Writing Prompt Week 1
In order to become a better writer, you must practice… and practice… and practice… I personally love to come up with writing prompts to get me motivated. So once a week I’ll post a new writing prompt I’ve done before. Sometimes it will be a specific storyline proposal and other times it will simply get your creative juices flowing.
This weeks writing prompt:
Write a short story where the first and last lines are the same, but have completely different meetings.
I’ll go first.
I put my plastic gloves on and quickly got to work. After a long few weeks of volunteering to clean up the side of the highway, I had finally reached my last day. They call it volunteering but it doesn’t really feel like it when I’m only doing it for my own benefit. Those college applications won’t create themselves after all — and having a good list of “community centered” service hours always makes the college more interested. So here I am, filling plastic trash bags with more plastic. Except one is socially acceptable while the other is gross.
After tying up my last bag I hear a honk behind me. Startled I throw a fierce glare over my shoulder at the guy I know is sitting in the accused vehicle. Without fail, Jamie has come to my rescue over the past few weeks due to my lack of transportation. After all, if he’s here why would I need to invest in a car?
Yes, it may be selfish and manipulative to take advantage of him when I know all about his little crush on me. But if he’s willing, can it really be so bad?
I hop inside, giving him a wide — definitely not flirtatious — smile. He returns it and puts the car in drive. We talk on the way to his house for the game night that was planned earlier that day. It would just be us, but that's how it always was. Me and Jamie and against the world. Except, it was more like, me against the world with Jamie tagging along for the ride. While I had large aspirations for the future and college, he had large aspirations for… video games.
We spent the rest of the night laughing with junk food and playing a wide variety of board games, video games and watching movies. At the point I realized what time it was, the clock struck midnight, and I made a point to look exhausted, not wanting to hurt Jamie’s feeling by asking for a ride home.
He caught on by my second yawn, grabbing his keys and saying he’d love to give me a ride home. Hmmm… maybe I was a little manipulative.
We headed out the door and began to make the trek down the long flight of stairs leading down from his apartment. I walked behind him, with my hand swinging by my side. Before I could register what happened, my feet seemed to trip over each other, causing my entire-self to fall forward. I slammed my hand into Jamie's shoulder, causing him to lose his own balance. Though unlike me, he had no one to catch himself on.
Jamie went crashing down the stairs, loud thumps following his wake. Then splat.
The hallway filled with silence. No sound coming from me… or Jamie.
I gripped the satchel I was holding as thoughts swarmed my brain. He dead. I pushed him. It was my fault. There’s a handprint on his back. They’ll know it was me. My future.
My future.
My future.
I reached into my bag, taking out a thin cardboard box I knew all too well.
I put my plastic gloves on, and quickly got to work.
While I wrote a short story for an example, feel free to write in any sort of form. I wrote a poem that follows the exact short story but shorter as another example.
I put my plastic gloves on
and quickly got to work
The road had so much trash
My baggy now filled with dirt
My friend then picked me up
He said I was awful nice
To take time out my day
And clean into the night
We drove down to his house
To watch a movie or two
And when we went to leave
I slipped and he fell too
I recovered quickly
But he kept on sliding down
And by the time he hit the floor
Blood was all around
My first thought was to cry
Then the pure panic sunk in
It looked like I had pushed him
From the handprint on his skin
I had so much in my future
So I you know I didn’t lurk
I put my plastic gloves on
And quickly got to work
The point of a writing prompt a week is not to stress yourself out while writing it. Take your time or time a couple minutes. The main goal is to get your brain flowing with ideas.
Send me your own writing using this prompt at my email annapurna.gerber@yahoo.com !!
