Skip to main content

Writing Prompts

Aliens:

  • "We had this awkward conversation, but at least this time he didn't stare at me like I'm an alien." 

"You are an alien, dear, but you're right; staring is rude."

Computers:

  • I knew electronics could be haunted, but it never occurred to me that a soul could inhabit the internet. I mean, evil websites, sure; but not something as banal as a social media account. At first I thought it was a joke, a cruel one, but nevertheless a joke. As the status updates continued, I finally said something to one of our mutuals. 


         "What updates?" she responded, "The last post I saw was about the 

           memorial." 

          I pulled out my phone to show her, but everything had been deleted.

Dreams:

  • They had always dreamed of _________, and one day it started to appear in waking life.
  • He didn't know that it's easier to take things out of the dream world than to bring things in.
  • There must be a rain of bodies in dreamland, as everyone dreams they are falling.
  • What if when you die, you go to the place you most often go in your dreams.  Write a story where this happens to you.



Dystopias:

  • Imagine a world where everyone is some kind of artist. There are writers, poets, sculptors, painters, musicians, etc. If you have no talent, you are cryogenically frozen in case someone needs your body parts.
  • Imagine a world so small that you knew everyone. Would it be a utopia of close friendships or a world where you can't escape your past?


Imaginary Friend:

  • You just found out that your imaginary friend has been seeing other people.


Paranormal:

  • As a ghost, there are only three places I'm allowed to go . . .
  • The hood slid off the cloaked figure’s head, the light glinting off the scythe.  The thought had never occurred to me before, but it made so much sense … Death was a woman.


Robots:

  • You can never tell what a couple's relationship is like from the outside. Most people would never suspect that my partner died many years ago, and who they think they see me with is a mishmash or bioengineering and ai.
  • Marriage equality was never intended to be applied to robots . . .
  • I’m exhausted and my human is sleeping.  And yeah, I’m plugged in.  The scary part is that it doesn’t make me feel any better.  I guess I’m destined for the recycler, but I will fight it every step of the way.


Signs:

  • She was always looking for signs, but when she finally found one it didn’t answer anything.  “This is your sign,” said the piece of paper, “Now remember who you are.”


Time Travel

  • You suddenly have the ability to time-travel. You go back to the exact moment in time you want to change, only to find that nothing you do makes a difference.


World Building:

  • By some strange trick of pigmentation and light, the sky during the day was a luminous brown.


Popular posts from this blog

Short Story: Distraction

It was an office, not unlike any of the other offices around the city. There were windows, visible to the lucky few cubes on the ends of the rows. Then there was Vera's cube, situated next to the row of manager's offices. Today she was lucky, someone had left their door open and precious slant of sunlight escaped, warming her back and washing out half of her computer screen. "I never realized your hair was red," Tracy dumped a large stack of paper on her desk, "The florescent lights make everything look so soupy." "What is that?" she pointed at the stack of paper. Tracy only offered compliments when he wanted a favor. "I need this entered," he smiled, a dimple appearing in his cheek. "You have a secretary," Vera waved a freckled hand to her left, "Ask him." "He's sick," Tracy gave her puppy-dog eyes, batting his long dark eyelashes. Vera sighed and fought back a smile. Tracy was such a s...

Poetry and Stuff

Grief:Peripheral The flicker of bluish light filters out what is missing; there is only one set of boots by the door, an apple sits on the counter uneaten, and even if you don’t make a sound, the notch in your heart is nothing personal. ____________________________ Yeah, I know I said no poetry, but I lied. From The Culling, because what girl doesn't dream of  owning a library with a ladder?  I just posted the last chapter of The Bond, which I'm not 100% satisfied with.  It is the end of this novella, but the story continues in the next book of the series.  One of my biggest problems is I don't have a title for the next novella.  The working title was "The Break," which doesn't really work.  If you have an idea or two, throw 'em in the comments.  

The things people say

1. "I don't know. I don't know what you do." (In response to me asking, "Why would I have a blowup doll?") 2. "What are you saying? I can mouse with my right hand." (From a lefty after he was accused of moving the mouse to the left side of the computer.) 3. "I (hic) gave this girl my (hic) my phone number (hic) and she (hic) she never called (hic) called me." 4. "You're hurting me!" "I'm stabbing your coat." "With a knife!" "So?" "Knives hurt people!"