The Prompt
Look up “funny news stories” or find as many local newspapers, real estate magazines, Craigslist ads, or NextDoor posts as you can. Which headlines speak to you? Some of my favorite from the last year are: “Urgent! Stolen Turkey!!!!!!” from NextDoor, “Man in Chicken Outfit Robs Supermarket” on my local news channel, and “Raccoons are at it again” on a Facebook post. Don’t read the story; make it up based on the headline.
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Jared Lemus
Jared Lemus is a Guatemalan-American author and finalist for the PEN America/Robert W. Bingham Prize for debut short story collection for his book, Guatemalan Rhapsody. His stories have appeared in The Atlantic, The Kenyon Review, Story, and elsewhere, and his debut novel, Magic in the Land of Eternal Spring, is forthcoming with Ecco-HarperCollins in the Spring of ’27. He holds an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh and is currently the Kenan Visiting Writer at UNC-Chapel Hill.
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Remember: Please don’t post your story in the comments here (and I talk more about why not, here). Best practice: Leave us a comment about how it went, or share your favorite line from your story.
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
I’ve been spending a lot of time lately talking to chatbots instead of actual helpdesk people. I ended up using that to write a story for this one:
Johnny is having problems getting help from the Department of Progress because it’s hard to type when you’re a zombie and your fingers keep falling off…
Wow! That was the toughest one so far. What I came up with is barely more than 150 words. It’s horrible writing, the story barely makes sense, and I don’t think it is ever going to amount to anything. I sure am glad that you put yesterday’s prompt before today’s. It put me in the right state of mind to allow myself to fail miserably and accept that today, getting something done is better than packing it in late and going home to bed. It took me all day to pick away at this prompt, I didn’t get in two hours of writing as I had planned, and I am good with that. I got in the story, and that is the goal! The story didn’t have to be good, it just had to be done. And it is! Yay me!!!!!! The headline I found to work with was about a Zebra escaping from the Zoo turning out to be a donkey painted as a Zebra. Kinda hilarious really.
Stephanie, we will all have those days where something simply can’t land. It’s frustrating, interestingly, I still look back on the failed days (I’ve kept them all), and even try again. Keep going, and well done. Note, I did not even do this prompt; I might tackle it later in the month.
Massive congratulations on writing what was barely a story and doing it with horrible writing.
You are, officially, a writer.
Especially because it didn’t make you give up.
Also: donkey painted as a zebra is definitely hilarious.
This was such a great way to get ideas! I looked up strange newspaper headlines from the late 1800’s and I had so much material.
Mar, what a great idea, my in-laws gave me a book on news articles from the 20th century over the weekend. Funny enough, in the middle of Storyaday, I did not look at that book for the treasure trove it is until your reference to the 1800’s. Cool.
We could do a whole anthology!
Day 5 almost done. Started writing while sitting in the waiting room at the doctor’s office. My title is Police Break Up Cat Party. I wrote about 100 words and was reading it back. I started laughing at what I wrote. I didn’t look up but I could feel people looking at me. Well, that’s ok. Had some errands to run now heading home to finish writing. Then my Cinco De Mayo dinner tonight.
So many wins in this comment:
a, you wrote in ‘found time’
b, you made yourself laugh
c, you made ME laugh out loud
d, you probably made some of those people in the waiting room jealous that you were having such a good time…
I hope your dinner was delicious.
A Craigslist ad, “Help us replace our friend Daby,” inspired today’s story, in which Things Went Horribly Wrong and followup want ads became necessary. This was a terrific prompt with so many possibilities!
I love seeing what your mind comes up with, Elizabeth. =) Sounds like you came up with a fun read!
That sounds like so much fun! An “epistolary” story of a sort.
LOVE that idea.
Elizabeth, I think you’ve hit on a story prompt here – Duelling Craigslist ads.
OMG Must read.
Well, this was a very fun prompt. It introduced me to NextDoor, and I think I got a fun little story out of “Escaped Peking Ducks”.
What does introduced me to NextDoor mean? LIterally?
NextDoor is a social media platform for your curtain-twitching, conspiracy-theory-prone neighbors. It’s like if Neighborhood Watch was invented by Nazis. Online.
(I’m assuming WM had, sensibly, avoided it until now.)
“Stop Feeding Crows Bagels.”
This headline initiated all kinds of conflicts in my mind, which I was able to use in my story.
The headline “1,500 Beagles Will Get New Lives, Warm Laps After Release from Research Facility” resulted in a story reporting that “1,500 previously euthanized beagles have been brought back to life with genetic modifications that, the company claims, make them a ‘new and improved breed of human’s best friend.’”
Love the re-write.
Oh, I went with the ‘undead’ theme too. Only the name had changed to the ‘un-unalive’….
I’m having way too much fun reading through the headlines/postings. I’ve typed up two rough drafts that don’t take themselves seriously, at any level, and will likely compose a few more as I “let writing do writing” as Natalie Goldberg encourages. This prompt, and subsequent hunt for the “best of” the outlandish calls to mind the line Jane Austen penned as Mr. Bennet writing a letter to his daughter Elizabeth expressing, “For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?”
Go with the flow: Carmaker debuts voice-controlled ‘in-vehicle toilet’
WELL! this was quite the rabbit hole. I chose the above headline. I am going to let it mull in my mind for a bit.
Wait, what?!?! Is that an actual headline? Lol!!! Have fun with it!
Is that a real headline?
Hahaha Brenda that is *so* your sense of humour, I love it!
Wow. Just…wow
That’s the one I found too! I was giggling to myself as I typed all the way home (on the train).
Okay, this was fun. I read the prompt on my tablet in bed this morning(I don’t take my phone to bed with me during the week to keep me from doomscrolling instead of just getting up, and I can usually check my email on my watch, but it wasn’t uploading, so I had to go directly to the site). So, I looked up funny news stories before I got up, so I could simmer something. And found this one: https://apnews.com/article/mariners-gilbert-jersey-cortes-c841c1199098f10956a14abef8c5dba3 (what a shocker! Baseball. No one would have expected that of me. 🙄đź¤)
This might be something that happens in book 4 of my Deltry Ocelots(baseball romance) series, 269 words, told all in dialogue from the commentators’ POV. Guess I need to finish drafting book 3(and final edits on book 2), so I can get to this one. And this really makes me itch to actually start plotting as well.
That is hilarious!
Sometime it is just kismit.
Love it!
ah plotting, now that’s an effort. Pretty cool, you found inspiration before you even got up.
Yet again, I am off prompt; this time zone thing is a killer.
Story Idea #54 — What’s That: Invention of the Wheel. The first wheel salesman pitching around the campfire, complicated by also having to sell the concept of zero. Two impossible ideas at once.
https://afstoryaday.blogspot.com/2026/05/whats-that.html
I love that you have all these alternative to work with.
this is an excellent prompt!
I’ll be honest, all the story prompts are because of Julie and Storyaday; I’ve been accumulating them. I’m running a ratio of 2:1 at the moment. i.e. I’ve used 4 of my own and two from Storyaday so far.
Thank you for noticing.
You’re a trouper.