A fan wins a contest to meet their favorite idol. What happens?
Tag: story starters
There is a djinn in apartment number twelve. Nothing is normal when a genie is next door.
If you’re not sure what a “djinn” is, that is one of the alternate names for a Genie. When you hear the word genie, most people will probably think about Disney’s Aladdin. Which is pretty cool – you can’t go wrong with Robin Williams! The classic djinn tropes often include magic lamps and the granting of wishes, along with the warning that you should never trust a genie. They are prominent in Arabic and Islamic mythology and according to the wikipedia page on Jinn they are one of the three “sapient beings of God” along with humans and angels. I thought that was a very neat and very muse enticing tidbit.
School blog post?! Someone’s nightmare has happened and a post they didn’t want seen has been posted up at school.
What’s the story? These days EVERYONE has access to the internet. High school students, middle school tweens, and even elementary school kids are sporting laptops, tablets, and personal cell phones. Between Facebook, Twitter, and random sites all over the net, there is a TON of ways for school kids to interact. Can you imagine the chaos and drama that would follow if your private online blog suddenly got posted up for the entire school to see? Imagine your crush getting the truth about your feelings, or that one person that ticks you off getting to see mile long rants about how much they suck. Your life, inner thoughts, and deepest secrets. There’s a whole world of fun school-involved drama you can write up for an unsuspecting set of characters.
Need a little help for getting in to the mind of the modern school students and faculty? You can search a ton of hosted blogs at WordPress.com.
If teenagers are not your cup of tea, consider writing from the perspective of a parent or a teacher at the school. Some parents are heavily involved in school activities, what would they do to find out their personal business is now posted all over the school? How would a teacher react to finding out they are being talked about in student blogs? The janitor might have a double life that no one knew about or even suspected was possible. It could even be an official school blog post – just not one anyone was meaning to post!
Consider that things involved in the blog post might not be bad things. A list of the top hottest teachers in school, or the town’s sexiest single dads? Perhaps it’s the best dressed students of all time and someone is really embarrassed to be publicly noticed.
A frozen lake castle… There it is, a castle sitting above the lake. What sort of setting does this invoke?
I may have watched Frozen one too many times, but I’ve often seen beautiful artwork of castles over-looking the waters of a lake or ocean. For this setting challenge, image the castle is standing over the bank of a frozen lake. What sort of home or fortress might this be? Is it in a modern setting or in a fantasy world? What about on another planet and discovered by space explorers? Who lives in this castle and what sort of kingdom does it reside in? What might you find inside, or in the area surrounding it?
For a little visual inspiration, this Pinboard offers thousands of real life castles or you can take a look at this great collection of castle artwork.
The unicorn with bad intentions. What’s the story?
Unicorns in stories are usually depicted as creatures of goodness and light. Often only seen by innocent virgin damsels. But what would you get when the unicorn isn’t so nice? Unicorns are unique in that they don’t seem to have an origin story in mythologies. They also have only ever been depicted as good creatures. Not a monster or frightening beast like most fictional creatures of legends.
A small cabin in the woods. Describe the setting!
A day in the life of the angriest elf. What’s the story?
Aliens have infiltrated a college. What’s the story?
Write about a couple receiving really good news!
A wizard finds a cellphone in his library. What’s the story?