On a street near where I live, plane trees have had their branches coppiced into fists. This one has threaded its stumped arms through a starburst of electric wires.

Currently wires and tree stretch outwards in seeming harmony, but it may take just one bad storm, or bad mood, for this tree to reach out and pull the whole network down.

It feels almost as if the surrounding houses are dependent on this tree for more than shade, shelter, improved air quality and the rest. Perhaps if trees really did have the power to knock out streaming services on a whim, we might be more careful how we treat them.

Might we really be walking such a narrow line, or wire?

Can you turn this into a short story or other creative work?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

The idea of No-Mow May has made a huge difference to our much-needed and much-threatened insect and invertebrate life.

By giving humans an excuse not to undergo the arduous task of cutting grass (‘I’m not being lazy – it’s for the bees!’), they’ve reminded us of something important – beautiful doesn’t naturally equate to neat. In fact, a bit of rough and ready makes a lot more sense when it comes to gardens, parks and forests!

What other ideas could tap into human indolence or competitive spirit and at the same time help to protect our wild world? Can you turn this into a hopeful tale?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

The marks left in sand by humans, animals, plants and the wind, hint so much about what’s happened. But they’re also utterly ephemeral – the next time the wind blows or something passes by, this evidence will disappear.

What does this disarray show? What happened here? What came this way? Where has it gone? And what might happen next?

That’s up to you. Can you use this as a prompt for a tale or other creative work?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

On a rare, sunny blue-skied day (they’ve been few and far between this spring), I paused to admire this pink-blossoming tree in a local park. What a glorious sight! It makes me think ‘in the pink’ must have been born from a vision of hope and life like this.

Can you write a story stemming from this flush of vitality?

Alternatively, create something inspired by the black-clad figure hunched on the bench to the left of this image. What’s happening in their world?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

Even the most pristine strip of sand  is strewn with bits of plastic rubbish these days. On a recent outing to Weston-Super-Mare in north Somerset, my sister and I couldn’t resist doing a bit of a beach clean. The more we cleared, the more we found. The hardest to gather were tiny specks of blue and red plastic that I could imagine finding their way into marine creatures’ stomachs and into the food chain.

Can you use this as inspiration for a story? You could create a piece about some strangers brought together by a communal litter-pick, or have someone change their supermarket choices, or even career options, as a result of what they see washed up.

Alternatively, focus on the animals it impacts, and don’t forget that includes us humans.

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

The other day I glanced at a  plane tree I’ve strolled past a thousand times and noticed something strange. In a small nook on the patchy, rugged trunk, a community was dozing.

Snails. Lots of them. All sitting close together and still hibernating, tucked up in their shells.

What startled me was how many times I walked so close this winter and early spring, and never spotted them before.

They aren’t covered up at all – just hidden in plain sight, and relying on their predators’ lack of attention to detail. What a simple, yet apparently effective, means of survival!

What else might we be passing by in our daily lives without realising? And, equally, how precarious is our own safety in the nooks we call homes?

Can you turn this into a tale or other creative work?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

I love how this tree appears to be sporting the botanic equivalent of a tattoo on its trunk, and that the tattoo it’s chosen is of a tree. Nature often seems to me to be the best artist, and this feels like proof.

But does this tree on tree artwork mean something extra in these climate-crisis times? Is the tree calling for action to save the plant and animal life we depend on?

Could the forest be plotting a coup?

Or do trees simply rise above our petty troubles as we scurry about and continue seeing to the world’s oxygen production and habitat needs?

Can you turn this into a hopeful story, poem or other creative work?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

While walking beside a river on a particularly glorious day, I wanted to photograph the way the sunlight danced over reeds. When I looked at the photo I was disappointed to see a glitch in the form of a blue square marring the bucolic scene.

“I think there’s a glitch with my phone’s camera,” I grumbled, and my Lovely One shook his head.

“Look.”

He pointed across the river to Bristol’s Paintworks, where a bright, uncannily blue square adorned the top of a tower.

The point of this anecdote is that just because something looks unreal, doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Our job as writers is to give the made up a sense of plausibility, but this can be extra challenging when it comes to writing real life. Reality is often implausible. Writers I’ve edited have sometimes protested, “But it really happened like that!”

Doesn’t matter what the truth is – what matters is what seems true, or stretching the truth. A plot point or character must fit the rules of the world you’ve created on the page or screen, regardless of whether you’re writing sci-fi or memoir.

Can you use this knowledge to strengthen or prompt a piece of your own writing?

#WritingPrompt #AmWriting #WritingCommunity

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.