Use one or more of the prompts below to inspire one or more character stories:

1. Write a story with the scene depicted by the photo at top of this post, "New York #flickrmeetup - Come and meet us at the High Line!" (Click for a larger view.)

2. Write a story with a character who periodically lapses into talking like a mobster (or in baby-talk, or in the voice of Sylvester the Cat, etc.)

3. Write a story about loving your enemies.

4. Write a story that involves mass transit.

1. A photo: top of this post, which the artist has entitled, "Never a frown, with golden brown." (Click for a larger view.)
2. A personality type: ISFP.
3. A need: the need for emotional intimacy.
4. A quirk: Always writes in 1337-5p34k (leet-speak).

Feel free to comment below with a link to your story if you use any of these prompts. (Or even if you don’t.) You can also submit your story to the Carnival of Storytelling, which is posted on Thursdays. And whatever you do…

Happy birthday to me! (Yup. Don’t know whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.)

1. A photo: top of this post, which the artist has entitled, "." (Click for a larger view.)
2. A personality type: ENFP.
3. A need: the need for attention.
4. A quirk: Loves to dance, and does not have to be on the dance floor.

Feel free to comment below with a link to your story if you use any of these prompts. (Or even if you don’t.) You can also submit your story to the Carnival of Storytelling, which is posted on Thursdays. And whatever you do…

I found this photo on Flickr. Entitled “The Problem with Character-Driven Stories,” the photo had an amusing story to go along with it.

As the story goes, there was a writer who was auditioning characters for her next novel. Characters lined up all the way out the writer’s waiting room and around the corner. And most of them, unfortunately, were about the same as all the others. Here’s an example that exemplifies what I’m talking about:

A character named Jean entered, sat down.

“Okay, then, Jean,” said the writer. “Tell me about yourself.”

“I’m 24. I have medium-long mousey-blonde hair. I drink vodka and Coke. I’m pretty boring.”

“And you’d like to be in a story?”

“Yes, please.”

1. A photo: see the top of this post. (Click for a larger view.)
2. A personality type: ESFJ.
3. A need: the need for security.
4. A quirk: Names his many tropical fish all after characters from his favorite novel.

Feel free to comment below with a link to your story if you use any of these prompts. (Or even if you don’t.) You can also submit your story to the Carnival of Storytelling, which is posted on Thursdays. And whatever you do…

1. A photo: top of this post, which the artist has entitled, "Please Don't Go." (Click for a larger view.) Of the photo he says, "This was a shot I took during Alyssa Barajas' production of a music video for the song 'Please Don't Go' by Barcelona. It was an amazing night, so many emotions and a ton of inspiration in the air. Cali Lowdermilk was the model for the shoot."
2. A personality type: ESTP.
3. A need: the need for alone time.
4. A quirk: Sleeps on a polyphasic schedule.

Feel free to comment below with a link to your story if you use any of these prompts. (Or even if you don’t.) You can also submit your story to the Carnival of Storytelling, which is posted on Thursdays. And whatever you do…

It’s Memorial Day (here in the US). That’s not a story prompt, just a note. Here are today’s story prompts. Use one or all of them to inspire a story.

I want to post a list of character-story prompts each Monday, culled from various ideation sources. These prompts are raw ideas, and I’d like to write a story inspired by one or more of these prompts, posting the story on my story blog for #FridayFlash. This really just a variation of the process I usually use to write stories, opening it up for you to get in on it.

Being a character prompt, each will have something to do with a character and what she needs. Where you go from there, that’s up to you. I’ll usually write a life-expanding character story, with an underlying theme, a traditional character arc, and a happy ending, because that’s what I do. Or I might just experiment and have fun.