oddprompts

Week 2 of Odd Prompts

That was a fantastic response to week 1! Not only the writing pieces, but the comments and interaction. It’s great to see how everyone interpreted their work, and there are some fantastic things in the comments of last week, you should look if you haven’t already.

Week 2 looks like some fun. Keep in mind that there is no minimum word count. No max, either, although I’m not sure how long you can go in a WordPress comment if that’s how you are publishing your responses! Also, this doesn’t have to be fiction. Last week we got poetry. Non-fiction is fine. Whatever floats your goat.

And if you didn’t remember to submit a prompt challenge to oddprompts@gmail.com in time to be included, there are spare prompts at the bottom of this post. Please, pick one and join in on the fun!

Prompter NamePromptPrompted
Cedar SandersonAs the ash falls down all aroundBrena Brock
Jennie PosthumousA pinch of poison, a few hours, and a grave later the deed was done and none would ever be the wiser.Bob Mueller
Becky Jonestraveling and castlesLeigh Kimmel
Nother MikeWhen I opened my locker, the dragon kittens wrestled each other out…Clint
Brena BrockAt that point, the machine stopped beeping.Misha Burnett
Leigh KimmelMy prompt for this week is the music video for Phil Collins and Philip Bailey’s “Easy Lover” It can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkRKT6T0QLgDuke of Chaos
Fiona GreyThe ducks have gone to war.Cal Pomes
ClintDescribe something very familiar (to you and your reader) from the perspective of character to whom it’s completely foreign.Jennie Posthumous
Misha BurnettA scene in which the main character is sentenced to exile in anothor worldNother Mike
Cal PomesGoing through a coffee can of old keysBecky Jones
Duke of ChaosYou stumble across proof that humans did not evolve on Earth. What now?Fiona Grey
Bob MuellerThere’s a camera on your desk that you’ve never seen before.Cedar Sanderson
  1. The reactions of passers-by to a woman walking a three foot tall elephant on a leash. 
  2. A newscast during which the existence of an extraterrestrial spacecraft heading towards the Earth is announced. 
  3. A conversation between two people planning a murder–do not state specifically that they intend to kill someone. 
  4. Someone finds a box on their front porch containing a severed human head–but in that time and place, it’s perfectly normal. 

There have been some volunteers of help – thank you, so much. It is deeply appreciated because I’d like to make this a year-long journey. Who knows what lies along the way? That’s a prompt all unto itself, and just like a prompt, everyone’s year will look different.

60 comments

  1. My prompt was: As the ash falls down all around.

    This is the snippet my mind provided. I’m not sure I want to expand on this one.

    Jules lowered the flamethrower and sighed through her breath mask, she felt a mixture of relief and sorrow. It was done, the infection was contained. What was left of the colony was safe for another year.

    The wind kicked up and ashes swirled like autumn leaves as she turned and walked away.

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    • I reworded the last sentence because I can’t leave well enough alone.

      As she turned and walked away, the wind kicked up, and ashes swirled like autumn leaves.

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    • If you do want to expand on it, you can flashback to landing, setting up the colony, and discovering… whatever it is. And the yearly battle… along with what they are trying to do this year, to recover. Oh, you might also toss in another colony ship arriving in orbit, and the question of whether or not to join this colony or go on… fun!

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    • Oh, that is a lovely word picture in a very dark and austere way. I completely understand not wanting to go further with it. I was thinking about volcanoes when I wrote the prompt down, it’s so cool to see the different directions story seeds can grow in.

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  3. After several days of dealing with vertigo I finally felt well enough to sit at the computer, just in time for Week 2 of Odd Prompts.

    Due in part to the illness, I missed sending in a prompt, so I picked from one of the extras: Someone finds a box on their front porch containing a severed human head–but in that time and place, it’s perfectly normal.

    https://undomesticatedfeline.wordpress.com/2020/01/08/special-delivery/

    Very seat of the pants. (plot, what’s a plot)

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      • I wouldn’t call Chase “poor.” He’s based on a couple of exes that various of my friends have (alas) and I didn’t really have time to imply how much his joint custody is for him to seem noble and good, while he ignores the child in question when they’re actually there.

        Note that while I am very fond of fairy tales and their tropes, the stepfathers I know personally are much more deserving of the Dad title than the guys they’re replacing.

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    • Chase is in for an interesting hike. I hiked a lot in the Sierras growing up. There are a lot of places in back country where a hiker can have a fatal accident.

      The pingback works. The screw up might be my fault, I copied the url for my post, but inadvertently got the comment in the link and posted before I caught it. Sorry!

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  6. The smell of antiseptic masking old blood and rot
    A machine talking numbers to itself with light
    A body, shriveled, curled up on a cot
    A small room full of big pain and night

    They walk, the quiet shadows, past the door
    Glance in to see that nothing’s changed and then
    Go on to the next, the next, and more
    Ready for the end not if but when

    Does anyone know he was once a man
    Years and miles before this bed
    Does anyone wonder if he can
    Hear what goes on outside his head?

    Sometime near dawn Grandmother Death came creeping
    And at that point the machine stopped beeping

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    • Nice. I guessed typewriter at first. Hmm, is that my age showing? 😉

      Are they still using CD’s? The laptop a co-worker bought didn’t even have a cd drive, just the usb ports.

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      • Thanks!! Heh… I know some people who still have typewriters 😉

        This would have been about 10ish years ago. Selia was 16 when she was banished and the current novel takes place about 10 years later.
        So at that time? Yeah. A desktop would have a CD player. In fact, a lot of desktops still come with CD players. You’re just not going to get an old CRT monitor with a glass screen anymore 😉

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      • I still have my old smith corona electric, somewhere.

        Ah, okay. I run into similar with one of my ‘series’, it spans from the last 90’s to maybe last year. Trying to keep the tech right is “fun”.

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  16. Wow, but this was a trip! Pushed myself hard to crank something out. Short fiction is not my usual medium; I think this is only the third or fourth short story I’ve ever written. It came in right at 6,000 words, and I didn’t know what the comment limit was, so it’s over on the public side of my Patreon. Didn’t want to link that directly, so here’s my blog post that points to it: http://www.bobmuellerwriter.com/prompted-fiction-substitution/

    This also came out a lot darker than what I’m used to writing.

    A teaser:

    Just like that, Kendall’s world fell apart. The people around her, the throbbing music, all faded away to nothing.

    Heart in her stomach, she stared at Josh’s phone screen, still not comprehending the message. Thirty seconds ago, she was looking forward to some long-overdue sack time with her boyfriend of three years. With their competing schedules at the EMS service, it’d been three weeks since she’d been naked with him and that had only been a quickie at the station. She couldn’t remember the last time they screwed in a bed.

    And now it might not happen ever again.

    “Can’t wait to see you tonight. Call me as soon as you leave the party.” The message faded from the screen, still burning its way through her brain.

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    • “by the time I’ve gotten around to choosing a prompt, there are a bunch of really good responses, and I get intimidated by the talent I see. Consequently, I don’t write anything”

      Oh man, can I relate. 🙂

      Substitution:
      Whoa. I had two theories about “R”, one of the proved out.
      Now to consider what Kendal will do now, knowing that she murdered an innocent person.

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  19. Mine ended up being longer than I’d expected — I’m thinking it’s about the first chapter and a quarter of a light romantic adventure. If I can make connections this convention season with an artist who works in the moe style and has rates I can afford, it would be neat to produce it as a light novel in the Japanese style.

    The section I wrote is up at my LiveJournal at https://starshipcat.livejournal.com/679045.html.

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