Daily Mail Creative Writing Prompts

The best Daily Mail stories for your workshop, as selected by @RossScarano

[dailymailcreativewritingprompts]

Use flashforwards starting with your narrator at age 17, when he was just a young tunnel builder, to construct your story. The first word of your story must be "bruh."

[real story]

[dailymailcreativewritingprompts]

What does the tycoon recall during that final moment in the bathroom of the cherry factory, the gun slick with sweat in his palm and the NYPD closing in? Maybe his first banana split? Or Shirley Temple? Think about taste as memory. Use the word "supercilious" at least once. Do not mention Proust.

[real story]

[dailymailcreativewritingprompts]

Different tack this week: just write a story that explains what this means. That's all. Will accept anything resembling coherence.

[real story]

[dailymailcreativewritingprompts]

Your character is a flight attendant and it's her/his first day on the job. But the British are coming! And they want to prevent other Americans from eating snacks! Use a sensory detail to trigger a flashback that relates to allergies and also empathy.

[real story]

[dailymailcreativewritingprompts]

In an imitation of Nicholson Baker, dilate the moment when the over-confident tourist realizes that fake Gaston's fake muscles might also be real muscles and that hope is fading fast. Try to incorporate Baker-esque footnotes about the time the over-confident tourist bought those dad jeans.

[real story]

[dailymailcreativewritingprompts]

The Polish politician comes home shouting about the day's victory. But what does the Polish politician's partner, a children's novelist in secret, think of the matter? Please include excerpts from the secret fictions.

[real story]

[dailymailcreativewritingprompts]

Weekend assignment: Write an imitation of the script to Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull, subbing in tennis star Andre Agassi for tortured boxer Jake LaMotta. Think about place!

[real story]

[dailymailcreativewritingprompts]

Imagine the guilt of—actually, never mind. 

[real story]

[dailymailcreativewritingprompts]

Your character discovers the dog and, upon touching the duct tape cocoon, experiences a powerful vision—what does she see?

[real story]

[dailymailcreativewritingprompts]

Look at face of the dog and imagine its perspective. How does a dog understand time?

[real story]

[dailymailcreativewritingprompts]

Why is your character running away? Which delicious drink did your character shoplift from Walmart first?

[real story]

[dailymailcreativewritingprompts]

A fun Los Angeles family adopts a lion named Neil—what happens next? [real story]