Flash fiction needs prompts. I’ve been writing flash fiction, posting on my blog on Fridays, since May 2013. I owe a huge debt to Chuck Wendig for posting weekly prompts and generally wrangling all his writing followers. He’s now such a busy author and dad that the prompts are irregular, and I hope he doesn’t mind me storing some of the best of them here for future reference. If you use them, please give him some credit.
Click for prompts…
Alternative ideas:
- base your story around one of the seven deadly sins
- start it with a bang
- start it with a knock at the door
- base it around a map
- take an iconic scene from a classic film or book and retell it in your own genre and setting
- find a headline that needs a better story
- Use a photo – from a random photo site, or just one you come across
- combine some ridiculous elements – I did ‘ridiculously over the top humorous romance with a vampire under the sea in a spaceship eating sushi in a convent’
Five story seeds – choose one:
- A child is born under mysterious circumstances.
- A dead body goes missing.
- A mysterious journal is found.
- An accident occurs that may be no accident.
- An impossible animal appears.
Join in with someone else’s prompt – e.g. Sue Vincent does #writephoto on a Thursday
Other resources on the web: Try http://writingexercises.co.uk/index.php for a host of different approaches.
