Hello and welcome to my blog. If you happened here by chance, here’s the 411. I am a fiction writer and I co-manage two writing communities, including a long-standing group called Write Club. And I regularly publish our group’s writing prompts to inspire others and find new writers who are a good fit for our group.
I’ve missed writing posts for a bit. Where have I been, you ask? Well, I got completely obsessed with pickleball, for one thing. Plus, my first grandbaby entered the world, and I transitioned from being a full-time gainfully employed person into a part-time freelancer (which was something of a Herculean effort and a major life transition to boot).
Why would I do that? I was working in content marketing (one of the great loves of my life), had good job security, and I was getting an awesome paycheck. Whatever possessed me? The answer is that I want my life to be about life, not about work. We used to call this “work-life balance.” I don’t know if anyone uses that phrase anymore.
In case you’re curious, you can read what I’m doing now in my recent LinkedIn post and you can see my Upwork profile here.
At any rate, I’m now a part-timer, which means I can re-immerse in creative writing. I have big plans, baby. BIG plans. And I’m super de-duper excited.
Our Next Writing Prompt Will Haunt Your Sleep
Alright, with my big snore of a personal update is out of the way, let’s talk about a fiction prompt. And let’s talk about NOT THINKING about the prompt.
So silly. Of course we are going to think about the prompt. But I’m advising you not to think too much. I’m suggesting that you turn off your complicated, over-thinking analytical brain, and push that thing into the back seat of the car. Now put the top down and let your creative energy drive.
Or, if you prefer, let it work in your sleep. Seriously. Try tucking the writing prompt into your brain just as you turn out the light and put your head on the pillow, and see if it inspires something by morning.
Here it is. Here’s the prompt you’re not going to think about: stain
Ah! There you are thinking about it. Stop it.
No, just write something instead. Literally… start writing. What you write doesn’t matter because as the words hit the page, they will start to shape into a narrative, like a figure emerging from a dense fog.
Perhaps you’ll write about the stain on someone’s trousers that helps to solve a mystery. Or a character like Lady Macbeth who cannot get the stain of murder off her hands. (What a crazy-fun homage, eh?) Or a religious person’s belief that if you lie it leaves a permanent stain on your soul. Most people can’t see it, can’t guess it, won’t notice it. But God does. Or the guilt of the God-fearing person thinks God does. You could title that story “The Stain that Ate the Soul.”
Or maybe it will all go sinister. What is that dark stain on the lover’s apartment floor, and how did it get there?
Source: Pixabay
What I’m saying is this is the perfect prompt to inspire any number of stories; your job is to start writing and see what flows from your pen. (Or what you type on the computer. Let’s be real. Few of us hand-write these days. I digress.)
Here’s the thing. There is not one person on the planet who has not experienced a stain of some kind. Whatever direction the story seems to want to take is the one you should write.
Just pick an idea and run with it.
Maybe your story’s main character drinks too much coffee or tea and it stains their teeth. Their spouse tells them they should get their teeth whitened, and there goes the myth of unconditional love.
People get stains on their fingers from too much smoking, from working daily with engine oil, or from working in a coal mine. Characters with these stains are suddenly interesting. They are permanently stained! Does this have any bearing on their who they are and how they show up in the world? Are these stains somehow a reflection of their true selves, or are their stains the antithesis of their pure intent? Either way, it’s intriguing!
Simply consider the word “stain” and start writing!
Source: Pixabay
Why I’m a Big Believer in Writing Prompts
I’ve been creating prompts for writers for many years. And trust me, I would have given up on this adorable venture years ago if a) I hadn’t seen the amazing, diverse, and completely unpredictable stories people create from their imaginations when prompted, and b) if I hadn’t personally experienced the power of writing stories based on prompts.
A few months ago, I received an annual prompt for a Minnesota publication, started writing and produced a story in one sitting. All it needed was some refining and it was done and ready to publish. And no, this wasn’t my first rodeo.
As I’m a Minnesotan, I love this publication, which is called Talking Stick. Now in its 35th year, Talking Stick is produced by a creative writing group called The Jackpine Writers’ Bloc. I first published work in their annual Talking Stick anthology in 2023, in Talking Stick 32. The story they accepted for that publication, called Last Night in Fargo, was based on a small set of prompt words they call “creative twist.”
The words were: Station, momentum, restless, lost, weakness, speak, and place.
I looked at those words and I started writing. I didn’t analyze or over-think. A woman is disembarking from a train out of Fargo. Returning home.
Once I had that image down on paper… boom.
The story came out pretty much unimpeded, with a rather poignant conflict involving the intertwined yet colliding personalities of two people trying to sort out whether they have a future together. This story also made it into my first short story collection, Somewhere in Minnesota.
Now I submit my work to the Talking Stick every year.
In 2024, Talking Stick 33 published a short story of mine based on these “creative twist” prompt words: Push, water, dream, waste, back, and haunt. Again, I read those words and started writing. Out popped a story called Fall Practice in which an over-protective mom watches her son’s team practicing football, trying to pick him out of the hordes of boys and fretting about concussions and worse. She makes assumptions about another sidelined mom standing nearby, which turn out to be misguided and wrong, leading to some painful self-reflection.
In 2025, Talking Stick 34 published my short story titled Number Five, which practically wrote itself after I read the creative twist prompt words: Lantern, iridescent, stark, damp, coincidence, broken, blistering, bound. We see a woman walking through a forest in the dark of night with a lantern in one hand, and a bundle in the other. The rest… well, you’ll just have to purchase the anthology to read the story. It’s perhaps the most heart-wrenching tale I’ve ever told and it earned a Second Place prize.
Next up? Talking Stick 35 (to be released in the next few months) is publishing a story I wrote based on this year’s creative twist prompt words: Measure, signature, key, instrument, radio, tune, listen, and notes. Now you’d think stories written from this set of prompt words would be entirely focused on music. But what emerged from my writing session was The Call of the Loon, told from the perspective of a recently widowed man sitting on the porch of his lake home. The story unfolds after he hears a violin note lingering on the evening breeze. This story earned an “Editor’s Choice” award.
So — there you have it. Enough circumstantial and empirical evidence to perhaps convince you that turning off your analytical brain and just writing based on a prompt or a set of prompt words can lead to wonderful things.
When you allow your mind to wander and let settings, scenes and characters take shape in your imagination, 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 writing prompts 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.