Prompts.
It’s code for something. Possibly.
In case your wheels are not spinning, here’s a list of prompts or parameters to prime the pump of your glorious creative brain.
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Recount a dramatic and unsettling taxi ride in newly-visited foreign country.
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A diatribe about traffic.
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A love letter to the first car you ever drove by yourself.
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A story about a car who becomes sentient.
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A poem about learning to drive stick shift?
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An opinion on why the steering wheel is round?
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A dramatic story about a top-class car restorer, who travels to find and evaluate a rare car for purchase by a client. Like The Day of the Jackal but less killing.
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In a poem, explore the love affair between some of the world's most reviled and notorious leaders and their cars. Imelda Marcos adored Her Rolls-Royce Phantom V; Idi Amin enjoyed the tasteful luxury of a Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman; and Muammar Gaddafi found time in his busy life to design a supercar for safety, invitingly named ‘Rocket of the State of the Masses’.
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One thousand word creative non-fiction essay where the narrator is your car.
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Write a short story featuring a yellow Jeep Cherokee, a Hollywood stylist, a sale at the Gap, and a shovel.
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Wrestle with the desire to drink massive amounts of alcohol despite the fact that you’ve driven to your friends’ farm which is down a long dark dirt road. Do not leave out why it is not possible for you to spend the night. Make this a short story, poem, or essay.
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Compose a limerick as an ode to your mom’s daily commuter.
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Write a flash fiction piece that sounds like a math problem with no solution: It’s the end of the world. You must get to Denver from Maine. There is no gas to be purchased but you have a full tank of gas and a buddy with an electric car who needs to be picked up in Chicago. How do you both get to Denver and how long does it take?
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Write a short story that contains a death, a sex scene, four dogs, unrequited love, a hat, where the action takes place in less than 20 minutes and within the interior of a car.
