Contest Theme Ideas

[Gaie Sebold]

Fantasy pictures or cover art can work nicely as inspiration (classic cover art, like Mick van Houten's work, or much weirder stuff - there's a lot of it out there). So can those photos of abandoned places I keep seeing links to...like these: https://imgur.com/a/D9iDC.
Lines from poems or music lyrics can be pretty inspiring, too. 
What I love about these sorts of group challenges is that even when you have a single starting point everyone comes up with such amazingly different responses.

[G_R_Matthews]

I like the idea of random pictures. One activity I had to do on my Creative Writing course was pick a random image from a magazine and just write about it... find the story in the image. Could be a good 'theme'

[ladygreen]

Dragons! Come on, everybody loves them. 

[ladygreen]

Ooh - one more.  Potions, or some sort of elixir imbibed with... fill in the blank.

[rwhegwood]

Poisoned utopias.  Everything is good for almost everyone. But for one or a small few who are totally innocent their life is made a prolonged hell for reasons they will never know. It is their suffering as innocents that makes the utopia possible. An idea from Ursula K Leguin.

Small magics from the worlds of tinkers and fishmongers farmwives and goose girls.

Hidden places easy to stumble upon in our dreams harder to find upon waking.

Omens and portents

Impossible gifts.

Tools for obscure occupations (safety blanket softness adjustor, sock napper sequestration units, puppy breath installer, bad day event synchronizer). Stories have to feature tools used in an obscure occupation story.

Extraordinary senses...not psychic stuff....not super ordinary senses..new senses.

[Raptori]

How many themes are there currently waiting to be used? I noticed it's been a long time since anyone posted ideas in here, wondered if there's a long list still or if it's a good idea posting some more...

[xiagan]

How many themes are there currently waiting to be used? I noticed it's been a long time since anyone posted ideas in here, wondered if there's a long list still or if it's a good idea posting some more...

To be honest, I have all the themes for 2015 and 2016 lined up already. But on occasion I'm changing them, switching them around or adding new ones if I like them more.

So if you have an idea, you can definitely post it but it could be that it won't be used for a year.

[Raptori]

How many themes are there currently waiting to be used? I noticed it's been a long time since anyone posted ideas in here, wondered if there's a long list still or if it's a good idea posting some more...

To be honest, I have all the themes for 2015 and 2016 lined up already. But on occasion I'm changing them, switching them around or adding new ones if I like them more.

So if you have an idea, you can definitely post it but it could be that it won't be used for a year.

Cool, I suspected that might be the case. Had a few ideas a couple of weeks ago, will have to see if I can remember them... 

[Raptori]

...yeah I never remembered them.

One that I think could be really cool is music. A couple of times people have mentioned (or even linked to) specific pieces of music either as possible prompts or as something to listen to while reading their story, so I was thinking the task would be to choose a piece of music (preferably one available on youtube) and write a short story inspired by it. Music as a subject could also be intersting, so maybe people could choose between a story about music or musical inspiration (or both).

I think that'd be really fun anyway. 

[ScarletBea]

Another one is animals: the main character of the story must be an animal (real or imaginary).

[Raptori]

Another one is animals: the main character of the story must be an animal (real or imaginary).

Just to be pedantic, we would write ours about humans if the theme was just 'animals'. 

[ScarletBea]

Oh you know what I mean.
But ok, to be pedantic, "non-human animals"
 

[Henry Dale]

Oh you know what I mean.
But ok, to be pedantic, "non-human animals"
 

Nooooo, don't add limitations Bea.  The point of the writing competition is to try to squirm your way out of the subject and getting away with it! 
...or was it writing a good story?  I forgot 

[Raptori]

Oh you know what I mean.
But ok, to be pedantic, "non-human animals"
 

Clearly an opportunity for a Peppermint story, so we'd definitely enjoy that! 

[JMack]

Oh you know what I mean.
But ok, to be pedantic, "non-human animals"
 

Clearly an opportunity for a Peppermint story, so we'd definitely enjoy that! 

I do have a story start about gnomes and goats ruminating somewhere.