THE PROMPT
Write a story inspired by today’s “You never know what will come out a broken crayon” visual prompt.
THE AUTHOR
Debbie Ridpath Ohi is a children’s book author and illustrator. Launching from Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers on Aug. 25, 2020 – GURPLE AND PREEN: A BROKEN CRAYON COSMIC ADVENTURE, a new picture book written by Linda Sue Park and illustrated by Debbie. More about Debbie’s broken crayon activities and upcoming book: https://www.debbieohi.com/broken-crayon
Read A Book, Support An Indie
This year’s StoryADay May official bookseller is Reads & Company, a privately-owned indie bookseller in Pennsylvania. Any purchase from the site this month supports Reads & Co.
I wrote about a broken glass jar full of paint. It spilled down into the floor boards of the old barn. The next day the four children who had broken it went back to see if there were any tell tale signs left of their accident. When they opened the barn door and stepped inside they found themselves in a rainbow coloured land. The colourful forest surrounded a clearing where beautiful houses clustered together. There were amazing animals and birds. The waterfall was silver and little people were playing in the river below it. It looked like paradise but looks really did deceive. They needed to discover the secret of how to mend the jar if they wanted to survive and get back home. The purple and gold peacock could help them but nobody knew where he had gone.
I wrote 997 words.
This sounds wonderful!
This inspired a children’s short with the potential for more in the future. I liked the writing and wished I had more time to put into plotting it but my hour was at the end of my day unfortunately. This was the first time I was pressed for time but it was a busy day. But I have it in my notebook, so it won’t be forgotten.
That’s great!
I always recommend putting a date on the calendar to come back and work on the stories that have potential.
But sometimes these stories just get their hooks into you and you find yourself noodling over them months later and turning them into fully-fledged stories.
I wrote a fairy tale about a magical crayon which turns up at an (untalented) artist’s doorstep and with the help of this crayon he finally gets to draw perfect. 😃 well, the crayon does all the work, but he can finally sell his artwork.
Ah, the conflict between art and commerce. Will he remain content to have the crayon do the work forever, I wonder? And what about when it runs out, down to a nub?!
Only managed a brief outline but with possibilities for a flash fiction story.
It’s around a child who gets a broken crayon stuck in his ear. Out of this drama comes an unlikely relationship for his single mother.
Not as much fun as dome of these amazing stories but I perhaps was in the wrong frame of mind. I had just heard of a death in our family.
Sorry to hear about your sad news. It is definitely tough to be creative when something like that happens. Be kind to yourself.
This was sooo much fun!!
The Purple Glop!
I don’t know how it started
I only hope it stops
Broken purple crayons
Leaking out those Purple Glops!
It’s little witchy babies
with their purple poopie smells
Rifling through your crayon box
And casting evil spells
Purple Glops are skinny armed,
And shiny beady-eyed
They scared our kindergartens so
And all the children cried
It’s not that Glops are dangerous
From what we understand
You may think Glops are cute at first
But they get out of hand!
Once a glop comes oozing out
They spread like chicken pox
And before you know
It’s every crayon in the box!
We have to stop this Purple Glopping
They’ll destroy our fun!
We’re going to need some bright ideas
Suggestions anyone?
I know a way to safely store
Your crayons said Miss Muller
Put Yellow next to Purple
That’s its complimentary color!
A yellow keeps a purple calm
We know they’ll get along
So keep them close together
That way Purple won’t go wrong
Be mindful of your crayon box
Be neat is what I’m sayin’,
Cuz you never know what will come out
of a broken purple crayon!
What I Learned!
How much I enjoy the fanciful freedom of a children’s story poem.
Fun! That was absolutely delightful
524 words, unfinished. Now is as good a time as any to take up drawing/painting again. With fond memories shopping for elementary school supplies, they come home with a box of crayons, some watercolour pencils and a sketch pad. Don’t remember a crayon box having a warning label and figure it’s a typo or prank from the crayon company. Oops!
You never forget the smell of a crayon, do you?
Enjoyed this prompt.
I wrote about a little girl who goes to work with her dad one day. As she sits at the conference room table, the grown ups have their meeting at the front of the room. She begins to draw a picture of what she sees using all her broken crayons. Each time she uses a color, the presenter at the white board changes attitude, words, and opinions to reflect the color: red=anger, yellow=cautious, etc.
One presenter will go through several colorful stages before finally being unable (too stressed) to continue and is replaced by another colleague. Her poor dad is the first one to feel this, but he has no idea what is happening. She draws him a red tie and he begins to rant about his own ideas and how none of his colleagues understand what new breakthroughs he is trying to create and how they should consider him a visionary, etc. Angry and obnoxious. Fun to write, but it needs more work. Lots more colors to explore.
I love the idea of using the power of colors
Oh my! I can’t wait to check out Gurple and Preen! Of course, today’s picture prompt immediately took me back to a childhood favorite that always captured my imagination: Harold and the Purple Crayon. Any other Harold fans out there?
Anyway, what came out of my imagination for today’s story was a mash-up of C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Ray Bradbury’s short story The Veldt — except it’s the broken crayons that provide the entry to the fantasy land two little girls discover when one of their crayons suddenly snaps. I may have cheated a little today and skipped writing out the whole middle of the story, as I see this as a longer adventure. But I did manage to tack on a temporary ending of a darker sort…
Gurgle and Preen looks great. I highly recommend ANYTHING by Debbie…
I wrote a darkly comic story today with a comedy character that I use a lot of the time. He’s an unconfident guy who has an outburst at a most unfortunate time. And all in 322 words.
You have a talent for the summary. I want to read all your stories!
That broken crayon exposed an unimagined reversal for my story. A new direction that leads to a twist. ‘Thar be gold in those crumbs of purple Crayon,’ Thank you, Julie.
Twists are so fun, aren’t they?
Inspiring prompt–I wrote about a girl who learns it’s OK to feel all of her feelings as she’s drawing–she breaks her red crayon in anger when she colors outside the lines, then feels blue, etc., until she finally draws a rainbow and decides it’s OK to have all of these colors inside her.
I LOVE this! I can see this as a picture book!
Interesting prompt. I wrote about an author doodling his characters to get his creative mind in high gear. Then his crayon broke and the characters started moving and talking by themselves. The characters were not only moving the story, they were writing it!
In case anyone is wondering why there’s a box of broken crayons on my writing desk tonight… [It didn’t work. Yet.]
Ha!
Oh yes! Love this!
Oh, isn’t that the dream?! 😉
589 words.
What do you do when a child wants to know where the colour comes from, and all you want, is to drink that cup of tea?
Oh my, yes. Kids’ curiosity is awesome but sometimes you just want them to stop for a moment!