New writers (and even experienced ones) sometimes stare at a blank page or empty text window waiting for inspiration to strike. Many techniques exist to help overcome writers’ block. Today, I’m using something called a writing prompt. According to ThoughtCo.com, a “writing prompt is a brief passage of text (or sometimes an image) that provides a potential topic idea or starting point for an original essay, report, journal entry, story, poem, or other form of writing.”
Today’s writing prompt:
In the distant future, time becomes a rare commodity.
I copied the prompt into my journal some time ago, but I never forgot about it. Over several weeks and months, the prompt churned within my brain where it commingled with my fading recollection of the Big Bounce theory, Stephen Hawking’s final paper, and the ongoing saga of my father’s advanced age and declining health. A story grew. When I could contain it no longer, I opened my word processor and let it spill out.
As a new writer still developing skills, I decided to use this piece to practice voice, and (hopefully) to create a dark and surreal setting.
Jim Morrison said, “No one here gets out alive.” But Bruce Springsteen said, “Maybe everything that dies someday comes back.” A hypothetical debate between Jim and Bruce is beyond the scope of this story. Instead, I’ve made my protagonist a devout Springsteen fan. That’s why the dying universe pays a visit to…