Weekend Writing Prompts: Poetry, Pocket-watches, and People

Prompt a) Gaze out your window for a few minutes and write a poem about what you see and experience. Then write a story inspired by the poem, either about the fictional poet who might have written it, or the subject of the poem. 

Prompt b) Look at your watch or jewelry collection and select a piece that stands out to you. Make up a history for the object and storify it. 

Prompt c) If you are alone, walk into a room occupied by at least one other person. Strike up a conversation. Go back to your desk/couch/computer and use their response as the starting point for a story.

Mixing it up with life-inspired prompts! Enjoy your weekend writing!

Weekend Writing Prompts: a Rumor, a Coma, and a Thousand Years

Welcome to another gorgeous Friday at Operation Awesome! If you're writing this weekend, or even if you weren't planning on it, give these prompts a try. They may just help you get your creative juices flowing!

Prompt a) The ballroom din falls to a hush as your main character enters alone. Nothing but the swishing of ball gowns and whispers fills the empty air. What are they whispering about? How does your character react? Is he or she stoic, melancholy, or jubilant? 


Prompt b) She's been jumping in and out of books in the old magic library for the better part of three days, and she still can't find the one her dad read to her before he fell into his coma. She's certain the villain of that story had something to do with it, and the answer to reviving him lies in that same story. If only she could remember the title, or the author, or anything. Why had she been half paying attention during his reading? What part of that world had distracted her from the main plot which had so affected her father? How does she feel about her mother's reaction to the coma? What will happen to her family if she doesn't find the book and save her dad?


Prompt c) To Sam, every thousand years of humanity is simply a day. In the morning, he sees one civilization rise, and in the evening, he raises a generation of warriors to re-establish order after a period of anarchy. Every half hour is a little more than 20 years, and he's weary. A time travel experiment gone awry has doomed him to this strange and disconnected existence. Humans regard him as a god, not something that was once human like themselves. Their lives are like sand slipping through his fingers, and his relationships are with family lines, not individuals. Love is out of the question. Is there any hope for Sam? How could he possibly get out of the time warp he's in, and would his problems be solved if, say, he resumed human life, only to end up in a time period of war and unrest? Can he have romance after all, or is he doomed to be alone forever? Where is the end of time?


From shallow to deep. What did you come up with? If you use one of our prompts, we'd love to hear about it in the comments! Happy weekend and happy writing!

Weekend Writing Prompts: Moon Cheese, Moonflower, and Djinn Revolt

It's Friday!! I have some writing prompts for you to whet your imagination:

a) (This one's for my eight-year-old son:) Write about a troll that lives on the moon and mines it for cheese. Who is his competition for the moon cheese? And how does he resolve conflicts with the natives?

b) The moonflower only blooms in the light of the full moon. Then it lasts three nights before it withers and its power becomes null. You've heard of a hill across the water where moonflower grows like clover among the grass, but nobody in the kingdom has seen one in over a hundred years. You wonder if it's just a myth, but it can't be, because you desperately need its power: the power of invisibility. Why?

c) The djinn are in full revolt against their masters and each other. The favoring of djinn of one province over the djinn of the outer realms has long been a source of jealousy and contention when the djinn meet in the between place. What mistreatment brought this friction to a boiling point? Is there any way a small child can broker peace between them before their war destroys both the between place and the human world?


Happy Weekend Writing!

If you use one of our prompts, let us know in the comments. Even better, share your flash fiction.

Weekend Writing Prompts: Magic Stinky Carpet, Gossamer Curtain, The Question

a) The stinky carpet in your grandmother's hospice room has gone missing, and so has she. Where did they go?

b) The house at the end of the street lies empty, except for a single gossamer curtain that hangs from the very center of the dark and decaying room. Is anything hidden behind it? What does it represent to its discoverer, and what does it represent to the one who left it behind?

c) If you have to take one more exam, you'll scream. It's finals week and every teacher has surprised the class with a pop quiz. It's the last period of the day when someone taps your shoulder. You turn around and see that in your fog of tests, you failed to notice your long-time crush walk in and take the seat behind you. Now he wants to ask you something, you can see it in the slant of his perfectly oceanic eyes. What does he say? What impact does it have on this moment, the day, and the entire upcoming summer? How do the people around you react?

Happy Weekend Writing! If you use a prompt to get you kick-started this weekend, comment below. You can share your masterpiece or just nod if you'd rather keep it to yourself.

Weekend Writing Prompts: a Defiled Cave, a Lab Monster, and the Biggest Library in the World

Welcome to another edition of Weekend Writing Prompts by Operation Awesome! *cheesy grin*
For more prompts, check out last week's first edition.

a) You enter a cave filled with graffiti. Chipped stalagtites hang everywhere like ragged shark teeth. An eerie drip is coming from somewhere, echoing through the main chamber. Several tunnels snake away from you. Brightly colored spray paint, still fresh, points an awkwardly drawn arrow down the tunnel to your left. How did you get here, and why don't you want to run away from this dark, eerie scene?

b) An elderly librarian sits in the biggest library in the world, surrounded by a mixture of the world's oldest, most ornate leather-bound books and a row of state-of-the-art touchscreen kiosks. The girl who just walked in holds an ancient key in one hand and a memory drive in her pocket. She is dripping wet with a determined, yet weary expression in her eyes. What are the first words out of her mouth? Will the librarian be inclined to help or stop her?

c) The lab on the forty-seventh floor leads out to a series of labyrinth offices, some covered in dust, others immaculate with the smell of hospital. In the main lab, a white-coated figure stands over a gurney. What lies on the gurney isn't strictly human. Nor is it any animal this doctor has ever seen. The sound it makes sends a resonant tingle from his toes to his neck. It's purring. The doctor is alone on a Sunday night, with only the rent-a-cop night guard downstairs for back-up. The lower floors serve as corporate offices, rented out to myriad companies. Nobody is crazy enough to be working except for him. Looking at the needle in his hand, the doctor gets the unsettling impulse to stab and run. What does he do instead? What special and unexpected skill does the night guard have that can help?

Happy writing this weekend!

Enjoy those finals, or the first days of summer, whichever!

Friday Fun: Three Writing Prompts for the Weekend

I wonder sometimes if other people's weekends are as unproductive as mine when it comes to writing. If you are like me and get busy with family and faith over the weekend, you may need something to draw you into writing like I sometimes do. That's what writing prompts are for!

I'll give you a couple to choose from. Pick a prompt, get your pen or keyboard, and get writing. Once you're in the groove, open up your WIP (work in progress) and keep going!

Prompt a)  A family is reunited in the posh conference room of a law office for the reading of their mother's last will and testament. Amid the expected inheritances, a few surprises emerge. Write what happens next.


Prompt b) Two missionary brothers travel to opposite sides of the world. One has been living in a renovated French palace, the other in a hut which has been burned to the ground by roving gangs at least once. When they return to their small town parish, the congregants ask them to tell their stories. A girl they have been vying for since boyhood is among them. Tell how they behave.


Prompt c) Seven strangers are thrown together in a Walgreens to shelter from a sudden monsoon. Two are running from the law, and one is a techie with a photographic memory who lives in his parents' guest house. Describe the actions and reactions of each stranger.

Happy Writing Weekend, All!


p.s.  In case you missed it, Angelica's book baby had a birthday. Check out the Crow's Rest bloghop.