Category: Writing Prompts

Prompts are short, fun exercises that can be used to get the creative juices flowing or break the ice at a critique meeting. They start as a brief list of ingredients, forming a challenge for the writer to incorporate all of them into one self-contained piece. There are many ways to come up with prompts and each author will find a unique way to express a given prompt.

In the Darkened Room

  1. k-avatarCharacter – Russian game show host
  2. Setting – behind enemy lines
  3. Object – model trail
  4. Situation – seance

In the darkened room, objects moved though on one was touching them. Some of this was due to the tanks rumbling by, and some due to spirit activity.

The medium and the game show host sat on opposite sides of the small table. Gradually all fell silent.

“Are you here, Mikhail?” the medium asked softly.

There was a rapping sound from the table. “Comrade Bagski, you may talk to Mikhail.”

“Well, Mikhail, answer this one right and you win the model train. Ready?”

The table rose and began to twirl.

“Good! Okay, rap once for true and twice for false: The Romanovs got what they deserved.”

Two distinct rapping sounds were heard.

“Correct!”

The medium was troubled.

“Comrade, isn’t this a very touchy subject for a game?”

Bagski brushed it off.

“It’s the people’s model train anyway, he can’t keep it.”

“For a couple of reasons.”

A sudden bomb-burst shook dust from the ceiling and halted conversation.

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The Crowd Was Getting Ugly

  1. by jenCharacter – politician
  2. Setting – theatre
  3. Object – CD
  4. Situation – police intervention

The crowd was getting ugly. Murmuring became grumbling, then hissing and catcalls. This was bad. I looked in desperation to my Secret Service agents, but they just smiled bemusedly. My damn advisers were wrong. No one was going for my new tax plan. The more I thought about it, the more certain I became. This was a set-up.

A bottle broke at my feet. A plastic cup flew past my head. My Secret Service agents disappeared. Emboldened, the crowd threw more garbage. And shoes. And lunch bags. Even a CD, which smacked me in the forehead.

As my blood began to trickle, they went wild and rushed the podium. My football days weren’t so long ago, and I darted backstage. Trying to blend with the foot traffic outside, I slipped down the block to a movie theatre. I dashed to the box office.

“One for Police Intervention,” I said, and hurried inside.

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Clyde Stalked

  1. Character – photojournalist
  2. Setting – Niagara Falls
  3. Object – lunar rock
  4. Situation – first time shoplifting

Clyde stalked into Ripka’s Take It or Leave It, just too distant to really hear the falls (although you could still feel it) and therefor not prime tourist-trap real estate (though still expensive). He glanced around, failing to note the young lady with the sophisticated camera chatting up the proprietor. His dutiful ritual of theatrical skulking discharged, Clyde sidled over to a row of trinket bins. He pocketed a keychain with a tiny plastic barrel fob, complete with the grinning head protruding from one end. Next he pilfered a handful of random gray stones, vaguely pumicey and, for no rational reason, billed as “lunar.” He smiled wanly as the young woman focused the camera on him. As the shop owner stepped to block his exit, the photographer said, “You’re new at this, aren’t you?”

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Turkish Delight Worried The Bullwhip

  1. by jenCharacter – porn star named Turkish Delight
  2. Setting – Loch Ness
  3. Object – bullwhip
  4. Situation – midlife crisis

Turkish Delight worried the bullwhip in her leather-gloved hands. Where on earth was the director? This was going to be her big break, the movie that showcased her acting skills along with her enormous breasts and insatiable appetite for kinky sex. Desmond had assured her it would be tastefully done, but now no one could find him.

Her costars tried to convince her that the cameraman could be relied on to bring the vision to fruition, but Del just didn’t trust him the way she trusted Desmond.

They had flown all the way to Scotland to film the special scenes with Nessie yesterday. It had been freezing, absolutely freezing, but Del had lived up to her end of the deal. Last night Desmond just kept staring at her. He couldn’t even get it up.

He must be having a midlife crisis, Del decided.

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Guy Could See Where This Was Going

  1. Character – French circus performer
  2. Setting – dead end
  3. Object – infant
  4. Situation – truth or dare

Guy could see where this was going.

He cut to the left, pedaling frantically and veering around stacks of boxes in the narrow alleyway. At least they might conceal him. As he guided the unicycle past an old metal drum full of some loathsome fluid, he saw that concealment would be his only salvation. Dead end.

He became still as a statue, balancing flawlessly as only a lifetime of this sort of thing can teach one to do, as his pursuers thundered by on the main street.

He heard a squeal of brakes, and a door opening. He hoped the babe in the basket atop his head would stay asleep. The car chasing him had been small, but it held many clowns.

It is not good to have so many secrets, Guy thought. Always, in the future, I will say, “Truth.”

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“Please, Jesus, Let Me Sleep!”

  1. by jenCharacter – 17 year old Jesus freak
  2. Setting – pool hall
  3. Object – chess pieces
  4. Situation – insomnia

“Please, Jesus, let me sleep!” the boy yelled. Hans had seen his type before. The WWJD t-shirt, the close-cropped hair, the earnest expression. A church youth group was in town for a field trip and the poor sod was overwhelmed.

He dropped to his knees on the pool table, scattering the few balls that remained.

“Oh lord, I am tired! Why do you torment me so?” he cried.

The old men in the corner looked surly and Hans knew they were on the verge of throwing their chess pieces at the boy. As amusing as that might be, Hans had a job to do, and that job was keeping the peace at Pappy’s Pool Palace.

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Morton’s Eyesight

  1. Character – pedophile
  2. Setting – hotel under the face on Mars
  3. Object – blood splatter
  4. Situation – swarming insects

Morton’s eyesight was getting dim for some time before he realized there was anything wrong. He felt safe in his suit, foolishly, and just kept trudging along through the locust swarm. But Martian locusts have razor-sharp wing sheaths and one of these had sliced the airhose. One then clipped his arm, cutting suit and skin, and spilling Morton’s blood on the red planet.

These hikes were supposed to be safe. Those kids left the hotel with no more protection than him, their darling little suits making their movements all the more endearing.

But after tailing them for only ten minutes, he’d lost them.

Morton slumped to his knees, and then keeled over onto his back. His face looked remarkably like the satellite images on the hotel stationery.

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Looking Down At The Pile Of Sawdust

  1. by jenCharacter – split-personality juggler
  2. Setting – prison
  3. Object – pile of sawdust
  4. Situation – pregnancy

Looking down at the pile of sawdust, Simone laughed. What sort of fools would build a prison with wooden bars? She hoisted herself into the window and shimmied down to the ground outside.

It was all just a big misunderstanding, of course. No one had told her it was illegal to juggle piglets within city limits. But ignorance of the law is no excuse. She’d been found guilty and sent to prison for two years. Normally Simone was a law abiding citizen. She would never dream of escaping. But she’d be damned it she’d let her baby be born in prison.

Dr Jacoby had warned her, “One of your personalities is male, so you should always use protection when you masturbate.” But the warden hadn’t listened, and Simon had been so lonely…

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Ursula Carefully Examined

  1. Character – “Bounty” hunter
  2. Setting – vestibule of the time travel agency
  3. Object – compact
  4. Situation – the llama escaped!

Ursula carefully examined the image in her compact. She switched it to conventional mode, and checked her reflection. She looked hot.

Six Einsteins were quarreling with the receptionist, insisting that it doesn’t work like this. A separate window had been opened for the retrograde travelers, staffed by an agent who was fluent in Backwards.

You’ve made quite a mess this time, Llama, but your scheme to escape through time will be your own undoing.

This was a job for the Quicker-Picker-Upper.

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Signs Point To Yes

  1. by jenCharacter – Dick Clark’s evil dopplegänger
  2. Setting – Pere-Lachaise
  3. Object – Magic 8 Ball
  4. Situation – group sex

Signs point to yes.

“Excellent,” breathed Click Dark. “Excellent.” He tried to cackle, but it didn’t work. He carefully rested the Magic 8 Ball on Morrison’s tombstone and stepped back. The crowds were always thin this time of day in the fall, but he’d need to work quickly.

His blow gun made short work of the gendarme, and Dark was able to begin drawing the arcane symbols necessary for tonight’s ritual.

A group of Australian tourists was the first to fall into his trap. They quickly disrobed and began their gyrations. Dark started the video camera and smiled, feeling his own arousal. A lone French student and three Germans completed the group.

Dark watched the steam rise from the twelve nude bodies, and completed his calculations. The blond boy. He would be first. Dark stepped out of his trench coat and joined the group.

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