Category: writing

  • Flash fiction prompt — 10feb26

    Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

    I am sharing flash fiction prompts generated by AI for my own use unless I don’t think they are worth pursuing. Readers are welcome to try their hand at writing based on the prompts generated for this exercise.

    Notes about modifications made to the AI instructions or this post template are at the end of this post if you are curious about such things.

    Feel free to skip these posts if you feel you are not the target audience. If you choose not to participate, there is no need to let us know about your preferences and opinions about these prompts, or the use of artificial intelligence to generate writing prompts.

    Today’s prompt:

    Genre: Speculative fiction

    Subgenre: Biopunk / Post-Apocalyptic

    Target Length: < 2,000 words

    Key Elements:

    • A genetically modified plant that blooms only in moonlight.
    • A rusted key that opens nothing in the protagonist’s possession.
    • The sound of running water where there should be none.
    • A faded photograph of a skyline that no longer exists.
    (more…)

  • drifts

    dragonfly cattail sunning
    in gentle summer winds
    watching my lips trace
    the curve of your calf
    to the plop of a turtle
    moving from sitting logs
    to taking plunge for a swim

  • Kasumi-no-Kuni — flash fiction

    This piece is based on the flash fiction prompt posted earlier and follows my personal guidelines as described in this post.

    Subgenre: Silkpunk / Ghost-Tech

    Rin looked out over the Land of Mists from the tower she kept her watch from, a tower built entirely of unmarked rice paper and bamboo where she slept when she needed rest, and where she ate when she was given offerings by visitors coming to pay their respect to the memories of the ancestors — those memories captured in the paper of the lands proper. True to the name, the mists and clouds flowed through the city with only a single living resident, that being Rin. The white fog snaked through the streets inked with the stories of ancestors, often obscuring the memories unless someone were to stand before them.

    (more…)

  • casting runes — 09feb25

    dagaz
    poling across
    the lake of mists
    following the scent
    of apple blossoms
    in seeking an
    island's far shore

    A rune poem, based on an Elder Futhark rune selected at random.

    Today’s rune is dagaz, which has been translated as “daybreak”, that transitional moment between night and day. By extension, it might also be interpreted as “twilight” and is representative of liminality, transformation, the space between worlds, and suggests walking in both the material world and otherworld.

    Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.

  • torpor

    barefoot and slumber
    half under the covers
    the other half wrapped
    up in you

    tangle and torpor
    who cares for warm summers
    while a'winter in the
    afterglow of you

  • Flash fiction prompt — 09feb26

    Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

    I thought I’d start sharing those flash fiction prompts generated by AI that I find compelling enough to consider attempting to write about for my own purposes in case any of the folks dropping by here are tempted to try their hand at the prompt as well.

    It would be fun to see how others approach these prompts and contrast/compare the output.

    Feel free to skip these posts if you feel you are not the target audience; if you choose not to participate, there is no need to let us know about your preferences and opinions about these prompts or the use of artificial intelligence to generate writing prompts.

    Today’s prompt:

    Subgenre: Silkpunk / Ghost-Tech

    Plot Elements to Include:

    • The Object: An ornate silk kite that flies without wind, pulling its handler toward “emotional ley lines.”
    • The Setting: A floating city constructed entirely of paper and bamboo, held aloft by the collective memories of its inhabitants.
    • The Conflict: A “Memory-Scribe” discovers a blank spot in the city’s archives—a day in history that has been physically cut out of the paper foundation.

    Target Length: < 2,000 words

    (more…)

  • casting runes — 08feb26

    jera
    back to the begin
    & been mistaken in
    taking flint for fire

    wraps & rags
    wound 'round wrists & arms
    time again to strike steel
    for sparks

    A poem prompted by a randomly selected Elder Futhark rune.

    Today’s rune is jera. Jera is translated as “year”, and has also been translated as “harvest”. This rune is representative of cycles, the “wheel of the year”, the union of opposites (implied by the summer half of the year ending, winter half of the year beginning), balance, as well as cause/effect relationships.

    Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.

  • absurd obscenity

    why is it absurd to sing
    of having a dream where
    he kissed your knees?
    i would kiss your feet just
    to sing such a dream —
    and everyone would find
    my acts even more obscene

  • casting runes — 07feb26

    ansuz
    finding myself at ash
    i can ride branches
    i can ride roots
    i can also sit just so
    the call comes of stone
    and of deep, so
    it's there my spirit
    will dwell

    A poem prompted by a randomly selected Elder Futhark rune.

    Today’s rune is ansuz, which has a core meaning “a god” (intended to be Odin), “mouth” or “breath”. Odin is representative of many, many things… in this case, ansuz is most representative of the mouth/breath (speech) that gives life to poetry, magic, song, language, and spirit — largely inseparable in the Viking worldview — and Odin is considered the supreme master of these intertwined concepts. By way of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc, the rune is named æsc, which is translated to “ash”, a tree associated with Odin and is representative of resilience and strength.

    Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.

  • Dead zone — flash fiction

    See my notes in this post about the prompted flash fiction pieces on this site about personal drivers and rules I use while writing them.

    Plot Elements to Include (all prompts and genre randomly suggested by Gemini AI):

    • The Object: A heavy, brass-bound radio that doesn’t receive signals from this decade.
    • The Setting: A city perpetually covered in coal-dust fog where sound is regulated by the government.
    • The Conflict: The protagonist discovers a “dead zone” where the fog clears, revealing a sky that hasn’t been seen in fifty years.

    Genre: Dieselpunk / Alt History

    “Gimme your ETA for finishing Delta sector baffler maintenance, Zed-Ought-Three-Stroke-Seven-Ex. We’ve got a situation in Epsilon and you’re needed immediately. Dispatch over.”

    Cinder let dispatch stew for a few moments before responding. She’d been done fixing the bafflers ten minutes ago but had quickly learned that being too much of a go-getter in City Maintenance just go-got you more thankless tasks and a fistful of disgruntled coworkers to boot. No one liked a brownnoser, including the bosses because then they had to find more make-work for you and explain to their superiors why that was the case. And if their superiors thought there were inefficiencies in the system, they would reduce the workforce to account for those inefficiencies, keeping only the overachievers, who would then be saddled with more work than they could handle on their own. Let no good deed go unpunished was the unofficial motto of the dome maintenance worker.

    (more…)