Even the most pristine strip of sand  is strewn with bits of plastic rubbish these days. On a recent outing to Weston-Super-Mare in north Somerset, my sister and I couldn’t resist doing a bit of a beach clean. The more we cleared, the more we found. The hardest to gather were tiny specks of blue and red plastic that I could imagine finding their way into marine creatures’ stomachs and into the food chain.

Can you use this as inspiration for a story? You could create a piece about some strangers brought together by a communal litter-pick, or have someone change their supermarket choices, or even career options, as a result of what they see washed up.

Alternatively, focus on the animals it impacts, and don’t forget that includes us humans.

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

The other day I glanced at a  plane tree I’ve strolled past a thousand times and noticed something strange. In a small nook on the patchy, rugged trunk, a community was dozing.

Snails. Lots of them. All sitting close together and still hibernating, tucked up in their shells.

What startled me was how many times I walked so close this winter and early spring, and never spotted them before.

They aren’t covered up at all – just hidden in plain sight, and relying on their predators’ lack of attention to detail. What a simple, yet apparently effective, means of survival!

What else might we be passing by in our daily lives without realising? And, equally, how precarious is our own safety in the nooks we call homes?

Can you turn this into a tale or other creative work?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

I love how this tree appears to be sporting the botanic equivalent of a tattoo on its trunk, and that the tattoo it’s chosen is of a tree. Nature often seems to me to be the best artist, and this feels like proof.

But does this tree on tree artwork mean something extra in these climate-crisis times? Is the tree calling for action to save the plant and animal life we depend on?

Could the forest be plotting a coup?

Or do trees simply rise above our petty troubles as we scurry about and continue seeing to the world’s oxygen production and habitat needs?

Can you turn this into a hopeful story, poem or other creative work?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

While walking beside a river on a particularly glorious day, I wanted to photograph the way the sunlight danced over reeds. When I looked at the photo I was disappointed to see a glitch in the form of a blue square marring the bucolic scene.

“I think there’s a glitch with my phone’s camera,” I grumbled, and my Lovely One shook his head.

“Look.”

He pointed across the river to Bristol’s Paintworks, where a bright, uncannily blue square adorned the top of a tower.

The point of this anecdote is that just because something looks unreal, doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Our job as writers is to give the made up a sense of plausibility, but this can be extra challenging when it comes to writing real life. Reality is often implausible. Writers I’ve edited have sometimes protested, “But it really happened like that!”

Doesn’t matter what the truth is – what matters is what seems true, or stretching the truth. A plot point or character must fit the rules of the world you’ve created on the page or screen, regardless of whether you’re writing sci-fi or memoir.

Can you use this knowledge to strengthen or prompt a piece of your own writing?

#WritingPrompt #AmWriting #WritingCommunity

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

Water is a crucial ingredient for life. It makes up a large part of our bodies and keeps us well. It carries us from place to place and shows us where to put down roots. Equally, it has a wild side that can rob us of our homes, our possessions, our crops and even our breath.

Tides bring us ashore and sweep us away.

Can you use this to prompt a poem or tale?

If you’re intrigued by how water can enhance your creative writing, you may be interested in the on-ship writing workshop Writing on Water I’m leading with poet Helen Sheppard aboard Bristol’s John Sebastian Lightship on Saturday 18th March. Whether you write about a raindrop or an ocean, you can harness water as a powerful writing muse. Find full details here.

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

You know how it is when you’re meandering along with your head full of stress, your ear-buds filling your ears with chatter, your feet kicking along the leaf-sludgy pavement, and a random cloud formation catches your eye and demands you look up?

Yeah, that.

It happened to me the other day and lifted me from my concerns for a moment.

A frothy, cloud-sculpted hand pointed into a perfect blue sky.

So I followed the finger’s instruction and looked up.

And I saw….

You decide. Write this scenario into a short story and choose whether this hand is divine intervention, or a simply a naturally occurring clump of water droplets. What implications does it hold for your character? Does it change their life, or add a fresh stress to their existence? Or could this be the start of an unusual meet-cute?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

Recently, someone I value highly let me know that they identify as pan-sexual and pan-gender. To me that sounds like the most magical way to be – open to all the possibilities the beauty of humanity has to offer.

And yet, of course, not all of humanity can offer beauty and light. Some hide fear and uncertainty behind aggression.

This Valentine’s Day, can you write a story that brims with love of all varieties or shows a character overcoming their own fear and uncertainty to embrace possibilities?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

Sometimes the bravest thing we can do at this time of year is set off without knowing where we’re going to end up. Even on sunny days there may be obstacles ahead.

The fog at the end of this path reminds me that we can never truly be certain where our steps will lead. The best we can do is pick a direction, imagine a destination, and go forwards. There may be some re-routes or detours along the way, and perhaps even a few hazards, but one thing is sure, we’ll get to somewhere and maybe have some adventures along the way.

Can you use this as the foundation of a story or other creative work?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please send it to me in an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com for possible publication on SkyLightRain.com.