This week: Contest Prompts Edited by: Legerdemain  
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Contest Prompts
Do you like prompts? I do. I don't always write a story for a contest prompt, but I find great inspiration from reading prompts, listening to music, and looking at pictures.
Sometimes an entire story can sprout from the opening line. I love using the line and creating the entire story as a flashback or history. Think about moments in history and write the opening line. Lincoln getting shot, sightings of Bigfoot, Loch Ness, UFOs.
Stories can come from anywhere. The idea is the easy part...the hard part is writing the whole story so the reader sees what you see in your head. Take the time to be sure all the elements are present: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.
Ultimately, even if the story doesn't gel, it's something to save to inspire a better version. Or use them to inspire poetry, a script, or a lengthier novel. Music often inspires me to write new characters, then I find a situation to put them in.
I'll link a few prompt contests below, give them a look and see if they inspire an entry.
As always, Write On!
 This month's question: Do you like prompts? What type? Send in your answer below!  Editors love feedback! |
CURRENT SITE CONTEST
Quote Prompt for February 2025: "The devil is in the details." — Proverb
MARCH CONTEST
FEBUARY PROMPT/ You send your love a Valentine's gift and she threatens to call the police on you for stalking her.
Cramp has daily prompts to inspire!
Excerpt: And in the desert there stood the walls of a ruined city, and it was Pyr Thouthi, of many stories and myths. But the walls were silent, and the great stones of the dwellings and shops and barracks within were broken and strewn about. There was nothing left, and no stories would ever again be made about Pyr Thouthi, City of Sand and Dream.
Excerpt: The day that it was discovered, scientists across the globe were both awestruck and alarmed. Images from the James Webb Telescope provided irrefutable proof that a massive space rock was hurtling toward Earth, its impact imminent, its devastation absolute.
Excerpt: As I got on the train she was already sitting there, same place as ever, watching the snow outside. It was March but the winter did not want to give up, just like me. I took a seat opposite her and looked at her, fascinated by her charm and elegance. She wore a black coat, matching hat and pearl earrings. We looked at each other, I nodded, she too, that was all, not a word.
Excerpt: Wrapping his 11-year-old mind around what Mom just said, Tyler grinned. After all, it wasn’t every day you got to have Thanksgiving with Mawma and Pawpa.
Excerpt: Demus was wary while approaching the town that, according to the map, was Skelton’s Pocket. From afar, it looked like a ghost town. After traveling through the cool, desert night, he was at the edge of the settlement. There, he was certain that it was what it looked like. “Cade and his coins,” he muttered to himself, urging his horse forward.
Excerpt: "Just go ahead and press that button." Ben sounded bored as he pointed to the silver square with a picture of two cups on it. He probably was. Who knew how many times he’d given this exact same training speech? A lot, I’d imagine.
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Excerpt: Dr. Smith had experienced a horrible day at work. Four patients had insisted they were ill when they were not. One even cursed at him.
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This month's question: Do you like prompts? What type? Send in your answer below! Editors love feedback!
 Last month's "Short Stories Newsletter (January 29, 2025)" question: What are some of your favorite personifications?
Quick-Quill  : I love animals with human form. All the Disney cartoons, mostly based on books. The Rescuers and Land Before Time and our favorite An American Tail. Teenage Mutant Turtles is a series that became a true hit. We love that thinking outside the box.
Adhere - Definitely Writing  : Do the talking drinks machines in The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy' count?
Jeffrey Meyer  : Groups of things. By which I mean, the personification is just a tool for me, kind a of a gimmick; the application of it is in the interaction of various personified entities. I am particularly fond of personified objects interacting with one another, as opposed to the actual person in the story (if there even is a person).
Animation does this all the time, and I think the best example of personification--at least how I prefer seeing it used and using it myself--is Disney's "Beauty and the Beast." The physical objects portraying the personalities--not just physical attributes--of the transmogrified characters is exquisite! "What piece of furniture would I be; do I look like a footstool, and how do I also act like a footstool? What kind of eating utensil would me brother be? (Just don't tell him I think I'm a footstool.)" I like it because it is not only fun, but it gives me, both as a reader and a writer, multiple perspectives to view a subject, and multiple neural pathways to process, interpret, store, and interrelate the scene.
If you were looking for a short answer: Lumiere in "Beauty and the Beast." (Second place goes to Sebastian in "The Little Mermaid." I'm 50, and I'm still charmed by the classic Disney movies; don't judge. Actually, go ahead and judge; I don't care. But if you're going to judge, "...stay in there and STAAARVE!!!!")
tj wanderlust-words-in-motion  : I'll go ask Snoopy and Garfield.
Brian Does Thermonuclear Tests : A penny on the ground in a story poem that gave Lincoln power to communicate with the imagery only.
Bilal Latif : Peter Pan's shadow.
Ray Bradbury's works are full of beautiful language including personification.
And R2 D2 is a robot with more personality than some people I've met.
S 🤦 : Yeah, not a huge fan of anthropomorphisation.
Having said that, it works really well in stories for children (they are not being told what to do by an adult, but by a talking whatever). And I always enjoyed Charlotte's Web.
Beholden  : I think somewhere within me there lurks an old Victorian hunter/explorer/adventurer who likes nothing better than to bore listeners with tales of his exploits in Darkest Africa. Some of them may even be true.
Mousethyme : Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey
Ms. TerrifyingTuber : If it's not too un-kosher, I'd like to state that The skunk, Flower, is my favorite classic Disney personification. He's cute, sweet and just easy going.
Dave's trying to catch up  : "Snowflake"
deemac : Not sure if 'favourite' is quite the right word but the most iconic for me is George Orwell's Animal Farm.
jackson : The Wind in the Willows, comes to mind . . .
Brian Does Thermonuclear Tests : What inshoulda said: I’ve talked to the kettle since childhood. Like the truck, which I rumble about in, never a bad word for it…need the power of Chevy, Jiffy Lube and Citgo, with a delusory imagination, with fingers crossed, to the end.
Thanks to everyone for your responses L~ |
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Short Stories: February 26, 2025 Issue [#13006]
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