1. The clouds seal off the sky, a grim undulating wall of gray that thwarts her attempts to chart their course. By the fifth day she can only answer ‘at sea’ when the prince asks where they are.

2. Superstition holds that cats walk closest to the spirit world, but even here, where the barriers are thinnest, superstition is all that they can claim. Mice, on the other hand…

3. It’s easier not to try– and the days turn to weeks turn to months and it isn’t until some well-meaning coworker murmurs condolences that he realizes a year has passed.

4. They’d tried creating magical companion animals once, as a way of expanding their mana pools. Melding human and animal into a coherent whole… Their students’ students still whisper tales of the disastrous results centuries later.

5. The downside to waking from cryogenic slumber into a futuristic world is that no one knows how anything works. Kate glared unhappily at her current handler who was honestly confused as to why her charge kept asking such strange questions. If a hovercar worked, why did it matter how?

1. Griffins were unpredictable creatures, more bird than cat in their reactions. Which meant the best you could hope for was that they decided you were just another bird, and treated you as such. You haven’t lived until you’ve been preened affectionately by something the size of a horse.

2. When you know you’re going to die, how long do you keep trying to live?

3. There is something to be said for doing nothing; long lazy summer days where you sit back, relax, and soak in the fact that yes, you are allowed to just be.

4. “Lights! Action! Camera!” He waved his arms dramatically at the life-sized T-Rex, while she rolled her eyes and smiled in embarrassment at the bemused tourists that parted around them like migrating caribou.

5. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results might be crazy, but seriously, how else do you learn a skill?

These story prompts are released into the wild per Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License, so sayth their author Martha McMahon Bechtel.

Technotari Tags: Writing Prompts

1. Nothing ever came between a boy and his dinosaur. Of course that might have had more to do with the dinosaur than any hackneyed metaphor, but she really wasn’t willing to stick around and find out.

2. The one thing you can never escape is the bugs.

3. I’d say something clever about never trust a cat when it’s got it’s eye on the mouse, but I really don’t have time for clever. I’m trying not to die.

4. There is something in the shadows, but there is always something in the shadows so it’s stopped be as interesting (or alarming) as it sounds.

5. Nothing beats a nice cold drink in the morning, something to offset the wave of crushing heat that spirals off the sun.

These story prompts are released into the wild per Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License, so sayth their author Martha McMahon Bechtel.

Technotari Tags: Writing Prompts

1. There’s a sound above them in the trees, a soft low hum that sounds like the rustling of leaves… but not quite.

2. “Anyone have a match?”

3. A slick sheen of ice covered the surface of the boat, dripping from the railings, and splintering into spiderwebs of frost across the bulkheads.

4. Sight and sound are only two of five senses, on this world what keeps you alive is smell…

5. Never turn your back on a cat.

These story prompts are released into the wild per Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License, so sayth their author Martha McMahon Bechtel.

Technotari Tags: Writing Prompts

1. This is where things change– these next few words control their future. Only it’s not about saving the world anymore, only how badly they’ll destroy it.

2. “Do you know what time it is?” He grinned over the counter, hands conspicuously behind his back.

“I swear, if you have what I think you have–”

“Da-da-da Banana Time!” He unloaded the bag of groceries with a flourish of unrepentant glee. Only Darren could sneak ice cream sundaes into the house without fearing mom’s wrath. Being the baby of the family has its benefits… plus the rest of us get ice cream, so we can’t complain.

3. Cats are well known for being able to see spirits. Mittens was fine with that, it was the part about spirits being able to see her that the kitten found unnerving.

4. There are levels to pain and she worked her way down through each one, unraveling as she went.

5. It was easier to live in forests than the wide open plains. After a decade shipboard they’d grown used to enclosed areas and the unending horizons unnerved them. Yolan took it hardest, always pushing himself to go a little further from the shade, furious when the sense of impending danger finally sent him scurrying back.

These story prompts are released into the wild per Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License, so sayth their author Martha McMahon Bechtel.

Technotari Tags: Writing Prompts