Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: The Person
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 Person
Every weekday morning for three years, a person has walked the same route through the same park at the same time. The dog walkers, the joggers, the woman who feeds the pigeons — they all recognise them. They never stop, never sit down, never break their pace. Then one Tuesday, they stop at a bench, sit down, and wait. Ten minutes later, another person arrives and sits beside them.
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Novel Kicks Writing Room: You Are What You Carry
Welcome back to the Novel Kicks Writing Room.
Today, we will be writing about a person before they embark on a journey.
A character is packing a bag. They are leaving somewhere — a city, a relationship, a job, a country — and they can only take what fits in one bag. Every object they choose to pack reveals something about who they are, what they value, and what they are willing to leave behind.
Before you start writing, decide three things about your character:
Where are they leaving?
Why are they leaving?
Are they coming back?
Write your answers in a sentence each. Keep them simple. These are your foundations, not your story.
Once you’ve done that, choose the objects:
Write a list of exactly five objects your character packs. For each one, write a single sentence explaining why they chose it. The objects should be specific and concrete — not “a book” but “a battered paperback copy of something specific with a coffee ring on the cover.” The more precise the detail, the more the object will tell the reader about the person holding it.
Now choose one object they almost pack but decide to leave behind. Write a sentence about why they put it back.
Write the scene.
Write the scene in 400–600 words. Your character is alone, packing. No dialogue. No other characters in the room. The only story is this person, this bag, and these objects.
As they pack each item, let the reader understand, through the way the character handles the object, hesitates, or moves quickly, what each one means. Don’t explain. Show.
The scene should begin with the bag empty and end with the bag zipped shut.
Have fun.
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: The Melody
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 Melody.
A woman is sitting alone in a café when she hears a song playing quietly in the background. She doesn’t know what it is or who it’s by, but something about it is so familiar it makes her put down her cup and stop mid-thought. She has heard this melody before, somewhere, but she cannot place it.
Write the moment she hears the song. What does the melody sound like? What physical effect does it have on her — does she hold her breath, does her hand stop moving, does the room seem to shift around her? What half-formed memory begins to surface, and why can’t she quite reach it?
Write what she does next. Does she ask someone what the song is? Does she sit with the feeling and let it wash over her? Does the memory fully arrive, or does it remain just out of reach? Has something changed in her by the time she leaves the café, even if she can’t explain what?
If you want to make it even more interesting, you could consider the following –
The song could remain unidentified throughout the story.
The story could end on a single sensory detail — something she sees, hears, tastes, touches, or smells — not a thought.
As always, have fun.
by 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 Book Club
