A Touch of Short Stories

Whoever wrote the first short story was most likely confined in movement or space. A short story is scenario-building using segments chosen by the author. It can include the past, present, or the future. It can include velvet or cotton attires, train stations or airports, skies filled with clouds or oceans hit by moonlight. It can be about your own life or lives you saw along the way or lives you wanted to be true. A short story can also reveal what matters to you and to others. It is why today I am going to explore short story prompts that will help imagine the future.

1. Write a story that includes at least three characters from your actual life. The three individuals may not know each other personally. Be sure to choose individuals you know well and write a story that has a meaningful or a character-building message. (150 words)

2. Write a story of a beautiful day of vacation. This is the vacation you are taking after any ongoing struggles or stress in your current life have been sorted out. Be specific and as detailed in the description of your experience and use vivid imagination. Close the story by elaborating on the essential feeling you got out of this vacation instead of ending it with a fact. (200 words)

3. An open-ended story to be played with friends: Person A begins with the first situation to be spelled using only one sentence. The second player continues with what happens next, and so forth. It can be as meaningful or meaningless possible, and may reveal a lot about people you know or want to know.

4. Your own prompt: Write a story that you want to use to delve deeper in to your own imagination and write it for yourself.

When the future is unknown, you sometimes have to imagine it.