Write a paragraph (or flash story) and describe a person, place, or thing without using any adjectives, only metaphors.
Use a piece of artwork to inspire you. What’s the story behind that painting or that statue?
Write a story about someone in romantic love with an iconic, inanimate object.
Write some fan fiction with characters from your favorite show or movie. Then change the names to make it your own.
Write a flash story using only one-syllable words (i.e., John Smith went to the store and bought a sack of limes). Watch how this constraint works to form your story in surprising ways.
Write a story where some element of weather (rain, snow, blazing heat) is anthropomorphized.
Write a flash story where every sentence begins and ends with the same letter. “A man walked to the pet store and bought a panda. Before he could bring it home, he stopped to show it to his friend Caleb.” Go all the way through the alphabet.
Rewrite a story that you are struggling with and add as much purple prose as you can muster.
Write an accelerated story–cram a week of real time into 500 words with as much action and description as you can.
Write a story where the characters use an unusual form of currency. It might be something physical like rose buds or sofa cushions. It might be something less concrete like a secret or a bit of juicy gossip.
Write about a situation that makes you or your character extremely uncomfortable.
Write about a situation that makes you or your character extremely uncomfortable.
Rewrite a well-known story from a lesser character’s point of view (i.e., the mother of the Emperor with No Clothes or Godzilla’s gay younger brother).
Mondegreen is the term for misheard song lyrics, like “The girl with colitis goes by” (The girl with kaleidoscope eyes) or “There’s a bathroom on the right” (There’s a bad moon on the rise.) Use misheard lyrics as the title of a short story and write what happens next.
Anthropomorphize an inanimate item from the kitchen. Describe how it feels to be used or abused by a human.
Write a flash fiction story celebrating a small, simple pleasure.
Take a well-known story and give the main character a different occupation from the original.
Write a story in a new format–a will, shopping list, job application, menu, recipe, etc.
Write a story inspired by a newspaper headline.
Five random words #1 – Use these words in a story: Turtle, bodega, elastic, bourbon, sabbatical
Five random words #2 – Use these words in a story: Corpse, caterpillar, jacket, heartfelt, puzzle
Five random words #3 – Use these words in a story: Banana, book, three-dimensional, surrogate, disagreeable
Five random words #4 – Use these words in a story: River, song, trample, broom, pundit
Five random words #5 – Use these words in a story: Potion, lawyer, fleece, campground, snack