Picture a pair of children who have been told to wait somewhere unexpected and increasingly perilous, such as on a crumbling cliff-edge or at the edge of rising water.

Use this extreme situation to dig into their relationship. How do they feel about each other? Is their primary emotion jealousy or devotion.

What dramatic event has led to their predicament? How will they each help the other to escape?

Add in an unconventional characteristic the pair have in common, and explore how they might use it to improve their situation.

To skew the balance of power, provide just one with a tool that could help with their situation. Do they choose to share their advantage or keep it to themselves?

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I may publish it on SkyLightRain.com.

I spotted this punctured pink flamingo balloon at a local nature reserve. It’s such a vibrant, cheerful object – and what could be more innocent than a balloon?

Yet this escaped frippery is a hazard to wildlife, and one that could last longer that the trees it’s tangled among. Google ‘balloons’ and “dangers” and countless chilling tales bob up. And that’s without considering the implications for a planet already loaded with plastic.

More than a month after I first glimpsed it, the flamingo is wind-battered, storm-torn and looking far from its best, but it’s still there.

Your challenge this week is to take something designed for fun and weave it into a horror story that serves as a warning. See how dark you can make it.

Now take that story and edit it into a tale that lifts spirits and offers hope.

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I may publish it on SkyLightRain.com.

I’ve been feeling a bit nostalgic this week, celebrating the first birthday of my second collection Sky Light Rain, and remembering writing the tales in my first collection Remember Me To The Bees. The first story in that first collection is ‘Never Seen The Sea’, and is, as the title suggests, about a person’s first ever sighting of the sea.

It was a fun challenge to imagine never having seen something most of us take for granted. My parents took me to the seashore as a baby, so it has always been part of my landscape and understanding of the world.

I set you the challenge of writing a short story about someone experiencing something ordinary for the first time and finding it extraordinary. Perhaps its their first tree (how astonishingly tall!), thunderstorm (terrifying!), or music.

Whatever it is, write it from the point of view of the person seeing, feeling, tasting, hearing, smelling and tasting this first-in-their-lifetime event. Describe it using all the senses and try to capture the wonder for your readers to share.

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I may publish it on SkyLightRain.com.

I love this moment of curiosity between a boy and a seagull. It feels like each is assessing the other as a potential foe.

But perhaps they’re about to discover they’re each the friend the other has always sought – imagine the adventures they could have together! In fiction, an unlikely pairing can introduce comedy, discomfort or unexpected depths of empathy. What could these two learn from one another?

Of course, observed via Philip Pullman’s rich imagination, one could be the other’s daemon.

From this starting point, invent a duo whose allegiance is as surprising as possible, and use your creative prowess to make them utterly credible.

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I may publish it on SkyLightRain.com.

While visiting Porto in late February/early March, I was struck by the grandeur of many of the buildings set against the hardship of the people sleeping on their steps.

It’s a story you’ll see enacted in cities across the world, unless officials have moved them out of sight. During the UK lockdown, homeless people were moved into hotels temporarily, but what happens now? I’ve noticed that on the rare occasions I now meander into the city centre, more individuals are begging again, asking for any germ-laden coins I can offer.

It feels like we’ve already entered a dystopian future. Can you explore this idea with a touch of exaggeration (sadly, a touch is all that’s needed), where a ravaged society is in desperate need of a solution before the health of those on its lowest rungs are poised to infect those at the top?

Can you invent a solution leading to a happy ending to give your readers hope?

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I may publish it on SkyLightRain.com.

I spotted this giraffe campaigning in my neighbourhood, reminding us that black lives matter just as much as everyone else. It’s, sadly, an important message in these difficult times, and feels particularly fitting coming from such a dappled creature.

Imagine if all creatures were able to have their say regarding prejudice (racism, sexism and homophobia, among others), human rights infringements, animal cruelty, the climate crisis and more. What might a blue whale want to tell us about the state of our oceans, or an orang-utan about the impact of deforestation?

Could you embark on your own searing version of George Orwell’s Animal Farm to make a clear point about the troubles we’ll face if we don’t sort ourselves out?

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I may publish it on SkyLightRain.com.