Short story prompts

[osprey_archer]

Earlier this month I wrote a short story about mermaids (I've submitted it to the Lesbian Historical Motif podcast; fingers crossed!) and I enjoyed the process so much that I wanted to write more short stories... but I've realized that I'm much better at coming up with short stories if someone prompts me.

So I throw the doors open to you, gentle readers! Please prompt me for a short story you would like! The idea is to build up my stock of original fiction, so not fanfic prompts, although you could of course prompt a story where the dynamic is, let's say, "like Biggles/Von Stalhein with the serial numbers filed off."

The ultimate goal would be to get these stories published so I won't post them publicly (unless they fail to find a home anywhere in which case I might!), but I will email the story to the prompter so you can enjoy the fruits of your labors.

Comments

[skygiants]

well obviously YOU should write a glimpse of the AU Doisprout of our hearts

[osprey_archer]

...I walked right into this one.

Is it possible to do Doisprout at short story length? Perhaps it depends on what one considers the most important elements of Doisprout. They can definitely be champions of (battle balloons? kung fu unicycling?) from battling nations, but can we fit in the entire "I was pretending to be my twin brother for Plot Reasons and you accidentally fell in love with my version of my twin brother and now are maybe trying to be in love with my actual twin brother BUT WE BOTH KNOW YOU'RE ACTUALLY IN LOVE WITH ME" thing?

[rmc28]

Or failing that, Yinmei/Peasprout

[troisoiseaux]

Idea: a Borrowers-type small Creature living in a university library OR the children's section of a public library

[sholio]

OH NO I love this one <33333

[rachelmanija]

YES PLEASE.

[osprey_archer]

I LOVE this. What if I split the difference and the Borrower is living in the neglected children's section of a university library?

[troisoiseaux]

Brilliant!!!

[osprey_archer]

Brownie has found this lovely quiet new home, which is perfect in every way except that it lacks a human to help. (All brownies need a pet human.)

[troisoiseaux]

Exhausted college student who has found the one (1) quiet place to study or faculty brat spending the summer in the library while their parent teaches a summer course?

[osprey_archer]

I will see where the story takes me! There are many possibilities. Exhausted student, faculty brat, janitor, librarian... ALL OF THEM and then the brownie makes them a family... no that is too much for a short story. Brownie will adopt one (1) human.

[troisoiseaux]

....a series of short stories doth a novella make......

[rachelmanija]

Fighter pilots on opposite sides of a war begin to rethink their rivalry and kiss. Ideally, this is an AU where they're both women.

[osprey_archer]

Do they have to be piloting planes or can they be piloting, let's say, fighter balloons. Telepathic dragons. Dragonflies (the pilots are tiny).

[rachelmanija]

DRAGONFLIES PLEASE.

[asakiyume]

I am terrible at this, but fortunately you have three excellent ideas already in comments. Oh wait! If you can do like a side story from the Princess and the Communist, I love those guys.

[osprey_archer]

I am not sure if Fritzi and Magdalena can be distilled down to a short story! I could try to write a single scene, perhaps? Probably it would be clearly part of a greater whole and not something that would work as a standalone short story.

[asakiyume]

*nodding*

So maybe, since your goal is to write short fiction for publication, hold off on that! I mean, for fun you might :-) And I'd always read it! But given your goal...

[osprey_archer]

Someday I DO want to write Fritzi and Magdalena but I really need to do more research on German history and culture first (people keep saying "write it like Ruritania!" and this is valid but also I can't work that way) and I keep chasing other hares instead... SOMEDAY THOUGH.

[raven]

Grim ruthless stale-beer spymaster, whose friends believe she's a kpop stan and Hello Kitty obsessive who works in advertising (and she is those things, only she doesn't work in advertising)

[osprey_archer]

(What does stale-beer mean in this context?)

I don't know that I know enough about kpop to fully do justice to the specifically kpop version of this idea, but I could DEFINITELY do a ruthless spymaster whose aesthetic is CUTE. She loves classic magical girl anime (NOT the grim Puella Magi Madoka Magica kind) and shrieks "Kawaii!!!!" when she sees cute kittens and goes into work wearing a Hello Kitty sweatshirt, where she is greeted by her secretary who says "We lost another one at the border" and then she collapsed in her cute little beanbag chair with the ears and swears like a sailor.

[asakiyume]

I love just this--I would buy just this, right here! 99 cents to the writer!

[raven]

Stale-beer as in not champagne and martinis, basically Le Carre as opposed to Ian Fleming. I like the cute aesthetic! I bet her secretary is in love with her.

[osprey_archer]

Someone is in love with her! If it's not the secretary it's one of the spies whose life she is placing in jeopardy (probably feeling bad about it, like Smiley, but like Smiley still doing it).

[rmc28]

There is a tragic lack of f/f ice hockey romance in the world. I think last time I looked I found six (6) entire books against the much larger quantity of m/m and apparently endless m/f.

So like, if instead of Peasprout you want to write about actual ice skating and women falling in love while competing with each other (either on different teams or for spots on the same team, or just with each other in an endless quest to Be Better, whatever works) I would be inmensely grateful.

[osprey_archer]

Given that my knowledge of ice hockey would fit into a doll-size thimble, I'm afraid this would turn out "Juliana whacked at the puck with her hockey stick and then Romana blocked the puck from going into the goal with her hockey stick and then they started hitting each other with their hockey-pad covered arms because that's what hockey players do, except somehow then they started kissing. The crowd roared."

[rmc28]

LOL ok

[mme_n_b]

I'd love a story about a domovoy consultant. Domovoys are penates, household spirits. They keep families strong and prosperous, houses clean and abundant. But some households are beyond a regular domovoy's ability to help. Sometimes they fall apart. Sometimes a consultant comes in time.

[osprey_archer]

Does the consultant come to talk to the humans ("Here is how you successfully cohabit with a domovoy") or to the domovoy?

[mme_n_b]

To the domovoy(s), of course. You wouldn't expect a Deloitte consultant hired by John Deere to talk to a tractor, right? Tractors are the output, working/efficient production of tractors is the process, and John Deere management is the client. Same with domovoys - happy prosperous humans are the output.

[genarti]

Painter whose paintings come to life or otherwise are magical in some way, and they are having issues about the fact that art is therefore now a source of stress... but perhaps they can rediscover the Joy in Art anyway?

[osprey_archer]

I've always wanted to write a story about being able to step into a painting and it's never quite come together... maybe now is the time!