Today’s prompt was inspired by a call for submissions from Main Street Rag Anthologies. They are currently reading submissions (until July 31) for an anthology called “It’s About Time”.

I don’t normally encourage you to put the cart before the horse (and think about publishing before you’ve got through the creative process) because it can be stifling. However, there’s nothing wrong with writing with a particular market in mind, as long as you don’t let it cripple your creative side. So forget about the anthology for the next hour or two, and just think about the prompt.

The Prompt

It’s About Time

Tips

• This could be a phrase someone in the story says. They can be annoyed or they can be jubilant.
• This could inspire a twisty, time-travel story.
• Perhaps you will write a thoughtful story about aging or the passage of time, or historical processes.
• If your short story starts to get away from you, challenge yourself to turn it into a Flash Fiction piece. Trimming a story to meet a 1,000 word limit really helps you see the essentials. (I did this recently. I ended up expanding the story again, after I’d created the Flash version, but it was much easier to keep the story on track, after I had forced myself to strip out all the tangential rambling!)

Go!