You’ve had a really bad day and as you sit down at your favorite bar to have a drink with your friends, you explain what’s happened and get the condolences you need. The bartender’s been listening to you for most of the night and when your friends are occupied, he hands you two shot glasses, each filled with strange neon colored liquid. He explains the purple one will make you forget this day has ever happened and the green one will let you redo the day over again. What happens next?
Romance
By: Lisa Herrington
Your book club has decided to read a romance novel and choose a book and author that you’re unfamiliar with, but when you sit down to read it, you realize you know the entire story. It’s about your love life, in techno-color detail. Do you read it? Do you participate in the group discussion?
A Picture says a Thousand Words
By: Lisa Herrington
You’re visiting the French Quarter with your cousin taking pictures of the architecture and of each other, when he talks you into having your palm read. Your reading is uneventful but when it’s his turn, the fortune teller’s eyes roll back into her head and she explains that he’s lived multiple lives and was not a good person in most of them. She warns that he’s surrounded by these wronged spirits and asks you two to leave immediately without taking any of your money. He laughs it off and admits he’s heard this nonsense before but when you get the pictures developed, you see superimposed above him, several scary looking people that weren’t there when the pictures were taken. What happens?
You see a nicely dressed man walking on the side of the highway carrying what looks like a brief case in his hand. It’s starting to rain and although you’ve never picked up a hitchhiker before, he’s actually not asking for a ride and seems resigned to having to walk. You decide to pull over and give him a ride but half a mile down the road he begins to tell you why he was really out there…continue the story.
Independence Day
By Lisa Herrington
It’s the fourth of July and after explaining to your kids the significance of the day and then the definition of independence you’re exhausted and go back to the kitchen to continue preparing for your annual cook-out with family and friends. About an hour before everyone is supposed to show up, you receive a note from the kids, written in crayon that they are declaring their independence. What happens next?
History
By Lisa Herrington
You’re dusting an old jewelry box that was passed down to you from your grandmother when the bottom comes loose and you find several old letters wrapped in silk ribbon. You remove the ribbon and see that these are love letters sent to your Grandmother from your Grandfather (at the time her boyfriend) while he was away during World War II. You’re shocked over what they reveal. Explain.
You and your significant other are having a picnic and watching the sunset when he/she reaches over and says, "I have a confession about the day we met..." Finish the story.
To Tell or Not
By Lisa Herrington
You meet your friends at a bar for drinks after work and when the waiter/waitress comes over you realize it's your favorite author! No one else has recognized the famous scribe and you're about to bust with excitement. What happens next?
The Truth
By Lisa Herrington
You're at a work conference and don't know anyone. An older man sits next to you and knows your name. He says he knew your parents and mentions them by name but then admits that you don't really know everything about them... Finish the story.
OK. I'm confused. Am I commenting on Lee's post? It looks like Lisa meant to put these prompts (which are great, by the way--I will try some in the near future) on a different part of the site. Anyway... Lee, I've not tried to parse my strengths and weaknesses, but I'm sure they don't map 1-to1 with yours. I'd be glad and interested in beta-reading your work, if you don't mind returning the favor.
Flash Fiction Challenge: Choose one Writing Prompt below and tell the story in 500 words or less. That’s it! Easy!
• You work for a large company. This morning you are fifteen minutes late getting there, but when you arrive, everyone is gone! Tell what happens next.
• Your best friend calls you at 1 a.m. and asks you to bring five hundred dollars and the Webster’s dictionary that you keep on your desk. Tell what happens next.
• Write a story using this song lyric from the song Sunny Afternoon (1966) by The Kinks as your first or last line: “The taxman’s taken all my dough.”
Choose one of the opening lines below for the first line of your story. 500 words or less. Good Luck!
• “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice (1813)
• 'All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina (1878)
• "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way." Charles Dickens: A Tale Of Two Cities (1859)
• ‘It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.’ George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)
• "It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York." Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar (1963)
• "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth." J.D Salinger: The Catcher In The Rye (1951)
• "In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. Whenever you feel like criticising any one, he told me, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby (1925)
• "There was no possibility of taking a walk that day." Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre (1847)
• "Mother died today. Or maybe, yesterday; I can't be sure." Albert Camus: The Stranger (1946)
• The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. William Gibson Neuromancer (1984
You choose five of the ten words listed below and incorporate them into your 500 word story! That’s it. Easy. You can use a die or a random number generator if it's too much pressure to choose on your own...random number generator: http://www.mathgoodies.com/calculators/random_no_custom.html
Additional Prompts:
ReplyDeleteRe-Do or Forget
By: Lisa Herrington
You’ve had a really bad day and as you sit down at your favorite bar to have a drink with your friends, you explain what’s happened and get the condolences you need. The bartender’s been listening to you for most of the night and when your friends are occupied, he hands you two shot glasses, each filled with strange neon colored liquid. He explains the purple one will make you forget this day has ever happened and the green one will let you redo the day over again. What happens next?
Romance
By: Lisa Herrington
Your book club has decided to read a romance novel and choose a book and author that you’re unfamiliar with, but when you sit down to read it, you realize you know the entire story. It’s about your love life, in techno-color detail. Do you read it? Do you participate in the group discussion?
A Picture says a Thousand Words
By: Lisa Herrington
You’re visiting the French Quarter with your cousin taking pictures of the architecture and of each other, when he talks you into having your palm read. Your reading is uneventful but when it’s his turn, the fortune teller’s eyes roll back into her head and she explains that he’s lived multiple lives and was not a good person in most of them. She warns that he’s surrounded by these wronged spirits and asks you two to leave immediately without taking any of your money. He laughs it off and admits he’s heard this nonsense before but when you get the pictures developed, you see superimposed above him, several scary looking people that weren’t there when the pictures were taken. What happens?
Pick-Up
ReplyDeleteBy Lisa Herrington
You see a nicely dressed man walking on the side of the highway carrying what looks like a brief case in his hand. It’s starting to rain and although you’ve never picked up a hitchhiker before, he’s actually not asking for a ride and seems resigned to having to walk. You decide to pull over and give him a ride but half a mile down the road he begins to tell you why he was really out there…continue the story.
Independence Day
By Lisa Herrington
It’s the fourth of July and after explaining to your kids the significance of the day and then the definition of independence you’re exhausted and go back to the kitchen to continue preparing for your annual cook-out with family and friends. About an hour before everyone is supposed to show up, you receive a note from the kids, written in crayon that they are declaring their independence. What happens next?
History
By Lisa Herrington
You’re dusting an old jewelry box that was passed down to you from your grandmother when the bottom comes loose and you find several old letters wrapped in silk ribbon. You remove the ribbon and see that these are love letters sent to your Grandmother from your Grandfather (at the time her boyfriend) while he was away during World War II. You’re shocked over what they reveal. Explain.
Romantic Date
ReplyDeleteBy Lisa Herrington
You and your significant other are having a picnic and watching the sunset when he/she reaches over and says, "I have a confession about the day we met..." Finish the story.
To Tell or Not
By Lisa Herrington
You meet your friends at a bar for drinks after work and when the waiter/waitress comes over you realize it's your favorite author! No one else has recognized the famous scribe and you're about to bust with excitement. What happens next?
The Truth
By Lisa Herrington
You're at a work conference and don't know anyone. An older man sits next to you and knows your name. He says he knew your parents and mentions them by name but then admits that you don't really know everything about them... Finish the story.
OK. I'm confused. Am I commenting on Lee's post? It looks like Lisa meant to put these prompts (which are great, by the way--I will try some in the near future) on a different part of the site.
ReplyDeleteAnyway... Lee, I've not tried to parse my strengths and weaknesses, but I'm sure they don't map 1-to1 with yours. I'd be glad and interested in beta-reading your work, if you don't mind returning the favor.
MORE WRITING PROMPTS:
ReplyDeleteFlash Fiction Challenge: Choose one Writing Prompt below and tell the story in 500 words or less. That’s it! Easy!
• You work for a large company. This morning you are fifteen minutes late getting there, but when you arrive, everyone is gone! Tell what happens next.
• Your best friend calls you at 1 a.m. and asks you to bring five hundred dollars and the Webster’s dictionary that you keep on your desk. Tell what happens next.
• Write a story using this song lyric from the song Sunny Afternoon (1966) by The Kinks as your first or last line: “The taxman’s taken all my dough.”
Additional Writing Prompts:
ReplyDeleteChoose one of the opening lines below for the first line of your story. 500 words or less. Good Luck!
• “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice (1813)
• 'All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina (1878)
• "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way." Charles Dickens: A Tale Of Two Cities (1859)
• ‘It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.’ George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)
• "It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York." Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar (1963)
• "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth." J.D Salinger: The Catcher In The Rye (1951)
• "In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. Whenever you feel like criticising any one, he told me, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby (1925)
• "There was no possibility of taking a walk that day." Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre (1847)
• "Mother died today. Or maybe, yesterday; I can't be sure." Albert Camus: The Stranger (1946)
• The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. William Gibson Neuromancer (1984
A few more Writing Prompts:
ReplyDeleteFlash Fiction Challenge: Five little words
You choose five of the ten words listed below and incorporate them into your 500 word story! That’s it. Easy. You can use a die or a random number generator if it's too much pressure to choose on your own...random number generator: http://www.mathgoodies.com/calculators/random_no_custom.html
1. A spider
2. A lost comic book
3. Poison
4. True Love
5. A journal
6. Public drunkenness
7. The end of the world
8. War
9. A gateway
10. Resurrection