The Prompt
A teenager is eating a cherry snow cone, their lips are stained red.
Angela Sylvaine
Angela Sylvaine is a Bram Stoker Award nominated author and self-proclaimed cheerful goth who writes speculative fiction and poetry. Her dark cheerfulness is on full display in her novel, Frost Bite, a ‘90s sci-fi horror comedy, and her retro ‘80s YA mall slasher novella, Chopping Spree. Her goth side is fully explored in her debut short story collection, The Dead Spot: Stories of Lost Girls.
Angela’s short fiction and poetry have appeared in over sixty anthologies, magazines, and podcasts, including Southwest Review, Apex, and The NoSleep Podcast.
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I think this prompt saw my quickest shift from “what should I do with this?” to “this is what I’m gonna do with this!” ever. ^_^ It turned into a story about a different version of one of my existing characters and her newly created friend visiting a mysterious ice cream shop with snow cones that fulfilled the wish of whoever ate them, with a catch, of course. It got me a few (mostly) new characters and a new setting to explore, and I had a lot of fun adding a devious little twist to it.
The prompt took me to the dark side of controlling, ‘Christian’ fathers, the women who marry them and don’t support their children, and the kindness of witchy neighbors.
Sounds intriguing!
I don’t know why, but this inspired me so much to write something fun and dark. With an ironig twist.
I outlined a story about a little boy in special ed class who’s mesmerized by the teacher’s red lipstick and long red fingernails, which are preventing him from doing his work. After the red lips and nails give him screaming nightmares at home that wake up his parents, his mother attempts to have him put back into a normal classroom. So far, I’ve just written the scene where he’s in special ed, obsessing on the blood-red lips and nails. No longer listening to the teacher’s voice, he watches how her red lips move over her white teeth. Her hands that move her red nails around as she speaks create designs that drown out her words.
Visceral. I like it! And I love that you’re showing us the world through the eyes of someone who doesn’t have a typical experience…
I funked this one. Came up with a minimal outline, but that’s about all. If anyone wants the first sentence, here it is: Joey’s lips were the color of the VW Bug he was driving, and Lisa could imagine exactly how they would taste – like cherry water ice.
It if helps, your line reminded me that specificity is good, and I’m going back to look at my story to see how more details could improve it…
I wasn’t sure where to start with this one. It ended up being a 369-word sentimental story about a mother thinking back to when her daughter was a baby and watching her grow up.
Aw, sweet!
I mean. Cherry red = blood. I attempted a drabble, hit 106-ish words and 111 words of notes for a future edit. Mainly I wanted to challenge myself to write a triangular relationship, victim / villain / saviour, in a very compressed space without falling back on cliché. Thanks for this prompt! Always fun to go to a horror place.
I love seeing how people challenge themselves with these prompts. “Without falling back on cliche” is such a challenge, especially when writing at this pace. Good for you!
I couldn’t really see a story in this prompt. So I went with the color theme and started describing all the colors that the teenage sees. I ended up with 10 sentence in about 30 minutes. (173 words). Then I decided to make it all one sentence (channeling a high school English teacher from years ago. ) it took another 30 minutes to accomplish this (180 words)
Everything you wrote challenges the concept of ‘Writer’s Block”. We can always write something…and learn from it! Well done!
I discovered a possible romantic subplot for my traveling theatre troupe fantasy novel, using the red lips to accidentally stain someone’s cheek. Misunderstandings ensue. Fun!
Very cool!
I work in a supermarket. One of my regular customers has a red lipstick tattoo on his neck. That was the first thing that popped in my head when I saw this prompt. About 250 words but not completed yet.
Ooo, I like it!
This prompt elicited something new. Without really knowing the mechanics of script writing, that’s where it took me…so I wrote a scene.
Love that! Let the idea lead and worry about the conventions, later!