Thursday, May 8th, 2025
Let’s play!
I bought this little brainstorming tool years ago at some writers’ conference. “Story Cubes” is a brainstorming game. You roll the dice, and whatever pictures appear face-up are the ones you use to riff off a story.
You can try to include all the cubes in your “story” or choose a few. The story you tell doesn’t have to be long or even any good. They all count!
To make this fun, I’ll offer a prize—a $5 Amazon gift card—good for purchasing one or two stories…
Have fun with this! Don’t overthink! Here’s the roll…
Comment
Oh, good grief, silently cursing the stars or fates ruling against her this morning of all mornings. She was late, and nothing put her in a bad mood faster than being late! It didn’t seem to be enough that she didn’t fall asleep until two hours before her alarm was supposed to go off. No, then she wasted 20 minutes she didn’t have not only looking for her keys but her cellphone too. Now she was running literally running in heels through the the Atlanta airport trying to make it to her gate before they shut the door and take off without her.
Truly, she would almost rather jump out of a perfectly good airplane than have to run, she hated any form of exercise that made her sweat. Worse yet she hadn’t even had time for some coffee. Why had she even allowed her mother to manipulate her into agreeing to come home at all kept her tossing and turning all night.
Comment
Flights of fancy are all the go around here.
Comment
Tipsy the turtle was afraid to fly, so no planes or hot air balloon for her, she used the phone she found on the school playground to call UBER, to make her play date with Sally sheep
Comment
sheep wandered into house with turtle friend
Comment
I left my house early one morning, remembering my keys and phone. I was surprised to find a turtle and a sheep on the porch. I had to hurry though to make the plane and finally parachute out as I had been training for some time. I was hoping that I missed trees when I landed. To make sure I brought along my magic wand.
Comment
As soon as I slid the key into the door of my house, the phone started ringing. Of course, by the time I pulled it out, the phone stopped. I dropped my briefcase by the door and waited for the answering machine to start speaking, but no one left a message. Grabbing the landline receiver, I checked the caller ID.
It was Gabe. Just then the hand piece sprang to life,
“Hello? What? I’m having trouble hearing you. Gabe? What’s wrong? Uhuh… yeah…that bad… Sure, but I need to make arrangements on my end… I’ll send a text when I have everything set up. OK.” I hung up the land line and darted to my laptop.
I booted my computer while I called the local flying school. “Hey Sam? It’s Larry. I need to charter the plane. No, to go to the island, so have a parachute ready for me. 2 hours? Perfect. Thanks” While sending out a couple of emails, I made another call to my neighbor.
“Sally? Larry. I need a favor. Can you stop in and feed my turtle, Gertrude, and my baby lamb, Macbeth? I need to go out of town for a few days. You know where the key is. Yeah—thanks.”
As I turned off the laptop, I made one more call. I ordered a UBER. While making the arrangements, I walked into my bedroom, tossed a few things in my backpack: charger clothes, cards, passport, spare money… and changed out of his suit.
Back in the foyer, Gabe made sure he had his ID. Sliding into his sneakers, he locked up and went outside to wait. Minutes later, his ride arrived.
Nearing his drop zone, Gabe donned the parachute. The copilot helped secure his backpack under the backup chute. With the door open, Gabe stood ready waiting for the go signal. He jumped!
After a few seconds, he pulled the ripcord. As his descent slowed, he could see the flames covering part of the forest where the ancient, magical oak tree stood in danger. With a few tugs on the chute lines, he changed direction and made a spot-on landing. He had to come. It was a family emergency. They had to save the trees, especially the old oak tree. After all, it was the source of his family’s business. They made magic wands!
Comment
The tortoise called up the sheep to make arrangements to go skydiving from the corporate jet. Unfortunately they forgot their key, and when they returned home, they couldn’t get back into their houses.
Comment
The cell phone rang. “It’s time.”
He left the house and made sure to lock his door with his key.
When he got to the airport he grabbed his parachute from his trunk and walked toward the airplane.
Once this mission was over, he would take a break.
Since something must go wrong with every mission, his parachute got caught in a tree!
Well, there was nothing for it. He shifted into his turtle form to get himself down.
Now to find the sheep and retrieve the wand.
He really needed a vacation!!