Writing Prompt: A boy, a playboy and a vampire walk into a bar.
Who walks out is up to you. Tell us an old story in a new way.
Here's our first prompt for May, where our theme is Free for All:
Reimagining a classic… Hmmm
This kind of prompt could lead to a lot of work.
I don’t know about you, but I write for fun.
I have aspirations of going pro, full time with an oversized knitted jersey, a whiskey flask and a cabin in the woods.
But until that happens the best way to enjoy this journey is to have fun with it.
How could this prompt become a ton of work?
- Reading the entire work to get it into your head
- Diving into the details of an unknown world to rework it from the roots up.
What’s the shortcut I propose?
Reimagine what you know.
I’ll share a short list of stories and you pick the one you know a bit about.
Be careful of the Disney adaptations and write a story on the theme of the work.
Why the theme?
Because then you’re using the main point and will likely avoid any specific details that might be problematic or require more research.
Pick a genre
I’m going to try the stories I know and reimagine them all as Cyberpunk.
Why?
It keeps it simple for me, I know how I’m going to reimagine each work, I know some of the conventions of Cyberpunk and it’s building my body of work in neo-cyberpunk.
What's another trick?
How's this factoid, someone unleashed an AI (ahem machine-learning thingie) on Project Gutenberg and it found that there are 4x more male leads than female leads in classic literature.
This has an impact on readers. They see this as the norm.
I'm sure we've made this more balanced in the modern age, but it's an interesting way to reimagine a classic story.
Flip things around and see what happens. It's all a game of what if.
Why do this at all?
Reimagining a public domain work and adding a unique spin on it is a viable strategy to access an expanded audience that already love the characters.
Beyond just a short short story, you might be inspired to keep going.
Three Options for Week 1
Write for one, write for all. It's up to you.
Peter Pan
The fun part of Peter Pan is Neverland, and what that could be in a different genre. Some tips, don’t mention Tick Tock the crocodile or Tinker Bell. They're owned by Disney, especially Tinker Bell. That's a trademark.
Update: Rocky Shores: Tinker Bell was in the original play, and the character and her name are in the public domain.
I can't find my original notes about Tinker Bell, so the correction stands.
Gutenberg | Wikipedia | Librovox
The Great Gatsby
This is such a great character to work with, his backstory, the lie he covers up. The parties. Have fun with it. Use the 1000 words to make this new. Gutenberg | Wikipedia | Librovox
Dracula
He's been done a hundred times. Impaled one thousand more. Can you do one better?
Gutenberg | Wikipedia | Librovox
Challenge Requirements
Your story must:
- Be min 100 and max 1000 words long, excluding the title, subtitle, and any post-story bio/links. (We use Medium’s own word count feature.)
- Use “Peter” as one of your five tags.
- We recommend Fiction, Flash Fiction and maybe your genre too. But it’s your choice.
- Please link back to the prompt so others can find it easily.
New here? Here’s how to write with us. We’d love to see your stories.
