During a woodland stroll, I happened to glance upwards, and my heart jumped in alarm. High above me, a small face peered down – not a squirrel or a blackbird but something utterly unexpected.

I live in the kind of area where fairy doors are added to trees, complete with miniature umbrellas and hats. It’s a fun place to take a stroll!

Imagine the different ways a character might react to this glimpse. Once their heart has stopped racing, are they more likely to smile or scowl? How can you use this response to highlight aspects of their personality, or even flashback to an incidence in their past?

Or, if you like, focus on the tiny figure in the tree. What’s their primary emotion on seeing and being seen by some large lumbering creature like us?

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I may publish it on SkyLightRain.com.

On the same day that we came across farmland where we’d expected no farm, we encountered two horses behaving uncannily un-horselike. They were motionless in their field, standing there as though someone had forgotten to switch them on.

I’ve since been informed this is perfectly normal – this is them resting while their bodies get on with the exhausting business of digesting hay. But their stillness made them seem like a museum scene, and made me feel for an instant that none of it was real.

Can you use this eerie feeling to build up a scene where someone gains the awareness that their home is no longer quite what it seems? What might the clues be? How might your protagonist test their inkling? What could ensue?

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I may publish it on SkyLightRain.com.

My part of town seems to be overflowing with building works currently, with scaffolding and partial constructs glinting through every view.

Rounding a corner, I glimpsed a crane apparently leading directly to a cloud, and for a dreamy moment my brain accepted that as truth.

In that instant, I thought, ‘Oh look, a walkway from here to there.’ As though that made perfect sense.

If ‘here’ is the urban centre I’ve barely stirred from for more than a year, where might ‘there’ be?

What optical mis-step or misunderstanding could you weave into a magical tale or work of art?

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I may publish it on SkyLightRain.com.

During the past year, we’ve all learnt new ways to communicate, and to show our affection without infringing social distancing requirements. Facebook even introduced a new heart-hugging emoji representing ‘care; to join the ranks of ‘like’, ‘love’, ‘haha’, ‘wow’, ‘sad’, and ‘angry’. (Still waiting for the ‘frankly confused’ option).

In the UK’s southwest, a local skywriter has been adding smiley faces to our views.

Imagine if your only option to communicate with distant loved ones was by skywriting! How might the public nature of these declarations influence what you choose to say? How might two people be implicated for their shout-out? And given how the image is altered by perspective, what confusions and misapprehensions could ensue?

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I may publish it on SkyLightRain.com.

I recently discovered a rural idyll just a half-hour stroll from our home in the hectic centre of Bristol. Brimming with spring-fresh greenery and duck playgrounds aka ponds, it’s a place to unwind and relax amid a natural soundtrack of birdsong and gently lapping water.

Of course, I instantly thought of the bodies that could be lurking in the murk, and the dubious deeds that could be committed here under the cover of starless nights.

Can you create a character who finds a sense of calm here, either through pure or nefarious means?

What does it prompt in your mind? Can you turn that into a tale or work of art?

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I may publish it on SkyLightRain.com.

There’s a woodland I love to walk to where the trees are gloriously sculptural and a white egret once posed like a storm-blown umbrella, whiles dogs and children rampaged in the brook and remnants of old tin barrels hulked beneath the earth over the bridge. It’s a curious mix of bucolic and industrial histories, and there’s always some new wonder to see.

Recently, the treasure was a scrap of poetry affixed to a trunk. What a lovely glimpse from ted.poems

‘home for tea
with every step
the sound of the river’

It made me think of how we draw inspiration from nature while contributing to our surroundings. There’s a constant rhythm of ebb and flow, whether that’s the act of adding something meaningful or only a shower of litter.

What would you choose to leave behind? Can you use this thought to dream up a story or other creative work?

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I may publish it on SkyLightRain.com.

A writer I know via Twitter recently commented that people often ask them why short stories are so depressing. Do you know what? They don’t need to be! The days are getting longer and brighter in the Northern Hemisphere and our hearts should be filling up with hope!

So this week’s writing prompt is less about inspiration than about challenging yourself.

If you usually write thought-provoking tales with a sorrowful core, try a sunnier slant. Can you write a tale in which no one dies, no one is mulling over a dark past and everyone is cheerful? In essence, make your tale as contented as this pygmy goat scratching an itch in the springtime 🙂

Alternatively, write a jolly story about the pygmy goat.

You can still write from the depths of your soul – just give it a flash of sunshine on the way up.

Count this as your challenge. Write bright!

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I may publish it on SkyLightRain.com.