This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Here’s a little writing prompt to kick start your week. Use it as a simple exercise to grease your writing wheels. It might even be the start of a new short story or full-blown novel.
You have to hand it to the girls; while a weekend by the sea hasn’t exactly cured your recently dumped, broken heart, it has helped. You’ve giggled your way around saucy postcard shops and bumper car tracks, ridden donkeys and rollercoasters, gorged yourselves on candy floss and fish and chips and lost a small fortune in two pence pieces at the amusement arcade. The night before, in a moment of drunken 1am madness, you even thought about asking the cute guy at the chip shop for his phone number. You didn’t ask, of course, but you definitely thought about it. Progress.
Now, while the rest of your group load up on souvenirs before hitting the road, you take one last solitary meander along the emptying pier to watch the sunset.
Rather than looking out to sea, however, you find yourself drawn to a weathered fortune-telling machine, which has been tucked away behind a disused doughnut truck. It’s a gaudy old thing. Inside, a theatrically-painted gypsy woman – shrouded in midnight-blue satin and clutching a crystal ball – peers out from under her long, mysterious eyelashes.
It’s only after you’ve inserted a 50 pence piece into the rusty coin slot that you notice the fortune teller has been unplugged. Not just unplugged, the wires have been completely cut. It probably hasn’t been used in years, you shrug, turning to rejoin your friends when you hear them calling your name. Before you can take a step, however, you see a strip of paper curl its way out of the machine.Your Fortune, it says at the top in campy red lettering.
Do you read your fortune? What does it say? Write the scene.