Tags
creative collaboration, creative writing, creativity, dialogue, short story, stories, writing, writing prompt, writing workshop
Each week, I share one of the writing prompts used the previous Friday in my weekly workshop, along with an example of what was written in response. Today’s prompt is to take a line of dialogue and use it to start a short story. In our group we each wrote two lines of dialogue, one each on a small piece of paper, folded them up, and then each person picked one. If you’re doing this on your own you might want to write three or four and then pick one at random. I got “Well, that’s just how I’m made.” This is what I wrote in the 10 minutes allowed, no edits:
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“Well that’s just how I’m made.”
“And a good job too, I’d say,” replied her husband, as he pulled her to him and kissed her tenderly on the lips.
“Go on, ya daft beggar,” and she pushed him gently but firmly out of the front door, without closing it. He didn’t look back, but she didn’t close the door until she’d watched him get into the rusty blue old Ford he was too stingy to replace, and too stubborn to let anyone else have a look at. ‘I know cars,’ he would say.
She sighed. Well, that’s just how he’s made. She allowed herself a deep chuckle and closed the door.
She was kneading bread when the call came. It took a few rings for her to clean the flour off her hands. and she picked up the phone, careful not to disturb the photos that grew thick as spring daisies on the small counter top. There always seemed to be more.
“Hello, 63-20-17?” She dusted the photo frames lightly with her finger tips.
“Mrs Crosswell,” said an unfamiliar voice.
“That’s me.” She waited.
“Mrs Crosswell, I have your husband here. I’m afraid we picked him up in a vehicle that, well, frankly, it’s not road worthy. We can’t allow him to drive home in it until it’s been seen to.”
She took a breath. The roller coaster those few sentences had taken her imagination on had left her light headed, and she waited for the relief to take hold.
“The daft beggar,” she muttered.
“What was that Mrs Crosswell?”
“Thank you officer, I’m sure I’ll be along presently. John next door’ll run me over. I’ll be along officer. Presently.”
Just the way he’s made, she thought, shaking her head as she replaced the receiver. Well, she’d be making him when she saw him, and no mistake!
If you enjoyed this prompt, then you can find more here:
and here:
https://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/writing-prompts-the-elements/
