Feeling Trapped in Quarantine? Here are 10 Ways to Escape in 10 Minutes

Covid have you in hibernation? While avoiding social interaction is essential to preventing Covid transmission, it’s also very isolating. Most of us feel drained emotionally, mentally, and creatively. Often writing prompts help me get pen back to paper after hitting a wall. Consider trying one of the following 10 writing prompts and challenge yourself to create a brief (25-500 word) flash fiction piece. Focus on setting (any place but the inside of our house, please!) by building a new space. What does it smell like, feel like, sound like? 

Take us there and transport your reader because we all need to escape a bit right now.

1. Write a story about a magical piece of furniture. This item creates a portal, but how? Where does it take us? What is a major problem and why does it hurt those your character loves? 
2. Take a trip. Describe the voyage and the arrival, but don’t name the destination. What’s the problem that erupts at your arrival? How will you fix it?
3. Create a character that’s been reincarnated as a wild animal. What kind of animal? How does the character feel about it? What can/can’t be done? Who do they meet and why is there a problem?
4. There’s music playing just beyond a hill, follow the sound and tell us why it’s terrifying. How can you make it stop and what will be the result?
5. Create an underground world, who are the inhabitants and why are they so happy? What happens when people from the surface discover their weakness and invade the underground?
6. Imagine a cruise ship full of non-human characters, where are they going and what are they leaving behind? Why is everyone dancing and/or singing constantly?
7. Someone is giving chase through empty city streets. There’s an unknown substance everywhere. What happened and who’s after them? What happens when they get caught and find out they are the same person?
8. A large body of water rests in the way. How did it get there and what’s on the other side? There’s aggressive animals in the water- what are they and why are they so angry?
9. Thousands of fans gather before your character, why are they watching and how are things about to go horribly wrong? What happens when your character discovers everything they’ve been told is a lie?
10. Create a new political system. Please. Maybe we can make it nonfiction some day. 

Tip: If you need more inspiration- check out this ThinkWritten article for helpful tips and techniques to shake the writers block.

If you have any additional inspiring, odd, quirky, or compelling prompt ideas- please share them with us in the comments below.