A year of writing prompts: 6 December

How to use these prompts

Write a story about this angel.
Or the person whose grave she adorns.

Prompts

1. "Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time." Steven Wright
2. The Festival of Trees begins this week in Topeka, Kansas. Write a story featuring a tree.
3. In the middle ages it was customary on St Nicholas's feast day in certain schools to elect a boy bishop, who would reign until December 28. Imagine a school today re-instates the tradition. Who is chosen and why? What do they do during their reign? Naturally, in this day and age, a girl bishop is equally possible.
4. In 1972, Rolling Stone Keith Richards read in a newspaper in Nice that a warrant had been issued for his arrest. It was the first he'd heard of it. Your character reads something about themselves in a newspaper which surprises and/or upsets them.
5. A deck of cards sold on this date in 1983 for $143,352, the highest price ever paid for a deck of cards. Write a story featuring playing cards.

Character Names

Nicholas, Mikos, Rebecca, Becky, Abel, Emilian, Emilia, Nicola, Nicole, Nicky

Character Traits

• Steady, industrious and analytical, good at detailed work. Not particularly inventive, though.
• Neat and conservative.
• Somewhat eccentric with a tendency to come up with wild and impractical projects. They'll throw a lot of energy into them, but they rarely come to anything.
• When the project fails, it can tip them over the edge, since they can be a little mentally unstable.
• They may renounce the material world and seek out a more rustic, austere existence.
• Spiritually enriched by things which grow in the ground. This could lead them to a career in agriculture.
• Sympathetic, with a desire to help those who are suffering, but they sometimes lack understanding of the situation and their efforts are not always any real use.
• Adventurous and like to travel, to the extent that they never settle anywhere long enough to accumulate wealth or land.
• Can be inefficient and wasteful.
• Have a good deal of spiritual wisdom and understanding of the mysteries of life. They may see what others cannot.

Possible Themes

Heat, flames.

Enthusiasm.

Search for truth.

Vulnerability.

Protection.

Cebsorship.

Objects

Children in sun bonnets; a torch; an owl; a butterfly, a horse's hoof; rose petals scattered on a path.