IntShoWriMo 2016 Prompts: Day 30

Two moons rise over a darkened field. — Writing.Com

A frantic 7-year-old kid appears at your door, cursing like a sailor. He has nothing on him but a wallet of a 24-year-old man who looks like him. He needs your help and a shot of whiskey. — Reddit

Write a scene in a short story in which a character with creative inclinations feels like he’s not being a helpful member of society. How does he shake himself out of it? Does his chosen course of action help his productivity as an artist? What does this change reveal about his place in the world of the story? — PW.Org

Write a story where you propose a convincing reason why vampires express a strong aversion to sunlight. Your explanation may be comic but it must be original. — Akpan

IntShoWriMo 2016 Prompts: Day 29

Write a story about a father looking for his son. The child was one of the passengers in a plane that crashed earlier that day. — creativewritingprompts.com

Tromping through the Korean jungle wasn't his idea of a good time, but he wasn't there for himself. He was there for her; she needed him. — Writing.Com

In Lauren Groff’s novel Fates and Furies (Riverhead Books, 2015), which President Barack Obama named his favorite book of 2015, a marriage is detailed first through the husband’s perspective, then the wife’s. His memories are fond, but hers, not so much. Take on that old adage about two sides to every story and pick a supporting character from a novel, film, or short piece, and rewrite a story from his or her point of view. You could even invent a character related to a famous one, as Sena Jeter Naslund did in her novel Ahab’s Wife (William Morrow, 1999). Experiment with how a scene or plot can be completely transformed just by a change of perspective. — PW.Org

You come home to find your split image sitting on your couch. Just as you’re about to conclude this might be your long-lost twin, the stranger speaks and dispels your doubt. “I need you to be me for one day,” s/he says. “My life depends on it.” What does s/he want you to do and do you agree? What are the consequences if you dis/agree? Write your story. — Akpan

IntShoWriMo 2016 Prompts: Day 28

Write about the smallest insect you've ever seen. — Writing.Com

The year is 1491 and you are a famous world explorer. You set out to sail around the globe, but your crew is apprehensive about sailing around the Bermuda triangle. You dismiss their superstitions and demand to hold course. Sure enough, as you approach the Triangle you get caught in a horrible storm. What happens next? — Writer’s Digest

You know a walk in the park in the dark is the craziest move you can make especially with rumors of a vicious serial killer going the rounds. But your car breaks down just outside the perimeter of the park with no person or vehicle within earshot. Do you forget everything and run or do you wait it out until help comes along? Write your story. — Akpan

Write for 10 minutes using "I used to think..." as your starter. — creativewritingprompts.com

IntShoWriMo 2016 Prompts: Day 26

You heard rumors of a zombie attack on your way to the club with your buddies and waved it off like another urban legend. You came home late at night totally knocked out and went straight to bed only to be awakened in the dead of night by unearthly sounds. You peep through your keyhole and can hardly believe your eyes; there are white-faced, living corpses filling your corridor and one of them is heading straight for your bedroom door. Write the story. — Akpan

“I wasn’t planning on this. Falling in love with you was the last thing I wanted. Because I know our time would have to come to end. Yet, here I am, begging you not to turn the page.” Who is the speaker and who is the speaker talking to? Finish the scene. — Writer’s Digest

It turns out that a common vaccine lying dormant inside everyone is what turns everyone into zombies, except for the anti-vaxxers. — Reddit

A vacuum cleaner is invented that generates life from dust... — Writing.Com

IntShoWriMo 2016 Prompts: Day 25

The human race has finally settled in space in large colonies. Now citizens of this outer space world seek to cut off all ties with mother earth and become a unique planet even if it means incurring the wrath of the head council on earth. — Akpan

Bonnie Steinweg and Louie Cunningham meet while he is waiting for his date. One of them works two jobs. Write their story. — creativewritingprompts.com

Write about getting lost and finding an alternative way - it can be literal or metaphorical. — Writing.Com

Science always changes with new info. Today you found something that not only changes everything we know, but proves it all wrong. — Reddit

IntShoWriMo 2016 Prompts: Day 24

Write a zombie story where the hunger for flesh has been taken out of the flesh-eaters but a powerful science-oriented organization is trying their best to change that for reasons best known to them. Do they succeed? What happens if things spin out of control? How do the people of that world co-exist with the zombies? — Akpan

After a freak accident, you've split into two versions of yourself. One good, the other evil. For some reason you two are able to cooperate quite easily. — Reddit

Use this mixed personification to spark a poem or story: sorrow croons as love begs. — creativewritingprompts.com

Create a character that might live in a park or recreation area near you. Why do they live there and how do they interact with visitors? — Writing.Com

IntShoWriMo 2016 Prompts: Day 20

Day 20
Vladimir Nabokov said, “Although we read with our minds, the seat of artistic delight is between the shoulder blades. That little shiver behind is quite certainly the highest form of emotion that humanity has attained when evolving pure art and pure science. Let us worship the spine and its tingle.” Try your hand at writing a spine-tingling tale. You might create a feeling of mystery or unease by introducing a creepy premise in the first sentence, or decide to lull the reader into a sense of security with a few run-of-the-mill details before unleashing an element of horror. — PW.Org

Dragon Riders grow in size to better suit their winged friends. This is the story of one that didn't. — Reddit

As a doctor for hire you’ve met a fair share of odd folks. Nothing quite like this though: A man in his mid-thirties stands before you, clutching a wound just given to him by another man sprinting down the street. Now the perpetrator trips and lands on his own knife. Screaming for help and not knowing what the heck just happened—what do you do? — Writer’s Digest

Create a news story with this headline: Beer-Crazed Elephants Face Execution! — creativewritingprompts.com

IntShoWriMo 2016 Prompts: Day 18

Oh boy you do love packages! Yet this one’s different. It’s oddly colored, like a deep maroon. The material is unlike anything you’ve ever felt and something is violently shaking the box. The worst part is you never ordered anything. So how big is the box? What’s inside? Where did it come from? — Writer’s Digest

Write from the point of view of the last tree standing in a forest. — creativewritingprompts.com

You stumble upon a stash of Nazi gold. Unbeknownst to you, the gold is cursed, and the more of it you sell, the more you start to think with fascist tendencies. — Reddit

A slice of chocolate-decadence cake was all she wanted; instead, she got Tommy Nighthawk. — Writing.Com

IntShoWriMo 2016 Prompts: Day 17

Create a scene which explains the line, “Don’t let false modesty make you retreat from your own excellence.” — Steven Barnes

Paint splattered on a canvas... — Writing.Com

To get the story straight, Dave, we think, has become a chicken. Just the worst of luck with that guy. Tom is claiming he married the futon that’s now covered in yogurt, Carl is on the chandelier with the dog and you just walked in after getting groceries. What the heck happened here? — Writer’s Digest

Sometimes the gifts we receive may seem plain or simple at first—another book, bag, pair of pants, or electronic gadget—but end up changing our lives in unexpected ways. Write a short story in which your main character receives a gift that he is unimpressed with, but that turns out to be more than meets the eye. Does using the gift result in a domino effect of unforeseen consequences? Is something surprising revealed about the gift giver? — PW.Org

IntShoWriMo 2016 Prompts: Day 16

By 2060, mankind is able to transfer a human consciousness to the digital world. No longer inhibited by the limitations of a physical brain, these people become the technological overseers of human society, but eventually discover evidence of an afterlife they are no longer invited to. — Reddit

Write a story where a character pulls though because a total stranger urged them on and end the story with this line, “Having someone who believes in you makes a lot of difference.” — Stephen King

List 3 things that freak you out when you think of vampires and write a story that highlights them. — Akpan

Have the main character in your novel (or short story) write a letter to you. What would they say? 
Have them write whatever you want. — Writer’s Digest

IntShoWriMo 2016 Prompts: Day 10

Put Shaggy (Scooby-Doo`s partner) and Batgirl in an elevator and write a 200-word scene. — creativewritingprompts.com

A ring is found with an intriguing inscription inside. — Writing.Com

Write a story that begins with the title of the book you’ve most recently read and ends with the name of your favorite character that you’ve written. — Writer’s Digest

The popular saying “you can’t go home again” refers to the difficulty of matching a confrontation of one’s childhood and home as an adult with the version that exists in nostalgia-tinged memories. Write a scene in which your main character has attempted to “go home again” and is in for a rude awakening. What expectations and memories did she have before arriving home? Do the shortcomings of home reveal something about her personality and identity? — PW.Org

IntShoWriMo 2016 Prompts: Day 8

This dialogue must appear somewhere in your story: “You know what else children don’t know?” — creativewritingprompts.com

One day as you were cleaning you noticed air being sucked towards the base of wall near the cupboard. Perplexed you went closer to investigate. The air was going in, slightly yet in. You hold your breath and gingerly peel away at the wallpaper until a huge wrought iron door stands before you. Where does it lead? Did you imagine this? What happens next? — Writer’s Digest

In his bestselling memoir, ‘On Writing’ Stephen King said, “I believe stories are found things like fossil in the ground. The writer’s job is to use the tools in his or her toolbox to get as much of each one out of the ground intact as possible.” Now write a story where a writer literally digs up inspiration for his story. Is it an ancient relic or bones of an unknown person or maybe just a simple object that arouses his curiosity? — Akpan

Write a short story in which your narrator’s voice is both informal and informed. How will you take advantage of a point of view that can travel through time and space? — PW.Org

IntShoWriMo 2016 Prompts: Day 5

Write a story that begins AND ends with this line: There’s no other way to tell the story. — Writing.Com

You receive an invitation in the mail one day requesting your presence at a “Cadaver concert.” You have no idea what this means or who sent the invitation. However, as a mortician, you are intrigued. You show up at the appointed place at the designated time. What do you find? — Writer’s Digest

Incorporate this sentence somewhere in your story: "The strange noises grew louder." Your story should also demonstrate the cliche "a bundle of nerves" (without mentioning the cliche). — creativewritingprompts.com

Write a story about zombie-hunting vampires. Color it up and feature some high-tech Sci-Fi stuff. Do the vampires win or do the flesh-eaters just keep showing up? — Akpan

IntShoWriMo 2016 Prompts: Day 4

Unexpectedly dying people start yelling, screaming and crying before they take their last breath. Your brother just died, he screamed "I see him! He's coming for me!" in a terrified voice as he died. — Reddit

Feathers flew from the chicken coop and squawks rang out across the farm yard. — Writing.Com

Try your hand by first writing about what comes to mind immediately: perhaps the changing colors and textures of autumn leaves outside, or everyday details about upcoming holidays and visiting family. Try not to pause or edit yourself. Gradually let your mind progress into an associative stream of consciousness. Take a look at what you’ve written and, using your favorite elements, write a short short story with a seasonal theme, allowing it to be nonsensical, absurd, or surreal. — PW.Org

At first it's like any other day. You wake up, shower, start to brew your morning cup of coffee, and that's when you notice—outside the window, there's nothing there. Just an endless black void. What happened? Where are you? How do you get back to reality? — Writer’s Digest

IntShoWriMo 2016 Prompts: Day 2

Write a scene in which a character—human or animal—finds himself in a situation where he is a fish out of water. Does he explore the new and foreign environment surrounding him, or is he in need of rescue? — PW.Org

Your first experience at a concert. — Writing.Com

You are a professional assassin for the CIA. But you are also a double agent. One day, you are assigned with killing a foreign agent. This foreign agent is your other alias. — Reddit

After a grueling day at work you go home. The sweet allure of your couch and captain crunch is over powering! You arrive at the door, stick in the key, yank it open and … see a writhing horde of Minotaur chanting in the night and then one notices you and charges. You slam the door, wait a minute and try again. This time it’s a mountain with climbers clambering up the towering heights. One waves at you. What do you do? What’s going on with this door of yours? Do you go in? — Writer’s Digest

IntShoWriMo 2016 Badge

IntShoWriMo 2016 Badge

Welcome to IntShoWriMo 2016!

The badge is all yours for the taking.

This is my 5th year of taking a shot at writing 30 stories in 30 days. I hope to make the best of it and I believe you'll put your back to make it work out fine on your end.

Once again, welcome to IntShoWriMo 2016.

Thank you.

Akpan

IntShoWriMo 2015: Sign Out & Winners' Medallion

IntShoWriMo 2015 Winners Golden Badge
Copy and paste on your site if you participated
in this year's challenge.

The guy in charge of the store where I buy my diaries asked me the second time I walked in there to grab a few more copies (less than a week to the previous date) why I still bother. One of these A4 plus sized jobs ought to take a year’s jotting of all my college classes combined, he pointed out, while the rest of my collection are probably gathering dust on my bookshelf.

            “How did you figure I used them to jot down college notes,” I asked.

            Thomas, that isn’t his real name but it should do for this write-up said, “What else would you use them for, you can only have so many things worth recording in one lifetime?”

            “I write.”

He looked me, his eyes full of questions. “You’re not reselling them, are you? Cause if you are you’d be running at a loss since you’re buying at retail cost.”

            “I ain’t reselling. Besides, if I was I’d buy wholesale.”

            “Then why on God’s earth would you need so many giant-sized diaries. What do you write to demand so much blank space?” Curiosity and a trace of what passed for perplexity tinged his words.

            “Stuff,” I said. “I write stuff.” A mischievous grin played on the edge of my lips.

            “Then what do you do with your spare time. Ha! Ha! What spare time?” Then Thomas took the time to drill me on how too much writing or even reading can place the mind on the sharp edge of insanity and eventually, make it yield its control toggles to it.

            “At some point in life, everyone exhibits some form of insanity,” I said. “What you relinquish your sanity to is the payoff.” My memory of what happened next’s a little rusty but I think Thomas cracked up and I collected my stuff which, weighed a ton and made my exit.

Five years, five diaries and over five hundred thousand words later and I believe I’ve justified my insanity. Those diaries have been the archives for all my IntShoWriMo stories. And as I write this (though it’s not been easy getting my work online cause I have two left hands when it comes to typing), my total word count for an overall four years of bending my imagination to invent 30 short stories in 30 days hovers just above 200,000 words (two hundred thousand words).

I’m thinking of sending Thomas a copy of the collection when I finally gather some of these tales into book form. You know, as proof there’s a method to this madness.

            Thanks to the owners and administrators of these websites, without them I’d run short on story ideas; WritersDigest.Com, Writing.Com, CreativeWritingPrompts.Com, Reddit.Com.

            Thanks to the late legend Chinua Achebe, for writing the bestseller, ‘Things Fall Apart.’ Snippets from the book added some to my prompts.

            Thanks to Stephen King (the King of Horror). I read so much of his stuff that ideas grew out of me.

            Most thanks to you whether you joined in or not for taking the time to watch me and cheer me through this fire.

            June 2016 is another date. Hope you’ll hang in there.

Keep your pens bleeding.

Eneh Akpan,

July.1st.2015

Day 28: Make Me An Offer I Can't Refuse

IntShoWriMo 2015: Day 28 Prompt:

You die and go to heaven only to find that Mars is indeed heaven and Ray Bradbury is God in Residence. You and the legend strike a deal in which he offers you another shot at life on Earth to make up for all the wrongs you've done but only one score. What's the condition and do you accept or not? - Akpan

Word Count: 2k+

Akpan

Day 22: The Hell Between

IntShoWriMo 2015: Day 22 Prompt:

In more recent tales, there's been a shift from voodoo/hoodoo to virus-created zombies. Write a scene where scientists obtain blood samples from a voodoo reincarnated man (a zombie) but something goes terribly wrong during research in a lab. - Akpan

Word Count: 2k+

Akpan

Day 20: Sound of a Gallows Trapdoor

IntShoWriMo 2015: Day 20 Prompt:

"Imitation precedes creation." Pick a scene from any novel and recreate it using your own characters and possibly, an original setting. - Akpan

Word Count: 20k+

Scene: Roland and Cuthbert's Visit to Rhea's Hut (From Wizard & Glass - Dark Tower IV by Stephen King)

Akpan