Welcome to the monthly newsletter from Write Club. Each month I publish some writing inspiration as well as our group’s new writing prompt. I love to provide writing tips, create prompts (in fact I do so for two different writing communities) and keep my hands in the creative process along the way.
What gets in the way of inspiration and creativity? So many things, right? Lack of time. Too many involvements. Boredom with our own ideas, or lack thereof. That’s one of the reasons I think it’s so important to be part of a creative community, and why writing prompts is so much fun. Whenever you feel stuck, a writing prompt can kickstart the creative process again. Sometimes my best ideas come from a writing prompt when I literally don’t think about a plot or an idea, and I just turn off my editorial brain and get my fingers moving across the keyboard. Try it sometime, if you haven’t done so before!
Our August 2025 Write Club Prompt: Flight
Flight is such a great prompt, isn’t it? This idea from one of our newest Write Club members has so many possibilities. One can take flight out of fear, get on a flight to a foreign land or back home for the funeral of a loved one… or soar into a new journey in a more figurative sense.
Let’s see what ChatGPT suggests for some story ideas. This is one of my favorite uses of AI — generating synopses for stories which can then provide the springboard for creativity.
1. Flight 927 (Meaning: Air travel)
A nervous first-time flyer boards Flight 927, only to discover the passengers are all eerily silent and dressed in outdated clothing. As turbulence rocks the plane, the flight attendants behave more like ghostly guides than crew members. The protagonist must unravel the mystery of a doomed flight trapped in a time loop — and decide whether to stay on board or try to land it herself.
2. The Last Flight of Elias Vane (Meaning: Escape or fleeing)
Elias Vane, a once-celebrated geneticist, flees across a dystopian landscape after being branded a traitor for revealing a government experiment gone wrong. With bounty drones on his tail and only a stolen AI companion for help, Elias seeks sanctuary in the ruins of an old observatory where he once dreamed of reaching the stars. There, he must decide: keep running, or launch a final broadcast to expose the truth.
3. The Aviary (Meaning: Group of birds flying)
Each spring, an entire village pauses daily activities to watch the mesmerizing flight patterns of a massive flock of birds known as the Glasswings. When the birds suddenly change their migration path for the first time in centuries, a curious girl follows them — only to be led into an ancient forest where the birds act as sentinels to a forgotten realm of memory and fate.
When you allow your mind to wander and let settings, scenes and characters take shape in your mind, there is no end to what you might come up with. How do you get started on a story? What are your favorite ways of getting into creative writing mode? I’d love to hear from you.
Learn More About Write Club
Write Club is an online writers’ group for short story authors, 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. In fact almost all of my published short stories were written from Write Club prompts.
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.
Is It Possible to Join Write Club?
While we purposefully remain a small group to ensure that we can all read each of the other stories that are submitted for critique each month, we do occasionally welcome in a new writer with experience who is looking for an online writing community for mutual support, writing critique and comradery. If you are interested in exploring whether Write Club is a fit for you, visit us in our Discord server or reach out via my Contact page.
Note: If you enter our Discord server you will be in a waiting area where we can chat with you and learn more about your interests.
Here’s what’s expected of our members:
- 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 writing one story each month.
- You must be willing to provide helpful feedback to other writers and support their journey as well as your own. We are all required to critique every story produced within the community.
Looking for Prompts and Writing Resources?
If you’re just looking for inspiration, 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!
All we ask is that you provide a link back to our prompt post that inspired you so others can be inspired too. Thank you!
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!
Featured image source: Pixabay
About Jayna Locke
Jayna 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 Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Kirk House Publishers, and indie bookstores. She is reachable through her contact form at Contact Jayna.