Four Things

Genre: epic fantasy

Person: a cowardly king

Problem: a necromancer summons an army of the undead

Item: sapphire ring

Snap! Snarl! Hiss!

Your character buys a strange animal from an equally strange pet store. Is it magically endowed? Genetically enhanced? Some new creature? A rainbow furred lemur that grants three wishes? You decide. Write about your character buying the pet, discovering its oddities (if they haven't already), and what happens after.

The Tag Says One Dollar

A garage sale/boutique/thrift store offers intangible things like "true love", "good luck", "charisma" or even "telekinesis". What is the shop like? Who runs it? How did your character find it and what do they buy?

The Itsy Bitsy Spider...

Rewrite a common children's nursery rhyme so that it is dark and two hundred times more evil. Now... write a story around that rhyme.
Need help? Take a look at And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie.

The Hologram of Captain Kirk

Write Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray if it took place during some kind of apocalypse (zombies, bio warfare, religion, etc). Should include holograms, ghosts, and a new kind of energy form other than plasma.

The Melons!

HUMOROUS
A spaceship crashes in a water park. Disposable diapers have been outlawed. Watermelons are the answer to life, the universe, everything... unlike 42. Make these three things connected.

Dang It's Cold!

The frosty winds cut through me like a knife, but without the blood of course.

Some Dude

I will always remember the day Atticus Stump came knocking on our door.

Technical Glitch

It was the machines that did it.

Nothing As It Seems...

Everything seemed normal at first, but as the day dragged on, a low, monotonous hum could be heard echoing through the rooms, steadily growing louder.

3 of a Kind

Try writing a story, short or long, and be sure to include these three elements!

Venice

drums

lipgloss

Remember, you can take the elements anyway you like. Maybe instead of having an actual peacock appear in the story, maybe a character is described as being as vain as a peacock. Instead of actually writing the word knife, maybe it is implied, such as she was cutting the vegetables to put in the pot. Be creative!

Poof!

"This can't be happening!" she screamed at him, "This can't be happening! People don't vanish into thin air!"

Weird Weather

"Look!" Billy shouted hysterically, pointing at the sky, "Did you see that? Did you see that lightning? Have you ever seen lightning on a clear, sunny day before?"

What Is This Form of Communication?

As he stared into my eyes I knew he wanted something, and he wanted it badly, but I couldn't tell what, and his wild glare, incoherent speech, and maniacal gestures didn't offer any hints either.

Well Do You?

Do you fear death?

Where To Begin...

If ever I am to tell you my story, I must of course, start at the beginning.

Grandma's Closet

What's in your grandma's closet? Whilst digging through it, I found a bunch of odd things. Put them all into a single story featuring your grandma. Maybe a younger version of her, your character's grandma, or a grandma character recalling her past. You decide. 

leopard print bathing suit, astronaut helmet, tickets to the Lion King, purple scissors, peacock feathers, life jacket, boom box

Bing Crosby Stuck In Traffic on Mars!

Watch a bunch of generic, b-movie, old flicks. Pick, say, five characters at the most and write a short bio for them, about a paragraph is fine. Give them new names and maybe different appearances. Now stick them in the most whacked out, totally out there story you can think of.

3 of a Kind

Try writing a story, short or long, and be sure to include these three elements!

soup

key

rocket

Remember, you can take the elements anyway you like. Maybe instead of having an actual peacock appear in the story, maybe a character is described as being as vain as a peacock. Instead of actually writing the word knife, maybe it is implied, such as she was cutting the vegetables to put in the pot. Be creative!

Four Things

Genre: cyberpunk

Person: a paranoid assassin

Problem: the cat burglar is at it again

Item: Reuben sandwich

Nuu Speekee Aanglish

Write a story about a creature that looks relatively human. Could be an alien or some inter-dimensional traveler.
The creature doesn't speak any language on Earth. Because of this, the military is hunting it down, thinking that the creature is constantly threatening to destroy them. When the creature tries to defend itself, they only take it as a further hostile act.
What happens to the creature? Does it eventually manage to communicate? Does it get killed? You decide.
Could be silly or very serious.

What I Found In A Shoebox

I found these things in a shoebox under my bed:

broken cellphone
lockpicks
an old vial of perfume
toy dinosaurs
worn out, paperback novel
giftcard to McDonalds

Write a story involving those things!


[A/N: What's in a shoebox under your bed? Or a box in the closet? A bag in the attic? Dig through your stuff, pick five things, and write a story involving those.]

Shh!

A character breaks into a library (give them a reason for doing so). They think they're alone and good to go, when they come face to face with the librarian.
She says nothing, save putting a finger to her lips and going "Shh."

Why is the librarian there? Why isn't she calling the cops on your character? Why does she want your character to be quiet?

Keep It Short

Write a story where all the action is choppy, every bit of dialogue is straight to the point with hardly any speech tags, and all the characters are described efficiently.

For example:

He was a big, heavyset man with dark brown hair, half bald, and squinted blue eyes. His breath smelled of tobacco and faintly of cheese. He frowned at me. He was menacing. About six foot eight and one hundred-thirty pounds, I knew there was no fighting him.
"Get in the car," he snapped.
I climbed into the car. It was empty, save a driver in the front. The big man followed after me and shut the door, hitting the lock.
"Drive us to Eighth Street," he told the driver.
The driver hit the gas and we zoomed off. I sat back in my seat. From here on out, this whole kidnapping just took a turn for the weird.

3 of a Candle

Try writing a story, short or long, and be sure to include these three elements!

physics

summer

candle

Remember, you can take the elements anyway you like. Maybe instead of having an actual peacock appear in the story, maybe a character is described as being as vain as a peacock. Instead of actually writing the word knife, maybe it is implied, such as she was cutting the vegetables to put in the pot. Be creative!

3 of a Knife

Try writing a story, short or long, and be sure to include these three elements!

finger

knife

piano

Remember, you can take the elements anyway you like. Maybe instead of having an actual peacock appear in the story, maybe a character is described as being as vain as a peacock. Instead of actually writing the word knife, maybe it is implied, such as she was cutting the vegetables to put in the pot. Be creative!

3 of a Needle

Try writing a story, short or long, and be sure to include these three elements!

needle

orange

chest

Remember, you can take the elements anyway you like. Maybe instead of having an actual peacock appear in the story, maybe a character is described as being as vain as a peacock. Instead of actually writing the word knife, maybe it is implied, such as she was cutting the vegetables to put in the pot. Be creative!

3 of a Chameleon

Try writing a story, short or long, and be sure to include these three elements!

ginger
chameleon
fear

Remember, you can take the elements anyway you like. Maybe instead of having an actual peacock appear in the story, maybe a character is described as being as vain as a peacock. Instead of actually writing the word knife, maybe it is implied, such as she was cutting the vegetables to put in the pot. Be creative!

Alien Plot

PLOTS


An alien comes to earth possessing strange powers. The alien lands in MC's backyard. MC helps the alien out, and they start becoming friends. Meanwhile, another alien ship lands, but these guys aren't friendly. They're bounty hunters looking for the first alien that landed. Can MC stop the bounty hunters from capturing his/her friend? Or is the alien friend really as bad as they say and needs to be locked up?

Picture Paints A Word