Ruby’s Weekly Prompts

January 8–14

That photo is fantastic and I want it to be a real thing.

Welcome to week two! I will not keep counting the weeks for long because I will lose track at some point and that will just annoy me.

As you may already know — this year I’m doing weekly prompts instead of daily. Each week I will give you two of my normal brand of thought-based prompts to choose from plus one animal-based prompt.

You can do any or all of them and in whatever order you’d like.

The thought-provokers will be based in psychology, philosophy, criminology, a combination of them… or just some random thing that my twisted little mind spends an unusual amount of time thinking about. Unlike when I did the entire month all at once — you won’t get all of them each week.

Yes, that means there will be weeks at a time where I do not actually make you think about murder.

It’s weird. It’s new. It’s 2024.

As there are fewer prompts than previously — I fully expect you to think even harder about your responses. Some of the prompts may appear easy… right up until you flip them around and around in your mind, overthink them, and your brain explodes.

If that doesn’t happen — you missed the point. Try again.

If they ever offend you in any way… not my problem, I do not care, do not whine at me.

Don’t ever whine at me. About anything. For any reason. Ever. Mmk?

Just. Write. About. It.

As always, please keep your arms and legs inside the prompt at all times… and remember that playtime in my sandbox will leave you feeling dirty but nothing I do is accidental nor is it ever quite as it seems.

Part of that may actually not have been a proper prompt warning.

You may publish your responses in any publication that accepts them, you may self-publish them, or you can be like me (who possibly wouldn’t want to be like me??) and publish them where they live — in Read or Die!

My prompts have no minimums or maximums on read time or word counts. You write until you think you’ve answered them. They do not have wrong answers. They do not have right answers. Some of them do not have answers at all. And if you end up with a stream of consciousness that goes in circles of you arguing with yourself and it leads nowhere — that’s probably what I wanted to happen… so do it.

Don’t forget to tag me in your responses so I can judge you and analyze you.

Actually, I don’t do either of those things. But some prompts are meant to make you analyze yourself. If you judge yourself, well… stop touching that and maybe you won’t anymore.

Still, tag me. I do like seeing what you make of them. Also please include a link to this post so others can play with my mind if they want to.

I may end up switching the format and writing them one month at a time again but just giving you three choices per week or keep doing it this way. I haven’t decided yet. The year is still new.

This list will remain at the top of Read or Die! from January 8–14. But my prompts never expire so all of them can be found in the list on my profile page or linked in any of my own responses.

Let’s see what you do with these…

Prompt One.

People decide certain things about each other based solely on a single look. Preconceived ideas or… misconceptions.

What are the most common misconceptions people have about you? Why do you think that they have them? How do you feel about them?

What misconceptions do you have about YOURSELF — the things that you know in your mind aren’t true but you believe them anyway. This may also include things people tell you about yourself, but you don’t believe them. They may be outer qualities or inner qualities.

Imposter syndrome? Self-esteem issues? Doubt? Or perhaps — the opposite… superiority complex? Inflated ego? Self-assurance?

This is an extremely self-reflective prompt and shouldn’t be easy. Publishing it will be harder.

I dare you.

Prompt Two.

No matter what age you currently are — imagine you are 35 years old.

You wake up today to news vans outside your house and learn that the people who raised you… kidnapped you when you were an infant.

They are not your parents. You are not their child. You were not adopted. You were taken.

Your biological parents want to know you. The people who raised you are going to prison. You will have to testify.

Consider all aspects of this. Does it change how you feel about the people who raised you, how, and what would you say in court? Do you want to meet your biological parents? Does it change what you believe about who you are? How?

This is based on kidnapping — not adoption. If you’re adopted — you can still do this just change your legal adoption to an illegal kidnapping. They committed a crime to get you and even if your life was a dream come true, there are parents who were wrecked by the loss of you.

What do you think, feel, do? Write it.

• Please include that it is a prompt response and fictional or people (and Medium) will think this actually happened because unfortunately… it has before.

Animal Prompt.

Everyone knows that my animals have themed names and all of them have middle names after X-Men to unite them as the mutants they are. (If you did not… now you do).

Everyone also knows that I want 12 otters and a raccoon — all of whom I’ve already named. (If you did not… now you do).

I want you to come up with an animal list of pets you want.

• Never ever hold a wild animal hostage — this is not something you should actually do in real life but just imagine.

They can be all different kinds of animals or several of one in particular but you should have at least 12 of them all together. Name them. The names need a theme. Please explain the decision behind the theme and the animal choices. And obviously, tell us about your life among these animals.

You can have dogs and cats in the mix — but some of them… should be strange. To other people. Not necessarily to you. I see nothing weird about otters in my backyard and a raccoon in my house. Nothing at all.

Thus concludes this week in the mind of Ruby. Think about them. Play around with them. You have extra time — use it wisely.

Copyright Ruby Noir 2024

Brett Jenae Tomlin, The Sturg, Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles, Trisha Faye, Karen Schwartz, Michelle Jimerson Morris, Amy Frances, Julia A. Keirns, Tina, Pat Romito LaPointe, Brandon Ellrich, Misty Rae, Karen Hoffman, Susie Winfield, Vincent Pisano, Paari, Marlene Samuels, Ray Day, Michael Rhodes, Pluto Wolnosci, Paula Shablo, Bruce Coulter, Ellen Baker, Leigh-Anne Dennison, Carmen Ballesteros, Marlana, MSW, Patricia Timmermans, Teisha LeShea, Rachella Angel Page, Lynn L. Alexander, Adrian CDTPPW, Lisa Guard, Rampath, Sweet Honeylu