Embers ~ October 2022
A collection of writing prompts
Greetings from the Hudson Valley!
I just wanted to take a minute to thank you, reader. Whether you are a free or paid subscriber, your comments, feedback, and support are all genuinely appreciated. Collectively, you give me the inspiration to surge forward on this journey. The support of the Substack community continues to amaze me. I am beyond grateful!
If you are a paid subscriber, October’s edition of Embers is below. But before you dig in, I wanted to let you know where your money is going. Your financial support has already been set aside to help me fund my current writing project: self-publishing my flash fiction collection, Birdsong and Other Stories from Along the Hudson. I’m still drafting some stories for it and compiling some of my favorites from this space, but the progress is steady. Once I have a solid draft in place, I plan on hiring a graphic artist and editor to help me produce the book I’ve always wanted to hold in my hands — my own.
Thank you for helping me turn this dream into a reality.
The prompts included in Embers are meant to serve any writer, but they could also benefit any teacher or creative writing instructor. Here is a sample from last month, free for all subscribers.
I hope October’s edition of Embers helps you jumpstart some stories!
Happy writing,
Justin
Write a twisted fairy tale. Take a well-known story and insert a crucial detail that changes everything about it in a pivotal way. Perhaps the story takes a darker turn (or a lighter one). Maybe toss in a magical object that alters the characters’ motives. Move the story or the characters in a different direction!
Write a scene or story about the sea. Envision the shoreline, its scents, its appearance — the feeling of sand beneath your feet. Place your character in this environment and “see where the sea” takes her.
Put a character who has no business driving a car (a six-year-old, a great-grandmother, a blind man) behind the wheel and let the story unfold. The most essential question: why is he or she there to begin with? What circumstance led the character into this predicament?
Write a story or scene about a character who makes an important discovery. Is this discovery tangible, or is it abstract — something he discovered about himself, or about life?
Where have you always wanted to visit but never had the chance to? Imagine what this place might be like, then develop a scene with a character who is witnessing it or experiencing it for the first time.
Write a scene or story about a storm of some kind. If needed, think about the worst storm you’ve ever witnessed or been a part of. Take this in a different direction, if you’d like, by using the verb “storm” or “storming” in your piece. Try to have the focus of the scene center on this action.
Write a story or scene that uses fog as a focal point for the setting. Perhaps the fog creates a conflict, or maybe it propels the scene forward. At the very least, the fog should help create the atmosphere for the story.
Write a story or scene that focuses on an act of kindness. Who commits the act? Why? What happens after this act of kindness is committed? Take this story a step further; imagine that somehow the kindness comes back (or circles back) to the original character, somehow.
Write about a character who is stuck in a rut. It can be a physical rut or a metaphorical one. How does he/she get out of it? What incident or action allows them to break out of this situation? Or…does the situation worsen?
Write a scene or story that involves a flashback. Perhaps the flashback is used to inform the story's present action, or maybe the story itself is the flashback. Before starting to write, consider how the memory ignites. Does a character hear a sound or a song that brings them back to a time and place? Did they come across a stranger who reminds them of someone else?
Listen to a favorite song of yours, the lyrics especially. Pull out one of your favorite lines and write it down. Choose one to three words from this lyric and use the word(s) to create a scene or story. For an extra challenge, try to use all of these words in a fifty or one-hundred-word story.
These are excellent prompts, Justin! The one about meeting a stranger who reminds one of someone else really resonated with me. Awhile back, I was heading into a store and an older couple was getting out of their car. I smiled at them, and for some reason, the woman in particular kept looking at me. I realized that she reminded me of my mother's best friend, a woman we called "Aunt Ruth". Right after I thought that, the woman walked up to me and said, "I'm sorry for staring, but you remind me of someone I once knew." and I said, "You remind me of my mother's good friend." She just smiled and quietly walked into the store. "Aunt Ruth" passed away many years ago, but it just makes you wonder....
🤣🤣🤣