Start a story with this sentence and see where it takes you.
Have fun!
If you choose to participate, post your work in the comments. I’d love to see what you come up with.
Next Friday, before revealing the next prompt, I’ll post your work with a link back to your blog if you wish.
Happy writing!
Last week’s prompt was Sense of Smell.
Nthato wrote a fun piece in response. You can find his story on his blog: Sense of Smell Prompt.
Aurora wrote a beautiful piece in response:
I remember being together with my grandmother when I was probably about seven or eight years old. It was summertime, around noon, and the sky was dark grey like lead. She asked me to come outside with her. There she ordered me to listen. No birds were singing, no bees humming. It was completely silent. And then she told me to smell. It was unique, unusual and unforgettable. And she said: “That’s how rain smells.”
The first drops started falling only about 10 minutes later.
About half a year, early December, I was with her again. Suddenly she ordered me to put on my jacket and we went outside. The sky was grey and cloudy, the air damp.
She again ordered me to smell and I did.
Then she said: “That’s how snow smells.”
Not even half an hour later the first flakes fell.
I never forget these episodes – nor the smells of rain and snow.
This week’s prompt is…
Whether you have writer’s block or not, this is always a great exercise to get your mind thinking creatively.
Take a timer, set it for ten minutes, and then write about whatever you want.
You can start a new story, make a list of something, or just ramble about nothing or about everything.
I noticed that when I do this exercise I tend to ramble about my day and what I need to get done writing-wise, blogging-wise, life-wise. It’s kind of boring and not much a story.
Yet, it get your mind moving and it’s a great stress reliever if not anything else.
If you choose to participate, post your work in the comments. I’d love to see what you come up with.
Next Friday, before revealing the next prompt, I’ll post your work with a link back to your blog if you wish.
Happy writing!
With the holidays approaching, different kinds of smells are all around us.
If the air is cold enough, we can smell snow on the way. Sometimes the scent of Christmas trees waft in the air. The smell of baking cookies and other desserts is always comforting as well as the smell of Christmas dinner.
Even without the holidays, the smell of a good cup of coffee or tea can wake us up in the morning. Or we can be satisfied by the way the pages smell in a book while reading.
Take a moment and reflect on our wonderful sense of smell. Have your character describe what he smells during the situation he’s in. The five senses are a great addition to description in your writing.
If you choose to participate, post your work in the comments. I’d love to see what you come up with.
Next Friday, before revealing the next prompt, I’ll post your work with a link back to your blog if you wish.
Happy writing!
The weather can affect a lot of things such as how people feel and change their mood. Switch it up a bit and put your character outside in the rain.
Is it down pouring or just drizzling? Is it raining in the middle of winter or summer? Is your character locked outside of the house or traveling somewhere? Is your character alone, with a friend, a love interest? Love scenes in the rain are totally cliche, but can still work.
If you choose to participate, post your work in the comments. I’d love to see what you come up with.
Next Friday, before revealing the next prompt, I’ll post your work with a link back to your blog if you wish.
Happy writing!
Last week’s prompt was Drama.
Here’s mine:
Graduation day from high school was the best day of my life. I no longer had to spend seven hours of my day listening to teachers lecture and I no longer needed to be around any of my classmates. The girls were always too caught up with their looks and the boys. The boys were always too caught up with their sports and the girls. My high school was the very definition of stereotyping.
I was glad to go to college. There would be no more drama; no more rumors roaming the halls, no more spitballs and paper airplanes being thrown across the room in the middle of class. We were adults come graduation day. I would be going off to college where my classmates would be other adults.
It turned out people of all ages can be in your class… some classmates were my age, others were grandparents. I even had a few kids in my class. Seriously, they were kids. They skipped a couple years of high school because they were geniuses. It made me feel totally inadequate.
The worst part was the immaturity in some people. Notes were still passed during class, kids still fell asleep and snored in the middle of a lecture, and rumors still ruled the hallways. The only difference was that I had no idea who the rumors were about.
Needless to say graduation day at college was the best day of my life. I was going out into the real world. I was going to be with real adults. I was ready to get a full time job doing what I loved to do.
Of course when I got my job I realized that adults can clash with one another as well. Rumors don’t spread because they’re said right to your face. Personalities bounce off each other and it’s not always in a good way.
Some people think they run the office with or without our boss being present, some people are lazy and only pretend to do their work but still manage to get all the credit. It was like being in high school over again! Some people just will never grow up.
Maybe retirement will be the best day of my life.
Now onto this week’s prompt…
Everyone wants to do something great in their life. Accomplish a huge goal, take a risk, make a name for yourself.
Write about a character who really lives their life to the fullest; or tries to.
If you choose to participate, post your work in the comments. I’d love to see what you come up with.
Next Friday, before revealing the next prompt, I’ll post my version of the prompt along with anyone else who participates with a link back to their blog.
Happy writing!
Last week’s prompt was a sentence starter, “Her braces glistened in the sunlight…”
Here’s mine:
Her braces glistened in the sunlight causing him to blink his eyes.
“Is something wrong?” she asked tilting her head in confusing.
“Everything is fine.” he cleared his throat and looked the other way.
She bit her lower lip and glanced down at the ground awkwardly. He looked at her pressing his lips together. He wanted to go in for a kiss, but was too nervous.
What if he missed? What if he didn’t kiss her right? What if her braces cut his lip?
No one had ever explained to him how awkward and difficult a first kiss would be.
Now onto this week’s prompt…
Drama is everywhere we look; at school, at home, at your work, with your friends, your family, on the Internet, etc.
Create a situation surrounded by petty drama whether something made up and completely ridiculous or something that’s actually happened to you.
If you choose to participate, post your work in the comments. I’d love to see what you come up with.
Next Friday, before revealing the next prompt, I’ll post my version of the prompt along with anyone else who participates with a link back to their blog.
Happy writing!
It all started when I overslept that morning. I knew nothing good was going to come from the day because I had already had a rough start. When I was assigned that group project in fifth period, I knew it was karma for me missing some of the school day.
We didn’t get to pick our partners, either. The teacher assigned us partners and I was paired up with Jimmy and Kim. I grunted with an eye roll, despite trying to be subtle about it. Jimmy didn’t care about school. He never did his homework and he never arrived to school on time. He never paid any attention in class and didn’t bother to bring his textbooks, a notebook, or even a pen to class with him. Kim did her homework and she was smart, but all she cared about was how her face looked. She sat in the back of the class, constantly taking out her hand mirror to check that the make-up hadn’t melted off her face.
I wondered if this was going to be a good thing. Maybe if I just did the entire project myself, things would go a lot smoother. I would definitely get a decent grade because I knew what I was doing. I wouldn’t have to worry about waiting for Jimmy and Kim to give me their part of the project and I also wouldn’t have to worry about whether they did a good job on their parts or not.
I would be in full control.
My teacher then announced that each group member would be getting the same grade, so we all needed to really work together in order to earn our grade. I scoffed. Yeah, right. I turned around in my desk and noticed that Jimmy’s head was down on his desk sleeping and Kim was texting under her desk.
Maybe I could just tell my teacher I did all the work and she would make an exception for our group. She knew how Jimmy and Kim were—it was May. If she had any reason to think they would actually do the work, then my teacher was crazy herself.
I delegated to Jimmy and Kim to make it seem as though I was trying to include them. I asked what parts of the project they wanted to do and when they didn’t respond, I assigned parts to them. I didn’t want to sound bossy, but at least they couldn’t say I didn’t try to give them a chance.
I did their parts without telling them, too. I wanted to make sure it got done and didn’t want to be scrambling to finish the project last minute in case they didn’t do their share of the work—which neither one of them did.
I planned on talking to my teacher after class the day the project was due. I wanted her to know that I did all the work. Jimmy and Kim did not deserve a good grade.
“Sasha, Jimmy, and Kim, I would like to speak to you after class.” My teacher said the moment the bell rang. What was this about?
When all my other classmates dismissed themselves, I walked up to my teacher’s desk with Jimmy and Kim right behind me.
My teacher looked me in the eye. “I was told this morning that Jimmy and Kim had to work together on this project because you didn’t want to be included?”
My jaw dropped. You had to be kidding me….
His taste in women was better than I thought it would be. He was the type of man to look at the beauty on the inside rather than the outside. He had gone out with women of all shapes and sizes because of this. People would give him funny looks as they walked down the street together because—let’s be honest—most of the women he dated made them look like an odd couple.
He was my friend and I respected him as such. He brought a different girl to meet our group of friends every two weeks. Yeah, none of them lasted long.
One woman was Jill. She was tall and slender with gorgeous crystal blue eyes and long, flowing blonde hair. She always wore tight miniskirts with halter tops, even though they dated in December. I never did figure out how she walked through ice and snow in three-inch heels. Her personality was bubbly. She was friendly always smiling and laughing. Jill got along with everyone in our group. Two weeks later, he split up with her. She was sad, but not too sad because I heard she found another boyfriend about three days later.
Another woman was Amy. She was the average height of 5’5” and a little chunky around the edges. She preferred her jeans, t-shirts, and sneakers. She enjoyed running in the afternoons, which was something he didn’t enjoy. But for two weeks, he did. He ended up losing a few pounds while she only lost one. That was the end of that relationship.
One woman was as big and strong as a fitness trainer with a childish personality, one was short and stubby and a little depressed, and another was petite with a temper as short as a time bomb.
Let me tell you this: I’m average. I’m the same height as him, I wear casual clothes, but can dress up when I want, I’m zit-free, and my personality is friendly and happy to all. He and I get along great. We’ve been friends since elementary school and talk to each other every day. I was just as unique as all those other girls he dated.
So… Why wouldn’t he go out with me?
Last week’s prompt was Different.
Here’s mine:
They didn’t have anything in common.
She would stop and smell the roses,
He would sneer and walk on by.People pegged them as an odd couple.
She was sweet to everyone she met,
He was arrogant and always serious.No one understood how they started dating.
She had her life together,
He jumped from job to job.No, they didn’t have anything in common.
Yet people began to peg them as a cute couple,
As they walked down the street always holding hands.
Now onto this week’s prompt…
Write a story beginning each sentence with the next letter of the alphabet. For example:
After he opened his eyes he noticed they were in a different room. Betty was on the other side trying to find a way out, but he couldn’t see much. Candlelight lit the dark room and all he could see were shadows.
The next sentence would start with the letter “D” and so on.
Have fun with this one!
If you choose to participate, post your work in the comments. I’d love to see what you come up with.
Next Friday, before revealing the next prompt, I’ll post my version of the prompt along with anyone else who participates with a link back to their blog.
Happy writing!
The sound pierced my eardrums. I began to wonder if I was going to lose my hearing or maybe she would lose her voice. Either way, I just wanted it to be silent again. I couldn’t concentrate on my work.
It wasn’t just the noise that bothered me, either. It was also what she was doing. She was so distracting with her mannerisms and body movement. I found myself glancing up from my computer screen to see what she was doing. I anticipated her next move every time.
She was on the ground, her eyes darting from left to right indecisively. There were six items surrounding her. I smirked wondering which one she was going to pick. I heard a low grunt come from the back of her throat.
I put my computer down on the coffee table in front of me and leaned forward on the couch. She kept turning her head back and forth between her choices and me. I watched intensely as she stared down everything in front of her.
Then, I noticed she slowly leaned back readying for a pounce. With a subtle growl before a quick bark, she leaped into the air and landed right on top of one of the six toys in front of her.
I nodded my approval of her decision and leaned back watching her wrestle with it. It wasn’t too long before she laid down with the toy in between her paws to rest. I let out a chuckle at how quickly she wore herself out.
At least now I was able to get some work done.
