Prompts 29 September

Pigeons gathering on wet slate

Love broke out

The train is empty. It doesn't want to leave

Banquet

I am trying to remember, trying to believe it

After the Coma

Unrelationshiply making love

He asked them, "Play the Birdie Song"

It's like a wound that opens and then opens

From Thursday to Friday

Wondering about small American towns, dusty roads

Frailty

Long, slow railway stations, the darknesses

He wakes crying

It will be something to talk about at least

Prompts, Sunday

The simplicity of it

There is a sign of night, clouds

Your body is too sharp

The sea sings because it is moving

A tin-roofed shack, no phone

We smoke a silent cigarette, look at the rain

The grass needs cutting

Pickard woke me

Dogs

Waiting for morning, for breakfast

Don’t give it a thought

The A-Z of useless platitudes

Madame Curie

If, dear

He left her photographs of sad caravans

The Angry Priest

The road to your place, they are digging it up

Attic

A glass door flashing

Let’s face it. Or not

When I was a child, I imagined.

One brick, then a second, then three, four

Dog in a bath

Back to my high, empty place

My father was claustrophobic

Prompts Thursday 24 September

The Last Thing You Read

SAND

Lost Without His Brother

SNOW

Something About a Leopard

POD

I have something not to say

NAIL

In The Court of the Red Queen

TAXI

Blessings, Effendi

DRINK

Flanagan Starts Running

GAS!

Which of the Gods Made Them Quarrel?

WATCHING

It was in a poem, or an advert

He didn't have a belly-button

JACK!

But then, who does?

It's square, but more round than that

I believe I could believe

More Prompts

As an exercise, consider combining prompts, try using all or most.



From the very first coming down

Beetle

Only the caravan was real and that wasn't there

Never Again

Happy, but no closer, even now

GRENADE

My father, the way he sits

SMELLS

We have drawn up a list

TIN

Sometimes the scars fade temporarily

SILVER

On the wet road, past the know of pines

BRUISE

Never Stronger

We have made all the possible preparations

It's more a case of

I am not sure that little boys imagine; I mean they all imagine the same things

There is a gap between attention and awareness

My ambition would be to love

ACHE

I am Transient

VAN

Watch how he hesitates before saying, "I love you..."

WIRE

Turn a deaf eye

BLOSSOM, BLOOM

We will begin today. We start and it is an ending

THORN

It was Easter. I found myself alone

CHINE

On the phone she whispers that her husband is mad.

Prompts 22 September

A Small Blue Plaque

Hanging Baskets

How the woman pauses

While he waits for her to buy two coffees

Paper Hats

Orange tiles, white spikes

His car, his moustache

Olives

How the women congregate, talking about swimming

Her Black Wedding

A café, a shop, three or four houses

The trainee barista

Stooped, white hair, but almost free

Behold the duck!

What catches me, what catches my eye

LISTEN!

How beautiful, in profile

Four Feet Under

What is the H in W H Smith?

Silks

Old Men in Cardigans

The Differences of Aquamarine

At the Lake

If we had world enough and time

Low fat sex

For a suitcase full of cash

Sprouting

Children love wheels

Words, in type, streaming across a photograph

The Olive man smiles, with a twinkle, and holds out a single olive on a spoon for the lady to taste

Shall we do some kind of lunch?

Prompts Monday 21 September

Joe Cocker, three a.m.
When the improbable doesn’t surprise
Wretched
Black Swan, Owls by Day
Places to Go
Turning of Bluetooth
Women, meeting for coffee
Vente Latte
How the Cancer Bites First
The Wisdom of Drivers
Nobody Knows What’s Going On
Nine Pounds Later
History Does Not Know it is History
Give or Take
The Problem is How You See
What’s Not to Like?
The Bible i-Pod, the i-Pod Bible
Until the rain gets in
Where I Belong
The Poetry in a Football Programme
I am not proud of this
Let us try to be civil, try to be rational
The Light is Wrong
Approximately five hours: 4:58
Picnic in Bierut
The Light Music of Children

Prompts Friday-Saturday

The happenstance of airwaves
Ratat
Strangers in Borders
Seeds, poison
What copies, what doesn’t, what should
BEAN
A woman, pointing
DITCH
Why this is difficult, difficult
Hum
I am reading old poems, asking if they are mine
Deleting
The art of invisibility, with ache
Thimble
I am trying to remember my mother
Close to Black
We could go to Japan or Peru
AAA
Waiting for it to come together
Element
I’m just looking at your face
Screw
On the other hand
Blossom, meet Dearie; Dearie, Blossom
Privet School
One kind of itch, two kinds of scratching

Prompts September 9th 01

A story, “The Seven Ages of Skin”

When I am an old women and have purple skin

Had we but world enough and time

There is a spot just here, in the hollow of my pelvis

Nobody saw him, the tattoo’d man

Sunday, my father working in the frost, the skin of his hands red and cracking

And of a baby, so smooth, ready for scars

The midwife was small, beautiful, with olive skin and hands that were light

It is the softness in her face

If I should die, think only this of me: dying, my friend, is not all it’s cracked up to be

I will be illustrated at the very least

Smooth skin, but not a shaved cat

If skin was an instrument and we played it

Move him so the sun catches his child-dying face

The fingertip, the ear, the neck

Perhaps red-raw, perhaps soft and talcumed

The machine sucked it from the bed, your skin, mine, inseparable

Your scars, one like an arrow, one a heart

Sometimes the person, sometimes the skin

You reach across and touch me. My heart leaps up

But you wear gloves and dark glasses

Eventually, we are all naked

But it is the Caesar scar I love

Trace me, slowly

There is something electric

September 08:01 Prompts

Loveable-ity

The grey sea and thew long black land

Trying to lose the pick-up

Every day is a fresh ending

Bloody men are like bloody tractors

I have no name, call me Thing

The winter evening slides quietly into sleep

Slippery as a slippery thing

My Dear, where now?

We were doing fine, until the bed...

Lay your head on my chest, let's pretend we're OK

I've been brought back, not sure why

How you call to me, aching on the night

Darling, don't take it literally AND personally

My life has ended a few times

First they came for

Turning and turning and turning. Turning

Like Ice. Like Fire. Like ice upon a fire

I am not me even when it looks that way

Time doesn't mend this

White. Soft. Sweet.

The milk-buckets are frozen

I would like a cigarette now

Mercy. Pity. Peace. Love.

Somewhere in the clouds, falling.

September 07:01 Prompts

The French Ballerina & the Builder

No, INDIAN Food

The clunk and roll of a dozen ball-bearings

Buck House

Refill Pad, Pencils, sharpener

STICKY

Social Psychology, the Alternative

PX

Stories From the Spare Bedroom

Getting Into Brock'

TXT

The sound grass makes

BELL

How sometimes the wind aches for people

Plankton

Guatemala, the View Above the Trees

I remember when I thought the world was solid

EFFERVESCENCE

And so I drift, waiting to be touched

CHERRY

A soft, muddy river in Portugal.

SACK

Where they are all from

SUNDAY's Prompts September 06:01

I'm out running and then partying tomorrow so here are Sunday's prompts a little early

Learn Brain-Surgery in a Weekend

Marble

Once Upon a Time

SLAB

For once, an early night

OK, tomorrow or the day after

Fresh Apples

Young Miss Tavistock's Dilemma

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling!!

Who's Afraid of Jane Austen?

The Various Differences and Similarities

The Ball.

Bomber Harris at Play

TING!!

Music and Love begin as delicate flames

James! James!

What we have adored and what we have abhorred

Tea's Ready!

I doubt we live forever

I have not been to Jerusalem

Fast now.

Prompts September 05:01

A Room for Romeo Smith

GLOVE

He never goes up West

HOW IT WORKS

It's complicated, but basically, Lycra underpants

BOILING

I have been cold, but never this cold

TIN

Purple Icebergs

PICNIC IN MERTHYR

A Week in December

BOOK OF SILENCE

Why I have to love you

From what I remember, he had big ears

RIVER

The myths are swept away by an avalanche of truth

... and the waters will rise

It doesn't hurt much

It doesn't translate very well

Standing with the fat boy, waiting to be picked

AND THEN THE BED COLLAPSED

Pink Vaseline

I have never been ill

PARTLY DYING

Swollen hands, plump, wormy fingers

Two thousand men

OK, OK...

For entertainment we talk about our lovers

SAY SOMETHING IN LATIN

A Cafe called "Writers"

After you left I couldn't wash the sheets

Prompts September 05:01

A Room for Romeo Smith

GLOVE

He never goes up West

HOW IT WORKS

It's complicated, but basically, Lycra underpants

BOILING

I have been cold, but never this cold

TIN

Purple Icebergs

PICNIC IN MERTHYR

A Week in December

BOOK OF SILENCE

Why I have to love you

From what I remember, he had big ears

RIVER

The myths are swept away by an avalanche of truth

... and the waters will rise

It doesn't hurt much

It doesn't translate very well

Standing with the fat boy, waiting to be picked

AND THEN THE BED COLLAPSED

Pink Vaseline

I have never been ill

PARTLY DYING

Swollen hands, plump, wormy fingers

Two thousand men

OK, OK...

For entertainment we talk about our lovers

SAY SOMETHING IN LATIN

A Cafe called "Writers"

After you left I couldn't wash the sheets

Prompts September 04:01

A story beginning: "The trouble with stories is..."

Listening to the Other Sam Browne

Tenses

Some nights you can hear them

This is England

What we call the beginning

He looked sweet, he did look sweet

Coventry, Milton-Keynes, Welwyn Garden City

Absolve them!

Somebody's Thinking of You Tonight

It's not that easy when your soul is torn in two

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Don't look so eager to leave

Pomegranate

I'm on a Diet of Love

Forgive me, I was trying to say something nice

WW0

Pennies From Heaven

BUCKET

I'd like to say we could be friends, Jack

STEEL

Are you glad she lost the love of her life?

White Paper, Pen

I met my ten-year old self; a curious boy. He was frightened by me

On a rope over the water

A story ending: "But it could have been, it could have been."

Prompts September 03:02

When men die far away it is like sand settling, dust

In the room the women come, and usually go

SOOT

Through certain streets, dusty, deserted

Do not ask what it is

The corners of evening

Tinsel

A far sound, something falls, something breaks

BAYONET

It was a soft September night, almost October

There is always time

It’s a freaking waste-land

To murder and create

Do I Dare? Do I Dare?

I decide to revise

I pin you, you squirm

Old men collecting fag-ends

Full Moon

Basically, I was afraid

My mind creaks, like melting ice

The universe in a grain of sand

Mr Spock I presume?

After the cups, the marmalade, a little toast

Twinkle

Reading Annie

They think they’re all grown up now

Prompts September 03:01

Unfortunately, this is likely to be necessary

Where Art Thou?

The fickle, the unsure, the hypocritical

Being a Soldier

The basic necessities: laptop, mints, CHARGER

A Spotless Mind

Oh would the gift the giftie gie us!

Reading TS Eliot

Watching World Film

Above the water, under the cliff, far from a house

Boys & Caravans

Sometimes the names move, they slip, they slide

More or less low-calorie

Sleeping in another room, he tries to remember things

The Queen waves a gloved hand

KER-CHING!

I am in possession of Possession

NAIL

I am waiting in the wings for an empty stage

ICE

The smell of steak in alley-ways

Marzipan

A little lady, sweet, who worried about Penguins

Honey

She picks the blackberries, cooks them for me. I try not to cry

Vanilla, I think

I am trying to remember a goal I scored

Sausage & Mash

New Govt Regs: Item 1 LOVE

September 02:01 Prompts

"It has been a nice summer," said Diana, twisting the new ring on her left hand with a smile.

“Harvest is ended and summer is gone," quoted Anne Shirley,

A fox will track a vixen for a week

a little undercurrent of vague pain and dissatisfaction running through it

A piano made from ice

There was quite a bewildering succession of drives, dances, picnics and boating parties

almost as beautiful as the angel on my string

Anne of the Island

Coordinates is an anagram of Decorations

For a little while I had a dog.

gazing across the shorn fields dreamily.

He was the first to escape

I had one white pill and one yellow pill in the morning, and in the afternoon I had a pink pill and in the evening white.

I went into the trees and built a shelter.
I will give you the horse, a cart, a leather coat, a plate and some gasoline

LoveFinder General

Murder Club, the Vicarage 19:15 Mondays

the fields were bare and sere, scarfed with golden rod,

The fortnight Anne spent in Bolingbroke

The house bleeds

The Promise Tree

The woman was fat and her face was pink.

There is a woman I love who could not kill a wasp

There was not, however, much time to think about him.

They were both nice, manly fellows, but Anne would not be drawn into any opinion as to which was the nicer.

We are studying love

When he was eight he was stolen by gypsies

When he was ninety he swam across the bay.

whenever she thought about Gilbert.

Whispers of a life without borders

Prompts September 01:02

I taste salt

Fife

You see the little things, the quietly beautiful that I miss

Death may or may not be permanent

I am bleeding slightly; from various places

The simple things, like you reaching for me

We will hurry home

It is not here that your mother meets your father

The wind rises; you laugh

We will kiss the earth

ICE

The buzz of a needle, the tatooist's hand

Once this was sea. Sea-birds still nest here, dark with disappointment.

An old woman who smells a little

Oyster-Catcher, night road

Duke of Earl

Various ice-creams, more than one kind of cheese

FIGS

The flowers echoing the dead church-bells

September Blast

Just back from Wales (and September started a few hours late but we're having another "BLAST"

Write every day, EVERY day, to a strict minimum and a tough total, and write at least a third of your total word-count "pre-log", that is BEFORE any email-reading or internet browsing.

Post your minimum targets and exceed them, no excuses.

Stories may be posted in a free area of Boot Camp for feedback, but in order to see these stories we will need to have a Yuku ID (go to Yuku.com) to grant access.

A dozen already on board, we want twice that number

For further info contact AK at alex.keegan (AT) btinternet.com

Prompts September 01:01

The National Anthem, The Archers, A Man Lost in Space

Related Travel Advice

A room smelling of shame

3-in-1 for the treatment of love creaks

Collecting postcards from the lonely

A story beginning, "This is the point..."

We have a problematic interface

He is wearing a raincoat from a film

Bomblight

These are small things, human things

When there was water

I try to remember us, but see clouds

An old, decrepit caravan, broken glass

Behind night stones, beneath dark

I have waited too long to be born

A shingle beach, rain, they separate, come together

SHARD

Everything here is just the right size

Of course, as long as you are here

I dream of bloody waterfalls, of screaming grass

I tend to flop about when anger leaves