Category: Writing Prompts

1000 Words: How do you break through to Monday?

A picture is worth 1,000 words, they say. Maybe they’re right. Let’s show ’em. Take this photo and make a story.

This is the “Man Going through the Wall” sculpture in Montmartre, Paris, known as Le-Passe-Murialle.

This sculpture is based on a character from the novel “Le Passe-Muraille” by Marcel Ayme.

If you’ve read the book, write another chapter.

If you haven’t read it, come up with a story to explain what this man is doing. Is he running from or running to something? is it easy or hard to get through that wall?

1000 Words: We’ll always have you-know-where

A picture is worth 1,000 words, they say. Maybe they’re right. Let’s show ’em. Take one of these photos — or all of them, your choice — and make a story.

What kind of story would have your character(s) stopping by these places in one afternoon?

l-r: Place de la Bastille (the Bastille Monument), Le Descartes Cafe and Bar, La Fontaine Medicis (the Medici Fountain), Le Train Bleu. Photos by Anthony Watson/Point North Images.

Right Now: Let’s begin a series of writing prompts with Janus

Head of Janus, Vatican Museum, Rome

Background:

In Roman mythology, Janus is the god of beginnings and transitions. (Interestingly, there is no Greek equivalent for Janus.)

The god of looking back and looking ahead presides over doors, arches, gates, passages, and endings – and is in charge of transitional periods such as moving from war to peace.

He is usually depicted as having two faces looking in opposite directions – forward and backward.

The beginning of the day, week, month, and year are sacred to him. Appropriately, the first month of the year, January, was named for him.

Your Assignment:

At a cocktail party one night, you bump into a guy wearing a hoodie who says he’s the Roman god Janus. You laugh so hard you accidentally spill your drink on him.

As he’s leaning over to clean up his outfit, the hoodie falls back, and you see that he has another face on the back of his head.

When he finishes, he looks up at you and tells you intimate details of your immediate past and a glimpse into your immediate future.

What do you do?

Go Write Right Now.