November 2009 Story Prompts

[Carol Clark]

Here are some more prompts for this Fall. Pick one, and create a short story or flash piece. Remember to let go, have fun, and see where your imagination takes you...!

1. You walk into your house and it’s completely different — furniture, decor, all changed. And nobody’s home.

2. The most beautiful smile I ever saw…

3. Use these (3) nouns in a story or flash piece: an artist, a typewriter, a bus station

[jane]

hey carol - thanks for the inspiration... here are three little fifty word stories to get started....

photo courtesy of flickr
three words
the typewriter lay cast aside in the corner of the room, paper lay beside it in untidy piles…. but it was the page still trapped in the machine that drew the attention of the artist…

only three words, but enough to make him turn and hurry to the bus station…

Solomi
the envelope revealed four photographs. It was the most beautiful smile I ever saw…. a young woman living in a country far away from my world.

How long would it be until we met. Would we ever? So much to learn about each other, a new journey for us both….

nobody was home
There was an unsettling stillness in the air and my head ached, was i being watched?

The key turned and the door creaked open as normal, but before me everything was different, furniture changed, the white walls of morning replaced with floral wallpaper. I called out, but nobody was home….

[Carol Clark]

Jane - You did such a fantastic job with these! (and I loved the accompanying pix). The first story really catches me...what did those three words say? I love the page "still trapped in the machine." Great piece.

The second was wonderful. Sounds like maybe an adoption story, really nice. And she is beautiful...

The third was good, creepy how the white walls changed to floral wallpaper... I'd like to read more.

I'm so glad you picked up on these prompts and generated stories. I hope to be back tomorrow or so to put up my own work. 50 words sounds like a good challenge!
Carol

[jane]

thanks carol - can i write more on these themes... i enjoyed doing them.

The first story - the three words.. hmmm - could be anything from "i love you" to "going to jump!" aaargh..... we will never know....

The second photo of solomi is a young 15 year old girl in Uganda that i am just starting to sponsor and write to... she is an orphan - so i guess in a way it is a long distance adoption! only got photos of her yesterday - so was quite excited and the writing prompt was just perfect

looking forward to reading yours...... xx

[Carol Clark]

Jane, please write as much as you want, any length. I'll try to post more prompts too, later in the week.

I love freewriting off prompts, because I feel unrestricted -- sometimes with a short story I'm revising or editing, I feel like it's hard work. These are meant to be fun....!
Carol

[Mary Hicks]

It was too good to be true. A free ticket to Fall River and me with a day to kill. What the heck? As I departed the city bus to board the Greyhound, I caught a whiff of it. "No way!" I thought. As I turned to look, there he was - my brother the artist, sitting outside the bus station, putting a fresh ribbon on his typewriter. The smell of the ink was so familiar and odd and out of place. But not my brother. He was just where he needed to be.

[jane]

oh i love this... i could see the scene beautifully. I love the final phrase "He was just where he needed to be" isnt that just what we would want everyone to be...

also - i know the scent of the inked ribbon... when i was sourcing the picture for my story above, i found one with the ribbon and it reminded me of that smell - and also the horribly inky fingers i usually ended up with as i got in a tangle with installing the new one... lol...

love it mary xx

[Mary Hicks]

Thank you, Jane! That was so much fun to write - totally spontaneous and I was smiling broadly when it was finished. I know what you mean about the smell of a typewriter ribbon - what memory that evoked for me! And, yes, the inky fingertips from fumbling with the silly things. Well, I'm "dating" myself so should probably stop before I start talking about spearing that buffalo...ooh, must go!

[jane]

oh!!!! you remember doing that too......!!!! lol x

[jane]

my next story on the prompts :

I am sitting here at the bus station, waiting....

The sun is warm and i feel sleepy – the noises of this busy terminal are fading into the background as i shut my eyes and remember...

It was summer, i cant remember how long ago, but i am kneeling in the garden tending my plants, talking to them in my head as i always do, pausing to inhale some of the subtle fragrances and admire the delicate markings on the roses. I raise my hand to pull back a strand of hair that is falling across my eyes and i see him, sitting at his typewriter, smiling, watching me.

He is a writer, a poet.... an artist. He has moved out here to the verandah where the air is fresh and the breeze moving through the grasses is gently soothing. Inside the house it is stuffy and it is here that he often sits to read, gather ideas and of course to write.

I had been unaware until that moment that the tap-tapping of the typewriter keys had ceased and the stillness and uncomplicated happiness of that summer afternoon became locked in my memory for ever....

But i am back, the overwhelming fumes of the bus station now filling my senses as I rise, pick up my bag and move towards the bus that will finally take me away from him.

[Mary Hicks]

Jane, I'm just now seeing this and it's wonderful! Lots of imagery, but it's the sounds and smells that you really brought out for me. Thank you...more, more!!

[Carol Clark]

November 7, 2009

Here are more prompts to keep you writing. Use the (3) nouns, or combine them for more, to create a flash piece or short story. Remember to keep your pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, and just have fun ...!


1. a victim, a subway, a ring

2. a writer, a doghouse, an umbrella

3. a thief, a jungle, a diary


(prompts from writingfix.com)

[Carol Clark]

November 8, 2009

Here are a few more prompts. Take a word from List 1, start your flash piece or story with that idea, then "imaginatively connect it" with a word/idea from List 2. I thought this was a neat writing exercise, and it comes from The Pocket Muse 2, by Monica Wood. Have fun...!

List #1

sudden trip
time capsule
ex-lovers
high fever
closed library
world's smallest clock
box of hair
Fig Newtons


List #2

solar eclipse
church renovation
free tickets
thirty-three candles
an animal bite
a drunk and a missed train
seven ribbons
translation problem