The Prompt
Two characters. One location. There’s one problem and they can’t agree on how to solve it.
Mary Robinette Kowal
Mary Robinette Kowal is the author of The Spare Man, Ghost Talkers, The Glamourist Histories series, and the Lady Astronaut Universe. She is part of the award-winning podcast Writing Excuses and a four-time Hugo Award winner. Her short fiction appears in Uncanny, Tor.com, and Asimov’s. Mary Robinette, a professional puppeteer, lives in Denver. Visit at maryrobinettekowal.com.
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Prefer paper crafts? Here’s the cut & paste version
This was an interesting one for the possibilities alone. I finally decided to go with a story consisting entirely of dialogue and starring some of my most abstract characters ever: two clashing streams of thought in a mind trying to resolve a tense situation. One of my shorter ones this month, but a fun experiment.
This was more difficult than I’d expected it to be, and the ending of my story surprised me.
A prompt as simple as this gives me a lot of opportunities to work on. I wrote a brief story in a genre that I thought I would never write: mystery. It was fun and challenging at the same time.
I took this prompt as the opportunity to introduce a character I only mentioned in yesterday’s story. I wasn’t sure if he’d play a larger role, but he decided to step forward today.
The scene takes place in a concert hall during intermission. One character has a crush on another person in attendance, but can’t bring himself to walk up to say hello. His friend and colleague spends the intermission trying to convince him to gather his courage, but he can’t agree that it’s the time and place. Finally, when words won’t work, she takes action and moves Mohammed to the mountain.
I’m intrigued!
I deviated a bit. My story is about conjoined twins. Everything is a decision. I don’s have a lot of conflict yet, but I have the basic storyline written out. Right now, they are having no problems taking turns making choices, but I will change that if I return to the story, later on.
I also did the basics of this story through dictation and then worked with the transcribed version to get the outline done.
Oh that’s interesting. Anything that gets it done, right?
It’s a great prompt for someone like me who tends to forget to introduce conflict.
It took me so long to decide on a setting and characters that I wound up only writing a bare outline (thank you, Story-A-Day short story framework) about a couple who can’t – you guessed it – decide. In their case it’s where to go out to eat, but that’s really not so different from trying to decide on a setting.
I like this prompt for all the same reasons!
The framework is such a good tool when you get stuck. I use it a lot.
(did they decide on a restaurant? My characters ended up at one of Capone’s hangouts for supper. )
I wrote a 776-word story about a husband and wife lost on a country road with no GPS to guide them. Their marriage was slowly slipping away. This was their chance to find their way home.
I swear GPS saved my marriage…
Greetings: This was an interesting prompt. I took a piece from life and muddled it around a bit. A sister and brother have just buried their second parent. The wills of each parent specifically spell out how distribution of the estate will be handled. The brother is like a spoiled child. The parents couldn’t have more children and the mother treated him like a child much too long. I have 730 words supporting this prompt.
Good conflict. I love that!
A beautifully spare prompt! My brain wanted some limits so I used this excellent random character generator (the “quick” option): https://www.character-generator.org.uk/ and then hit up Window Swap to give me a location: Sintra, Portugal, which I’ve fortunately visited. It’s got an elaborate castle built on the ruins of a monastery so that’s my setting! I’m going to let all that marinate while I go about my daily tasks and return later on to quick-draft. Whoop whoop for Day 4!
Great combo of inspiring factors. How nice that it gave you somewhere you’ve been!
This was fun. Leigh and Nik in a hotel room together, arguing over a bed, even though there are 2(so the opposite of the ‘only one bed’ trope lol). Another ‘snapshot’ story, just 248 words, but it was fun(though may not end up in the novel).
Oh that’s a fun argument, and unexpected!
This prompt is wonderfully uncluttered. Several ideas sprouted. I pursued the first. Do I love what I wrote? Well, I loved THAT I wrote. 🙃
Perfect attitude 😉
Geez, that’s happening in real life right now. I have a pianist who bailed on a very important rehearsal for a multiplayer piano concert in two weeks. I gave him four days to reach out to me and didn’t hear from him. I replaced him. Another pianist in the concert feels I shouldn’t and is threatening to quit. Quite a dilemma.
Definitely grist for the story mill (but sorry you’re having to deal with that!)