PROMPT 44 – STORY ROULETTE 

            Select or randomly pull two character labels, like cowboy and a college professor. Then select or randomly pull an issue that these two characters will clash with one another about. For example: an old cowboy and spinster kinder-garden teacher clash over the issue of how a child should be raised. Now put all that together to create a story.

            Here are two lists to get you started:

            Character Types                                               Issue

1. Soldier                                                                     1. Baking the perfect cake

2. Busy CEO                                                                2. Faith
3. Stay-At-Home Mom                                                3. Who gets the last seat to safety
4. Lawyer                                                                     4. Discovery of a dead body
5. Waitress                                                                   5. A monster among us
6. Homeless Man/Woman                                            6. Ownership of a dog that is found

* For even more fun, roll a die for random selection of characters and the topic.

 

Example: I had my son roll a die three times and generated the numbers 1, 3, and 6 – in that order. Using the chart, that gives me a soldier, a stay-at-home mom, and ownership of a dog.

See Spot Stay -

When the family pet runs away, a young stay-at-home mother clashes with a homeless vet over the ownership of the dog and eventually must decide whether her children or a friendless man deserves the dog most.

Writing Prompt #43

            PROMPT 43 – KNICK-KNACKS

            This prompt is similar to Three Item Monty in as much as it uses items to stimulate your mind into generating new story ideas. If you have an old knick-knack drawer or memory chest, look through it. Take out the items one at a time. Perhaps they generate a memory that triggers a story idea. Or maybe they are interesting enough to give you ideas if you think about the item in hand. If you don’t have a collection of memorabilia then take a trip to a antique store and look around. Something is bound to shake loose an idea for a story.

Example: I have an old aftershave bottle shaped like a car. It still has most of the aftershave in it, but I can’t imagine its any good after all these years.

 

The Glass Factory -

An inquisitive young man visits a factory that makes the most popular toys on the planet. Everything the factory makes is made out of the most beautiful glass—that doesn’t break. When he slips away from the guided tour of the factory he discovers a gateway to a world where technology is based on glass manufacturing and is powered by strange scented-liquids. Before he can return to the tour he is captured by the Glass Baron and put on trial as an industrial spy. His only hope of returning home safely is to escape the Glass Castle and find the portal that will take him back to Earth.

 

Writing Prompt #42

            PROMPT 42 – THREE ITEM MONTY

            Grab three random items and put them on a table. To make sure these items are as random as possible, make sure they each come from a separate room or location. Line then up in front of you and see if you can find a correlation between them that can be used for the basis of a story. If not, move them around until you do.

            Example: A blue plastic tumbler; a small, blue fan; and an old-fashioned lantern that uses a candle for light. Blue reminds me of cold. The tumbler and fan make me think of someone who is trying to cool down. And the lantern gave me images of a storm raging and the electricity going out.

 

Monster Storm – When invaders from another planet trigger a global storm, Dave takes refuge in an old, underground tunnel complex, but he discovers that he is not alone in the dark.