Build Imagination with Writing Prompts

Please help me JUDGE the best story!

I host a monthly online writers group that was once an in-person event at the Avon Lake Public Library.

Rather than moan and complain about not seeing each other in person, we figured out how to connect online now from the comfort of our homes. Now, we’re still making new friends and laughing a LOT!

This month’s theme: Building Imagination Using Writing Prompts!

I gave the writers a topic with seemingly random words to weave into a story. The minds of these writers impress me.

Can you help me judge by telling me which of the following four stories is YOUR favorite?

Topic: The main character has amnesia

The following words had to be woven into the story:

Cookie          Speaker          Cedar          Soccer          Cinnamon

Read all four stories below. Then, VOTE in the comments below which one is YOUR favorite!

1.) The kettle is on.  Tea is waiting with a basket of cookies. I know not what kind.  All smells sound the same now: cinnamon, cedar, cardamon, cardigan… they also feel just as fuzzy. Jazz infected roomba sounds plink from a small speaker, which hoarsely soccer-balls the percussion from an imaginary left, a right, empty center channel, no vocals, karaoke ready. As I begin to sing, the colors pour out. I remember the frequencies but not the names. Is that 440 hurts or nanometer bars? What do you call that when your senses get all remilled and mixed up? Don’t remember. Where to look up, who to ask? I’m not sure. Who I am? Does it matter? I am alive. The kettle drum whistles and strums. I am here.

Then I am somewhere else again.

– Gerry

2.) It was a beautiful summer morning and I had arranged my breakfast of a cup of tea and a cinnamon cookie. With breakfast in order, I went out to get the morning paper.

When I bent down to brush some cedar chips back into the flower bed, I was hit in the head by an errant soccer ball. I awoke to find several people leaning over me saying that I needed to leave right away because I was to be the keynote speaker at a meeting of the Lakeshore Writers Group. Of course, with my amnesia, I had no idea of what they spoke.

Nevertheless, they packaged me into a car and off we sped. When we arrived at the venue and I was hurled up to the podium. I gazed out at the sea of anxious faces, eagerly awaiting my words of wisdom.

That was when I said, “I got nuthin.”

– Jim

3.) I’ve got a great seat, front row center, right in front of the speaker. It’s a beautiful hall, cedar paneling, theater seating for thousands, the podium is mounted on a golden Eagle sculpted in flight.

The crowd seems impatient.  I wonder when it’s supposed to start. I can’t even remember what I signed up for. I’ll check my phone.

Here it is with driving directions. Is it already February 2nd?  Oh, now this is embarrassing. Apparently, I’m the speaker and I forgot all about it.  I wonder what I was supposed to talk about?

This is a surly crowd, like a Harley reunion. I’m sure they aren’t waiting for my recipe for cinnamon cookies, though I do have an excellent recipe. I would be much more comfortable if they were simply a ranting rally of soccer moms. I know my recipe would delight an unruly mob of moms. 

– Julie

4.) The Smith family moved to a small town called Cedar, Ohio after John Smith had suffered an accident that left him with amnesia.

His wife, Tina Smith, had just arrived home from a speaker’s convention when she heard her son yelling to her.

“Mom, Cinnamon stole my soccer ball!”

Tina looked out the window and saw the family’s one-year-old Irish Setter dodging her son’s attempts to get the soccer ball.

“Cinnamon! Come here, Cinnamon! I’ve got a cookie!” Tina yelled out the slider. The dog immediately dropped the ball and ran for a cookie.

“Just like that, Cinnamon forgets the soccer ball, just like John has forgotten our past,” muttered Tina.

– Pat

In the comment box below, leave the writer’s name or the number of your favorite story!

How often do YOU use your imagination? Would you like to build your imagination with writing prompts? Every month is a different theme. Would you like to join us in our next Zoom writers meeting? Just let me know in the comment section below!