Tag: Bonus Unexpected Sabbatical

Nancy Stohlman, Uncategorized, Writing Prompts & Craft Articles

Bonus Unexpected Sabbatical: March 20

Nancy Stohlman

“If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you’re gonna see some serious s***” ~Doc Brown, Back to the Future

header-a-message-from-the-future

I’ve talked with many people lately who are thinking about the future: what might our new world look like? It’s fertile material for all your sci-fi leaners, but it’s also just an interesting question. Will society go virtual like Ready Player One? Will we someday take virtual vacations (or virtual writing retreats!) like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Total Recall? Or will the Terminator show up with a message for us from the future?

So…let’s have some fun with our imaginations. Who knows–the future could be amazing.

Write a story in which your character receives a message from the future.

Of course what this message is, and how they receive it, is up to you.

Have fun with it!

Kathy fish, Writing Prompts & Craft Articles

Bonus Unexpected Sabbatical: March 19

Kathy Fish

Let’s feel the power today, friends! I don’t know about you, but I could use a Super Hero right now. To that end, I want you to consider… this sheep:

“This sheep escaped a farm and spent 6 years in the mountains, during which time he grew 60 pounds of wool. Wolves tried to eat him, but their teeth could not penetrate the floof. You don’t have to turn hard to survive the wolves, just be really, really soft and fluffy.”

Your prompt for today:

Create a character who has an UNEXPECTED skill/quality/feature that makes him or her or it INVINCIBLE. Your flash can be funny or absurd or terrifying or dramatic, but create a sort of Unexpected Super Hero and set up some obstacles for them. Let them slay dragons (or pandemics). Pit them up against adversity and let them show us what they’re made of (even if it’s floof)!

Bonus points if your Super Hero is an animal because animals rock! Go forth and write!

Writing Prompts & Craft Articles

Bonus Unexpected Sabbatical Prompt: March 17

Kathy Fish

How are you feeling today? Maybe you feel like I do: Anxious, fraught with unease and uncertainty. It’s a feeling we normally seek to escape, right? Today I’m asking you to lean into your uncertainty and use it in your writing.

“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart…live in the question.” ~Rainer Maria Rilke – Letters to a Young Poet

Your prompt then is this:

Maybe have a bit of fun with the rarely used omniscient POV. Adopt an odd all-seeing voice perhaps. Then give us a character who is mired in uncertainty. Shit’s about to go down, either dramatically or more subtly. The uncertainty will be deeply uncomfortable for your character, but deliciously compelling for your reader. Your first line should go something like this:

“[Character name] doesn’t know [about the thing that’s about to happen to the world or to herself]…”

Take it from there. Go where the writing takes you. Set off without a map or compass or plan. Lean into uncertainty in today’s practice..

Uncategorized, Writing Prompts & Craft Articles

Bonus Unexpected Sabbatical Prompt: March 16

Nancy Stohlman

This was the VERY FIRST FlashNano prompt ever. It seems appropriate to begin here:

Write a story in which something transforms into something else.

 

(And also something beautiful for today: This mural by Banksy.)

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