Ever had a mental drought? As creatives, you may hear someone talk about refilling the well. Which, in a way, is what the prompts help with. If you’ve ever pumped water up from a well, you know that in order to create a flow of water in the pipe, you must first prime the pump. A pipe full of air will never create the suction to draw up more water. Paradoxical, but to get water you must begin with some water. In a creative brain, to flow with ideas, you must start with an idea. A prompt, perhaps? If you don’t even get started with that, it may be time to step back and set yourself up for success by reading, going to a museum, taking a lesson or watching a video of someone creating…
| Prompter | Prompt | Prompted |
| AC Young | It was a jigsaw production line. No sooner had one been finished, than someone got out the next. | Parrish Baker |
| Parrish Baker | “It was finally Tuesday, so she could breathe underwater again.” | Fiona Grey |
| Becky Jones | He gaped as flowers sprang up everywhere. | nother Mike |
| Leigh Kimmel | I thought it was just a branch of the old yew tree lying on the roof. It proved to be an entire limb. | AC Young |
| nother Mike | He sneezed, and a whole box of tissues flew up and around the room… | Leigh Kimmel |
| Fiona Grey | After that, it was a hop, skip, and a jump – literally – to Mars. | Becky Jones |
Didn’t send in a prompt because you were lost in the desert without ideas? That’s where spare prompts come in! Like a long, cool, drink of water.
| Spare | As we began, so shall we end |
| Spare | Someone was baking an alien baby in the kitchen… |
| Spare | When the teacher said use your imaginations, she didn’t expect Harry to make the chairs dance around the classroom… |
| Spare | Do you know the witch doctor, he is a friend of mine! |
| Spare | The graveyard was full of lost and forgotten punchlines… |
| Spare | The raccoon barreled into the room, face fur slicked back and tail poofed. |
Don’t forget to come back and share what you’ve done in the comments. And send in a prompt for next week to oddprompts at gmail dot com.
More Odds Than Ends 
https://open.substack.com/pub/urnasemper/p/weekly-writing-prompt-challenge?r=pn89z&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
— Parrish Baker
LikeLike
My response is up: https://acyoungauthor.substack.com/p/the-aftermath
LikeLike
Here’s mine. Came as a bit of a surprise to me.
https://professorornery.substack.com/p/going-to-mars
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ll bet someone will have a Christmas anthology that this might lead into! Kris Nicholas across the solar system! And where’s Rudolph?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Becky Jones prompted…
He gaped as flowers sprang up everywhere.
[hoho! Magic, magician’s tricks, or perhaps a happy set of friends? Hum…]
Harvey took a deep breath, then he began the incantation. He carefully moved his hands through the necessary waves and fidgets, and… then as he finished the invocation, he blinked
There, it was done! Now to see the corpses climb out of their graves as his newly raised zombie army stood ready for his commands.
He gaped as flowers sprang up everywhere.
Wait, wait. He wanted zombies, not flowers! What did he do wrong?
He jumped and turned to look as hIs mentor chuckled behind him.
“Did you really think I would trust you with the zombie spell? No, I taught you the fairy flower spell, guaranteed to raise flowers anywhere and any time! Now, come with me, and we’ll talk about why you wanted zombies…”
Harvey looked around. Well, the graveyard looked nice with all those flowers, at least…
Then he turned and followed his mentor away.
[hum, I kind of like that! A slightly bumbling magician in training…]
LikeLike
Alright, I want more of whatever this is. Now as to whether I actually get it…
LikeLiked by 1 person
[…] Check more out, over at MOTE! […]
LikeLike
And mine is now up on my LiveJournal at https://starshipcat.livejournal.com/1605707.html. It’s more of a sketch than anything developed, but it was fun to play with the idea.
LikeLike