Advice is great, but advice on its own won’t make you a better writer. We become better writers by writing and it’s always easier to write when we’re inspired. To that end, a creative prompt using an ordinary item.
Below you’ll find a sample first chapter from a book that has not yet been written. Read the chapter and then follow the prompt.
Some big book title
Chapter one
“Right now we are all bound by time. Held to it. No one can speed up a single second nor slow one down. Time is fixed for us. One day it won't be. One day in the future,” he chuckled to himself at the use of a time-based word to describe this, “time will not exist.”
Kai had heard Pongo detail all of this out before and every time he got lost at the word bound. "Who uses that word anymore?" Kai thought. "Not me." It was usually enough for Kai to nod politely and give a coy act of astonishment and then Pongo would be on his way, looking for his next victim to bind for a few minutes as he told the same story over again.
But today Kai didn't feel quite right. Something irked him, he was a little unsettled. And things that he normally would leave alone, he felt he must scratch. "So what do you call this time-free zone then?" holding up his hands to mimic air quotes around "time-free," and making sure Pongo knew this was a mocking question and not one he was actually asking out of genuine interest.
"Call it? Why eternity of course." Pongo seemed confident to let that simple truth sit without any further explanation, which of course bothered Kai even more.
"Eternity?" That was enough to send Kai scampering away with his head full of a mix of annoyance and curiosity. For now, Kai went back to his original train of thought, "Who uses words like this anymore? Not me."
Calling out from the ever-increasing distance, Pongo shouted, "You can't outrun time, Kai!"
Today’s task: Add to this story. What comes next? What questions do you have that are left unanswered? Where do you think this story should go? Is this a book that should be written?
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Kai let his question echo in his mind, but also heard Pongo confident voice echoing back in reply, “Eternity…eternity….bound by time but no in eternity…”
What could this possibly mean? Time is. Right? But did in bind Kai or did he control his time, this restless itch didn’t usually plague him after listening to Pongo. Today was different. Today he couldn’t let go.
Kai was still restless in his spirit as he lay down to sleep that night. Pongo was there, in his dreams, saying come with me, "I will give you a glimpse of this eternity of which I speak"
Kai was suddenly taken back to his childhood, watching his mother prepare the evening meal,
his baby brother playing nearby. He could smell the food, his favorite meal, as it was placed in front of him. Before he could take a bite Pongo was there again, "follow me".
Darkness, then a small circle of light growing brighter until they came out to a meadow lush and green.
"What is this place," asked Kai?
"It is the world at peace, the end of time and the beginning of eternity. See how the lion and the lamb graze together. Time means nothing when you dream, and will mean nothing when everything is complete," said Pongo.
Then darkness fell again over Kai. Sensing a light he opened his eyes, not to a perfect end of all things, but back in his small bedroom.
But the vision remained, a feeling that what we can see, is only a small part of the world around us.