Let’s be honest—your fiction’s been a little too chamomile tea and cable-knit sweater lately. It’s time to spice things up. This writing prompt will yank your imagination off the couch, toss it in a trench coat, and hand it a mystery so weird even Columbo would raise an eyebrow.
✍️ Fiction Writing Prompt:
Your protagonist finds a severed ear in an unexpected place: a mailbox, a sock drawer, maybe inside a vegan meatloaf. It’s fresh. It’s real. It’s not theirs (hopefully). What happens next? Who sent it? Is it a threat… or a twisted love note?
Jumpstart Example (First 2–3 Sentences):
Darla had just come back from yoga when she opened the mailbox and saw it: a severed human ear resting on top of her Netflix envelope. “Ugh,” she muttered, “I knew I shouldn’t have skipped corpse disposal class.”
The ear had a small tattoo on the lobe—an infinity sign. Darla didn’t recognize the ear, but she knew exactly who the message was from.