[Writing Prompt] Front Page of Wikipedia

Quickly scan the “In The News” and “On This Day…” sections, or even the Featured Article. If something catches your eye, use it as the spark for today’s story.

The Prompt

Grab a story spark from the front page of Wikipedia

Tips

  • Don’t spend more than 5 minutes trying to find a story that sparks your interest
  • Don’t pick something that requires lots of specialist knowledge unless you a, work in the field or b, are comfortable blagging.
  • Try to concentrate on the characters and their reactions more than the facts. This might be inspired by an encyclopedia entry, but you shouldn’t sound like you’re writing one!

To see how some of last year’s participants used this prompt, check out the comments on this post.

Go!

[Prompt] May 3 – Wikipedia

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Use Wikipedia’s Front Page To Spark A Story

Go to the front page of Wikipedia.

Quickly scan the “In The News” and “On This Day…” sections, or even the Featured Article.  If something catches your eye, use it as the spark for today’s story.

For example, on the day I’m preparing this prompt I saw “In the News…Two Trains Collide”. That could be a spark for a story about two people on the trains and how they experienced the crash; the story of an investigator sifting through the wreckage – what’s his story?; someone waiting at a station for a passenger who never arrives; a thriller about sabotage.

In “On This Day…” it happened to be the anniversary of the explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear power plant. That sparked these ideas for me: school children in a small northern European country who aren’t allowed out to play one afternoon after the explosion because of contamination fears; rescuers going into hell; a researcher walkign through the nature-reclaimed exclusion zone 20 years later; a local, being interviewed. What it did to her life; the power plant’s thoughts as the disaster unfolks; what if it had gone differently: worse?; a satirical story about a disaster at a solar or wind plant instead…

Grab a story spark from the front page of Wikipedia

 Go!

Daily Prompt – May 1: Wikipedia Newest Articles

Today’s prompt: go to the Newest Articles section of the front page of Wikipedia…

 

Today, go to the Newest Articles section of the front page of Wikipedia.

  • Choose one. Scan the titles, stop at the first one that grabs you and click. Don’t second-guess yourself.
  • Read the article. As you read, look for some detail or phrase or idea that strikes you.
  • Write your story. Don’t try to retell the story as it was told in the article. Focus on the idea or detail that caught your imagination. Turn that into a story.

GO!