A Prompt A Day: Tues 2nd April 2024

Good morning. Welcome to this feature (inspired by Story A Day May) where I post a prompt, and accompanying (though not necessarily connected) picture*, so actually two prompts.

*Today’s picture shows several railway construction/repair workers in florescent workwear at railway tracks. Left of screen is a large yellow crane connected by chains to large tubing.

Unless there’s a name, only the first word will be capitalised so you can use it anyway you like: as a title, idea or the exact phrase used within your piece.

Being the author of (to-date) five Writer’s Block Workbooks and Ideas Diaries, I know how even a single word can help as inspiration to write something new whether it’s a short story, poem, piece of non-fiction, a script or even a novel! It could be a distraction if you’re writing something you’re struggling with or would just like to do something different.

Today’s prompt is…

Thanks very much

Do leave a comment below if you write something inspired by today’s prompt. NB. If you post your writing it’s deemed as published so may not be accepted elsewhere.

If you’d like to suggest a prompt for me to post (ideally at least two in case one’s too similar to one already posted or something someone else has already suggested), please complete the form on the A Prompt A Day page. I will include your website link if you have one, posting them once a fortnight.

If you’re an author, editor, illustrator, agent, publisher (anything in the publishing industry) and would like to take part in a spotlight, see Saturday Spotlights or email me for details.

Final Fiction Fodder Fridays – Fri 29 Oct

Hello. Here are your prompts for this week. I have been posting these for many months but sadly this will be the last one. It is, like my 100-word competition at the end of the year, making way for me to have more time for writing. I hope you have found these prompts useful and have had some success if you’ve submitted something from them. You can still find many prompts in my five Writer’s Block Workbooks, available – as the saying goes – where all good books are sold.

My lovely author assistant/editor/lady Friday(!) Caroline Vincent will still be posting my #WordCountWednesday posts so you can let us know how your writing’s been going over the previous week. I aim for 300 words a day which is an astounding 109,500 words a year and so, starting today, you could have that (or more) by this time next year!

These random sheet posts include the text versions together with explanations of any individual pictures so that anyone unable to see the picture and prompts will be able to read the text, or have the text read to them. It also means you can copy and paste the text should you wish to use it for your own writing.

Make of them what you will and let me know how you get on in the comments section below (or on Facebook/ Twitter). NB. just give us a summary unless you want to share the whole piece but if you post the actual writing, it’s deemed as published and you’ll be limiting where you can send it. So here goes…

1. Society: Life’s tough when you’re sad, lonely and super rich
2. Live
3. Finland: New ‘national emojis’ to feature sweaty saunas
4. Solitary confinement above a picture of newspapers, with underneath: California paves way for vital reform
5. I just want to live in the world peacefully, in any country where I can get freedom
6. Amazing grace – even more amazing strength
7. Two-finger gesture
8. United States: Rift deepens over ‘world’s most expensive gas station’
9. I would prefer to receive a misspelt, rushed text with a panicked emoticon
10. Quote of the day: ‘Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.’ George Bernhard Shaw
11. School treats ‘pupils like prisoners’
12. Let’s get back to basics. Who needs to learn when you can do everything with lists?

Fiction Fodder Fridays – Fri 22 Oct

Hello. Here are your prompts for this week.  As well as these sheets every Friday, the lovely author assistant/editor/lady Friday(!) Caroline Vincent will be posting my Word Count Wednesdays posts so you can let us know how your writing’s been going over the previous week. I aim for 300 words a day which is an astounding 109,500 words a year and so, starting today, you could have that (or more) by this time next year!

These random sheet posts include the text versions together with explanations of any individual pictures so that anyone unable to see the picture and prompts will be able to read the text, or have the text read to them. It also means you can copy and paste the text should you wish to use it for your own writing.

Make of them what you will and let me know how you get on in the comments section below (or on Facebook/ Twitter). NB. just give us a summary unless you want to share the whole piece but if you post the actual writing, it’s deemed as published and you’ll be limiting where you can send it. So here goes…

1. Far-flung fashion
2. Everyone loses when golf trumps our natural world
3. 1001
4. Monet created a studio in which he could work no matter the weather
5. A photo with a tablet and Facebook on it, a woman with a headscarf, and hands tapping on a mobile phone
6. Henry died doing what he loved
7. Lifestyle lowdown
8. There is no alternative
9. Scotland: lower drinking limit has not changed offending rate
10. We love the orchid – almost to death
11. Oslo
12. Death before honour
13. More than just fish and football

Fiction Fodder Fridays – Fri 15 Oct

Hello. Here are your prompts for this week.  As well as these sheets every Friday, the lovely author assistant/editor/lady Friday(!) Caroline Vincent will be posting my Word Count Wednesdays posts so you can let us know how your writing’s been going over the previous week. I aim for 300 words a day which is an astounding 109,500 words a year and so, starting today, you could have that (or more) by this time next year!

These random sheet posts include the text versions together with explanations of any individual pictures so that anyone unable to see the picture and prompts will be able to read the text, or have the text read to them. It also means you can copy and paste the text should you wish to use it for your own writing.

Make of them what you will and let me know how you get on in the comments section below (or on Facebook/ Twitter). NB. just give us a summary unless you want to share the whole piece but if you post the actual writing, it’s deemed as published and you’ll be limiting where you can send it. So here goes…

1. Turkey: They come to Turkey for sun, sea, sand – and a head full of new hair
2. A photo of a woman, sitting on a bench with a book in her hands, with the text: I’m certainly not going into retirement – I don’t want to sit around
3. A new survey shows all the top four banks fail the test when it comes to customer satisfaction
4. The sour taste of official anti-sugar rot
5. In the North of England, more children are born out of marriage than in
6. They don’t have to have warheads on them
7. £300
8. For a long time I chose ignorance about who I was, because it was safer
9. Rydell
10. Man tried to open plane door in flight
11. Gaza: Sushi classes
12. All is calm
13. Do Christmas your own way – but leave out the deer
14. A photo with on it pans, a kettle, a chair, and a desk lamp, with the text: Back to uni checklist
15. Prisons: Books are ‘soaked in legal highs.’ Prison inspectors have expressed their alarm at discovering people can send legal highs, or novel psychoactive substances (NPS), into jail by soaking them into the pages of books or letters. There is little equipment to test for them.
16. The North-west has taken a bit of a beating
17. Cricket moves with the times

Fiction Fodder Fridays – Fri 8 Oct

Hello. Here are your prompts for this week.  As well as these sheets every Friday, the lovely author assistant/editor/lady Friday(!) Caroline Vincent will be posting my Word Count Wednesdays posts so you can let us know how your writing’s been going over the previous week. I aim for 300 words a day which is an astounding 109,500 words a year and so, starting today, you could have that (or more) by this time next year!

These random sheet posts include the text versions together with explanations of any individual pictures so that anyone unable to see the picture and prompts will be able to read the text, or have the text read to them. It also means you can copy and paste the text should you wish to use it for your own writing.

Make of them what you will and let me know how you get on in the comments section below (or on Facebook/ Twitter). NB. just give us a summary unless you want to share the whole piece but if you post the actual writing, it’s deemed as published and you’ll be limiting where you can send it. So here goes…

1. Firmly in the driving seat
2. Quote of the day: a good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love. Saint Basil
3. All was fine until I walked away, when things became fuzzy
4. Design. Bare and essential
5. A baby with a book in their hands with the text: Janet goes over the top
6. He disagrees with the point that some events are impossible to predict
7. Hampton
8. Well done
9. Get your ticket today
10. ‘I’ve no regrets about giving up leadership’

Fiction Fodder Fridays – Fri 1 Oct

Hello. Here are your prompts for this week.  As well as these sheets every Friday, the lovely author assistant/editor/lady Friday(!) Caroline Vincent will be posting my Word Count Wednesdays posts so you can let us know how your writing’s been going over the previous week. I aim for 300 words a day which is an astounding 109,500 words a year and so, starting today, you could have that (or more) by this time next year!

These random sheet posts include the text versions together with explanations of any individual pictures so that anyone unable to see the picture and prompts will be able to read the text, or have to text read to them. It also means you can copy and paste the text should you wish to use it for your own writing.

Make of them what you will and let me know how you get on in the comments section below (or on Facebook/ Twitter). NB. just give us a summary unless you want to share the whole piece but if you post the actual writing, it’s deemed as published and you’ll be limiting where you can send it. So here goes…

1. When tired doesn’t even begin to cover it…
2. Appeal
3. Return of the red-backed shrike
4. Tatler shows us that cash is still king
5. No.8 nanny to the super rich
6. Delia
7. Sun comes out for villages after 85 days of rain
8. I’d rather she ate natural sugar than artificial sweeteners
9. Isaac & Milton
10. Can I trust unfamiliar travel agents?
11. It’s important Mahrez understands now that everyone wants to stop him. He has to be very clever
12. Photo of a dog, a cat and two Guinea pigs with the text: Winter warmer appeal
13. A letter: Dear June, I know you like history. Thank you for everything. 2004
14. Butterfly
15. You can hurl insults as fashion, but ageism isn’t one of them

Fiction Fodder Fridays – Fri 24 Sep

Hello. Here are your prompts for this week.  As well as these sheets every Friday, the lovely author assistant/editor/lady Friday(!) Caroline Vincent will be posting my Word Count Wednesdays posts so you can let us know how your writing’s been going over the previous week. I aim for 300 words a day which is an astounding 109,500 words a year and so, starting today, you could have that (or more) by this time next year!

These random sheet posts include the text versions together with explanations of any individual pictures so that anyone unable to see the picture and prompts will be able to read the text, or have to text read to them. It also means you can copy and paste the text should you wish to use it for your own writing.

Make of them what you will and let me know how you get on in the comments section below (or on Facebook/ Twitter). NB. just give us a summary unless you want to share the whole piece but if you post the actual writing, it’s deemed as published and you’ll be limiting where you can send it. So here goes…

1. Employment: wanted: a teacher to save our school – must be able to handle the weather
2. A girl’s world
3. Children would call to us and pose for photos in exchange for a balloon
4. Playing strong women is good therapy. I have to bash away the insecurity
5. A photo of a little bird
6. Capri
7. Quote of the day: Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so. Gore Vidal
8. Coats with the most
9. True colours
10. Trial over sham marriage ‘conveyer belt’ collapses

Fiction Fodder Fridays – Fri 17 Sep

Hello. Here are your prompts for this week.  As well as these sheets every Friday, the lovely author assistant/editor/lady Friday(!) Caroline Vincent will be posting my Word Count Wednesdays posts so you can let us know how your writing’s been going over the previous week. I aim for 300 words a day which is an astounding 109,500 words a year and so, starting today, you could have that (or more) by this time next year!

These random sheet posts include the text versions together with explanations of any individual pictures so that anyone unable to see the picture and prompts will be able to read the text, or have to text read to them. It also means you can copy and paste the text should you wish to use it for your own writing.

Make of them what you will and let me know how you get on in the comments section below (or on Facebook/ Twitter). NB. just give us a summary unless you want to share the whole piece but if you post the actual writing, it’s deemed as published and you’ll be limiting where you can send it. So here goes…

1. No pain great gain
2. A La Perla robe retails at £1.254. I’d want to wear it past the front door
3. Georgia
4. Who’s buying what? Just 8% of the artworks auctioned worldwide in 2013 accounted for 82% of the money made from all art auctions. Top 5 countries as part of global art market:
   US 28%
   China 24%
   UK 20%
   France 6%
   Switzerland 2%
5. Nature: our eight-legged friends should be welcome guests
6. The curator says contemporary artists have moved away from studio practices
7. She can’t run a business – but Camila’s a top politician
8. The Arms Race
9. Photo of a coin with a star and the text, ‘You’re a star’ on it
10. Quote of the day: A mind is like a parachute, it doesn’t work if it is not open. Frank Zappa
11. A photo of cows in a meadow
12. The consultant told my wife she should prepare for the worst
13. Ranieri ‘very angry’ at red card that turned game
14. Jemima. Cute button detailing

Fiction Fodder Fridays – Fri 10 Sep

Hello. Here are your prompts for this week.  As well as these sheets every Friday, the lovely author assistant/editor/lady Friday(!) Caroline Vincent will be posting my Word Count Wednesdays posts so you can let us know how your writing’s been going over the previous week. I aim for 300 words a day which is an astounding 109,500 words a year and so, starting today, you could have that (or more) by this time next year!

These random sheet posts include the text versions together with explanations of any individual pictures so that anyone unable to see the picture and prompts will be able to read the text, or have to text read to them. It also means you can copy and paste the text should you wish to use it for your own writing.

Make of them what you will and let me know how you get on in the comments section below (or on Facebook/ Twitter). NB. just give us a summary unless you want to share the whole piece but if you post the actual writing, it’s deemed as published and you’ll be limiting where you can send it. So here goes…

1. Consumer: Revealed… the supermarket tricks that make shoppers spend
2. Reputation matters, even to the biggest firms
3. We think the best person to pick the offers for you is you
4. It is possible Martin’s £175,000 payday was the lowest ever received
5. Woman who failed with prize claim won’t play lottery again
6. The private collections: 
   Francois Pinault, French business tycoon: 638m – 2,000 pieces
   Nasser Khalili, British-Iranian property developer: 594m – 25,000 pieces
   Doris F. Fisher, US business woman: 511m – 1,000 pieces
7. Modena
8. Charisma isn’t only a human trait
9. Storms with names
10. Catwalk shows don’t feel as if they are about the clothes now but branding
11. 2015
12. Too much drink wounds and kills. It despoils our universities
13. Spring to it!
14. Bright idea
15. Photo of a dolphin with the text: Fungie, a male bottlenose dolphin, has lived alone in the harbour mouth at Dingle, County Kerry, since 1983

Fiction Fodder Fridays – Fri 3 Sep

Hello. Here are your prompts for this week.  As well as these sheets every Friday, the lovely author assistant/editor/lady Friday(!) Caroline Vincent will be posting my Word Count Wednesdays posts so you can let us know how your writing’s been going over the previous week. I aim for 300 words a day which is an astounding 109,500 words a year and so, starting today, you could have that (or more) by this time next year!

These random sheet posts include the text versions together with explanations of any individual pictures so that anyone unable to see the picture and prompts will be able to read the text, or have to text read to them. It also means you can copy and paste the text should you wish to use it for your own writing.

Make of them what you will and let me know how you get on in the comments section below (or on Facebook/ Twitter). NB. just give us a summary unless you want to share the whole piece but if you post the actual writing, it’s deemed as published and you’ll be limiting where you can send it. So here goes…

1. Olivia, let’s swap the big red bus for a little red car this holiday. Love, Alban.
2. Get the (text) message – phones will not be tolerated
3. Amazing work
4. Legal: Marriage ends for retail boss in £440m divorce
5. To call such an inquiry ‘public’ is flattery of the first order
6. Ignore the scaremongering and concentrate on the rewards
7. Quote of the day: Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony. Mahatma Ghandi
8. Stop British students boozing – for all our sakes
9. United States: Flatmates find $40,000 in charity shop sofa
10. Justice has been done, but it leaves a foul taste
11. The ten best… dog coats
12. Portobello
13. In for a pound
14. Harvest mice rediscovered after fears of extinction
15. Photo: smiley faces, text: stickers