Tag Archives: 500 words

500 Club (2/16)

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Feel like you’re dragging today? Finding it tough to tackle that blank page? Sounds like you can use a little stretch, some creative calisthenics. A quick writing prompt will get you going in no time.

Here’s what to do:

  1. Write 500 words based on one of the two prompts below.
  2. Post it to your blog.
  3. Give us a small taste in the comments below along with a link to the full text.

And now on to the prompts:

1. Your Senses: Write 500 words focusing on the sense of touch.

2. Writing Challenge: Break outside of your comfort zone. Write 500 words from the point of view of someone unlike yourself. Examples: Little person, amputee, autistic, or deaf.

*Feel free to change the name or sex of the characters as needed.

500 Club (1/26)

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Another Thursday brings us another 500 Club! Scroll down for two more prompts waiting to be explored.

Here’s what to do:

  1. Write 500 words based on one of the two prompts below.
  2. Post it to your blog.
  3. Give us a small taste in the comments below along with a link to the full text.

And now on to the prompts:

1. Attracting Opposites: In 500 words, convincingly combine two opposite elements. Blend fire and ice, love and hate, or space travel and deep-sea diving. Pick one of those or choose your own, just make sure they’re extreme opposites and make them coalesce.

2. Things Out of Place: Write a short story about something out of place. Maybe stacks and stacks of book, but not in a library or book store. Or, a full working kitchen at the heart of a cave. Make it believable and make it in 500 words.

*Feel free to change the name or sex of the characters as needed.

500 Club (1/5/2012)

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New Year, new prompts. Let’s not get out of the habit of letting our creativity play. Make it your New Year’s Resolution. Start writing now!

Here’s what to do:

  1. Write 500 words based on one of the two prompts below.
  2. Post it to your blog.
  3. Give us a small taste in the comments below along with a link to the full text.

And now on to the prompts:

1. Finish this opener: Joe swore he’d never do it again, but here he was, standing out front with _______ in hand and unable to stop from going in.

2. The new year marks ends and beginnings. Write 500 words where the last line mirrors the first.

*Feel free to change the name or sex of the characters as needed.

500 Club (12/15)

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Let’s get into the holiday spirit with some special holiday writing prompts. So get out from under that mistletoe and put down the wrapping paper for a while. We’ve got some prompts that need your attention.

Here’s what to do:

  1. Write 500 words based on one of the two prompts below.
  2. Post it to your blog.
  3. Give us a small taste in the comments below along with a link to the full text.

And now on to the prompts:

1. Stolen from my coffee cup, but makes for a great opener: Dear Santa, Let me tell you the whole story…

2. In 500 words write why these five items are on Johnny’s Christmas List: A bag of plastic army men, two piranhas, paper cone cups, a tuft of koala hair, and a foam dart gun.

*Feel free to change the name or sex of the characters as needed.

500 Club (11/24)

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Whether you’re ducking out from under your relative’s noses or taking a break from gorging yourself on turkey and stuffing, here’s something to kill a few minutes. A little positive stimulation or creative venting can help you make it through the day.

Here’s the gist:

  1. Write 500 words based on one of the two prompts below.
  2. Post it to your blog.
  3. Give us a small taste in the comments below along with a link to the full text.

And now on to the prompts:

1. Body language can tell more about what a person is thinking or feeling than their own words. In 500 words create a scene with two or more characters where their body language reveals more than what they are saying.

2. *Wendel’s jaw dropped, allowing a dry bite of turkey to fall back to his plate. Cousin Lyn just stood and announced…

*Feel free to change the name or sex of the characters as needed.

500 Club (11/3)

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The weather is finally starting to change here in the desert. For me, new seasons brings on new ideas. What you say we explore them in today’s prompts?

Here’s the recap of the rules:

  1. Write 500 words based on one of the two prompts below.
  2. Post it to your blog.
  3. Give us a small taste in the comments below along with a link to the full text.

And now on to the prompts:

1. *Finish this opener: She could either let him back in the car or use what was in the glove box. Either way, it was going to hurt… 

2. Time to test those senses. Focusing on your sense of sound and touch, paint a scene harking the beginning of winter.

*Feel free to change the sex of the characters as needed.

500 Club (10/13)

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This is the month to get your spooky on, wear your superstitions on your sleeve, and give a little scare to the kids down the street. A good scare can be a healthy thing, right? So use this week’s writing prompts to help get you in the Halloween spirit.

Rules aren’t scary, but necessary:

  1. Write 500 words based on one of the two prompts below.
  2. Post it to your blog. No blog? Paste it in the text box in the side widget, conveniently labeled “500 Club”.
  3. Give us a small taste in the comments below along with a link to the full text.

And now on to the prompts:

1. Finish this opener: No one would believe me that I had no intentions of reading the old book. None at all. But when I held the graying cracked leather in my hands, it pulsed… 

2. Superstitions make people do odd things, avoiding ladders, cracked sidewalks, black cats, and the like. Write 500 words on a superstition you create that has your character acting strange.

500 Club (9/22)

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Let’s take a break from this week’s Round Robin story and see if we can’t help spark some of your own original shorts. Relax and let the story take you where it wants. Just hold on and enjoy.

First those pesky rules:

  1. Write 500 words based on one of the two prompts below.
  2. Post it to your blog. No blog? Paste it in the text box in the side widget, conveniently labeled “500 Club”.
  3. Give us a small taste in the comments below along with a link to the full text.

And now on to the prompts:

1. Take Western and flip it on its ear. Blend in some science, steampunk, werewolves, or whatever you like. Make it fresh and fun in 500 words.

2. Finish this opener: In one hand Paul held a knife, dull and pitted with rust. The other held a jar of copper liquid, mercury-like in nature. If only he didn’t have to make the choice…

500 Club (9/1)

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This Thursday marks the end of summer for a lot of us. Our children are back in school. The coming Labor Day weekend sends the barbecue industry soaring. Here in the desert the temperature dips from a scorching 115 to a mere blistering 110.

Good times.

So let’s put pen to paper, so to speak, and write about it in today’s prompts.

First the rules:

  1. Write 500 words based on one of the two prompts below.
  2. Post it to your blog. No blog? Paste it in the text box in the side widget, conveniently labeled “500 Club”.
  3. Give us a small taste in the comments below along with a link to the full text.

On to the prompts:

1. Relief in Change: In 500 words, show the relief that is found in a change in the environment. A change in weather, graduation, release from captivity, day to night, the change is up to you. 

2. Finish this opener: Life was different in Oppoton County. For one, kids didn’t go back to school. School came back for them…

500 Club (8/25)

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Hello Beautiful Thursday! Let’s get our prompts on!

New to the 500 Club? Here are the rules:

  1. Choose one of the two prompts below and write 500 words on it.
  2. Post your brand new flash to your blog. (If you don’t have a blog, copy your story and paste it into the handy text box over yonder —-> See it? Keep scrolling down. Ok, cool.)
  3. Finally, post the first line or two of your story here in the comments and link back to your blog so we can finish reading your freshly-churned brilliance.

Green? Super green. And now, today’s prompts are…disoriented???

1. Where am I? Your character wakes up to find he/she has been shanghaied. A pirate ship, a stage coach, an interplanetary express, or just an old white Chevy Astro (eek!)- it’s your call.

OR

2. Where did it go? Your character wakes up to find something crucial missing. Her hair, his money… their child. Again, it’s your call. 

Happy writing! Go nuts!