Allow me to introduce Gary Zenker, a flash fiction writer, game designer, marketer, and awesome leader in my local writing scene.
After eight years of reading mostly-my-prompts, I wanted to give you the opportunity to play in someone else’s sandbox from time to time. I looked around for someone I trusted to be both creative and generous, and didn’t have to look any further than Gary.
Please leave a comment and make him feel welcome!!
Hi!
Julie invited me to be her guest-prompter ongoing for each third Wednesday of the month. Thanks Julie!
As a flash fiction writer, I love short story writing and challenging myself in doing so. I found that sometimes, picking things that don’t go together brings out my creativity even better. The bigger challenge offers better results.
So I created a game, WritersBloxx™, that generates random prompts in six categories. We use a PromptGrid™ and six special 20-sided dice that point us to the prompts to be used.
Each PromptGrid generates up to 64 million different combinations.
As a game, participants are challenged to write a short story in 6–7 minutes using all six prompts and then compare them to the others’ stories. Solo writers can opt for a bit more time and a more developed story. I recommend 15 minutes with a hard stop.
Hints
In this play, you aren’t looking for perfection. You are looking to challenge yourself to complete a piece quickly.
Use all six prompts and tell a real story…don’t simply shove six prompts into a narrative.
You are looking to create at least one memorable character, a conflict and a resolution.
Your Prompts
We rolled the dice for you and here’s what you ended up with:
- Genre – Crime/Detective
- Character – Auto Mechanic
- Object – High Heel Shoes
- Timing – 1970s
- Setting – Italian Restaurant
- Event – Fishing
Check out the full game at www.WritersBloxx.com.
Next time around we’ll make it more challenging by adding a few additional elements. Be sure to show us your resulting masterpiece!
Gary Zenker is a writer, a marketer, a game designer and co-wrote a book with his six-year-old son. He would love for you to share the stories you came up with, in the comments!