When someone brags about their cooking, our mouths begin to water. Prime Rib? Yum. Crème Brule? Yummier. Imagine being invited to their house for dinner. You salivate over the food expected, wondering what marvels the chef will prepare. What happens if the meal isn’t? What if something seems a bit off? Do you eat the meat anyway, wondering if it was a bit spoiled? Do you grimace at the off-color appearance of the grilled veggies? Your task is to write the story of the chef who isn’t that great. The beginning is with the bragging, the talk of how wonderful he is, with the invitation to a meal. Perhaps formal invitations are sent out only to a select few. Guest bring nothing as the meal will be stupendous! Things go wrong, however. Imagine watching him standing at the barbeque, dropping a piece of chicken on the ground, wiping it off, returning it to the grill. Does his guests eat it? Or shy away? What if the salads sit in the sun? What if the ice waters down the tea? What if the desert melts? Many misadventures can arise. Have fun with this one.
Category: prompt
Thrift Store Treasures
Many people enjoy going to thrift stores, looking for unexpected finds. They finger through racks of clothing, hoping for something they didn’t know they needed, but now love.
They explore the shelves of dishes, toys, bedding and even hats, eagerly searching for just the right thing to put in their houses.
Sometimes they go home empty-handed, but almost always they find something.
Your task is to write the story of an avid thrifter. Make the character come alive through the exploration of one thrift shop after another. Have a companion go with. That way they can share what they find, laughing at the downright unusual, rejoicing with each discovery that makes them smile.
Clothing has to be tried-on. Send the shoppers to the dressing “room”, which often is no more than a curtained-off area.
There should be laughs when it doesn’t hang right, and smiles when it fits perfectly.
Your task is to tell the story of these two shoppers, from beginning to end. It would be nice to throw in a little tension, such as what happens when they want the same item.
Have fun with this one.
A Strange Day
Many children’s books revolve around something unusual that happens, something that takes the child character completely by surprise. Often dreams are the catalyst, but there can be other triggers as well.
Children love to play make-believe. They fabricate complex, ever-evolving stories with magic, beasts, queens and kings. Knights and dragons. All kinds of creatures, large and small.
Your task is to write a children’s story based on the premise that something strange happens, something unexpected and so unusual that the child had no way to predict the inciting incident.
Have fun with this one.
Visions
Close your eyes. Relax, allowing your mind to drift wherever it wants to go.
What do you see? Hear? Smell?
Are you somewhere in your past or seeing a vision of the future? How does it make you feel? Sad? Lonely? Frightened? Hopeful or happy?
What story comes to mind? Is it from your childhood or perhaps when you were much older?
Your task is to write that story, complete with all the emotions that hit you when your eyes were closed. You could begin with a line such as, “When I looked back, I…”
Bring the people in the story to life. They also have emotional reactions to the time and place. There might be conflict. There might be an argument. There might be cooperation and joy.
Use both narrative and dialogue to make the story sing.
Have fun with this one.
Deciding Where to Vacation
Some of us are influenced by the countless brochures that flood our mailboxes. We turn pages, and then, a yearned-for trip appears! Perhaps we’d never thought of a cruise around the Cape, but the pictures look awesome.
We also take advice from friends and family. If someone brags about a trip to Nepal, we might investigate and then go. Or not.
And then there are those of us who look at a map of the world, drop a finger on a spot, and then that’s where we’ll go.
Your task is to write a story in which your protagonist decides to go on a vacation. She might investigate using a variety of methods, but the old-let’s-spin-the-globe and see where it lands might make for an interesting story.
She would have to research the best time to go, the expected weather, things to do and see and accommodations, including travel.
To make it more interesting, she invites someone to come along. This could be a parent, best friend or casual acquaintance. Maybe she finds a class being offered on the area, meets a group that’s going, and joins them.
Make something unexpected happen so that there’s drama. If could be a sudden downpour that wipes out the main road, a romance that goes wrong, a heated discussion of where to go and how did we not find the way.
Have fun with this one.
Misheard Lyrics My dad could never remember all the lyrics to a song, so he infamously made them up. It could be annoying, but also downright funny. Sometimes his version made sense, but often it didn’t. And while he swore before us on a regular basis, when he used those same words in a song, it was often jarring. I’d question myself if I really heard him say that, often convincing myself that, no, he’d never do that, knowing all the time that he had, indeed, cussed. If you listen to the radio on a frequent basis, you’re exposed to hundreds of songs a week. Multiply that by 52, and you’ve now got a whopping 500-plus songs! And, if you’re a station explorer, you might hear even more. Add in the music on television commercials, shows and movies, and the number skyrockets. How can you possibly remember the lyrics to every song you’ve ever heard? Your task is to write a story in which your protagonist frequently changes the words to songs. If she does so intentionally, why? And how do others around her react? Friends might tease, but acquaintances might be cruel in their taunting. Have fun with this one.
Distinctive Fragrance
Try to recall a time when wearing cologne was commonplace for both men and women. Put yourself in that time and place. Which ones did you like? Which ones made your nose wrinkle?
Which lingered long after the wearer had passed through?
For example, back when Old Spice was quite popular with men, when you were near someone wearing it, how did it make you feel?
Now consider a woman wearing Channel #5.
Your task is to write a story in which a character is wearing a distinctive cologne. That cologne must play a major role. For example, what if the burglar had been wearing the Channel? Or the rapist the Old Spice?
What images would your victim call forth?
Include as many sensory details as you can.
Have fun with this one.
New Person
You’ve got an established story and you’re well into the plot. Perhaps it’s time to add something to jazz it up. Why not bring in an entirely new character?
This character must add a twist to the story, something entirely unexpected. Make this individual’s flaw sufficient enough to alter the flow. Maybe he’s an antique collector who just happened to run across a hidden message at the back of a drawer. The note is yellowed and a bit crumpled, but it reveals….
What if she belongs to a coven and believes that she can influence future events? How could she provide and interesting twist?
The person might have magic or be a descendant of a powerful faerie line. If there was no magic so far in your story, think how this would up the stakes.
Begin by making a list of possible individuals and what they would bring.
Have fun with this one.
Examine House Listings
Whenever you get stuck on setting, look up available houses in the neighborhood. Take a good look at the photos of each room. Check out the exterior as well, whether it’s a single-family home, an apartment or a condo.
Can you picture your character living there?
What happens inside the residence? A murder? A hot love affair? The birth of a child? Perhaps a devastating fire.
Adapt the residence to fit your setting. Change the modern two-story house to an enchanted mansion on a street of Victorians. If it’s in perfect condition, give it a serious flaw, like a leaky roof or bathroom tiles that collapse inward when cleaned.
How large of a family do you envision living there? If it’s a studio, perhaps you cram a family of four inside as it’s all they can afford. Or maybe a successful business woman buys the triplex in a new, swanky neighborhood.
Now that you’ve established character and setting, craft the story. Make something intriguing happen, something that draws readers in.
Invite other characters to populate your story, but make them all different, with spooky characteristics that clash.
Have fun with this one.
Bad Company
You move three thousand miles away from nagging family. You’ve settled into your new, unfettered life when the dreaded call comes: your parents are flying out, intending to stay for a month. Imagine the feelings that you experience, from the sinking of your stomach, to the palpitating of your heart, to the outright panic.
Instead of your parents, what if the guest is your sister-in-law who doesn’t understand the use of deodorant? No matter how many times she’s been shunned due to her body odor, nothing changes, and once she’s passed by, that odor lingers. Now she wants to borrow your empty bedroom for just one night, or two at most. You know, from experience, that the room will have to be sprayed repeatedly and aired out with a fan running for days.
In both cases, if you decline, you will be in hot water, so you shrug it off as just another burden to shoulder. It won’t be that bad, right?
Your task is to write a story in which company comes that either your character didn’t invite or would never invite for one reason or another.
Tension, from the moment of the invitation, is critical. Allow readers to feel the emotions experienced by your protagonist as the event progresses. You can add in twists, such as an extended stay, to moving in, to other problematic behaviors such as excessive drug use.
Have fun with this one.
Have Fun with This One 