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Cole Matthews

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Blog Entries posted by Cole Matthews

  1. Cole Matthews
    What elements make for a believable character?  What can writers add that aids in the complete and utter suspension of disbelief?  Lots of thing come to mind like quirks, back stories, associations, inner thoughts, tribulations - and the list goes on and on.  However, something many authors have done with beloved recurring characters is to give them hobbies.  Certainly Sherlock Holmes had several and varied 'pursuits'.  Agatha Christie had Miss Marple constantly knitting.  Let's try rounding out your character with a sideline that forms a foil or balance.  
     
    #247 - Your character is a stunt driver who loves the thrill of the chase.  She is competing for a very prestigious trophy, but in her off time, she trolls second hand stores for old dolls.  Give us a scene that shows her love of the chase and finding the perfect doll for her collection inspire her.
    #248 - Your character has just experience the death of a loved one.  His lonely passion is to find the perfect stamp to complete a collection.  How does this mirror his mood and ease his mourning.
    These are just examples.  Use any character and any hobby to stretch your character's boundaries.  
     
    Please include the prompt number either in your story/chapter description or title to help readers who would like to search for specific prompts. Also, please remember that stories less than one thousand words must be posted as part of a collection.
    If you check the subgenre 'prompt' in your story tags, then people/readers can find everything here:
    https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/subgenre/prompt/
  2. Cole Matthews

    Bird Brains

    By Cole Matthews,


    Prompts
    We often think of birds as being superfluous beings.  Almost always there, but usually we don't notice them.  However, let's try something different.  Let's pretend we are a bird, observing a scene, and maybe even the people in it.  What do you encounter and what does a 'bird's eye view' mean to your writing?
     
    #243 - Canadian goose - You are traveling far, far away to winter someplace warm.  What do you encounter and how does it affect you?
     
    #244 - Pigeon - You live in a square where a fountain used to flow.  Instead, the square is abandoned, dead, empty.  How did that happen and what did it do to you?
     
    Please include the prompt number either in your story/chapter description or title to help readers who would like to search for specific prompts. Also, please remember that stories less than one thousand words must be posted as part of a collection.
    If you check the subgenre 'prompt' in your story tags, then people/readers can find everything here:
    https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/subgenre/prompt/
  3. Cole Matthews

    Imagine if

    By Cole Matthews,


    Prompts
    Randy loves movies, either fantasy or science fiction, where the most inexplicable things happen.  What kind of strange things?  A monster bursting from a person's belly, a series of rooms that change the situation of various characters, or even a door that opens into another world.  In these stories, such things are not weird.  They are the stuff of imagination so, let's imagine if...
     
    #235 - Your narrator is driving in a 2012 minivan when a time-travelling wizard appears in the seat next to them.  Why did the wizard appear and what does he do next?
    #236 - Your neighbor is in her backyard eating a Schwinn bicycle with streamers and a basket with plastic flower appliques.  Who is your neighbor and what do you do next?
    Have fun!
     
    Please include the prompt number either in your story/chapter description or title to help readers who would like to search for specific prompts. Also, please remember that stories less than one thousand words must be posted as part of a collection.
    If you check the subgenre 'prompt' in your story tags, then people/readers can find everything here:
    https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/subgenre/prompt/
  4. Cole Matthews

    Building a mystery!

    By Cole Matthews,


    Prompts
    If you know me at all, you know I love a good mystery story.  Dame Agatha Christie, Jonathan Kellerman, Joseph Hansen, Martha Grimes, Earl Derr Biggers, Dashiell Hammett, Robert Parker, Minette Walters, Joe Lansdale, Wilkie Collins, and many many more all come to mind.  There is something intriguing about a whodunit or even a whydonit. 
    They are also such fantastic period pieces, where you journey to another place and live in a different time.  You can read about Dave Brandstetter in the 1970s in California when a gay detective was a novelty, or about the 1930s with Miss Marple solving village murder cases between the wars in England and between cups of tea.  Mysteries are somewhat formulaic, but within those formula there is room for characters to bloom and eras to be lived. 
    Let's try our hand at our mystery set in another time and another place.  
     
    #231 - You find the dead body of a complete stranger in a trunk in an attic.  Make it interesting.  When did this happen?  Where in the world?  What relationship do you have with it.  No need to solve this mystery.  Just set it up and see what happens.  
     
    #232 - You are digging through an old file when you come upon some pictures.  In what media are these pictures?  What are they wearing?  What about these images worry you?  Again, we aren't figuring out what happened.  We are building a mystery.
     
    Please include the prompt number either in your story/chapter description or title to help readers who would like to search for specific prompts. Also, please remember that stories less than one thousand words must be posted as part of a collection.
    If you check the subgenre 'prompt' in your story tags, then people/readers can find everything here:
    https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/subgenre/prompt/
    Good luck.  
  5. Cole Matthews

    Conflicted or Confident

    By Cole Matthews,


    Prompts
    With effective writing, our characters should always try to show, and not tell, the reader how they are feeling.  Verbal expressions are the simplest and most direct way, like stuttering or announcing things.  But, there are certain actions and reactions in the body, which are even more efficient at conveying a character's feelings.  I've decided to give you a couple of opposite feelings to work with.  
    Here are physical clues for you to use portraying your character's state of being.  Feel free to add more, but use these to get your scene started.  
     
    #227 - Conflicted - Rubbing or pulling at an ear, looking downward, and a sinking feeling in the gut
     
    #228 - Confident - Stretching, a strong handshake, and easy breathing
     
    Please include the prompt number either in your story/chapter description or title to help readers who would like to search for specific prompts. Also, please remember that stories less than one thousand words must be posted as part of a collection.
    If you check the subgenre 'prompt' in your story tags, then people/readers can find everything here:
    https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/subgenre/prompt/
  6. Cole Matthews

    In Flagrante Delicato

    By Cole Matthews,


    Prompts
    Getting "caught in the act" is the most common translation of this Latin phrase.  It involves a person being very naughty and someone 'walking in on them.'  I'm proposing these prompts because sometimes our characters can get just too nice.  Our protagonist can be too "pro" and our antagonist too "mean".  Sometimes having our main character suffer a character flaw, or two, can lend more authenticity to a story.  Let's stretch our wings and try something a bit nasty.
     
    #223 - You are in a bar, and someone buys you a shot, which becomes two, and then a drink follows.  Before you know it, you are drunk and slurring, pawing at the other person.  What happens next?  Make it racy, or, just plain awkward.
     
    #224 - You are at your best friend's wedding out in the country, with no one around.  There is a groomsman that looks so familiar, but you can't quite place him.  Suddenly, it dawns on you.  He was your biggest crush in high school, and now he's eying you across the dance floor.  What happens next?  Why didn't you recognize him and what is it that reminds you?
     
    Please include the prompt number either in your story/chapter description or title to help readers who would like to search for specific prompts. Also, please remember that stories less than one thousand words must be posted as part of a collection.
    If you check the subgenre 'prompt' in your story tags, then people/readers can find everything here:
    https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/subgenre/prompt/
      
  7. Cole Matthews

    Emotional Rescue

    By Cole Matthews,


    Prompts
    Ahhhh!  The plot is thickening.  The characters have developed perfectly.  You have balanced your pace so there is riveting action, informative scene setting, and a richness to your tableau.  Everything seems to be going so well, and yet, your beta reader drops a bomb on you. 
    "It's just falling flat."  
    What are you supposed to do?  Where do you turn?  How can you enrich and round out your characters?  How about a little emotional rescue? 
    Let's try filling in the back story of your characters with some rueful or painful memories.  Let's get the juices flowing with some stirring, poignant history.  
     
    #219 - What do you think about that always brings you to tears?  Make this personal.  Dig deep and give us a story about a time when you couldn't help but cry.
    #220 - There is something nagging at you.  What is worrying you?  Interrupting your sleep?  Making you crazy.  Let's hear about a concern that you just can't let go. 
     
    Please include the prompt number either in your story/chapter description or title to help readers who would like to search for specific prompts. Also, please remember that stories less than one thousand words must be posted as part of a collection.
    If you check the subgenre 'prompt' in your story tags, then people/readers can find everything here:
    https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/subgenre/prompt/
  8. Cole Matthews
    Points of view are so important in stories.  As writers, we have to pretend to be someone else, feel what they feel, and ache with their longings.  As an exercise, let's pretend to be something not alive.  You can fill the object with whatever you feel or think.  The object will become a character, a witness, and your sounding board.  
     
    #215 - You are a porch swing.  You must describe the events that unfold around you, but only during times of great emotion.  That's when you awaken.  
    #216 - You are a potato chip bag alongside a city street.  You tumble and blow from place to place.  What do you see?
     
    Please include the prompt number either in your story/chapter description or title to help readers who would like to search for specific prompts. Also, please remember that stories less than one thousand words must be posted as part of a collection.
    If you check the subgenre 'prompt' in your story tags, then people/readers can find everything here:
    https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/subgenre/prompt/
  9. Cole Matthews
    Comedy in a story can elevate an interesting tale into one you can't put down.  There are several types of humor, but perhaps one of my favorites is the sarcastic retort.  Nothing can fuel a character like some witty, and biting, humor.  Let's try some examples with a, well, not first line, but first exchange with two main characters.  
    Have fun with it.  
     
    #209 - "This is the last time I'm going to trust you with being the lookout."
                 "What's my next job? Poison taster?"
     
    #210 - "Why is there blood over here?"
                 "Uhhh, I, um, tripped and cut myself."
                 "On the ceiling?"
     
    Please include the prompt number either in your story/chapter description or title to help readers who would like to search for specific prompts. Also, please remember that stories less than one thousand words must be posted as part of a collection.
    If you check the subgenre 'prompt' in your story tags, then people/readers can find everything here:
    https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/subgenre/prompt/
  10. Cole Matthews

    Fantasy Island

    By Cole Matthews,


    Prompts
    Ahhh!  The lovely idea of an island filled with magic, mystery, and love.  In the depths of winter, let's take a journey to a place with tropical drinks, grass huts, and warm breezes.  
    #203 - Use the following words in a story.  Daiquiri, husk, oar, coati, sanguine, furtive, umbrella, and turkey.
    #204 - You get up early in the morning.  The sun is just starting to ease upwards with brilliant rays bathing the palm trees and bougainvillea's growing against the seawall.  As you make your way down to the ocean, you see something on the beach, waves gently lapping at it.  As you near, you realize it's not a bunch of sea grape or driftwood.  It's a body.  The body of a young man in a white suit, and his chest is stained with red.  What happened? 
     
    Please include the prompt number either in your story/chapter description or title to help readers who would like to search for specific prompts. Also, please remember that stories less than one thousand words must be posted as part of a collection.
    If you check the subgenre 'prompt' in your story tags, then people/readers can find everything here:
    https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/subgenre/prompt/
     
  11. Cole Matthews

    Bits and Pieces

    By Cole Matthews,


    Prompts
    "Bits and pieces put together, to present a semblance of a whole" - Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
    I've always been intrigued by the ideas suggested in this quotation.  It suggests, quite correctly, that art and artifice are simply representations, and parts of a story.  Narratives necessarily pick and choose the elements they want to reveal in order to make a coherent story.  The artist decides what things are presented to a consumer of their art and what things to leave out. 
    For example, there isn't much reason to give a detailed description for every time a character uses the bathroom or watches a social media post UNLESS it drives the story.  Repeated trips to the toilet could be used to show a character is sick or has a kind of quirky attribute. 
    Sometimes these details can be useful in storytelling.  So, we are going to try some very mundane ideas, and with it create a tale using very ordinary parts of life.  
     
    #193 - Your character is eating a meal in a lunch room all alone.  It's the same thing he eats almost everyday.  Why does he do so and what does it mean?
    #194 - Your character is reading his horoscope and it says, "Be as direct as you can and see what happens."  What happens next?
     
    Please include the prompt number either in your story/chapter description or title to help readers who would like to search for specific prompts. Also, please remember that stories less than one thousand words must be posted as part of a collection
    If you check the subgenre 'prompt' in your story tags, then people/readers can find everything here:
    https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/subgenre/prompt/
  12. Cole Matthews

    Random Acts of Description

    By Cole Matthews,


    Prompts
    I've never been a writer who enjoyed using much description.  I never thought the color of the carpet, the shadows on the flocked wallpaper or the nuances of a woman's dress did much to drive a story.  At least, that's what I used to think.
    Lately I've been reading more gothic short stories where the effect of the light on objects, the influence of color on mood, and the idea of space shapes impressions of the scene. As a result, I've been trying to use a bit more description in my writing.  It's quite powerful when done judiciously, and so I'm going to give you a couple of practice rounds telling us in two different ways.  Keep in mind, description can be quite objective, and even more interestingly, it can be very subjective.  Try using both ideas, with a simple explanation of what you see and how it makes you feel.
    #185 - Go to a window.  Write about five things you see outside.  
    #186 - Describe your favorite athlete.  Look at a picture or a video, and really tell the reader what you see, and how it makes you feel.
    Remember, try first using simple facts, then turn them into an experience.
    Have fun!!!
     
    Please include the prompt number either in your story/chapter description or title to help readers who would like to search for specific prompts. Also, please remember that stories less than one thousand words must be posted as part of a collection
    If you check the subgenre 'prompt' in your story tags, then people/readers can find everything here:
    https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/subgenre/prompt/
  13. Cole Matthews

    Forgotten Treasures

    By Cole Matthews,


    Prompts
    Have you ever started digging through an old box and found something you had forgotten about?  Is there a scrap of paper with a name of an old lover, and it makes you sigh?  The memories start flooding back into you as you rifle through ticket stubs and T-shirts at the bottom of your closet.  Things are so good at prompting our personal histories, and so let these prompts give your characters some thoughts about events from their past.  Let the remembrances flow!!!!
    Prompt #181 - After Thanksgiving, you are putting the cornucopia filled with wax fruit, the big turkey wall hanging, and the orange and brown candles into your attic space.  Since it's the day after the holiday, it's time to put up Christmas decorations.  You grab the tree, a couple of boxes of ornaments, and a bag with the front door wreath.  Way behind these is another box.  It's covered in dust.  You drag it to the opening, and take it downstairs.  After a good vacuuming, you take out some table decorations of your grandmother's and a couple of ceramic lighted Christmas houses you forgot about.  As you peer into the box, you see something wedged in the corner, with just an edge peeking out.  After you grasp it and pull, you find a folded and stained photograph.  On the back of this photograph, it has the name "Mary."  Tell us the story of this photograph, which conjures up a flood of memories.
     
    Prompt #182 - You got a flat tire, and when you were pulling out the spare, you see a glint of gold.  Picking it up, you see an earring.  You recognize it.  Who did it belong to and what does it mean to you?
    Have fun remembering! 
     
    Please include the prompt number either in your story/chapter description or title to help readers who would like to search for specific prompts. Also, please remember that stories less than one thousand words must be posted as part of a collection
    If you check the subgenre 'prompt' in your story tags, then people/readers can find everything here:
    https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/subgenre/prompt/
  14. Cole Matthews
    I've always approached prompts as more than just stimuli for new stories.  I've seen them as practice, play, more like working out the kinks without worrying about perfection.  Prompts can help us build setting, time, place, mood, and characters.  But, prompts can also help us fine-tune and flesh out things as well. 
    Sometimes we build a character and they are too perfect, or too evil.  As a result, the reader begins to lose that all important "suspension of disbelief" so inherent in good storytelling.  It can be hard to give your lovable main character flaws that humanize him.  It can even be harder to give your antagonist character traits that are positive, relatable, and make him more rounded. 
    Let's practice making a couple of despicable characters a bit more real.  
    #169 - Spike is a senior in high school with your main character, who is a sophomore.  Spike's a big bully who has repeatedly tormented your protagonist by stealing his car, outing him to his parents, and even assaulting him after a football game.  Write a short vignette about Spike and how he cares about his disabled sister.  How he reads to his great grandmother in a nursing home for dementia?  Or some other way he cares for someone other than himself.
    #170 - Rachel has repeatedly cheated on her new girlfriend, Emily.  She continues to lie to her, gaslight Emily about her infidelities.  Rachel even convinced Emily's friends that she is the cheater, and not Rachel.  Write a short sketch about Rachel losing her brother to cancer and how she still goes and visits his roommate from when he was getting chemotherapy.  Tell us about Rachel's love of birds and how she took one to a veterinary clinic and begged for them to help with a broken wing.  Or think of something else about Rachel that makes us feel good about her.  
    Let's try some sympathy for the devil!!!!
  15. Cole Matthews

    Going to the Fair!

    By Cole Matthews,


    Prompts
    We love fairs.  State fairs, county fairs, Renaissance Fairs, little neighborhood fetes, and any other get-togethers that feature foods on a stick, or a turkey bone, deep-fried, that make you a little queasy when you sit on swirling, spinning, acrobatic carnival rides and offer something fleeting and fun.  Fairs offer face painting, the biggest pig, high stepping marching bands, and blinding lights mixed with colors and music that overwhelm.  All these are things that provide a backdrop for an showy setting.  They also give a writer the opportunity to nestle ordinary people into extraordinary places. 
    Let's try our hand with these little gems!
    #163 - You walk into a maze of mirrors.  A bright light beckons to you on just the other side of the hall.  When you get to the other side, you meet face to face with a monster.  Who is this monster and what does it do next?
    #164 - There is a fortune teller in a gaudy tent in the far corner of the carnival.  This fortune teller doesn't look like an ordinary, typical gypsy or mystic.  What does he look like and what does he tell you?  
    Have fun and let's get the wild rides of the carnival whipping around in dervish delights!
     
    Please include the prompt number either in your story/chapter description or title to help readers who would like to search for specific prompts. Also, please remember that stories less than one thousand words must be posted as part of a collection
    If you check the subgenre 'prompt' in your story tags, then people/readers can find everything here:
    https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/subgenre/prompt/
  16. Cole Matthews

    A Picnic of Prompts

    By Cole Matthews,


    Prompts
    The lazy days of summer are nearing their end.  With it go the sunny mornings at the beach,  a hamper filled with cold, refreshing food and drink.  Slipping away are the baskets with containers of fried chicken, potato salad, and a bottle of chilled sauvignon blanc.  Before you know it, the hot dogs and ice cream from the back of a food truck are driving down the dusty road away from you.  
    In the meantime, let's practice writing about some food and crafting scenes around the sight, smell, taste, touch, and even sounds of sharp-edged potato chips, steaming plates of barbeque ribs, and crunchy, mouth-watering cole slaw.  
    PT #157 - Write a scene where a character accepts a food challenge, and it doesn't go well for them.  
    PT #158 - Begin and end a vignette with a reference to food: like a slice of cheesecake slathered with cherries; a beer that conjures up a distant memory; or a hated, despised sandwich that sets off a series of events.  Make sure the food both evokes the scene and finishes it as well.
    Have fun!!!
     
    Please include the prompt number either in your story/chapter description or title to help readers who would like to search for specific prompts. Also, please remember that stories less than one thousand words must be posted as part of a collection
    If you check the subgenre 'prompt' in your story tags, then people/readers can find everything here:
    https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/subgenre/prompt/
  17. Cole Matthews
    I've been enjoying some especially bad pulp fiction books, gay features with racy, but certainly not graphic, stories like: 'To Want a Boy', 'Summer in Sodom', and 'Queer Pen.'  These are the pulp fiction books ordinary gay men would buy for stories about other gay men.  Most had a kind of morality tale embedded within the story where despite the main character's best efforts, he couldn't resist his urges.  Or, conversely, blameless, innocent men were lured to their destruction by vice and weakness.
    These were the stories that COULD be told in the 1930s through the 1970s, and they are barnburners.  Hilarious, sad, touching, and even a little poignant.  These books were churned out by small and vanity presses, but within the formulaic plots, moral imperatives, and shady imagery, some of these writers shined.  They created characters who were more than just caricatures and emotions that were real.  
    For fun, let's pose a couple of the formulaic scenarios, and see if you can carve out characters we care about and plots that hold promise, in short vignettes.  
    Prompt#153 - Queer Pen - A gay man is trapped by an undercover vice squad policeman.  Let's hear the story from the perspective of the cop, who just so happens to be secretly gay.
    Prompt#154 - Summer in Sodom - A couple are invited to a beach resort in the wilds of Long Island.  While she is plied with booze and entertained by a gallant tennis instructor, her fiancé is seduced by the owner of the resort.  Let's hear the story from the viewpoint of the resort owner.  How does he choose his quarry and manipulate his victims?  
    Let's see some good, old-fashioned scandals spew forth!!!!
     
    Please include the prompt number either in your story/chapter description or title to help readers who would like to search for specific prompts. Also, please remember that stories less than one thousand words must be posted as part of a collection
    If you check the subgenre 'prompt' in your story tags, then people/readers can find everything here:
    https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/subgenre/prompt/
  18. Cole Matthews
    Character development is not an easy, or formulaic, task.  Many of us read and write stories that are character-driven.  We fall in love with a character we create, or read, and follow their life and events as they unfold.  This means a writer can create the character's habits, quirks, strengths, weaknesses, and reactions through the use of narrative.  However, there are times when a writer needs a back story for a character, a motivation, a sort of history that helped form the character's personality.
    That's when an origin story in a character sketch can be helpful.  As a writer, we may never even put our character's 'origin story' in the narrative.  Maybe you leak the origin story between the lines.  Perhaps the origin story is known by other characters who then insinuate the motivations behind behavior.  There are several ways you can use an origin story, including using it as the character reveals their most intimate secrets.  There are lots of possibilities.
    So, let's practice this art.
    #147 - Your character had a birthday party when he was eight.  Nobody showed up.  What did he do?  What happened next?  How did it change him?
    #148 -  Your character was six when her mother won the lottery.  Before that, they lived in a shared one bedroom apartment with two other people.  How did this affect her?  What did she think of her life before the money, and then after?  How did her circumstances change her feelings about herself?
  19. Cole Matthews
    At the heart of every scary story is a nugget of truth.  We use fiction and storytelling to process emotions including fear, terror, and that lingering emotion called anxiety.  As writers, we need to use life experiences to flesh out our creations.  Fright isn't just about dark nights and ghosts.  It's about what's unknown and about what we know only too well.  Let's practice that channeling of our most negative emotions.  
    #139 - You are a camp counselor.  Make up a story that will scare the bejeezus out of your eight to ten-year-old campers.  
    #140 - Think of a real life frightening experience that you had.  Now, create a character and have them tell that story to someone else.  How do they feel?  How does it still affect them?
  20. Cole Matthews

    Talk to the animals...

    By Cole Matthews,


    Prompts
    Recently our cat Boo had an infection.  It was difficult, both emotionally and mentally, dealing with his illness and his suffering.  He is part of our familiy, there when we get home, when we wake up, and go to bed.  He's Randy's most constant companion as he works at home.  But animals can't tell us what's wrong.  They communicate pain, discomfort, and other physical experiences the best they can, but how much do we really know?  
    That made me select the following two prompts.  
    #135 - An opinionated talking animal gives you a lecture on all the ways you need to improve yourself.  What is the animal?  How do you know each other?  What is the lecture about?
    #136 - Write a dialogue between two dog walkers who only know the names of each other's dogs.  How does this conversation convey who they are?
    Let's see what these animals can tell us about ourselves.  
  21. Cole Matthews
    Prompts are about creativity, trying new things, and exploring your talents.  They are meant to stimulate storytelling, make you stretch and hone your craft, and practice things you aren't comfortable doing.  For example, I don't like writing dialogue.  I always feel like it's somehow stilted or unnatural.  My tendency then would be to avoid dialogue using it sparingly if at all.  However, using your words is like exercising a muscle.  It will only get better with use. 
    So here are a couple of prompts that made me squirm while doing my mental calisthenics.  
     
    Prompt #129 - Create a vignette or story using only one side of a conversation you're overhearing.
    Prompt #130 - Invent a new word, explain its origin, definition, how it's used and the context for it and make that into a story or vignette.  
  22. Cole Matthews

    Desert Prompts Part Two

    By Cole Matthews,


    Prompts
    We had a great week of exploring the Mesa area together and writing in the late afternoons.  One of the ideas I hadwas an abandoned space.  It was a vacation spa with mineral waters and even a museum of taxidermy.  This was a space I stumbled upon and wanted to capture its essence both for imagination and historical purposes.  Valkyrie enjoyed the idea as much as I did as you will read.  
    We also pulled out some of our prompt books and randomly selected an idea or two.  One of them was about a murder dream, and of course I loved the idea.  We came up with two very different interpretations on a theme.  Which, is the fun of prompts!!!!
     
    Prompt #123

    Prompt #124
    You have a dream that you have murdered someone.  Who is it, how and why did the murder happen, and what happens afterward?
  23. Cole Matthews
    Vacations are always a special treat.  You get time away from your humdrum life, time to recreate yourself and time to expand your horizons.  What a better vacation than to visit a friend in a new place to reconnect and explore.  Let's write some character sketches about the people we see and why.  I'm choosing some challenging scenarios to get writing something uncomfortable.  Good luck!
     
    117 - You are at a resort on a tropical island when suddenly you hear your name.  Looking up, you see a person you went to school with, had a falling out with, and haven't seen in many years.  They approach and greet you like an old friend.  Who is this person and what did they do to you?
     
    118 - A friend needs some moral support so you travel to their home.  Upon your arrival, they open up the door and burst into tears.  What is their dilemma and how can you help?  
     
  24. Cole Matthews
    When I lived in Minnesota, I always called February the longest month.  It was in the depth of winter after the holidays and before the first spring melts were even possible.  It could get depressing, so we began planning a winter getaway to the beach, and Mexico was usually our choice. 
    However, not everyone had that option, especially going back in history.  Some enterprising people decided to predict just how long the dark and cold of winter would entrap people in their homes and hearths.  It was a bit of fun breaking up the doldrums of the season.  They decided the humble groundhog, making his way to the surface of the earth, would wisely know just how much winter was left.  Let's try writing about breaking up the season of frigid gloom.  
    #111 - Use these words - Sand, margarita, lifeguard, coatis, casino, wig, and a man named Jesus.
    #112 - You are on a bus, and reading a story about the groundhog's shadow.  Someone leans over and says to you, "Looks like we are in for six more weeks."  What happens next?
  25. Cole Matthews

    Fire and Ice - January Prompts

    By Cole Matthews,


    Prompts
    Whether it's a warm, crackling fire while a blizzard blows snow against windows, or the cold clink of ice in a drink on a sunny, hot, sandy beach, the opposite sensations of fire and ice, hot and cold, are paired like no others.  The toasty heat of a radiator or the supple coziness under a comforter are more delicious with the bite of cold and vice versa.  So, for the prompts this week, we are going to explore opposites that complement each other.  
     
    #105 - Two college freshman are assigned a dorm room, but one is a morning person and the other is a night owl.  They have to do a group project together.  How does that work?
     
    #106 - A cat person and a dog person meet at the vet's office and their animals can't stop hissing and growling at the other.  What happens next?
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