PROMPT 39 – OCCUPATIONAL HAZARD
Story ideas abound in the world around us. They can even be taken from our jobs. This prompt gives authors a chance to pull from something they know quite well—their jobs. If the author has a problem picking an event from their job then they can look to the profession of a relative or a friend.
Choose a profession and then add a surprise to the normal work routine. A doctor could find that his/her patient has a mysterious organ that doesn’t belong in a human body. A construction worker might discover a buried artifact, or a body, on the construction site. A nurse could walk into a room and find that a coma patient is awake and asks her to write something down because it is important.
For example, one of my first jobs was as a projectionist in a small independent movie theater. What if a character started a new job at a theater and discovered that the projector started by itself at midnight every Saturday and showed images of the future?
Sneak Peek – Randy loves his job as a projectionist, staying up late and watching movies felt more like entertainment than work. Then a friend asks him to cover his Saturday night shift, everything changes. He discovers that the projector can start on its own and shows images of events that will take place in the week ahead. But his friend doesn’t return to work and Randy is left as the sole caretaker of a projector that predicts the future and a mystery of a missing coworker to solve.
Story ideas abound in the world around us. They can even be taken from our jobs. This prompt gives authors a chance to pull from something they know quite well—their jobs. If the author has a problem picking an event from their job then they can look to the profession of a relative or a friend.
Choose a profession and then add a surprise to the normal work routine. A doctor could find that his/her patient has a mysterious organ that doesn’t belong in a human body. A construction worker might discover a buried artifact, or a body, on the construction site. A nurse could walk into a room and find that a coma patient is awake and asks her to write something down because it is important.
For example, one of my first jobs was as a projectionist in a small independent movie theater. What if a character started a new job at a theater and discovered that the projector started by itself at midnight every Saturday and showed images of the future?
Sneak Peek – Randy loves his job as a projectionist, staying up late and watching movies felt more like entertainment than work. Then a friend asks him to cover his Saturday night shift, everything changes. He discovers that the projector can start on its own and shows images of events that will take place in the week ahead. But his friend doesn’t return to work and Randy is left as the sole caretaker of a projector that predicts the future and a mystery of a missing coworker to solve.
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