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.

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1. In space, things very rarely settle for going ‘a little bit’ wrong.

2. The trip was plagued with constant rain, from drizzles to downpours and back without a smidge of blue sky in-between.

3. Life might be greener on the other side of the fence, but Chuck had learned a thing or two about being green from Kermit.

4. In most parts of the country the going price for a goat was easily two pigs and a rabbit, but Little Darlington was actually the goat producing capital of the lower fourteen kingdoms and Dorrin was going to be lucky if he could get more than three guinea pigs and a bag of turnips.

5. On the whole, death rays really weren’t that convenient. It’s sort of hard to gloat meaningfully as your master plan comes to fruition when you don’t have an audience.

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

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1. It’s odd how life is rarely about those big important choices, but hinges on the small stupid choices you didn’t even realize were choices until it was too late.

2. History 131 was much more interesting when your teacher was an Immortal.

3. Watch enough movies and you think fantasy worlds are full of horse-equivalents and pseudo-dragons, when in fact the most common recognizable critters are rats.

4. “Think of it as practice for saving the world!”

5. Sometimes I think life is defined by the distance between what you want and what you need.

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

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1. In theory it should have hit her when she actually left, but she found herself staring at the suitcase, half packed with memories, and facing the full brunt of her decision.

2. Night rolls in, a stark line of shadow where the world shade blocks the sun.

3. “Have you ever noticed how nothing ever turns out how you expect?”

“Well yeah, but that’s life, right?”

“No, no it’s not.” Henry gave Evan a long look. “When I said nothing, I meant it literally. I can’t think of a single thing you’ve done that’s turned out the way you intended it to.”

“But it’s worked out in the end.”

“That’s not the point, no matter how bad your luck something should have gone right.” Henry frowned, “There’s something not right about you, but damned if I can figure it out.”

4. Another day gone, another shift ended, and all she can think about is how she’s going to make it to the pawnshop in time to get back her grandmother’s bracelet.

5. There’s something about losing your dreams that makes you stubborn– broken, empty, but full of fire against a world that’s turned from environment to antagonist. So she won’t die, not yet, not here, because then the planet wins. Seven generations of traveler blood won’t be denied the stars for long…

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