Day 13- Disappointment & Delight by Meghan Louise Wagner

Let’s get emotional with today’s prompt from Meghan Louise Wagner

The Prompt

Imagine a character who is older (interpret that as you like!) who returns to a place they visited once when they were younger.

There should be some emotional importance to the place, but this prompt works best if it’s a place the character only went to one or two times (not anywhere they’re super familiar with).

Start the story with the character returning to the place. When they arrive and see the place in its present state, have them either be:

a) greatly disappointed or

b) greatly delighted.

Then weave in memories of the place (or memories associated with the place) from when they were young.

Try to jump back and forth between them in the present and the past. By the end of the story, try to show a change in how the character views the place, either in the past or present. (for ex: if it started with them being delighted, have the story end with them being disappointed–or vice versa.)

Meghan Louise Wagner

Meghan Louise Wagner lives in Northeast Ohio. Her work has recently appeared in such places as Nashville Review, Cutleaf, Story, AGNI, Okay Donkey, and The Best American Short Stories 2022. More about her can be found at: meghanlouisewagner.com

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Day 12- Listening for ideas by Monique Cuillerier

Sound can be stimulating…in today’s writing prompt from Monique Cuillerier

When I’m having a hard time falling asleep, when my mind won’t stop throwing up new worries or old memories or random fears, I listen to white noise tracks, preferably nature sounds. (Here’s a short playlist of some of my favourites)

In doing this, I unintentionally discovered that listening to these soundscapes provides me with lots of ideas for stories (or further developments for works in progress).

(It is not, however, particularly helpful in getting to sleep!)

The Prompt

Choose one of the tracks on the playlist (or find one on YouTube, Spotify, or a website like Ambient Mixer ).

Listen for a while. Maybe 5 minutes, maybe more. (I will warn you that some of the tracks are many hours long…)

Let your mind wander as you immerse yourself in the sounds. What do you think of? What images come to your mind? How do you feel?

Then write a story based on your reaction and the ideas that have come to you.

It might be something quite literal (like rain falling on a roof inspiring a story of being inside a cabin during a storm) or less so (for example, the feelings of isolation or coziness that arise).

Monique Cuillerier

Monique (she/her) is a lesbian science fiction writer living in Ottawa (Canada), with her cat Janeway and many (many) plants. Her latest story, “Touching Mars,” can be found in Bicycles & Broomsticks: Fantastical Feminist Stories about Witches on Bikes (January 2023). She can be found at notwhereilive.ca

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Day 11- Food Fight by Marta Pelrine-Bacon

Food is more than nourishment .in today’s writing prompt from Marta Pelrine-Bacon

The Prompt

Food!

People have strong feelings about certain foods.

Have your characters battle over food. There are so many ways we fight about food.

Or have a character who refuses to love their traditional food and suffers the consequences.

Marta Pelrine-Bacon

Marta is an author and artist making stuff up as she goes along.

More from Marta

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Day 10- A Mysterious Start by Fallon Brown

Fallon Brown invites you into a mystery

The Prompt

When I opened the door, I never expected to be hit by *that*.


What is *that*? An idea, a smell, a sight, a sound? Something else? How does the protagonist react to it? What do they do next? Start your story with this line and see where it takes you.

Fallon Brown

Fallon Brown is a nonbinary writer from Northwestern Pennsylvania. They write mostly romance and cozy mystery novels, with some fantasy and historical in there as well. When they aren’t writing(rarely), they tend to devour books or let their mind unwind with crochet or cross-stitch projects. The first two books in their Jax of All Trade mystery series are available. You can also find them at stitchingastory.substack.com or on Instagram and twitter: @frbrown906

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Day 9- Kingdom in a Jar by CH Schoen

CH Schoen created a graphic prompt for today

The Prompt

A glass jar containing a fantasy and including a forest and a path to a castle with turrets

Write a story, and after 5 minutes of writing, this jar appears in your character’s world.

or
.
Write 100 words about meeting the ruler of this kingdom.

Or whatever you would like.

CH Schoen

C.H. Schoen is a late-night writer hailing from the midwest. Her passion include studying the different belief systems of the world and walking the land with her dogs. She can be found most nights crafting weird little stories and posting visual prompts to https://www.savvywordslinger.com.

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Day 8- Take over the story from here! by Lisa Thornton

An intriguing premise for a story from Lisa Thornton, today

Let your mind wander. Any genre works. Make it your own. Have fun!

The Prompt

“She wrote it on the back of the list she had been keeping of the best neon signs she’d seen so far. There was no way to know if he would ever read it, but that wasn’t the point.”

Lisa Thornton

Lisa Thornton is a writer and nurse living in Illinois. She has words published/forthcoming in SmokeLong Quarterly, Roi Faineant Press, Bending Genres, Fiery Scribe Review, Bivouac Magazine, Cowboy Jamboree and more. She was a finalist for the 2022 SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She can be found on Twitter @thorntonforreal.

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