The visitor asked, "Can you write a story without a prompt?"

"I don't know," said the writer. "I've never tried."

"Really? You mean all those stories you wrote arose from something you'd seen or heard?"

"Or something I'd read. Tasted. Felt. Wondered about."

"And the novels? The poems? That terrible album you wrote and recorded?"

The writer smiled. "Yes, all of them. I need to have something to start from, some germ of a concept that I can build on. It's like the way a jazz musician riffs off a set theme. They start with what they have and make something new and unexpected."

"Then I guess the afterlife is going to be quite a trial for you," said the visitor. "It's nothing but an empty, eternal, endless void of nothingness."

"What? How would you know what the afterlife is like?"

This time, it was the visitor who smiled.

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TonyNoland (joined over 14 years ago)
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I don't always write fast, but I always try to write well. If you read something of mine and think, "Well, that was crap.", please read it again. Sometimes my jokes and layered meanings don't always come across instantly. If I make you work for the punchline, I hope you realize that I wouldn't even set up the hurdle for you if I didn't think you were able to clear it.

Read more of my work at:
http://www.TonyNoland.com
http://twitter.com/TonyNoland

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Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

Prompt

Blank Prompt

Freeform prompt. Every Friday, writers face a blank page without any prompt. They write whatever they want in six minutes or less.
Prompt suggested by Galen

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