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Today’s prompt is to write a short story about a cabin. I have chosen that as the writing prompt for today because it was on March 20, 1852 that Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin was first published.

You should not try to recreate Uncle Tom’s Cabin, just write any kind of short story that features a cabin. It might be a trapper’s cabin, a cabin that someone has bought and is restoring, or an old abandoned cabin left over by the first colonists of another world.

Tomorrow is the first day of Spring, so how about adding spring into your story in some way?  Maybe a springtime flower is discovered frozen in the ice where your Antarctica team is working (or in the ice on Europa in your Sci Fi novel).  Does the heroine find a “welcome spring!” greeting card in a old book?  Maybe your lead character is just thinking about the spring and wishing it was springtime?

Take a moment to look at your scenes when you reread your manuscript and see if you covered all of the appropriate senses.  Notice that I did not say “all of the senses”, you do not want to create a sensory overload, but you do want to make sure that where there is an appropriate need for a sense to have been stimulated, you have done so.

Does a room smelling musty have some significance to the plot?  Would it be crucial later on for the color of a blouse to be known? Does it matter if the paint is wet when it is touched?

It’s St. Patrick’s Day — What would happen if your character found a small leather bag filled with gold coins in the park? Write a short story detailing what happens after the gold has been discovered.  Maybe from the moment of discovery, or maybe start with the character looking back on the day that lead up to wherever they are now. (Are they rich and living the high life or sitting in jail awaiting trial?)

Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very;” your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.  ~Mark Twain

Now who can argue with that logic?  LOL