If you have any good ones or favorites or just any at all, it'd be nice if you'd post some here! (^o^)
Hi, have a look at the Theme Ideas section for the Short Story Competition: https://www.writingforums.org/showthread.php?t=8493
You need writing prompts? Turn on the TV, and find a news channel. Start asking yourself, "What if..." in regards to the various headlines. Channel surf through the entertainment channels, and when you find an appealing scene, turn it off after five minutes. Rewrite and complete the scene with your own characters and a few variations, and expand it into a story. Everything you see and hear is a potential writing prompt.
ditto that!... was just going to write the same, but cog often does my posting for me [the check's in the mail, kid!]
News stories provide lots of information. Pick a local news website (usually a TV channel) from a non-local place. For instance, I live in Virginia and will pick local news sites from Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas and read through the local news. You can find a lot of inspiring intrigue in local government happenings and tons of bizarre murders, robberies, etc. Plus being away from your locale keeps you from restricting yourself in the setting. i.e. If I read a news story from my city and try to use that for inspiration I get mired in the actual details of the event instead of creating my own.
If i'm looking for inspiration for a short story, I turn my iPod to shuffle, write down the first line of the first song I hear, and that's my base line. Somehow a story comes out of that.
Odd, I do the same thing, or sometimes one liners from other novels and short fiction develops into an entirely new story. It's fascinating how the mind is able to create from some things.
mary higgins clark became a bestselling author by using song lyrics/titles as the basis for her mystery series...
Try mixing and mashing lyrics/song titles/movie titles/quotes whatever. Here's a random pick of songs from today's top 10.; I knew you were trouble Thrift Shop Locked out of Heaven Die Young Prompts: Died in a thrift shop I knew you'd die young Heaven is a Thrift Shop Locked in a thrift shop ...or take the opposites of specific words; Locked out of Hell Hell is a Thrift Shop Born in trouble Born in a thrift shop There's 8 prompts from a random google search. Want to go further? Take any word and plug it into a thesaurus to stretch your imagination and you have infinite possibilities just from today's top ten list. Grab something you like and off you go. Josh Parker's soul was so black even Satan locked him out of hell. Thanks Bruno Mars!
