Free-write about what you imagine a perfect holiday would be like. Cover the whole day, from morning to night, although you don’t have to write it chronologically. You don’t have to use Christmas or the equivalent as the holiday—pick any holiday, whether it’s your birthday, the Fourth of July, Passover, or the summer solstice.

Today, brainstorm/free-write for a page (or 10-20 minutes) about the most ridiculous idea you can come up with for a holiday discount, sale, or special. Come up with something that, if you saw it, would leave you with your mouth hanging open in surprise, shock, or just plain “huh?!”

If you happen to come up with something truly bizarre that leads to the question of “why?” or “how?”, then take this a step further and turn it into a story!

Earlier this morning, power went out all over the globe. Anything electronic? Dead in the water. No computers, no alarm clocks, no factory machines. No refrigerators or furnaces, air conditioning or security systems. Electronic door locks are dead. Electric fences lie quiescent. There’s no television or radio to tell you what’s wrong, and even if there was, no one knows enough to say.

What happens next? Where does society go from here? Were electronics knocked out a single time such that infrastructure might be rebuilt, or is something keeping them from working again? How do people cope? Where do you find food and clean water, heat or cooling as needed?

What alternative forms of power or manufacturing might people come up with? How far does civilization devolve, and what new forms spring up in place of the old?

This is a type of scenario that’s been explored in literature and movies before, but now it’s your turn to imagine how things might go.

Book Nerd

Imagine that a storm, flood, or other natural disaster were to strand you in your house this very day. First, make a list of things you have on hand that might be useful to you once the power goes out, the phone service goes out, and you can’t go anywhere for help. You might also note things you’re used to counting on that you won’t be able to—such as the fridge and stove, and if you have a well, the water.

Write a story about what happens next.

What if… you suddenly stopped sleeping? What would you do after one day? Two days? Three days? Four? Five? Six?

What caused this situation? What effects does it have on you? You can try to imagine what would really happen in such an instance, or get a bit wild & woolly with your imaginings. The cause of your insomnia could be psychological, biochemical, supernatural, drug-induced, self-induced, magical… you name it.

How different would the world look through insomniac eyes? How would your interactions with others change? How would your priorities change?

Free-write or fictionalize as you please!

It’s high time I did another “prompt on the web”—a link to a nifty prompt found on someone else’s site so you can get all SORTS of inspiration from everywhere! Today’s inspiration comes from Design your writing life, and I insist, insist, that you check out the prompt, Paddling in the Kayak, a Wiki Parable. I was hooked from the first two phrases:

Once upon a time, just yesterday, …

So go to it! Read the parable’s beginning and continue it from there!

Once again, use the following story starter to begin a piece of fiction:

“When she said the school was full of zombies, I thought she was speaking metaphorically. Who hasn’t felt that way about their classmates and teachers at one time or another? But no, when I arrived for parent-teacher conferences I found not a bored teacher, but one with her skin stretched taut over her skull, patches of bone visible through ragged holes. Flies buzzed around flesh that was half-rotted, half-cured by the desert sun. She smiled at me with teeth that looked huge without the flesh of now-receded gums and lips to keep them in context.”

Use the following story starter to begin a piece of fiction:

“Butterflies. She’d called me to make the hour-long drive to her house first thing in the morning because of butterflies. Admittedly, it seemed more than a little odd to see hundreds of them flitting about in such a small garden space, and their vivid blue coloration was striking to say the least. But still—butterflies?”

Today, turn the following story starter into a piece of fiction:

“Cats of all shapes, sizes and colors flooded through the open doorway. Calico and tortoisheshell, seal-point and tabby, tiny kittens and huge bruisers, they made their way out of the warehouse with a calling and shrieking that must have been audible throughout the district.”

I’ve fallen for Dionys Moser’s desert photos. They are some of the most striking, beautiful, colorful works I’ve ever seen. Every single one of them could spawn an entire world or story. Today, write a scene that takes place in the following image (click through for the larger version) or, if you prefer, one of Moser’s others: