Writing Prompt Snippet: Something precious stolen

 I found a little lead plant ID label the other day while walking the dog. It must have been for some variety of primula, as I could see the letters PRIM stamped onto it.  I put it in my pocket and took it home.  I found a tiny glass jar for it and sat it on the table. Then today I was racking my brains about what the "stolen treasure" could be in the writing prompt that Stephen gave me for our challenge. I decided the lead tag had to be something to do with it, and then I decided that young Niss from the first prompt was in the same story as Asha.

Asha is looking for the Primogenitor sample because she's been hired to find it. Niss is interested in the sample because it's what she and her kind were originally created from. They are hypersensitive to sunlight, it ages them prematurely, and the older you are, the more it affects you. So the young children of their kind are the ones that interact with the human world, until they can't. Humans regard them as monsters that live in the shadows and forgotten places, and hope that they will eventually die out.

Asha's reluctant alliance with Niss is purely to retrieve the sample.

Asha put her shoulder to the door and shoved. It gave a little. She wedged the end of the crowbar into the gap and glanced around for her companion. 

Niss crawled out from underneath an abandoned truck and hung back in the shadows.

"Hey, you, get over here."

Asha grunted as she yanked the crowbar outwards. The door gave a creaking groan, and then something cracked.

Asha kicked at the base of the door and it finally swung open. She nodded her head towards the opening and Niss scuttled forward into the darkness. Pausing a moment to turn on her torch, Asha followed cautiously.

The centre of the lab was trashed, broken glass beakers and sensors strewn across the floor. A table lay on its side at the end of the room, blocking off another doorway.

Flicking the torch from one side to the other, Asha picked her way through the mess. The glass crunched underfoot. She dragged the table to the side and shone the torch into the space beyond.

"Hey, small thing, where are you?"

Niss ran forward.

"You go check it out."

Niss disappeared into the darkness, returning almost seconds later to tug at Asha's coat.

She followed the young girl into the room, holding the torch above her head to cast a wider spread of light.

The case was empty. In the dim light, Asha could see a metal tag lying on the table, twisted out of shape. The letters PRIM were just visible.

The Primogenitor sample was gone. 

Creative Play

 I need to get back into writing. I've got a full book to edit, and I do really just love juggling words around and seeing what shapes they make as they land on the page.

I recently had a friend staying over the winter break, and we both wanted to work on our writing. We did a couple of writing sessions in a coffee shop in town, but the thing that really helped me was sitting down and giving each other timed prompts. We each chose a double-part prompt for the other, and set a 15 minute timer.

It didn't feel like work, it felt like playing. It was scary knowing the time was ticking down and I still didn't have anything written on the page, but the second time was easier. 

For the first one, I couldn't think how to start, so I did a bit of brainstorming on the page just to put pen to paper. The prompt was "a young girl, looking up a shadowy staircase". I wanted to know WHO the girl was, WHERE the staircase led to, WHY it was shadowy and WHAT the emotions were that I wanted to convey. And then I wanted to subvert initial expectations. 

Once I'd got those in place, it was easier to begin writing. I decided that the shadows weren't scary, they were safe; it was the patches of light that held the danger. I wanted her to be determined to reach her goal and confident that she knew how to achieve it. 

Niss scanned the steps before her. There were patches of shadow scattered across her route, and she totted up the distances between them; how many steps from one patch of safety to the next.

The harsh light poured in through the gaps in the walls. She'd have to move quickly. Pulling her hood over her head, she darted up the staircase. At the top she paused, and surveyed the corridor ahead. From the plans, she knew that her target was located in one of the far rooms. The ceiling here had collapsed, leaving whole swathes of the floor in sunlight.

The next prompt was "a religious idol; a worshipper who is not content". I found this time it was much easier to begin, and only jotted a few brief notes before starting to write.

The chapel was out of the way, and it took Asha almost half a day to get there. She'd left early, so as to be sure of getting back before night fell on the ruins.

Eventually she spotted the entrance to the alley that led to her destination. Sandwiched between the tall buildings, it almost looked like a dead end, but among the rubble and debris she spotted the door.

She tore away the plywood that boarded it up, and stepped into the gloom. 

It was a mostly empty space, long since stripped of the wooden pews, and any valuable metal taken away to be melted down.

The idol was placed on the raised end of the room, staring with empty eyes at an invisible congregation. Asha approached and typed her prayer into the keypad at the side.

The idol's eyes flickered to life and Asha grudgingly crouched in front of it to drop a handful of batteries in the offering bowl.

After we'd both read our snippets out loud, we had to choose our favourite of the other person's for them to develop with a further prompt. I'm to develop the world/character from the second one, with the additional prompt of "something precious stolen". 

(The first two prompts I gave were "a talisman, in a sci fi world" and "a technological world overtaken by nature; a struggle". I then chose the first one for my friend to develop, with the additional prompt of "an incident over food".)

If you feel inspired by any of these prompts, I'd love to see what you come up with!