Writing Prompt – The Secret Life of Pets!

What do pets get up to when their owners go to sleep or leave the house? When the cat disappears through the cat flap and over the fence, where does she go? Perhaps she explores for miles to go on daring adventures … or maybe she just finds a nice warm spot on someone’s roof to go to sleep, like our cat!?

Today's challenge is to write or draw from the point of view of a pet animal/bird/fish/reptile/insect etc. If you have pets at home, you could write as one of them.

Think about how the world appears to an animal or bird. You might have to get down on your hands and knees to find out what things look like from carpet level or on high (Please don't try to find out what it feels like to fly though! You can take research too far and it's bound to end badly.) 

• What do pets think about? 

• What do they think of us? 

• Do they understand what we say to them? 

• What’s the most important thing in their daily lives? 

You could write about what happens when they wake up. Do they wait patiently for you to appear and let them outside, or do they go and hassle you for food?

Have a think about how your pet might actually write! What words would they use? Listen to “Big Dog’s Best Poem” by Nick Toczek for some inspiration!

Have some fun with it and don’t forget to let me know how you get on.

Writing Prompt – Random Words Story Generator!

Today’s challenge is to create a poem, story, comic strip, song, painting, origami animal (OK, maybe not that last one …) from three words chosen at random.

You can take the words from a dictionary, novel, magazine, comic book, newspaper, item of food packaging – anywhere you can find a good selection.

For example – find a dictionary, then close your eyes and open it at a random page. Then, with your eyes still closed (no cheating!) point to a spot on the pages and open them again. The word you are pointing at is your first random word. Repeat this twice (or more, if you want to increase the challenge) until you have three words to work with.

Next, write something that includes the three words you picked. Simple, huh?!

I had a go with these three words I picked at random from a carton of orange juice: APPROXIMATELY, DELICIOUS AND SQUEEZED. From which I wrote the following. (WARNING: Don’t read this if you’re eating!)

The spot was approximately
five centimetres in diameter
Ripe and ready to pop
“Delicious!” she said
and squeezed.

(Sorry! But you were warned.)

OK, I’ll admit that probably isn’t my best work. I was a bit disappointed, so I had another go – this time selecting the words from a dictionary. My finger landed on:

SARRUSOPHONE (a brass musical instrument resembling an oboe with a metal tube)

CLING (to adhere closely by grasping or embracing)

MORTIFY (to humiliate or wound)

This is what I came up with:

I found the SARRUSOPHONE under a hedge.
I thought it was dead –
Until I nudged it with my foot
And heard it gasp a rasping breath.

“You don’t look too good, mate!”
I said, not wishing to MORTIFY.
The sarrusophone groaned
and opened one eye.

It looked so sad I picked it up
and took the bus home.
“One adult and one sarrusophone!”
The driver raised an eyebrow
at the strange thing shivering in my arms.

“You’re safe now, mate!”
I told it. “No need to CLING!”
Finally the sarrusophone relaxed
And then it started to sing.

A strangely mournful honking sound
that wasn’t to everyone’s taste.
This I discovered when they threw us off the bus
then drove away in haste.

We landed underneath a hedge
and I didn’t know what to say.
“Who’d have thought,” said the sarrusophone
“that the same thing could happen
twice in one day!”

I think this is an improvement on the spot one, but I’m sure you could do better!

You’ll notice that I took a few liberties with the word SARRUSOPHONE. To me it sounded more like a creature than a musical instrument, so I went with it! But that’s OK. The words are there to spark your imagination – don’t be afraid to follow where ever it leads!

Have fun, and let me know how you get on.

Writing Prompt – Tiny Diary, Big Secrets!

If you haven’t already seen it, there’s a great online project starting over at https://www.ourcoronadiary.com/ with a huge resource of writing and drawing tips from LOADS of great authors and illustrators.

A couple of my writer mates were involved in putting the project together and kindly invited me to supply a diary themed writing prompt. So here it is:

TINY DIARY, BIG SECRETS!

  

One of the best things about keeping a diary (at any time) is that you can be totally honest about how you feel. Have a rant, vent some spleen, write down all the things you’re too polite to actually say out loud! Be honest and get any frustration, fears and anger you might be keeping to yourself, out onto the page – it might help.

For instance:

• What’s the worst part about being stuck indoors?

• Who is the most annoying person you’re confined with?

• What do you miss about life as it was before?

But also, what’s the best part about being in lockdown? See if you can think of one good thing to go with every bad aspect!

*

OR … you could use YOUR experience to write about somebody else – a fictional character who finds themselves in confinement. They might not even be in our world or time! 

• Who are they?

• Where are they?

• What is their ‘prison’ like?

• Why can’t they leave?

• What would happen if they managed to escape? Will they try?

• How do they pass the time in confinement?

Sometimes it’s easier to write about how YOU feel by giving your feelings to a fictional character and seeing how THEY deal with the situation. A fictional character can say and do things that maybe you can’t.

*

To give a twist to this challenge, try writing or drawing your diary on very small pieces of paper. (They will be a lot easier to hide from prying eyes if they’re small!)

Maybe your character in confinement isn’t supposed to be writing so they have to hide their diary too? Or perhaps paper is in short supply, so they have to write on whatever scraps they can find.

The idea is that your story will be physically confined to a small space too!

For example, you could take a sheet of A4 and cut it into long thin strips (like bookmarks), then write or draw a comic strip on those. If you have some very small Post It notes, you could use those. You could even cut up a sheet of A4 to make a tiny book to write or draw in!

What’s the smallest space you can find to write a story? It would be great to see how you get on, and how small a space you managed to squeeze a story into!

Have fun and don't forget to check out all the other great ideas and suggestions over at the Our Corona Diary project.

Stay safe and all the best,

Dave

Writing Prompt – With great power …

It’s Monday! Wahey!

OK … I appreciate that Monday isn’t most people’s favourite day of the week, so I thought I’d make today’s writing prompt a bit of fun.

So … if you could have a super power, what would it be? More importantly, what would you do with it?

Note – stories get GOOD when things go BAD for the characters. Try to find some downsides to your new power. Maybe you can fly but discover that you are scared of heights or suffer from air sickness! Perhaps you can become invisible but only for as long as you can hold your breath … Problems create conflict and tension in a story, and that's what keeps us turning the pages.

And don’t forget – with great power comes … (you know the rest!)

Have fun and don’t forget to design yourself a good outfit. “No capes darling …”

Writing Prompt – To be continued …

Writing Prompt – ABC …

Your challenge today is to write a story of no more than 26 words, each one starting with a different letter of the alphabet … in order!

This one can be quite a laugh and produces some interesting and unexpected results! 

It might help to start by writing the letters of the alphabet across the top of a piece of paper, or screen. Then write a story where the first word begins with A, the second B, the third C, and so on.

Here are a couple of my attempts from earlier today – I’m sure you can do better:

A big cat drooled

Eager for grub

He insisted, "Just kill like me!"

Nice!

One plump queen rat

So tasty!
Unusually velvety whiskers

Xcellent!

Yawn

Zzzzzzz!

 

“AAAAAAAAGGH!” beasts cried

Deafening everyone.

Former guard, Harold

instinctively jumped

“Keep Low Miss! Not one peep!”

“Quiet,” Rachel suggested

tracking unseen vultures with x-rays

“Yikes, Zoos!!”

A bat came diving

Eerily floating

Gnashing her inky jaws

Killing little monsters noiselessly

One pounce quick!

Riding silent under velvet wings

X-raying …

Yelling Za-ha!

I’ll admit X and Z can be tricky (so I often cheat a bit, as above!), but give it a go. See if you can make something that makes sense using each letter once in the right order. 

Nonsense is OK too – just play with the words and see what happens. Like most of these prompts, this is just a spark to help get some words on paper. Once you have something down, you can do what you like with it. For example, you might want to add some extra words in the next draft to help it make sense, or rhyme.

For another challenge try one word for every letter but in any order you like! Will this be easier or harder? Try it and let me know.

Good luck!

Writing Prompt - IN THE BAG!

Today’s prompt is the start of a story. 

I have no idea what happens next. The only way to find out is to start writing …

Or draw a comic strip. Maybe start by drawing the opening I’ve written below, then carry on with the discovery of what is in the bag. 

Or write a poem, or make a video … whatever idea it sparks in you. After all, there could be anything in that bag …

IT STARTED like a million other Mondays. Sleepy. Late for school. A vague bad mood hovering. There was nothing to suggest that something was about to happen that would change my life forever.

            Then Mac leaned across my desk during registration. ‘Meet us by the bins at break,’ he said. ‘Got something to show you.’ The gleam in his eyes triggered a familiar shiver—one part excitement, one part dread.

            My stomach was jumping by the time I arrived at the back of the school kitchens two hours later. The others were already there—gathered around an old maroon Adidas kit bag, all scuffed up and covered in graffiti.

            ‘You dragged me here for that?’

Tash rolled her eyes. ‘Look inside,’ she said, grinning in a way that made me suspect I was being set-up.              

            All eyes were on me, so I shrugged like this was no biggie, then crouched over the bag, my guts squirming like a sack of snakes.

Knowing Mac, there could be ANYTHING in here—a dead cat, stolen booze, a live rat perhaps . . .

            I pulled back the zip, bracing myself not to react.

            I’ll be honest—of all the possibilities scrolling through my mind, none of them prepared me for what was actually inside.

            I swore. ‘Is that . . .?’