‘Genius in a Bottle’ Prompted Writing Challenge

The Dresser Drawer

GiaB writing prompt #21

Dresser drawer sealed shut. Promise waits behind a lock. Once opened, no more.

One could write volumes about furniture. The old stuff, made from dense timber unhurriedly logged, and joinery cut with patience. The ancient stuff from precious times, places and people. Finery crafted from old money that commands copious amounts of the new. The shift in our priorities and attitudes unceremoniously displayed in cheap chipboard constructions these days. A monument to our fleeting desires, the fashion of filling homes with use-and-throw pieces summarises our lack of loyalty to our choices. And then there are the abstract pieces that showcase our imagination and need to explore the depth of human individuality.

Within the world of furniture, we have the beautiful and garish, the comfy and the rigid, the form and the functional.

There is a person’s craft and industrial ingenuity in pieces of furniture. Some are the product of hours spent at a workshop, and others mass produced by machines serving conveyor belts. The human element is the one thing common across all pieces.

Every piece of furniture is produced from the part of the human spirit that wants to solve problems by creating, and bringing a form into existence. Once humankind realised they could create life, the designer and artist in us was awoken and we never again wanted to wait for a solution to arrive.

The Challenge

We invite writers to produce a piece of poetry, fiction or non-fiction on the theme of Furniture.

This prompt will close on Wednesday 9th June, 2021 at 9:00AM PST/PDT. At which time, the next prompt will be released.

The Guidelines

We cannot publish pieces or reward writers who self publish or publish at another publication, so those pieces have to remain external to the challenge. Only pieces submitted to Genius in a Bottle will be considered for the challenge. If inviting other writers from outside the publication, please ensure they are aware of this.

Poetry is to be limited to 30 lines but can be in any style. Fiction and non-fiction submissions are to be capped at 750 words.

Please refer to the prompt in the subtitle. Feel free to copy this as a template: GiaB prompt # [insert prompt number and theme here].

When submitting, please ensure that one of the 5 tags is GiaBprompt. Please ensure a second tag is Poetry, fiction, or non-fiction, as appropriate.

We would like to become exposed to writers and pieces that you have enjoyed in all of Medium. Please tag up to ten writers whose pieces you have enjoyed recently, or who you feel may enjoy participating in this challenge.

For further information pertaining to the challenge, please refer to the rules and guidelines.

And away we go. We look forward to enjoying the paradise of the written word with you all.

Victor Sarkin

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