Short Story Prompts

[Carol Clark]

I thought I'd create an area where we could post more story prompts.

Feel free to post any ideas or prompts that could spark a story.

[Frank]

A woman goes about her daily routine with the nagging feeling that she is missing something.

[Wayne]

A man is walking around with a bag full of something. And he has the feeling that someone is trying to look into his bag of secrets.

[Carol Clark]

These are great prompts. I'm going to try to give one of them a shot today...
Carol

[Carol Clark]

I thought we could get some activity started here again. Here are some prompts, from writingforward.com, to get us going. Just put that pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, and see what you come up with! Could be a flash piece (less than 1000 words), or a longer story. Who knows where it could lead... So, pick a prompt, any prompt:

1. There's a guy sitting on a park bench reading a newspaper...

2. There are three children sitting on a log near a stream. One of them looks up at the sky and says...

3. And you thought dragons didn't exist...

4. Silvery flakes drifted down, glittering in the bright light of the harvest moon. The blackbird...


Have fun...!

[Dan Goodwin]

I liked prompt no4. I expanded it into a fifty word story:

Silvery flakes drifted down, glittering in the bright light of the harvest moon. The blackbird settled, silently, on the broken hay cart, its shape silhouetted by the snow. This was the place the horses fell, that dark January morning, the same place a mother lost both of her beautiful boys…

[Carol Clark]

An excellent piece, Dan, I love it! It truly is a story in itself. I love the image of the blackbird on the hay cart, silhouetted on the snow - I can see this picture so well. And such a powerful ending. Everything in this piece is dark, and I like that...

Carol
(Sorry I messed up - I re-posted the same prompts in "October 2009 Story Prompts". I thought I had deleted this one. Maybe you can copy your piece into the new area... if you feel like it). :-)

[jane]

heres is mine... from prompt no.3...

cold dark. .the house still and quiet. stepping along the hallway, reaching for reassurance … so many ghosts… so many impending ghosts… air chilled, heart pounding, drowning. . .

there at the end of the corridor, light…. beautiful, scary… leading her on bravely, silently, and you thought dragons didn't exist...