This curious picture shows my mum and me reflected in a pool of water. As her birthday happens this week, it seems like an excellent writing prompt. What eerie marine family might this photo represent? How could you capture the essence, or at least a suggestion, of your own family in a slightly askew tale?
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.
In just two days it will be Valentine’s Day. Use this picture of a plate of heart-shaped cookies as your starting point and imagine who baked them. Who is the recipient?
Is this a romantic gift, a desperate or courageous declaration of love, an act of revenge, or something far more frightening?
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.
Since our fall from grace, aka leaving the EU, I’ve seen a lot of tweets and Facebook posts asking Europe to take care of our star.
Imagine a scenario where this fallen star was a physical rather than metaphorical object. What if it was the most precious and fragile item in our galaxy? How could it be protected? What power struggles might its presence on Earth result in?
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 recently happened across an advert for a beautifully crafted artificial bird, designed to be fixed onto tree branches. It felt a little like a dystopian future where all wildlife is made of metal or glass and skies are populated by fake birds with recorded song piped in. I’ll admit, it gave me a bit of a shudder.
The birdbath pictured above sits in a local Victorian cemetery, and to me fits into this idea. How would it feel to be the last remaining real wren whose best friend is sculpted from stone?
How can you make this dystopian story idea into a utopian or at least hopeful tale?
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 photo of a shelter covered in snow. It feels like a metaphor for so many things. For one thing, aside from the clumps of snow above, the manmade tunnel leads towards, or away from, beautiful blue skies.
For another, as shelters go, this one is pretty pathetic, mainly due to the fact that its main purpose is not to shelter pedestrians but to prevent us jumping onto the railway tracks below. Any yet, while rain and wind slip through, snow is suspended, at least until it thaws.
What possible narratives does it seed in your mind?
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.
Imagine this strange scenario – amid the pebbles embedded in the top of a low wall, you spy the painted face of a man. It just so happens that this is the visage of a man who will steal the heart of someone close to your protagonist.
Is he to be trusted, or not? How did his face come to be painted onto that pebble? What baggage does he bring with him? Is your character’s friend or sibling or parent or child destined for joy or grief? Flex your imagination and use your literary powers to decide their fate.
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 encountered this shrine in a Thai jungle.
Consider the scene of devastation. Who might have placed the shrine here, and why? What were they guarding against, and what could have resulted in this disarray? What spirits might linger here?
Weave a myth of good versus evil or ancient values versus new, and see where you end up.
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’ll publish it on SkyLightRain.com.
I spotted this sign just a few weeks ago. It feels extraordinary in this time when the issue of gender grows ever more individual and personal that the concept of gender divides still exist. Thankfully the Pussyhat protestors already reclaimed pink as a power colour, but the either/or debate should surely be over.
But even he/she/them doesn’t suffice in the current climate. I’m on the brink of inventing a new pronoun that will cover all genders and fractals of genders – perhaps dot. As in: ‘Judy writes fiction, Dot has been published widely…”
Use this shift in awareness as your tale’s starting point. Just for fun, write your protagonist with one gender in mind, and then swap to another. How does this deepen your own understanding of their character?
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’ll publish it on SkyLightRain.com.
Merry Christmas! As you may recall, this splendid sparkling beauty is on loan from my mum and is an original, possibly extremely flammable, 1960s tinsel tree. The zombie decoration is a more modern addition.
Christmas is a time when childhood memories take particularly prominence. In honour of this, think back and either use one of your own early memories of the festivities, or an anecdote from a parent or grandparent, to weave a seasonal story.
Wishing you a peaceful, joyful Christmas, however you choose to spend it.
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’ll publish it on SkyLightRain.com.
With pantomime season upon us, this is the perfect time to play with the old fairytale topes. Imagine a love story where some dazzling beautiful is determined to win the affection of this grumpy-looking aquatic beast.
Here’s the catch – in this modern version of Beauty and The Beast, don’t have the Beast turn out to be a secret stunner too, and don’t Shrek it up and make it so that the Beauty becomes beastly. Instead, find other grounds for their mutual passion. A shared misanthropy, perhaps?
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’ll publish it on SkyLightRain.com.