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!