The Prompt
Think of a time you saw something that was so out-of-place that it made you wonder, “How did that happen?” Answer yourself with a story.
Examples: A rolling suitcase abandoned at a busy intersection, a street bicycle propped against a tree in the middle of a national forest, a woman in a ballgown riding the bus, a green velvet chair sitting on an elevator in an office building, a standing mirror in a pasture, a tree with hundreds of small bits of glass and poppets hanging from its branches, a dragon statue in a hospita, two teenage girls dining at a cafe where all the other tables are filled with Shriners.
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Gabrielle Johansen
Gabrielle writes all stripes of fantasy and still believes in magic.
Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!
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
Under the wire today! I had such a full day and I let this story roll around in my head through all of it. It really didn’t come together, it is disjointed and random. I’d like to explore it more in June. For now, it counts as done and I’m ready to get some sleep and start again tomorrow!
Good for you. Disjointed and incomplete is fine, but hooray for having a story roll around in your head, all day.
Thanks everyone! It’s great to see how many ideas can sprout from one concept.
Thanks for the great prompt!
Awesome prompt, Gabrielle! I wrote a story about a coyote I saw sauntering across a crosswalk a couple of blocks from my house. (I live in a wilderness-adjacent urban core.) I ended up writing from the coyote’s pov, which was fun!
I had something similar on my list, but it was a deer. Let’s hope our two characters don’t bump into each other!
I did not manage a story today, but I did finally settle on an out-of-place image.
I was walking from my Philadelphia Centre City office to the Red Cross blood donation center. The path took me through some skeevy neighborhoods. Around 8th Street, a couple of blocks south of Spring Garden, I passed under the old Reading – now SEPTA – railroad tracks. In the shelter of the railroad bridge, someone had set up a queen bed. Crisp, new sheets. It shouted its impermanence, as loudly as it cried out its longing for safety and stability. Its creator – it had, of course, no owner – was not there. No one was there but me. It just about broke my heart.
Thank you, Gabrielle, for the prompt. Maybe someday I’ll do something with it.
What a vivid image.
When I was a little girl we lived in the mountains and I often hiked alone by the stream across the road from us. One day on the other side of the stream I saw clothing perfectly laid out on the ground. Shirt, pants, socks, shoes. At the time I thought of scenarios that may have been responsible for the scene. In my story I find out that one of my theories was true but with a shocking twist I hadn’t imagined.
What a great Story Spark!
I didn’t write yesterday due to a family thing. When I opened today’s email I was excited. I wrote about a purple journal left behind on a break room table. My character sees it multiple times until she finally reads it. It holds a big surprise for her.
Oooo, that sounds cool
Nice, Lisa! The temptation! The nosiness!
Timing challenge yet again, although this one is a bit different. I think I started writing this three days ago, back on day 6, I think, that day the prompt got me, and I wrote something else, day 7, it wasn’t complete enough, so I did ‘I’m only 55’ and finally this one today – it is 3,510 words in length.
The prompt:
#65 — An Extra Planar Explanation
An aboleth attempts to bestow cosmic insight onto a mortal mind that simply cannot hold it. The comedy and the horror occupy the same space.
Def did not go the way the prompt suggested, enjoy.
https://afstoryaday.blogspot.com/2026/05/parlay.html
I’m writing a bit out of order too. It’s working for me…
One of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen was in a cemetery. A professional photographer was taking wedding pictures by a gravestone. She was wearing a long white dress, and he was wearing a black tux. 297 words from the photographer’s POV.
SO many ways that could go…
Great prompt! It generated quite a few ideas that I might flesh out in the future, and it’s given me fodder for thought as I consider how I might use the element of surprise more effectively in my work. Today, I may have bent the rules a little in what I chose to produce in the way of a flash piece, and that’s okay. I’m happy with it. I’ll likely find time a bit later to work through another of the ideas. I just went with what worked this morning and now I’m out the door to work. Happy Writing!!!
I deviated a bit from the prompt. I started with the character saying he would stick out like a sore thumb and went with that feeling of never quite fitting in(one I know well). And it answered my question about how long the characters from my next baseball romance had known each other(I knew they were going to be former friends but not if they’d known each other since childhood or if it was a college friendship). 291 words, but I still haven’t come up with a name for the love interest.
Very cool that you found another piece of your novel!