As UK school children get to grips with online classrooms, write a scene, story or poem in which a person meets another human face-to-face for the first time after ten years in #selfisolation.
What is the first thing they say? How does the person respond?
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.
This small, well-worn rocking horse recently appeared in a local playground. I love how incongruous it looks next to the flying saucer and vivid plastic toys.
Who might have donated this gorgeous pony, and why? Who did it belong to? I can imagine children sharing their rides with ghosts and aliens alike!
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 once came across a call for poetry, short fiction and creative non-fiction, which specified that submissions were free of charge “for people who are currently incarcerated.”
Today I invite you to dream up a story with a fresh take on incarceration, bearing in mind that not all those charged with a crime are guilty, not all those locked up have been charged with a crime, and not all jails are physical.
Even more intriguingly, not all those who are trapped are aware of their lack of liberty.
Use this as the starting point of a 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.
My sister snapped this pic of me enjoying the balmy depths of the South China Sea. It’s such a peaceful scene, and yet it is part of a power struggle that’s been going on for decades as countries vie for control of this major shipping channel and its oil and gas reserves. It’s also, according to Philippines’ Department of Environment and Natural Resources, home to one third of the entire world’s marine biodiversity.
Yet from this level, it looks gloriously tranquil. Transform this into a metaphor for someone who seems calm but is cracking apart beneath the surface, or play with what you see above. What’s could be lurking below the sunlit surface?
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.
While meandering through a local cemetery, I spotted red flowers blooming on a tree. A closer look revealed silk roses attached with green wire. Someone’s clearly had enough of waiting for spring!
Who might have attached these pretend blossoms? What purpose might they have had. How could this perhaps bring two lonely strangers into each other’s lives?
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.
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.