The Ink Well Prompt #13: 50 Imagination Ticklers

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Hello and welcome to the The Ink Well weekly fiction prompt. The Ink Well is a Hive blockchain-based social media community of creative writers. If you love to write short stories, we invite you to join us. Or peruse the work of our community members.

Important

Before you post in our community, please be sure to read the community rules (right side of the page) where we outline the "do's and don'ts" for posting in The Ink Well.

Our community rules are designed to make our community a safe, welcoming, plagiarism-free space for self-publishing original short stories.

Also, a word on community engagement. We want to thank all of the community members who have taken the time to read other members' work and provide comments. Authors, please remember that reading and commenting on at least two other writers' stories is one of the weekly prompt rules. This ensures that we have a thriving community. Note that we only select stories for the weekly highlights magazine by authors who are engaging with other members' posts.

Okay! Let's review fiction highlights from last week and start a new prompt.

Highlights of the Week

Thank you to everyone who posted a story for last week's prompt, “Childhood Summers," which challenged our authors to share the drama and intensity of experience that is childhood.

Here are the week's prompt stories. Be sure to read and support these authors for their work!

Clouds on a Clear Day, by @seesladen
Innocence, by @almightymelon
Memory Lane, by @bruno-kema
David's Phobia, by @dwixer
Jasmine's Short Break, by @iyimoga
Kite, by @jadams2k18
Always Remember the Kites, by @amirtheawesome1
Childhood Tragedy with a Happy Ending, by @gracielaacevedo
Childhood, Summer and The Ghost Ring, by @katleya
Childhood Summer, by @mrwin
Fate, by @young-boss-karin
From Fisherman's Son to Gladiator, by @ricardo993
Blame the Rain, by @jayna
Summer All Year, by @deeanndmathews
The Price of Sunshine, by @stormcharmer
Collateral Beauty, by @kemmyb
Free From the Sands of Time, by @kemmyb

This Week’s Prompt

The prompt for this week is 50 Imagination Ticklers.

What is it that tickles your imagination and makes you want to write fiction? Is it a sudden idea? A challenging situation? The interactions of people under unexpected situations? The notion of other worlds beyond our own?

Your goal for this week is to engage your imagination to come up with an interesting scenario to spark your writing - for example, the question of what it might be like to find out you were accidentally switched with another baby at birth. Then craft a story around it. Or use one of the 50 imagination ticklers we've listed below. Whatever you choose, be sure to provide the idea, and why you chose it, in your post.

Note: Please avoid themes involving brutality of women, excessive violence, or gore.

50 Imagination Ticklers

What happens when Uncle Ned returns from the army?
Why does the elder neighbor say “can you dig it?”
What if two kids did a science experiment that resulted in one of them turning permanently green?
If there was a monster living under the stairs, would you have to feed it?
What are three character traits that show, without a shadow of a doubt, that a person is a sociopath?
What if that loose floorboard was actually a hidden passageway?
What would life be like for the polite children of the Smith household if the new family that moved in next door were a bunch of bullies and jerks?
What is that floating down the river?
What if Jimmy wished upon a star and the wish came true… but in a very dangerous and unexpected way?
What happens when three young girls find a book of incantations in their grandma’s attic?
What is moving through the tall grass under the moonlight?
What if everyone thought you had died and you had total freedom to do whatever you wanted?
What if genies were real?
What should Josephine do when Michael proposes to her, especially since they are only 12?
What would happen if two teenagers got separated from their group on a wilderness hike?
Is it possible for two people who have gotten divorced to reconcile and remarry?
What if purple had a sound?
What is that crouching in the tree, humming an eerie tune?
Is it okay to turn your back on someone who has wronged you, but clearly did so out of their own fear and self-loathing?
What if cats ruled the world?
What if all the children in a town banded together to hold the adults and leaders and city council members accountable for pollution or gun violence, or other issues of the day?
Is there life after death?
What if Angela gave up on finding the love of her life, chose to have a baby through artificial insemination, and then fell in love with a guy who doesn’t want children?
What if a massive asteroid was hurtling toward the earth?
If one member of a group has the worst possible bad breath, how do they let him know?
What if a family moved into a house and it was alive?
Is it possible to be in love with two people?
Why should Amy apologize to Ruth?
What is that sound of sighing and crying within the walls?
What happens on the night of the Super Moon that can never be spoken of again?
Are those twinkling lights in the meadow really fireflies?
If time travel was a choice, what day or period in history would you visit?
Why does cousin Mabel always cheat at Monopoly?
If three people have absolutely nothing in common but are the best of friends, what binds them together?
Why does Bradley keep thinking he’s seeing his ex-girlfriend on the street? Didn’t she move away to Texas?
Who is that person, silhouetted against the setting sun, walking into town?
If you had a choice to marry your true love, knowing that he/she is still attached to a former relationship, or marry someone stable and kind and loyal, which would you choose?
What if there was only one road out of the city and disaster struck?
What if you were sucked up into a spaceship?
What does Sally do, when she gets to design the perfect mate using some cool new software, and the only catch is that he’ll be an AI?
What happens when Jerry orders a kit online for making beer, and it comes with a bonus hair-growth kit?
Why is a stream of ants carrying a family’s possessions out the door?
When Cecilia and Mary decide to give Julia a full life make-over, does it turn out to be a really good or really bad idea?
What is out there howling in the backyard?
What happens when Roger’s best friends set him up with a blind date and she turns out to be a rich heiress - but Roger thinks anyone with money is evil?
What if the pandemic really ended for good, and some people forgot how to socialize?
What happens when three kids pretend to pan for gold and actually find some?
What would happen if Garth Brooks met Elvis?
What if chocolate was better for you than vegetables?
What if evil spirits could possess household appliances, like toasters and washing machines?

If you don't feel inspired by any of these imagination ticklers or the featured image, feel free to peruse Prompt #6: 50 Story Ideas.

Where will you take your story?

Good luck! And be sure to remember the important elements of good fiction:

A good setting
Character development
Conflict
Dialog
A story arc and resolution

Weekly Prompt Rules:

Deadline: You have a week to write for the prompt, until the next one is posted. (Note: You can write for any of the prompts anytime. This is just a guideline to be included in the weekly round-up of highlights.)
Hashtags: Please use these hashtags: #fiction #writing #inkwellprompt #theinkwell.
Story link: Post a link to your story in a comment on this post.
Community support: Visit the work of at least two other community members and comment on their work.
Title: The title is up to you. You can come up with any title you wish. You do not need to name it after the prompt or include the prompt word.
Images: Please only use images from license free and creative commons sites, like Pixabay, Unsplash and Pexels. Images you find on the Internet are copyright protected and cannot be used. Be sure to provide the source link.

Reminder: Be sure to also read our community rules. (The reason for the reminder is every single week we see stories about brutality of women, and we must mute them. Please do not post these stories in The Ink Well.)

Here are the past prompts if you would like to use them or refer back to them:

We look forward to reading your stories!

@jayna, @agmoore, and @gracielaacevedo (who is joining our moderator team!)

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