Last Tuesday, I posted a challenge where I put up three pictures, with random words below them and asked people to come up with story premises based on them. I got 16 premises and picked out my favorite one for each picture. They are:
1. “Mermaid/Jerk”
Winner: nightlake – “Mermaid sighted in disputed waters sparks territorial fight between warring neighbours.”
2. “Car/Peacock”
Winner: Michelle Proulx – “Reginald Hammersworth, secret agent extraordinaire, is ready for his next big mission … until Z gives him his new ride: a cute little red car with a sassy AI named Mrs. Peacock.”
3. “Kneeling Man in Woods/Violin”
Winner: Jilanne Hoffmann – “Please Mom, if you help me find my way out of this jungle, I promise I’ll practice the violin every day for the rest of my life.”
I promised prizes for the winners, but since everyone is different, I’ll let them decide what they want. So, Nightlake, Michelle, and Jilanne, read carefully and let me know which one you would like to receive.
- I will write a story and dedicate it to you. You would suggest a few key story elements (theme, genre, characters, plot elements, etc.) and I would use them to write a story. I call this Invitational Prompts and I’ve done it twice before. The first was the story The Circle of Unbeing, which I wrote for Sharmishtha Basu. The second is a story I have been writing for some time for Amy of The Bumble Files, which should be out soon. If you choose this one, email me at greenwalledtower@gmail.com and we’ll talk about it.
- I will email you a picture of a word or phrase of your choosing (e.g. your name, your blog address, etc.) spelled out creatively (e.g. with jelly beans, in Korean, spray-painted on the side of a police car…)
- I will mail you a small souvenir from Korea, which is where I live (you will need to email me your mailing address because I suck at guessing mailing addresses).
- I will give you one (1) piece of advice. (Note: NOT RECOMMENDED. My only piece of advice is “shape up and fly right”)
- I will make a video in which I will read a short story of your choosing in a creative location (i.e. not in front of my computer). It could be either one of mine or yours or one that I won’t get sued for using. I’ll give a shout-out to your blog on it.
Let me know which you’d like, and if you didn’t win, there’s always next time.
The Green-Walled Tower 
May 8th, 2013 at 6:36 pm
Thank you kindly. I am honoured and humbled. Congrats to the other two winners too. Thank you so much
May 8th, 2013 at 7:24 pm
congratulations to all the winners and their amazing imagination! loved their fantastic imagination!
May 8th, 2013 at 9:49 pm
Wooooo! Great success! Congrats to the other winners too 🙂 As for my prize, I think #2 is an insanely cool idea. May I humbly request the word “SHWOOP”? It is, of course, the sound of a spaceship bending the space/time continuum to zip from one side of the galaxy to another. If it’s possible to do the photo in a way that evokes space/speed/sci-fi of some sort, that would be extra awesome 😀
May 8th, 2013 at 10:08 pm
Perfect. I have a good idea for it already. I’ll try to have it to you within a week. 🙂
By the way, do you mind if I write a story based on your premise of the car with the Mrs. Peacock AI?
May 8th, 2013 at 10:13 pm
Do it!!!
May 9th, 2013 at 1:33 am
Oh how awesome! Thank you! And congrats to the other winners as well!
I, too, am a fan of the second option. How about the word, “phewf!” It’s one of Calvin’s favorite sayings to express relief at getting out of trouble or narrowly avoiding some mishap. We use this word frequently in our household. :o)
May 9th, 2013 at 4:55 pm
Sounds good! Phewf is a great word. 🙂
August 8th, 2013 at 11:12 am
[…] is a story that I promised to do for Nightlake for winning my Story Premise Challenge that I held back in May. I apologize that it’s been so long. This story is similar to what […]