This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
There’s no worse feeling for a writer than running bang smack into a case of writer’s block – especially when you’ve planned to devote an entire Bank Holiday Monday to your craft. Before you settle down to work on your current manuscript, why not give your creative muscles a flex with today’s flash fiction writing prompt? We’ve started the story, you finish it (and do post in the comments in you’d like some feedback!).
Sue peered into the snuffling, slobbering, wrinkled face of her unexpected houseguest. She didn’t do dogs. She didn’t do houseguests. She didn’t do anything that disturbed her immaculate and perfectly ordered life.
If only she hadn’t wandered out onto the street as her elderly neighbour was being wheeled into an ambulance, she cursed silently. Nothing too serious, the paramedic had told her, but would she mind looking after Mrs. Ealey’s dog until other arrangements could be made?
Sue scoffed. Her? Look after a dog? It had been four years since she’d purchased her living room three piece suite and she still hadn’t removed the protective plastic covering for fear of contaminating it with bacteria. There were more germs on the average sofa than on a toilet seat, she had once read in The Daily Express, and armchairs were filth magnets too. Before she made her breakfast in the mornings – always plain porridge with skim milk and a cup of boiled water with lemon – she bleached the entire kitchen three times and once for luck despite completing the very same ritual before bed every evening. There were more germs on the average kitchen counter than on a toilet seat, she had once read in The Independent. They were everywhere.
Yet, here she stood, in the front garden, holding the lead of a slobbering great beast of a bulldog, who was ignoring her in favour of a good scratch and sniff between its copious fat folds. Fat folds probably crawling with more bacteria than the average sofa and kitchen counter combined, she grimaced. What was she going to do?Describe how looking after the dog prompts change in Sue’s life and behaviours.
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