The Prompt
Over the course of a single morning, your house becomes a Starbucks.
Rich Larson
Rich Larson was born in Niger, has lived in Spain and Czech Republic, and is currently based in Canada. He is the author of the novels Annex and Ymir, as well as over 250 short stories – some of the best of which can be found in his collections Tomorrow Factory and The Sky Didn’t Load Today and Other Glitches. His fiction has been translated into over a dozen languages, among them Polish, French, Romanian and Japanese, and adapted into an Emmy-winning episode of LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS. His latest book, Changelog, is now available for preorder.
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Here’s your next Game Piece. save the image and share on social media with #storyaday
Prefer paper crafts? Here’s the cut & paste version
This was a tough day for me because of some personal issues, but I’m glad I got myself to write anyway. It was a good distraction, and it reunited me with a couple of my favourite characters to write. In this story, one of them is suckered into some unforeseen shenanigans through which he ‘fulfilled’ the prompt, with surprising results!
Love how random was this prompt. It makes you think out of the box. Really
I took a figurative approach when I wrote my draft yesterday. Thanks for the prompt!
This may be the oddest story I’ve written. The gist of it being that Congress had been replaced by shareholders and citizenship laws required homeowners to give up their properties for shareholder value. Thus, our main character finds her house being given over to Starbucks. She is, at least, allowed to live in her bedroom.
I would definitely read this!
I really loved this prompt. I wrote an about a news story that all the Starbucks had closed. (Omg what a nightmare lol). Two people that worked at Starbucks steal the appliance needed. They and two friends open a Starbucks in one of their homes. My rough draft was okay. I usually spend June going back and rewriting all the prompts. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out.
I love your story, Lisa.
That could be the start of something really fun (or bizarre, or what ever direction you decide to go)
I haven’t been writing much this month but this prompt got me. I first outlined a story using Julie’s framework then wrote a scene involving an old people’s important HOA meeting agenda which got ignored because they had hired baristas from Starbucks to come to the meeting and take special coffee orders from the attendees. The HOA person in charge of the meeting, written in first person, is left very perturbed by the coffee excitement overriding the meeting’s urgent importance. I hadn’t expected it to end humorously, but it did, and the ending surprised me. 254 words.
Ha! That DOES sound fun…
This 532-word story takes place inside of a Starbucks, not at home. It’s about a middle-aged couple and their first trip to Starbucks. The husband just wants a cup of black coffee. She is more adventurous and holds up the line while she decides what she wants to drink and eat.
Good for you, for taking the prompt and running with it how YOU wanted!
I thought I would write something funny, and do it with lists. But what was the goal, desire, or conflict? Someone not there. By the end, the house is a Starbucks and the missing loved one is a customer who passes through and leaves a two-dollar tip.
So not so funny, but the list format worked. This is the kind of prompt that you can project just about anything onto.
Following up on Walter’s comment about how this is the kind of prompt onto which you can project just about anything, I wrote what I thought was obvious: a commentary on the invasive properties of capitalism. My protagonist bought a single coffee thinking it would bring her pleasure, and yet! 899 words. I very much enjoyed this prompt!
It is ‘funny’ how our first ideas about a prompt often don’t pan out. I mean, I know whe’re the authors, but it definitely makes you understand why people see something mystical in the creative act!
Oh my god. This is going to be my favorite prompt. I can’t wait to start writing.
That’s what I like to hear!