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. It always rained in the morning, soft and slow as if the ever-present clouds were shaking off the night.

2. There were no such things as Evil Wizards, not anymore. Susan had found that there were very few limits on what a god could do, even one who’d won her godhood by deeds instead of birth.

3. The air was thick with smoke, coating every breath with the taste of charred pine and scorched moss. The forest might be too wet to burn, but the invading army was still giving it the old college try.

4. Heather was the kind of dog that children dream of having; a fierce protector to ward off nightmares, a ruthless champion to mete out their revenge, someone to love them no matter what they asked of her… but Heather wasn’t real.

5. The soup was little more than flavored water, but there were few ways to make two rabbits feed eight people and damned if he was going to let any of them go hungry tonight.

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. Fate is just as often kind as unkind, but tragic endings make for better press.

2. A writer’s job is never done– which is why, at some point, the editor has to duct tape them to the chair and take away the pen.

3. It would be lying to say a hush fell over the forest because the sharp sudden silence is anything but ‘hush’.

4. Fast Food drive-through is a lot like Russian roulette, most of the time you’ve got a pretty good chance of getting what you ordered more or less in the condition you anticipated, but every so often you end up with a bag with two fish sandwiches, some neon green carbonated soda, and no fries.

5. I’m a wave upon the ocean/I’m a cloud upon the sky/A tree lost in the forest/though my memories are lies…

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 something about the way the clouds are moving that sends shivers down his spine.

2. “Inconceivable!”
“I don’t think that quote means what you think it means.”
“What?”
“Normally you’d use it when the hero has just done something you previously thought impossible, and technically he hasn’t done anything yet.”
“I wasn’t quoting anything you idiot, I was pointing out the stupidity of the action itself.”
“Ah, right, a bit of unintentional irony there then.”
“This really is a perfect example of why minions should be seen and not heard.”

3. “Only the duck can save us now!”

4. Most people wouldn’t want to be spending their last moments alive trapped in a mall surrounded by zombies, but Alice had fought long and hard for this part and dammed if she was going to let some technicality like actual zombies on set ruin her big chance.

5. Building a robot girlfriend is rarely a good idea. Building a robot girlfriend and giving it advanced emotional capabilities is never a good idea. Building a robot girlfriend, giving it advanced emotional capabilities, and fighting skills the likes the world has never seen is an idea roughly on par with creating the Power Puff Girls: the resulting property damage is hell on your credit rating. However, building a robot friend who happens to be a girl apparently doesn’t end in quite as many hospital trips for yours truly. Thank God for reprogramming!

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

Five more story starters from the bin… hopefully they will inspire someone else’s Muses!

1. There was a very important distinction between ‘not being a quitter’ and the definition of insanity (i.e.: ‘doing the same thing and expecting different results’), but at the moment he couldn’t quite pin down the difference.

2. The sun was only a dim glow through the clouds, a half-hearted echo of the searing desert sun she was used to.

3. It always snowed on Mondays.

4. “Life isn’t about change, it’s about avoiding change, and the sooner you realize that, the happier you’ll be.”

5. The clans of the near side of the mountains didn’t grow hair as they aged, they lost it. Children grew with a protective covering of fur, safe from the biting colds of the Frozen mountains. Only as they aged, skin turning leathery and toughed to the elements, did the protective coverings finally fall away…

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