The Write On Wednesday story prompts are designed to prompt quickly-written stories that you can share in the comments. It’s a warm-up exercise, to loosen up your creativity muscles. Come back every Wednesday to see a new prompt.
This week’s prompt was inspired by yesterday’s Tuesday Reading Room story, The Sellout by Mike Cooper. In that story, the author uses traditional hard-boiled detective tropes, but his detective is investigating… accounting fraud.
The Prompt – Style Switcheroo
Write a story where you use a familiar style of writing (Romance, space opera, Western, literary fiction, YA paranormal, political thriller, whatever you’re most familiar with) but use it to treat a subject that is outwith the normal subject matter for that genre.
(Think: Pride & Prejudice and Zombies, or Tom Clancy trying to write a bodice-ripper, FF. Scott Fitzgerald on a space station…)
What will you write?
Tips
- Don’t worry about your audience and who might read it.
- Do feel free to cross over into parody or be ridiculous. It’s just a fun exercise.
- Make sure your story travels from start to end: don’t just write a scene, make someone or something change between the first word and the last.
The Rules:
- You should use the prompt in your story (however tenuous the connection).
- You must write the story in one 24 hr period – the faster the better.
- Post the story in the comments — if you’re brave enough.
- Find something nice to say about someone else’s story and leave a comment. Everybody needs a little support!
Optional Extras:
Share this challenge on Twitter or Facebook
Some tweets/updates you might use:
Don’t miss my short story: [style] meets [subject] #WriteOnWed #storyaday http://wp.me/p1PnSG-qb
This week’s #WriteOnWed short story prompt is a style switch! #storyaday http://wp.me/p1PnSG-qb
Come and write with us! #WriteOnWed #storyaday http://wp.me/p1PnSG-qb
See my story – and write your own, today: Style Switch at #WriteOnWed #storyaday http://wp.me/p1PnSG-qb
Lol, well, at least it wasn’t Jane Asten and Zombies 😉
I end up with a lot of Sci-fi-ish stuff due to a steady childhood diet of Star Trek and Doctor Who!
I tried this a couple of months ago with my writing group, but we mostly ended up with Austen-style erotica. Such a fun exercise.