Day 187 of 365 Days of Writing Prompts: Write about a character’s pet.

Erin: “What you up to bud,” I crouched down to see the little spider he had found. “You want daddy to kill that for you,” I began to offer and saw his little eyes go big.

“No,” he placed his hand on my chest as a barrier. “He’s my pet,” he cooed as the spider crawled between his fingers.

“Yeah? What does he eat?”

“Idonknow,” he mumbled still enamored by his pal.

“If you don’t know these things, then how are you going to take care of him,” I challenged.

“Well I know all about how to take care of a dog dad, but you won’t let me have one of them,” he pushed out his lips.

“With time son,” I laughed walking off to give them some privacy.

Shannon: When I first met the scrappy mutt my brother picked out at the shelter I wasn’t impressed. I was afraid the dog might attack my cat, so I kept my distance in my attempt to keep their paths from crossing more than necessary. What I didn’t anticipate was how much Oliver didn’t mind being ignored.

He’d follow me everywhere with big eyes just waiting for me to eventually look at him. I tried to shoo him away and lead him to my brother, but he always stuck with me like it wasn’t my choice. He was going to give me unconditional love and I had no choice but to accept it, so I did. Turns out it’s hard not to reciprocate that kind of love.

Give your character an animal sidekick.

Day 185 of 365 Days of Writing Prompts: Write about your character’s experience with fireworks.

Erin: I had only ever seen fireworks on a screen. So, the first time my parents brought me I screamed and cried at the noise. Everyone laughed at me hopelessly trying to cover my ears. They couldn’t understand what it was like to be so guarded for so long from something so magnificent.

Shannon: For some reason watching firework shows on the Forth of July feels more like my own personal New Year’s Eve celebration. It always the time that I reflex on my life. As I’m watching I think about the previous year, and where I was before and where I am now. I think about how watching them felt a year ago, and question whether my feelings about it have changed at all. Somehow they always do.

What has your character gotten from displays of colorful crashes?

Day 183 of 365 Days of Writing Prompts: Write about creating one amazing thing from many ordinary things.

Erin: “Flour, baking soda, salt, butter, sugars, eggs, vanilla extract, chocolate chips.”

“Yeah so,” I argued when I was confident her list was complete.

“They are all fine things alone, but put them together and you have a warm gooey chocolate chip cookie. That’s what I think your traits do. They add up to a heavenly concoction.”

I just blushed and shook my head at her naivety.

Shannon: I’ve always had a fascination with things that get left behind. That’s why I make a lot of recycled art. I’ll take something old and worn down, like bookshelf and make it new and exciting again. I’ll take the garbage bottle caps and toilet paper rolls and make them into containers to hold the odds and ends I find that don’t yet have a place to be reused.

I recently started collecting color pencil shavings from my electric sharpener, and glued them to a canvas. When I was done I was amazed at how beautifully the colors displayed themselves when they mixed back together. I think a lot about how all the forgotten beauty that gets thrown out everyday, and it makes me sad.

Blank + Blank = What?

Day 183 of 365 Days of Writing Prompts: Write a creature experiencing new terrain.

Erin: I thought my eight tentacles on land would make me strong. Many more legs than most land creatures. However, all I could do was crawl, and think about the next time I would encounter water. I was strongest in the water, and that fact made me feel all the weaker.

Shannon: All I knew was this place was too dry. There was too much sand and not enough water and my amphibian skin was drying out. Whoever put me here wanted me dead.

This is not where your character belongs.

Day 179 of 365 Days of Writing Prompts: Start with the line “Jenny is no Jennifer.”

Erin: Jenny is no Jennifer. When my sister came back she insisted we start to call her the shortened version of her name. As I learned to stop slipping up with my words I realized her new friends had not only changed her name, but also her.

Shannon: “Jenny is no Jennifer.” Kaitlyn scoffed her opinion to the rest of the group as I watched her drag her pen over the candidate’s name.

I looked around to the rest of the group waiting for someone to disagree, but the room was silent.

“I’m sorry, maybe I missed something, but I have her listed in my top three. What’s wrong wit her?”

Again the group was silent as Kaitlyn let out a pity-filled sigh that she had to explain it out loud. She flashed me a fake smile before explaining as vaguely as possible. “She doesn’t have the look.” In other words she was bigger than the rest of the actresses auditioning. Not any less pretty or captivating, just a different size.

I felt my face heat up in anger at how easily they threw her away because of their bias. “I highly suggest you all reconsider. Otherwise, we need more candidates because I’m not settling for anything less than what we’ve seen from her.” The vote had to be unanimous, and I wasn’t afraid to challenge Kaitlyn’s rein.

Who are your Jen’s?