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Inspiration prompt 17

“Hey, don’t worry,” the dog said. “We’ll find your master. I have a nose for these things, you know.”

The horse whinnied and shook its mane. “You said that the last time we were here. We ‘ve been going in circles for two hours now.” It paused, glanced to its left, then to the right. “I don’t think you’re as good with your nose as you think you are.”

What do you think? Are these two animals friends? Are they lost? Perhaps looking for something? Have you ever tried writing a story from the POV of an animal or an object? How would you tackle it? What stories can you come up with this image?

Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos

Inspirational prompt 14

What do you see here? A playful youth on his way to meet up with his friends? A trip through local history? Or perhaps a portal to another world, one with Knights and Kings and battles? Perhaps something darker? Perhaps he hurries to tell someone of something? An attack? Could it be a simple game of dare between friends to the local ruins?

What drove the kid there? Was he simply testing his new bicycle or trying to get away with stealing it? Let him guide you and tell you his story.

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Inspirational prompt 13

I like black and white images. I don’t know why, but they have a certain appeal to me. Somehow, they seem more authentic. Perhaps it’s because they allow me to recreate a story in my mind of a time I never knew, where things were different, and yet not so different from today. Bottom line is, my imagination gets to run wild. Maybe I’m a person who would have liked to live in the past. Maybe my mind is stuck in the past.

What if the guy sitting at the end of the bar was a mobster? Do you see the look on the employee’s face? What if the employee is looking at the door, at someone who just stepped in? Perhaps your POV character, perhaps a regular, or another mobster. The first guy has his back turned to the entrance. Do you smell a gunfight?

What if the supposedly mobster is in fact a shy guy, a good fellow, who just performed a good deed, perhaps prevented someone important from doing something bad, perhaps saved someone from a mob boss? What if he thought he found the only place where reporters wouldn’t find him and stopped to get a coffee? What if whoever stepped in, is a reporter and if he takes his picture, the gangsters will find him?

What else do you see?

Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos

Inspiration post 12

Hello people. I woke up this morning, groggy as always, and the moment my bleary eyes landed on my PC, the sentence below came to mind. I usually forget most of the things I come up with in cases such as this, unless I write them down immediately. However, this one remained. I figured I might as well share it with you, and see what stories you can conjure.

On the eve of Kelly’s birthday, unbeknownst to her, she rewove the story in her head, and the world reshaped.
Hope you enjoy it 🙂

Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos

Inspirational prompt 8

“A picture is worth a thousand words.” I don’t know where the following image is from, but I think most of us will agree that it’s a strong one, and has a story to tell. Though I’m not a fan of war stories nor do I aspire to write any, the look on this man’s face says so much. From the loss of a fellow soldier/friend, to him carrying out a bad command.

If you don’t write or don’t like war-related stories, forget about the setting of the image, and focus on the face and how he holds his head. What does it tell you? Did he make a bad choice? What were the stakes? Think outside the usual life or death dilemma (and dehumanisation) many war stories have at their core (though one can’t argue it’s strong). Forget about the soot on his face. Think of him in an Armani suit and a silk tie, but with the exact same expression of desperation on his face. Perhaps he’s a businessman and he had to acquire and liquidate a business, because that’s what the CEO he worked for had asked him to do.