It can be overwhelming to sit down to write a story.

When you could write about anything it can become difficult to decide what to write about. These writing prompts are meant to put limits on your choices, in order to make your creative gears grind.

The Prompt

Write A Short Story That Features or Refers To A Holiday

Tips

• If you’re getting in the Christmas spirit or are in the midst of Hannukah, or looking forward to New Year, Kwanzaa or any other December-ish holiday, feel free to mine those feelings. Pop on some appropriate music, light an appropriate candle, and write your little sentimental heart out. (Or exorcise some holiday ghosts)
• If you’re in the US and have just survived the annual food-and-family binge that is Thanksgiving, for good or ill, why not write a story now that captures the issues, joys and horrors you’ve just lived through? Make a note in your calendar to pull it out next August and start looking for places you can share it (either personally or via a publication).
• If you’re actively pursuing publication in periodicals and magazines, now is the time to start writing your June, July & August holiday pieces. This might be a blessed relief from the cold weather (or the hot weather if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere). Start thinking now about Mother’s Day, Independence Day, Christmas in July (you Aussies have the right idea!), and any other mid-year holidays you can peg your story to.  If you’re really organized (and won’t lose it) you could write a story for publication this time next year.
• If you write in fantastic or speculative worlds that don’t share our Terran holidays, then this is a great opportunity to do some world-building. What holidays do your cultures celebrate. How does your protagonist, and the people aroudn them, feel about such holidays? Do they have the same kinds of pros and cons as our celebrations?
• The idea is not necessarily to write a story ABOUT the holiday, but to use the holiday to anchor your story. It could be a full-on Christmas Carol or it could merely use the holiday as an excuse to get your characters together in one room.
• Or it could be the mention of the holiday that triggers something in your character that precipitates the action of the story.
• Perhaps your ‘holiday’ reference will be a passing one-liner in an otherwise non-festive tale. It’s up to you.

Leave a comment and let us know what you wrote and what holiday you tied it to.

Photo credit: Fantasy Art (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)