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August 2024 Fiction Writing Prompt and Inspiration from Write Club

A woman walking by moonlight near a castle

A woman walking by moonlight near a castle

Image source: Willgard on Pixabay

I read a wonderful quote this week, attributed to Carl Sagan:

Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of different epochs. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.

Isn’t that lovely? I do think good writing is a kind of magic. Consider that a work of writing can create an entire world that doesn’t really exist. And that inside pages of printed words, we can find events that never happened and people and stories that simply came into existence because a writer made it so. There is incredible power in achieving that, doing it well, and casting a spell upon your readers so that at least for a short time they forget that it’s all make believe. That is what inspires me, as a writer.

What gets your pen moving? I’d love to hear from you. Just join me on Instagram with an answer to the question on this post. I’ll be writing some blog posts on the writing life in all its challenges and its glory, so I’m looking forward to hearing from writers.

And that brings us to the topic of this blog post: The Write Club writing prompt of the month.

Write Club’s August, 2024 Writing Prompt

For the month of August, 2024, Write Club members must write a story based on this prompt: full moon. And anyone else who chooses to do so can write for this prompt as well.

What might you do with this prompt? Of course one cannot help think of werewolf and vampire stories with such a theme. What about emergency room dramas? They say the ER is busiest whenever there’s a full moon! Or… what if there’s something that happens to your character each time the moon is full? Perhaps she speaks in tongues for several days leading up to the full moon, or will eat nothing but pizza for breakfast lunch and dinner. Maybe there’s a strange, inexplicable phenomenon in your character’s neighborhood each full moon, like all the dogs stop barking for a day and face west. Let your imagination play with this!

You could write out some loglines — one-sentence story plots — and then choose the one that resonates the most with you. Or write down a few potential storylines and then step away and let them simmer. Most likely, one will emerge as the most promising one to move forward.

Get Your Motor Running

Start by thinking about ways in which a wedding can go wrong, or how things can fall apart on the way to the alter. You’ll want to think about a main character, a good setting, and something your character wants or is struggling with. Once you have those pieces in place, your story will begin to take shape.

Not sure where to begin? Here’s a jump start for you. Pick one item from each category below — in any combination — and see if it gets your creativity flowing.

Character Setting Conflict
A mysterious child An ancient church Fear of the night
A mad scientist A home with a haunted attic A dark secret
A fire fighter A jail cell Loneliness
A prisoner The home of a hermit Distrust of all living things

Put Your Subconscious to Work

Start thinking about your character, how they came to this place and time, and what will happen to them in the course of the story. What stumbling blocks will materialize to thwart the character’s goal? The more your conscious and sub-conscious brain are working on developing your MC (main character), and defining the scenario, any subplots, the central conflict, and how it will all resolve, the sooner your story will take shape.

How to Learn More About Write Club

Write Club is an online writers’ workshop for short story authors. We are purposefully small, but open to writers with experience who are looking for an online writing community for mutual support, writing critique and comradery.

Although Write Club is small, we are distributed across the globe, and we connect with one another through our Discord server. Discord makes it possible for us to benefit from involvement in a writing community, so we get support and feedback for our stories, without traveling or taking too much time away from everything else going on in our lives — especially writing!

The Focus of Write Club: Getting Our Work Published

In Write Club, we are all short story writers with a focus on writing for mainstream publications, literary journals and genre magazines. We are committed to publishing our work in the many professional publications and short story anthologies accepting submissions. Some of our members are successfully published, and others are on their way, with the help of the honest yet caring critiques from our workshop members.

How Does the Community Work?

Each month we launch a new writing prompt. Write Club members are required to write a short story based on the prompt, and then review and critique each other’s stories. These requirements are central to who we are. Every writer needs an outside eye to help them see what they may have missed and to provide perspective. This invaluable feedback can make all the difference in taking a story from promising to published.

The next phase is to revise our stories based on the workshop feedback, and (optionally) do another round of critiques. This method helps us to prepare our manuscripts for professional editors.

If you are a short story writer and are intrigued by Write Club, here are two options:

  1. Watch for our monthly writing prompts, which are published at the beginning of each month on jaynalocke.com. Feel free to use them to inspire your short stories. You can post them on Hive, Medium, Vocal, your WordPress blog, or wherever you like. Note that we do not offer critiques for those who are not members of our workshop. This is just for inspiration!
  2. If you are serious about short story writing and want to submit your work to publications such as literary, sci-fi or horror magazines, you are also welcome to check out our Write Club workshop.

How to Check Out Write Club

If you’re interested, the next step is to review the prerequisites:

  • You should already have a strong foundation in short story writing, excellent English skills, and a desire to continue your development as a fiction writer.
  • You should have the goal of publishing your work in professional publications.
  • You must be ready to commit to monthly deadlines, including drafting and revising stories.
  • You must be willing to provide helpful feedback to other writers and support their journey as well as your own.
  • Most importantly, you must have an open mind to accept critique of your own work so that you can revise and polish your stories.

To connect with us and check out our workshop, just pop in as a visitor to our Discord server and tell us about your interests. We would love to connect with you to see if it seems like we’re a good fit for your writing journey!

Looking for Writing Resources?

I love to share tips and ideas about creative writing! Here are two treasure troves for you:

  • You can find many of my tips and resources on my website, in the On Writing section.
  • I also share writing tips in The Ink Well community on Hive. See the complete catalog for the full list of articles.

Have fun and keep writing!

About Jayna Locke

Somewhere in Minnesota coverJayna Locke is a Minnesota writer who has had a lifelong love of fiction. Her short stories have appeared in a range of literary journals, including Great Lakes Review, Portage Magazine, and Bright Flash Literary Review, as well as several anthologies.

Her collection of short stories, Somewhere in Minnesota, is available from AmazonBarnes & Noble and Kirk House Publishers, and indie bookstores. She is reachable through her contact form at bit.ly/ContactJayna or on X at www.x.com/@jaynatweets.