Writing Prompts #4

Golly gosh, it’s been hot the last week or so, but at least it cools down at night.  I’m thankful, though, that the huge storm that ripped through my state managed to miss my area, though my in-laws lost a substantial amount of trees to the 80-90 mph winds, and I think that a lot of the areas affected are still without power.

And the heat?  It saps my energy…

Prompt #1

You find yourself at a Tony Robbins seminar, and you’re an introvert…

Being an introvert at a Tony Robbins seminar is somewhat like being a mouse in a cave full of lions.  Everyone’s dancing and clapping and having a great time, really getting into the warm-up exercises.  I’m standing there, wide-eyed, afraid to open my mouth and sound as stupid as the woman in front of me.  I can feel the eyes of the row behind me, burrowing into my back like sharp, pointy daggers.  They’re wondering why I’m just standing there.  They don’t realize I’m frozen in fright, afraid of the sheer volume of noise the room is producing.  My ears are ringing, and I can feel a migraine starting up behind my eyes.

I feel a tap on my shoulder–it’s the woman next to me.  “I know how you feel!” she shouts in my ear, her warm breath tickling my ear.  “This is my third time, just relax and go with it!”

Prompt #2

Write a wrestling promo between two unlikely characters

“I’m going to MESS YOU UP!” Rick Castle bellows, his ruggedly handsome face screwing up, eyes blazing.  His opponent, dressed in brown fur with spots, lazily flicks a bow in Castle’s direction.

“Ri’d rike to ree you RRY!” Scooby-doo barks as his manager, Shaggy, removes his red, white, and blue wrestling robe.

“You’re a dog, I’ve never met a dog I can’t dismantle in 10 seconds!” Castle retorts.  Scooby bares his teeth and growls, and suddenly the two of them are a circled blur, cartoon squiggles and bolts of lightning shooting out of the blur.

The dust settles, and Scooby is on his back, tongue laying across the floor in bliss.

“I told you,” Castle crows happily as he scratches Scooby’s belly.

(I know, this isn’t actually a promo, but as I don’t actually watch wrestling, I just wrote a story instead…)

Prompt #3

“An elephant in the room”

Everyone can feel the tension.  The car is too small to contain it, it’s spilling out into the road.  My toes feel crushed as it steps on my feet, I could hear my brother shift as it brushed past his ear, my aunt grunt as it sits on her chest.  The only person in the car seemingly unaffected is the driver, my husband.  He seems blissfully ignorant, and for a moment, I envy him–he has the road to concentrate on instead of the invisible subject the rest of us are trying our best to ignore.

I opened my mouth, but it feels stuffed full, and I’m unable to utter a single word.  We’ve only been on the road for ten minutes, and I can almost hear my brother’s thoughts.  “Don’t bring it up, I’m trapped, I can’t get away,” his brain telegraphs to mine.  I want to ignore his brainwaves, but I can’t–they fill up my mind, taking up the space I need to think up a conversation starter.

How am I going to survive another hour of this?  I almost feel suffocated by the need to talk, but the elephant in the car is squashing me, sapping my will to talk.