INKsters Virtual Literary Salon Competitive Writing Daily Prompts
May 2009 We have two prompts per day. Please read the FAQ page. Need a daily reminder? Check out our blog.
DATE	Topic Inspired by New Yorker Cartoonists	Topics Inspired by Second Life
1st	Uncomfortable Describe a time when some scary people made you uncomfortable.	Returning He was angry and on his way back to the place where he'd bought ...
2nd	Academia What is your magical faraway land?	Next Up She could see the storm coming and ...
3rd	Jail Break So how are you going to bust out?	Bathing Day The appearance of the lighted orb caused him to leap from the bathtub and ...
4th	Locals Tell a travel story where some of the locals played an important role.	Arrival Only a few hundred yards of sand stood between her and the enemy compound where she planned to .,.
5th	Manna Money falls into your backyard from heaven. You're now unimaginably wealthy. What are your first moves?	Laughing Monkey One watched in 3D, one listened in stereophonic sound, but the laughing monkey ...
6th	Senses You've left your senses. What will you do?	Pathway She thought she heard somebody say, "I wouldn't go down that way," and yet ...
7th	Gasoline Tell a story about your worst car ever.	Campfire Things went so well until he asked her to pose for a photo by the fire and then ...
8th	Moon You're standing on the moon. Your cell phone rings. Who is it and what do they want?	Igloo Finding the igloo in the frozen forest was one more important step in putting an end to ...
9th	Recent Events In light of recent events, what are you afraid you're going to have to do?	Waiting She tried to be patient while waiting on the front porch that morning, but ...
10th	Peeping Tom What goes on in your neighborhood?	Swinger She should have enjoyed the garden swing, but the longer she sat there ...
11th	Attorneys Go ahead. Tell your attorney story.	Vampire They'd wanted her to take vampiring seriously, but even when they called her into the committee, she ...
12th	Time Machine You have a time machine and can go back into time. What would you go back to fix or relive?	Tropicana The sign on the front of the building couldn't have been more deceiving and ...
13th	Eden You're in the Garden of Eden. What will you do first?	Kneeling He knelt down, but the real surprise was ...
14th	Costco What would you like to buy in bulk?	Zombie She wasn't going to wear those old rags anymore, so ...
15th	Replacement When are you a bull and when are you an ostrich?	Homecoming She stood outside the house marveling at the changes they'd made, but she knew the facade ...
16th	Muscle What would you need to do to improve your outlook?	Hey You She approached him thinking she knew him, but ...
17th	Assistant Tell a story about why your assistant disappeared and where she may have gone.	The Tower He climbed and climbed and climbed hoping ...
18th	Doing Nothing What are you doing nothing about?	Car Fire "Well this is really going to make me late for work," she thought staring at ...
19th	Stuck People are in your way. How will you get them to move?	Vacant The court should have been crowded by dozens of local boys, but ...
20th	High School Star What did you do well in high school?	Warehouse District He slammed the jeep into park in the abandoned part of town and ...
21st	Downtown What information do you have the cops need?	Overseer From his vantage point, he plotted ...
22nd	First Things First What are your first things?	Waiting He felt overdressed and awkward waiting there when he should have felt ...
23rd	YouTube Who is your favorite YouTube star and why?	Cologne She didn't want to meet him at the cathedral, but she didn't listen to her own instincts and ...
24th	Dating Tell your ugly date story please.	Abandoned The new robots made the old robots obsolete so many went into hiding and ...
25th	Kidnapping Who would pay the ransom if you were kidnapped? Why would somebody take you?	Black Widow She hated the stereotypes about female black widows so much she planned to ...
26th	Leak You've sprung a leak. Now what?	Fenced Out The wall between them meant ...
27th	Obscurity What are you going to do to become famous?	Tree House He could see them in the tree house even though they'd been told to stay out, and so ...
28th	TV Dinner What shows do you watch while eating?	Whoa! Jumping on the bed was forbidden, and now he began to understand why, because ...
29th	Happy Are you happy or asymptomatic?	After Dark As the sun disappeared in the west, he knew the night would bring ...
30th	Compromise Are you living a life of quiet desperation or are you living a life in the fast lane?	Tuned In He'd never seen electronic devices like these and he knew immediately they could be used for ...
31st	Hedge Fund Which criminal would you like to implicate?	Window The light being cast from the window seemed all wrong to him and he suspected it meant ...