Weekly Prompt Roundup: Horoscopes, Board Games, and Wikipedia
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Welcome to a week's worth of writing prompts! If you read last week's roundup, you know this is a new venture to try and increase community in a time of social distancing. Each day, we post a writing prompt on Twitter and Instagram that we're encouraging you all to interact with. You can reply with a single tweet/post, follow up with an entire thread, or post a picture of whatever work you're inspired to create. Each week in our roundup, we'll be featuring some of our favorite replies as well as expanding on the prompts.
We started out strong on Tuesday with a musical prompt, using the first line of a randomly selected song as inspiration.
Don't have headphones at your disposal? Try these on for size:
Dearly beloved, we have gathered here today to get through this thing called life.
Coming out of my cage, and I've been doing just fine.
A scrub is a guy that thinks he's fly and is also known as a busta.
On Wednesday, we got astrological.
Fellow Libras, this horoscope is for you: "Some of the surprises that come your way are more positive than they seem, but the image of your sensitive emotional world and family shouldn’t be questioned. Take a moment to see if your personal needs are met even if your stomach is joyous over possible rewards and positive affirmations from the outer world."
Thursday's prompt was trash. (We're referring to your junk drawer, of course.)
Is the first thing you saw a pen? Business receipts from 2015? A lint roller?
Let's get a bit more creative.
A pen from that bank you robbed in 2015? Business receipts from the airline tickets you bought to Aruba—because you were fleeing the country after robbing a bank? A lint roller covered in the hair of the cat you bought in Aruba to go along with your new identity as Harriet the Cat Lady (alternatively: Harold the Cat Man or Hayes the Cat Aficionado), who has definitely never robbed a bank?
Speaking of cats, Friday's prompt got a little hairy when we asked you to let your fur baby walk across your keyboard (and for those of you who live in a snoot-less void, trailing your fingers haphazardly across the keys).
Boris, my chunky apricot-saddled rat, says: kynkhtdews. Sounds like a code to me. Guess I have some reverse engineering to do ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Hector, my smol dumbo-eared rat, says: bbgfcjklmmmm. Definitely the routing number to a foreign—you guessed it—bank account. (When in shelter-in-place, you can bet I WILL be watching all of the Ocean's movies.)
On Saturday, we asked you to take a deeper look at what really matters in life: board games. Let's get to psycho-analyzing those pieces, y'all.
What exactly is the backstory of Miss Scarlet? How did she come to be in the kitchen with Colonel Mustard in the first place? Very suspicious.
Who are these settlers? Where even is Catan??
If you didn't move the Oujia planchette and I didn't move the Oujia planchette, who did?
Sunday was for introspection. We asked: what was the first truth you realized was not universal?
Was it when you learned a certain jolly someone wasn't coming down the chimney every year? That the shark in Jaws is mechanical? That sharknado is a hoax? Or was it later on, when you encountered a different religion, culture, viewpoint? When the traditions held up by your parents no longer applied to your beliefs? When you took that trip, college course, seminar that broke open your understanding of the world and the people in it? When you realized not everyone stays—or, conversely, the people you expect will go, don't?
We rounded out the week by asking Wikipedia to do the work for you.
Some random articles, generated for your pleasure:
Nudibranch (I know you want to know)
We hope these prompts get that creative mind working. And we'd love to see your writing! Post your thoughts, snippets, and reactions to these prompts, and we'll round some more up for next week. Until then, stay safe and sane.