This Week’s Prompts*

1. You have sixteen years and five months of experience in this life, and it is not nearly enough to make this decision.

2. "Call me crazy, but I think she just might do it!" called the announcer, his voice echoing from the speakers.

3. No more of this; no more hiding and no more cowering and no more wavering.

4. Birds chirped manically, maniacally, in the trees.

5. Describe three different groups of people in a hospital waiting room.

6. Marvin pulled up alongside her car and lightly honked his horn; he was going to ask this pretty girl to lunch before she drove out of his sight.

7. We heard the whispers before any of the other sounds and, after it was all over, the whispers remained.

*How to Use These Prompts: The italicized prompts let you create your writing entirely from scratch; the non-italicized prompts are intended as your first line and jumping off point. But, at the same time, there are no rules. Write on!

Book(s) We’re Reading This Week

The Compound by Aisling Rawle
Told from the perspective of a participant in a “locked house” type of reality show, this book is both compelling and eerie. Something’s been going on outside of this show’s compound and something’s not quite right within it. Are we trending toward a “Lord of the Flies”-style scenario in this one? Time (and more pages read) will tell.

_{Grab it on Bookshop.org (and support local bookstores!)
Grab it on Amazon}

Top (Published) First Line of the Week

When trouble comes to town, it usually takes the North Shore Line.

From Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon

_{Grab it on Bookshop.org (and support local bookstores!)
Grab it on Amazon}

P.S.

Worried that AI is going to take your job? (Or worried that everything is going to be written by AI?) Here’s a podcast you might want to check out.