A retelling of a fairytale.
4. A story about three siblings.
5. A story set in London.
6. A story about finding something that has been lost.
7. A story about a journey.
8. A story set during a war.
9. A creepy story.
10. A story featuring a countdown.
11. A story set at a full moon.
12. A story about a contest or competition.
13. A story that takes place entirely inside a vehicle.
14. A story from a villain’s perspective.
15. A story set at a concert or festival.
16. A story that begins with a gunshot.
17. A story set in a country you’ve never been to.
18. A story about a historical figure.
19. A story set in a theatre.
20. A story written in 2nd person narrative.
21. A story set on another planet.
22. A story written from the perspective of someone dead/undead
23. A story about a birthday.
24. A story that ends on a cliffhanger.
25. A story set at the summer solstice.
26. A story about nostalgia.
27. A story that features a song or poem.
28. A story that ends at sunrise.
29. A story opening with the words “F*** you!”
30. A story about a magical object.
31. A story set at sea.
32. A story about a curse.
33. A story set 100 years in the future.
34. A story about loneliness.
35. A story that features a real recent newspaper article.
36. A story written from an animal’s perspective.
37. A story about a scientific discovery.
38. A story set on another planet.
39. A story with only one character.
40. A story about a secret.
41. A romance that ends in tragedy.
42. A tragedy that ends in romance.
43. A retelling of a recent Hollywood movie.
44. A story that takes place the year you were born.
45. A story about a near-death experience.
46. A story about anger.
47. A story about a magic spell.
48. A story set in a strange small town.
49. A story about justice being done.
50. A creation myth.
51. A story set at Christmas.
52. A story entitled “The End”."

I usually write short stories to test-drive my world-building, but I've also used them to help build characters, tell a story from a different POV, or explore a particular theme or myth. Give one of these a shot, see what you come up with on the page, and you might surprise yourself.

Source: Writing Therapy

The 500

While bargain shopping over the holidays I purchased 500 Writing Prompts, a guided journal published by Piccadilly Inc., currently on sale for $4.99 from B&N.com:



This is a really nice, big journal with 240 ruled pages featuring multiple writing prompts that ask some really interesting questions:



To give you an idea of what the prompts are like, here are a few I selected at random from my copy:

Have you ever given up on someone? Why?

Do you have a secret hiding place? What do you hide there?

Create a new nemesis for Batman. What is the character's name? What is their feud about? Describe a short scenario, comic book style.

If you had the power to make something illegal that is currently legal, what would it be? Why?

Name a weird mannerism you have. Do others notice it? Does it help you or bother you?

Aside from great sparks to get you writing more often in a journal, this might also provide inspiration for posts for your blog.

Will Write for Kittens

While cruising around some links I came across Written? Kitten, aka the most adorable writing prompter on the internet. It's very simple, in that you type your words in the box provided. For every hundred words you write there, you get a (virtual) kitten, as you can see from my first try here:



I forgot to do a screen capture when I reached 100 words, so my screenshot actually shows my second kitten. This little online tool is oddly delightful, and while obviously all in good fun, might even help you bust through a writing block (unless you hate cats; then you might want to try a heartless unfeeling wretch prompter.) I think it would also be great for kids who are learning how to type or journal, or who might be slogging through written homework.

Prompted

Lately I've been using my first edition copy of Judy Reeves' A Writer's Book of Days as jumper cables for the muse, mostly reading bits of writerly trivia but occasionally using the daily prompts to do some practice writing. In the process I've discovered I dislike the term free writing; to me it implies that writing by schedule, planning what you write or otherwise organizing your writing time is imprisoning. I for one never felt more smothered or uninspired than the time I tried to write a story organically; even then I kept trying to outline it in my head.

Anyway. I was looking over the writing prompts for this week, and these four started to tell me a story:

October 5 Write about a fragment.
October 6 Write about small mistakes.
October 7 You're in a cafe.
October 8 Losing control.

For me writers don't make especially interesting characters, but I immediately envisioned a would-be novelist parked with his laptop in a book store cafe, indulging in some free writing while he hopes to impress the counter chicks with his stoic suffering. Only he writes something 1) that triggers a repressed, horrible memory, or 2) that another patron reads over his shoulder and then uses as a reason to physically attack him, or 3) finally makes him realize that whatever he writes alters his reality because he's an alien. Or a psychic projector. Or a ghost.

Once I had jotted down these thoughts, I promptly outlined and deposited them in the future stories idea file. The prompts also made me think of an interesting setting for a troublesome scene I've got to write for my current WIP.

I've always thought that writing prompts and practice writing can be great workouts for the imagination. They exercise your vision, warm up your problem-solving skills, and get your head in the right place for the serious stuff. I think the trick is to use them to get you started, but not allow them to distract you with the new/bright/shiny allure of new story. I'd love to spend the rest of the day writing the cafe story, and if my day were completely free I might, but my writing schedule is packed. I feel like the prompts did loosen me up, so now I'll see if I can keep the energy flowing as I transition over to the contracted work.

One more thing the prompts did for me: they sparked the idea for this post and a couple of others. When you haven't been blogging regularly, getting back into a daily routine can be a bit tough. Prompts may be the nudge you need to change that.

What's your favorite online or offline resource for creative prompts? Doesn't have to be for writing, either. Tell us in comments to this post (or if you can't think of one, just toss your name in the hat) by midnight EST on Friday, October 7, 2011. I'll draw one name at random from everyone who participates and send the winner an unsigned paperback copy of the newly revised edition of A Writer's Book of Days by Judy Reeves. This giveaway is open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something here at PBW in the past.

Prompt Anatomy

Being a storyteller is like having telepathy; we're tuned into stuff that non-writers generally don't pick up. Things like words, images, music, dreams and life's random ephemera catch our attention and for some reason start the gears turning.

Having an extra/sixth sense is also the one major blip in our wiring that can create the most problems for us. Like telepaths we have to learn early on how to discard or block most of the unexpected inspiration that prompts story ideas, or we end up going crazy.

Sometimes you can't get rid of the prompt, and I've talked about how to manage that. I think the prompts themselves are interesting, too, because they're often very simple ordinary things that don't even register on other people's radar. Like my most recent additions to my story idea file:

You have done well made frozen.

This rather silly phrase came to me in a dream I had a few nights ago. I was back working as a bookkeeper (yes, it was a nightmare) and going through a massive printout on old green-bar dot matrix paper. These words were printed on a sheet toward the end, and for some reason jumped out at me. They had been deliberately inserted, I realized, a threat veiled as praise, and no, I can't explain how I knew that.

Reading words in a dream fascinates me, so if I can remember them when I wake up, I always write them down.

Everything from there was like a Tom Clancy novel with me racing around trying to prevent some nameless catastrophe, but when I woke up the words are what stuck with me. They were like something someone with not a great command of English would say, i.e. the old Zero Wing joke "All your base are belong to us." It felt like a puzzle I had to figure out, though, so I kept thinking What was done well? What was frozen? until I jotted down a vague idea for a story about extraterrestrial miners drilling to tap the core of a comet and unleashing a star eater.

letter24

This was the I'm-a-person-not-a-SPAMbot verification I had to type to post a comment over on Bill Peschel's blog. At first it replayed some pop songs from my teens in my head (the Brothers Johnson's Strawberry Letter #23 and R.B. Greaves's Take a Letter, Maria, both of which I loved.) I actually bought some strawberry-scented stationery once because of the Brothers Johnson. I'm pretty sure I used it to write a love letter to my boyfriend Rob, too.

It was the seventies. We did stuff like that. What? It was romantic.

Anyway, the phrase made me jump from teen memories to a story idea that would not leave me alone. Letters have been story prompts for centuries, but e-mail has slowly turned handwritten correspondence extinct, and it's not a big stretch to imagine a day someday soon when no one writes real letters anymore . . . unless they had to keep what was in the letter protected, or confidential. Some future grim government or joyless regime might go all Fahrenheit 451 to keep that from happening, until a martyred revolutionary's letters are discovered, and smuggled out to be copied over and over and distributed. What is contained in the 24th that would (naturally) be what takes down the letter-burners.

Letter #24 would definitely have to be strawberry-scented, though. As homage, the Brothers Johnson deserve no less.

Free Memory 387704

My guy jotted this down on a notepad he left on the workbench in the garage, and no doubt they relate to the available space on one of the energy management controllers he programs for his job. I have little sticky notes like this all over the house, and I'm afraid to throw them away in case they're something he needs for work.

The words Free Memory kept poking at me. What if some day our memories are taxed, or locked away, or held hostage? Would 387704 be the code that frees them? Or would citizen #387704 refuse to hand over their memories? I ended up writing down more questions than answers, but it seemed like something I'd really like to explore with story.

Light Output (Lumens) ~ Energy Used (Watts) ~ Life (Hours)

Words off the front of a Philips DuraMax flood light box value pack. We use the bulbs in motion sensor lights outside so that while I'm walking the pups in the dark I can see if any critters are hanging around in the yard. It's nice to know that I should get about a thousand illuminated dog walks out of these, but we really need to invest in some of the new extended-life LEDs (I'm already on a mission to replace all the old incandescent bulbs in the house with greener alternatives.)

If human beings were born with similar labeling, we'd have a world where babies came out coded with what they'd be able to do, how much it would cost and what their life expectancy is. As we continue to figure out the human genome, maybe someday we'll be able to predict some of those things while people are still in utero. But would it a good thing to know all that upfront? And what happens if someone outlives their expiration date?

You writers out there, what was one of your oddest prompts? Did you ever turn it into a story? Let us know in comments.

Are You Write Brained?

Author/inventor Bonnie Neubauer has a neat writing prompt book out that I discovered on my last trip down the writing reference aisle at the bookstore. The Write-Brain Workbook offers 366 daily exercises (one per page) designed to (as the cover says) "liberate your writing."

I liked the book the minute I flipped through it for a couple of reasons: it's very visual, with 100% full-color pages, unique graphics, interesting prompts and a quirky sense of humor all its own. The exercises aren't intimidating; they're friendly and provocative without being snotty or annoying. I think it would be appropriate for writers of just about any age, too, whether they're youngsters just starting out or old battleaxes like me.

When you're dealing with a block or feeling just depressed in general about writing, this is the kind of daily prompter that actually helps you ease back into the work without putting a lot of additional stress on you (something some other, more serious inspy-exercise books can tend to do.) Sometimes I think we learn more from having a little writing fun versus being endlessly lectured to about the work.

The book was too large to fit in my scanner, so I took a couple shots with my camera (one-handed, no less) of some of the pages to give you an idea of what's inside (click on image to see larger version):





Normally I would whine a little about the cost (it's a big trade pb priced at $19.99 U.S. and $23.99 Canada) but for once I think it's actually worth it. This was not a cheap book to produce, not with all the color pages and graphics, and if you figure you get a year's worth of decent writing prompts out of it, that works out to about a nickel a day. These days bubblegum machines cost more.

As always you don't have to take my word for it. In comments to this post, name something that has helped you get through a blue period or break a block (or if you're still searching for a cure, just toss your name in the hat) by midnight EST on Friday, April 3, 2009. I'll choose two names at random from everyone who participates and send the winners an unsigned copy of The Write-Brain Workbook by Bonnie Neubauer as well as a surprise. This giveaway is open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something here at PBW in the past.