Novel Kicks Writing Room: Two Strangers, One Bench
Welcome back to the Novel Kicks Writing Room.
The focus of today’s exercise is two strangers, one bench.
Two strangers sit down on the same bench. They don’t know each other. They have never met before. Something small happens — a dog runs past, a phone rings, a bus doesn’t arrive — and one of them speaks. A conversation begins.
By the end of the conversation, one of them will have changed their mind about something.
Before you write a single word of dialogue, jot down brief notes on each character. For each one, decide:
How old are they roughly?
What were they doing before they sat down?
What is on their mind today that they haven’t told anyone?
by 
Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: The Photograph
Welcome to Fiction Friday, our weekly flash fiction challenge.
Here’s how it works:
Set a timer for five minutes and start writing
Keep going for as long as you can once the timer goes off
No editing allowed—raw writing only
When you’re finished, feel free to share in the comments (but there’s no pressure.)
Today’s prompt – The Photograph.
A woman buys a second-hand coat from a charity shop. When she slips her hands into the pockets, her fingers close around a photograph she’s never seen before. Two people she doesn’t recognise, standing somewhere she’s never been, smiling at someone she’ll never know.
Write the moment she finds the photograph. What does she see in it? What details does she notice — the background, the clothing, the expressions, the light? What story does she begin to piece together from the image alone?
Write what she does next. Does she try to trace the people in the photograph? Does she keep it? Does something about the image unsettle her, comfort her, or mirror something in her own life she wasn’t prepared to face?
by Novel Kicks Writing Room: The Object
Welcome back to the Novel Kicks Writing Room.
Today’s exercise is about looking at something a different way.
First, choose your object –
Look around you right now. Pick the first object that catches your eye. It could be anything — a mug, a set of keys, a book, a pen, a candle. Don’t overthink it. Just choose.
Observe it –
Take a few minutes to study the object closely. Notice the details you’d normally overlook — the texture, the weight, the colour, the wear and tear. Does it have a scratch, a chip, a stain? Write down five specific physical details about it in short, precise sentences.
Now it’s time to give it a history –
Now, imagine this object belongs to a fictional character. Write a short passage (150–250 words) from that character’s perspective explaining how they came to own it and why they could never throw it away. Think about:
Who gave it to them, or where did they find it?
What memory is attached to it?
What would losing it mean?
Don’t worry about perfection. Just write.
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: The Inheritance
Welcome to Fiction Friday, our weekly flash fiction challenge.
Here’s how it works:
Set a timer for five minutes and start writing
Keep going for as long as you can once the timer goes off
No editing allowed—raw writing only
When you’re finished, feel free to share in the comments (but there’s no pressure.)
Today’s prompt: The Inheritance.
You discover a hidden compartment in your grandmother or grandfather’s house containing a journal with entries dated from 50 years ago. The final page describes a choice they made that day—one that changed everything.
However, the crucial entries in the middle have been deliberately torn out, and the handwriting becomes increasingly frantic toward the end.
Write a story revealing what happened during those missing years and why your grandparent removed those pages. Was it shame, protection, or something else entirely?
by Novel Kicks Writing Room: A Free Write Session
Hello. Welcome back to the Novel Kicks Writing Room.
I don’t know about you, but I am loving and hating this hot weather in the UK in equal measure. It’s making it hard to concentrate, right?
So, in light of this, the exercise today is not a complicated one. It’s simply a free write. Set a timer for at least 20 minutes and just let yourself write. See where your imagination takes you. If you want to change this up, you could always dictate your story instead?
If you need a little inspriation to get going, here are some prompts to use as first lines. Feel free to mix and match and to also change the tense and point of view.
I open my eyes to see the tube station empty of people.
‘I told you to turn it off.’
The school loomed above me. Its gothic feel gave me shivers.
You cast the spell. It is done. There’s no going back. At least, that’s what you think.
by Book Club
