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.

Water is a crucial ingredient for life. It makes up a large part of our bodies and keeps us well. It carries us from place to place and shows us where to put down roots. Equally, it has a wild side that can rob us of our homes, our possessions, our crops and even our breath.

Tides bring us ashore and sweep us away.

Can you use this to prompt a poem or tale?

If you’re intrigued by how water can enhance your creative writing, you may be interested in the on-ship writing workshop Writing on Water I’m leading with poet Helen Sheppard aboard Bristol’s John Sebastian Lightship on Saturday 18th March. Whether you write about a raindrop or an ocean, you can harness water as a powerful writing muse. Find full details here.

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.

You know how it is when you’re meandering along with your head full of stress, your ear-buds filling your ears with chatter, your feet kicking along the leaf-sludgy pavement, and a random cloud formation catches your eye and demands you look up?

Yeah, that.

It happened to me the other day and lifted me from my concerns for a moment.

A frothy, cloud-sculpted hand pointed into a perfect blue sky.

So I followed the finger’s instruction and looked up.

And I saw….

You decide. Write this scenario into a short story and choose whether this hand is divine intervention, or a simply a naturally occurring clump of water droplets. What implications does it hold for your character? Does it change their life, or add a fresh stress to their existence? Or could this be the start of an unusual meet-cute?

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.

Recently, someone I value highly let me know that they identify as pan-sexual and pan-gender. To me that sounds like the most magical way to be – open to all the possibilities the beauty of humanity has to offer.

And yet, of course, not all of humanity can offer beauty and light. Some hide fear and uncertainty behind aggression.

This Valentine’s Day, can you write a story that brims with love of all varieties or shows a character overcoming their own fear and uncertainty to embrace possibilities?

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.

Sometimes the bravest thing we can do at this time of year is set off without knowing where we’re going to end up. Even on sunny days there may be obstacles ahead.

The fog at the end of this path reminds me that we can never truly be certain where our steps will lead. The best we can do is pick a direction, imagine a destination, and go forwards. There may be some re-routes or detours along the way, and perhaps even a few hazards, but one thing is sure, we’ll get to somewhere and maybe have some adventures along the way.

Can you use this as the foundation of a story or other creative work?

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

I sometimes stroll down a street where two pink doors shine out, resplendent. I find their coordination intriguing – two separate homes, two front doors, the exact shade of strawberry milkshake pink.

Do a pair of siblings live in these two homes and share a passion for pink?

Did one person paint their door and offer up their leftovers? Was their neighbour’s door so shabby, it brought down the cheeriness of their pink, so they suggested a touch of gloss?

Is this the evidence of unrequited love? Or of a marriage where they need to, and can afford to, keep their distance on occasion?

Did a guerrilla house decorator daub both doors on the same moonlit night?

Is this secretly one home with two doors? If you were to venture in, might you find an adjoining inner door?

What answer to this synchronicity of pink can you dream up and turn into a tale?

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

I photographed these lovely tents sprouting amid trees at the Flash Fiction Festival, like a colourful crop of gigantic mushrooms. Each one sheltered a writer or two who emerged in daylight hours to chatter, attend writing workshops and imagine.

I’ve seen camps like this at music festivals slept in by revellers, at city parks occupied by people without homes, and on telly lived in by refugees. There are countless directions this prompt could take you in, from the lighthearted to the heartbreaking.

Alternatively, imagine someone coming downstairs and looking out of their kitchen window to discover a tent and interloper a la Alan Bennett’s Lady in the the Van.

Focus on one particular character and draw out the story they have to tell.

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