When walking in my neighbourhood I often look out for window cats – those pets enjoying the warmth of indoors while gazing out at a wintery world.

Occasionally I see the opposite – a cat who is outside peering in and presumably wishing to gain entry to that cosy world, rather like a frostbitten Victorian urchin gawping at a rich family’s dinner and japes. Or maybe these are cats who were simply passing and felt the urge to feed their famous curiosity.

This cat looks a bit embarrassed to be photographed. What has it glimpsed through that window? Is it just feeding its curiosity, or has it seen something incredible?

And what is that reflected in the glass?

Can you use this to prompt a tale (or tail)?

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.

We’ve had such heavy deluges this winter that normally tranquil streams and weirs have grown uncharacteristically ferocious. The one show here flows beneath Pulteney Bridge in Bath and looks like it might just sweep all the bridge-top shops and cafes away.

The ridges are where gulls, ducks and even pigeons like to perch, but now those spots may be to tumultuous for fish, let alone birds.

Can you use an extreme weather event or natural disaster to thread drama through a flash fiction tale or other creative work?

Alternatively, pick one of the figures shown. What struggles will a calamitous storm bring for them?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please send it in an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com for possible publication on SkyLightRain.com.

I’m always intrigued when I see a lost glove clinging to a shrub or balanced on fence. Is someone walking around with one warm hand, and one cold, wondering where their lost knitwear fell? Did a rodent or robin carry it off to turn into a cosy bed? Did someone take the promise to lend a hand a tad too literally?

Who lost this glove, and how? What happened next?

Is there some magical myth here in the making? Take these seeds and turn them into a story fit for this chilly season.

On 12th December 2019 my winter’s fairytale ‘Click Clack Twitch‘ appeared as part of Storgy Magazine‘s flash fiction advent calendar.

You can read ‘Click Clack Twitch’ here. The story also appears in my 2022 short fiction collection from Reflex Press, The Stairs Are a Snowcapped Mountain.

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please send it in an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com for possible publication on SkyLightRain.com.

With the year stretched before us like a rather intoxicating promise of possibilities, I find myself picturing my world as a doorway that could lead just about anywhere.

Of course, not all doorways are built the same way – some look more like windows, while others could seem like trapdoors into tunnels, onto bridges or the spaces between stars. Some lead to new jobs, new activities or simply lead us home.

Some may even feel less like ways through than a barrier – consider ha-has (dug-down ditches that stop livestock scattering or fires spreading). Then there are the ones that can serve as both a barrier and a means of escape, like drawbridges and, well, any door in a house. What about cat-flaps, drainpipes and stiles? They’re all potential ways through and over.

I’m told the one at the top of this post, photographed in Derbyshire, is a lunky hole, a feature of dry stone walls meant to let water or wildlife through.

Can you use this imagery as a springboard into a work of fiction where anything is possible?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please send it in an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com for possible publication on SkyLightRain.com.

For many people, the days between Christmas and New Year are a kind of in-between, limbo-time. We’ve left behind the glitter of the festive season, but have yet to embark on the adventures that 2023 promises.

Could this be an opportunity to halt, take stock and plan how to move forwards with whatever hopes you hold for the future? Picture it as a bridge spanning two countries, like this glorious 18th-century iron and steel confection stretching over the River Wye to unite Chepstow in Monmouthshire, Wales and Tutshill in Gloucestershire, England.

Can you give a fictional character a dilemma that they must attempt to solve by crossing a bridge like this one?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please send it in an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com for possible publication on SkyLightRain.com.

Strolling through a local park one frosty afternoon, a flash of white caught my eye. An envelope tucked into the crook of this shrub entreated: ‘If you find me, open me.’

How could I resist? Of course, I picked up the envelope, opened it up and found inside…

Well, that’s for you to imagine! What was in it? I can tell you this much, it was more than a Christmas card.

Use this as the prompt for a festive short story.

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please send it in an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com for possible publication on SkyLightRain.com.

I once went on an inspiration-gathering walk with the poet Holly Corfield Carr and she asked me to photograph or note down any objects I saw that were circular. It was a shape-specific scavenger hunt! We were near the harbour, so I ended up making notes of mooring bollards, lengths of rope and even coconuts. Then we turned these images into a collaborative piece of writing about time as a circular object, bringing us back to ourselves.

Recently, in a similar area, I spotted the above and couldn’t resist snapping a photo. To me it looks like a winter moon within a circle of hazy cloud.

This week I invite you to take a stroll. Before you set out, choose a particular shape to look out for – circles, squares, triangles… See what creative symbolism you can draw from the objects that make your list, or what stories these disparate items with only their shape in common can inspire.

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please send it in an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com for possible publication on SkyLightRain.com.