Writing Prod - Celebration

            I’m getting closer to the end of my list of writing prompts and notice two of them involve holidays in one form or another. And since I think the day your kids go back to school should be an official adult holiday (except for the teachers) I’m going to present what I call . . . Celebration.

            The idea for this prompt is to create an unusual holiday; which might be harder than it seems if you keep track of all the holidays that have been invented already. This can be based on something you are already passionate about, like camping, talking on the cell phone, or collecting cereal box tops. The idea for a holiday can be from something you randomly see while traveling down the street like gas stations, people waiting at the bus stop, or red traffic lights. Maybe you have an idea for an unusual holiday already. If all of those methods of creating a holiday fail, you can take a random noun or verb and turn it into a major event.

            Here are my two sample stories based on made-up holidays.

            Back-To-School Pool

            After a long summer of swimming, biking, and fighting with her younger brother, Brenda is ready to head back to school. That is, until she notices the adults acting strangely. They seem a little too happy about getting the kids out of the house and rounded up in one place.

            With the help of her best friend and her annoying little brother they uncover the conspiracy of all conspiracies – a betting pool where the parents place wagers on how the children will perform during the upcoming year and throw a party for the event.

            Ok, that was just for fun. The next one is meant to be a serious effort at putting together a viable story from the prompt.

            Swim Day

 

            No one considered what would happen to the inmates of Harbor Island Correctional Facility if the world stopped functioning as it always had. Now, ten years after the cataclysm, the survivors are desperate to find a way off the island. The first day of every month is Swim Day. The lucky winner of the Swim Day lottery gets a day to live as a cell block celebrity and then is cast into the waters and forced to attempt a trip to the mainland. If any have made the trip they haven’t come back to help the others.

            Stitch is drawn to make the swim. He’d been counting down until the day of his execution when everything went bad. Dying during the swim doesn’t bother him, but leaving behind the only person who ever treated him humanely does. He must do more than just survive the watery ordeal, he has to find a way to return and save his brother, the prison guard.