A Year of Writing Prompts: 16 May

How to use these prompts

What's happening here?
How did this person come to be falling off the balcony?

Prompts

1. "Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence." Robert Fripp
2. It's Drawing Day and Pencil Day. Write about someone who draws a picture. What are they drawing and why? What do they do with the picture when they've finished it?
3. In 1988, the US Supreme Court ruled that police could search through discarded rubbish without needing a warrant. Write about a crime which is solved by police rifling through someone's bin.
4. Exam season is almost upon us. Write about a student, or students, trying to revise.
5. It's the feast day of St Brendan the Voyager, thought to have discovered America before Columbus did, sailing the Atlantic in a coracle. Write about someone who sets off on an epic voyage without the benefit of modern technology.

Character Names

Esther, Moses, Edwin, Brenda, Brandon, Brendan, Bruce, Carrie

Character Traits

• Steady, reserved and quietly self-assured.
• Affinity with nature - thrives when living and working outdoors and in peaceful surroundings.
• Can be secretive.
• Usually mild-mannered, tolerant and peaceful, but there may be hidden violent tendencies which surface, especially when they are drunk or under the influence of drugs. Hence there could be domestic violence, possibly even homicide. It could even be that they kill their partner.
• Death of a partner is something they may well experience.
• They may be athletic and have confidence in their own physical ability.
• They may also be mentally and morally strong.
• Question orthodoxy and "the system".
• Make light of heavy or routine work.
• Calm and unruffled with an optimistic outlook.
• Fond of art and poetry and may have a talent for them.
• Others are attracted to them and they inspire confidence.
• They can be pathological liars.
• May work with large numbers of people, and/or have a job which helps people settle their disputes peacefully.
• They may become an innocent sufferer, such as in indiscriminate bombings.
• Fractures and broken bones are likely.

Possible Themes

Chivalry and courtship.

Science fiction, fantasy.

Originality.

Music and higher mathematics.

Objects

A ford; an elephant; a friendly giant; flowers; bags of gold coins; a precipice.