A year of Writing Prompts: 31 December

How to use these prompts

Write a story featuring this waterfall.

Prompts

1. Write about the ending of something.
2. On January 1st, a group of friends declared to one another what they wanted to achieve in the coming year. Now it's December 31st and they are meeting again to compare notes about whether or not they succeeded.
3. "An optimist stays up till midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves." Bill Vaughan
4. A housewife is dreading the new year's eve party she traditionally hosts every year.
5. A couple argue about the new year resolutions each thinks the other should make.

Character Names

Sylvester, Geneva, Genevieve, Melania, Mario, Donna

Character Traits

• Strong willed and likely to be successful in business. While they will achieve much in their own right, their human qualities will earn them the protection and help of powerful people as they work their way up.
• Appreciate beauty in art, and have rich, exuberant and colourful tastes.
• Reserved and self-reliant, to the extent of being taciturn.
• Tell this character a secret and they will keep it. They will respect confidentiality and may well be in a position of trust and responsibility, such as a high ranking civil servant, judge or politician.
• Good leaders with the ability to direct a group and hold it together. They have an almost uncanny ability to get people to conform and do as they are told; but there is a dark side. They have a tendency to use people and cast them aside when they are no longer useful. Another thing they might do is use another person's weakness against them so if things go wrong, the other person will get the blame.
• Fond of horses and horsemanship. If they're not in law or politics then horse dealer is another potential career.
• Good memory.
• Attractive and flirtatious - may give mixed signals to potential partners.
• Are actually quite greedy and grasping but generally manage to hide this fact.
• There may be someone who is jealous of them and willing to resort to underhand means to get at them. This may include theft of confidential documents.

Possible Themes

Endings.

Responsibilities, duties, obligations.

Large houses, estates, aristocracy.

Authority.

Science fiction and surrealism

Objects

Pheasants; a sealed scroll; petticoats; a king; horses; an armed man riding a lion.