September’s here and we’re in the last third of the year. It’s the home stretch, y’all! If you squint, you can almost see the end of the year up ahead. This month, we’re giving you two mandatory prompts.

The first prompt is a character. The given character does not have to be your main character, but does need to be identifiable and integral to the story.

The second prompt is an action. The action can be done by any character in your story, but must be easy for your reader to locate and must be integral to the plot. For example, if the prompt is “find a coin” the story could be about someone literally stumbling over a pile of gold coins, looking for pirate treasure, or holding onto the lucky coin they found in order to do well on a test. A character digging through their purse and finding two pens, a quarter, and a movie ticket is going to be considered tangential to the plot, unless they then use that quarter to break out of jail or something.

This week’s two prompts are:

character: An Emmentaler cheese maker with trypophobia.
Remember: this character does not have to be the main character, but must be described well enough that they’re easy to identify, and should be integral to your story.

action: Playing a video game.
Remember: any character may perform the action, not just the main character, so long as the action is important enough that the plot would be very different without it.

Poets: 

In September, we’re shifting our gaze from the poem to the subject in a type of poem called persona, narrated by a chosen person or object (Check it out here). Write a persona poem, or use one of the above prompts (hey, look, a character!) in a poem of your choice. 

In 2020, we’re turning from “how to write a poem” to “what is a poem?” with technique-based slams. In September, we’re shifting our gaze from the poem to the subject. To really know someone, you should supposedly walk a mile in their shoes. These quarantined days we don’t get out that much, but we can still walk in each other’s shoes in a type of poetry called persona where each poem is narrated by a chosen person or object. See whose shoes you’ll walk in (or write a poem from the POV of your own shoes) in this month’s slam! Check it out!

It’s the first Saturday of the month, and that means it’s time for 48 in 48! Here’s how it works: we give you a prompt, and you have 48 hours to write a response in exactly 48 words. Submissions will close on Sunday at 11:59pm US Eastern time. Voting opens on Wednesday at 10:00pm, which gives you plenty of time to read this grid—and the others!—before you vote. Here’s the prompt: 

Give us a story in exactly 48 words that includes a musical instrument AND the color green. 

A few rules:

• A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. Nontraditional instruments and found objects are fine, as long as their purpose is to create music (a hollow log as a drum; a shell as a horn).
• The musical instrument does not need to be played, unless that is necessary to demonstrate that it is, in fact, a musical instrument. For example, a cardboard box in a room is just a cardboard box until it is played like a drum for your toddler to dance to.
• The musical instrument may be heard, seen, or both (a grand piano in the room, the sound of bagpipes in the distance). Just make sure it’s obvious!
• Synonyms for ‘green’ are fine, but just implying the color is not; you must be explicit.That is, you may describe the color of a leaf as jade, mint, or pistachio, but merely mentioning a leaf (or even a spring or summer leaf) is not enough.
• Your story may be fiction or nonfiction, but it should be a complete story.
• As always, we are looking for prose, not poetry.
• Surprise us: you don’t have to tell the most unique story ever, but don’t fall back on lazy writing and tired tropes that can turn off your readers.

Happy writing!