Friday Writing Prompt: Idea Swap

September 10 is “National Swap Idea Day.”

I’ve had some difficulties locating any truth in that statement…there’s nothing “national” about it, apparently. Yet all sources — even Hallmark– consider it “national” and grant it “holiday” status.

All sources agree that it’s more than just a day to swap ideas, it’s a day during which everyone should share ideas for helping each other out, making each others’ lives better, and helping out fellow man.

This source also encourages the use of a creative imagination.

I’m all for helping fellow man, and, from a writing point of view, I can see the advantages of sharing ideas with each other. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Everyone has an idea…the problem, sometimes, is in the execution of it.

The idea I have, I may not be able to satisfactorily complete.

Or, there are times when I want to write, and I’ve got a zillion ideas on my idea list, but none appeals.

So why not share with someone else?

Here’s Your Prompt:   Swap writing ideas with another writer. Give away the seeds of a story or novel that has been moldering in your journal (or your mind!), fruitless. Choose several of your most intriguing ideas, the ones which you really like, but for whatever reason, have been unable to devote the time to write them. Cast them away, like dead weights.

Now, accept the ideas of another writer. Read them. Write them in your own journal — or type them into your files — put them in the place you collect your own ideas. Give it a few hours, a few days, a week at most to percolate. With luck, you’ll be inspired sooner, rather than later. Now, write your story.

I wouldn’t be joining into the spirit of the day if I didn’t share some of my own ideas. Here are a few:

• An author is haunted by the ghosts of characters he’s killed off.
   
• A sudden sun shower, a field of dead trees, a human skeleton, a small whirlwind of dust, wild horses and sun-bleached papers
   
• Worry not. Pray not. Don’t have one, don’t need the other.
   
• A man on a bus, carrying his lunch–two slices of pizza–in a disposable grocery sack.
   

Good luck! Please share your stories.