That's up to you! My goal is to help people get a story started that they can get published and listed in their bio between this and next year's camp. But your goal should just be to get whatever you want out of it. And these prompts can be helpful in writing synopses for existing projects as well.

Oh man, a closeted super achiever with a baseball bat and porche who dies and resurrects? I'm already hooked!

Ooh, that's such a good question, I wish I had a good answer! IMHO, anything under 1k is flash fiction, 1-10k is a short story, and from there up to 40k is a novella. But most outlets seeking short stories seem to hover around a 5k limit. My rule of thumb is, write now, cut it down later.

You know what's funny, I'm practically a human encyclopedia of story generation methods and writing prompts, and yet I still pants the hell out of everything I write.

I’m not sure on the name yet. Maybe Candy, short for Canidia or Candida. She’s in her late 20s, has a perfectly symmetrical face, the kind that modeling agents dream about. But she’s chubby in a way that looks like she has a baby face. Others find her cute but she’s insecure about her appearance. She walks with her toes pointed inward, she wears mostly oversized sweaters and undersized skirts in pastel colors. Her trait… I want to do something comedic, and I’ve always wanted to write a story about weird superheroes, so I’m going to give her the weirdest one I can think of off the top of my head: she can use her mind to cause chemical reactions in peoples’ digestive tracts that result in fast, massive buildups of gas. Basically, her superpower is that she can make people flatulate uncontrollably. She hates certain shades of the color brown. Maybe she lives with her grandmother who has a closet of “earth-tone” clothes leftover from the 70s that nauseate her. She doesn’t think anyone will appreciate what she can do, because ew. But maybe she sneakily uses the power to save a protestor from an aggressive riot cop or a child from a bully or something. The thing most important to her is keeping her superpower secret.

OK, here's my attempt. I might redo this, I'm just not confident I can pull it off without turning it into an adolescent fart joke. Let me know your thoughts:

Day 2: generating short story ideas from characters There are as many different ways to approach story generation as there are writers. Some of them are less effective on short stories, because we have to pack a lot of character and story into a small amount of space and time. In order to keep readers engaged, we need them to care about our MC, but we don’t have a lot of time to tease out backstory and such. But that’s what’s awesome about a short story, because when we pull it off, it’s impressive. So I’m going to outline a very step-by-step approach. Let’s start with just the MC. Describe the character you want to explore. Focus on superficial descriptions and contrast for now, rather than backstory or plot, like: - What do they look like, how do they talk, dress, behave, etc.? - What is one weird trait or idiosyncrasy they have, - How can I tie that trait or idiosyncrasy to the thing most important to them? - Can I exaggerate it? How? - What can I do to make them more likeable to the reader? And finally: - What is the one thing most important to that character?

Good evening #CRPLyrebirds! Let's get our cabin story prompts underway. These are, of course, optional; participate if you can, don't feel pressured if you can't. And remember that I'm not just your camp counselor, I'm a writer too, so I'll post my attempt below.

Likeable villains are the best (and sometimes the scariest)!
How did you come up with this villain?

Preach!

Space whales!
I love it because all the best Sci-Fi ideas seemed to start out as something incredible-sounding.
Like laser swords.
Or post-human blobs that eat Arakeen worm poop so they can bend spacetime.
I'd love to see how you pull that off!

I love that you call it goo!

Thank you! I keep having to remind myself that time spent focusing on AI means time spent not focusing on writing.

That's awesome! Like a 3D marketing strategy.

Any amount of progress is its own reward!

Maybe something personal to someone, to up the stakes, give you more drama and connections to reveal as the story unravels... Like a keepsake from an ancestor, or the DNA of a pet someone wants to clone, or a writer's search history...

Nice, how many planned installments in the series?

That's awesome! OK, I'm nominating you and your husband!

#CRPLyrebirds here are the award categories:
Embers of Excellence, a daily prize to showcase what makes our Cabins so special!
Starlight Stories, sharing the behind-the-scenes tales about our Cabins!

@karinbiggswrites.bsky.social
@msibook.bsky.social
@matthewtaberhanson.bsky.social
@nadeeshakst.bsky.social
@nmwrites.bsky.social
@tiffbartel.com
@emilyshete.bsky.social

@ahdavison.bsky.social
@writergamernerd.bsky.social
@cassiewallinwrites.bsky.social
@deborahholmes.bsky.social
@florrienne.bsky.social
@galenbunting.bsky.social
@jjlubinskiwrites.bsky.social

Very cool. Re: learning about self-pub, have you come across the ravings of a mad Irishman by the name of David Gaughran yet? If not, I might recommend looking him up, he has a lot of free resources.
Re: the big secret, tell us what you come up with!

A bird hopping in snow says, "Hey you! Pay attention!" The bird hops, then says, "Did you see that?"

#CRPLyrebirds how goes your day, your writing?
Could you help me with something?
I need to nominate someone for an award.
So tell me something awesome about yourself, your writing, and/or your WIP!

Awesome!

That's awesome! Maybe the bonus Q should have been, "how many projects are you juggling simultaneously?"

Ouch, I feel that. Wrangling betas is like its own job.

#CRPLyrebirds cabin prompt for 4/21/26 DAY 2 – WHERE ARE YOU? A lot of us are using metaphors and drawings to map where we are in our WIPs. For today’s cabin prompt, let’s get specific: What writing stage are you at in your current project — brainstorming, drafting, revising, querying? Optional bonus: What does "making progress" look like for you right now?

#CRPLyrebirds It's day 2 - let's start talking about our WIP! Where are you at with yours?

So if the rotator is the DeLorean, is the cow the 1.21 jigawatts?

Welcome, happy to have you! So, a South Asian setting with a rustic/futuristic vibe - is that like South Asian steampunk? How would you describe the subgenre?

Yes! We'll talk about that in more detail next week, but if you want to start exploring now, check out The Submission Grinder:
thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com

I love this! Assuming the pebbles are part of a romance subplot, yes?

Many authors, once past the milestone of a first novel, focus exclusively on long-form writing — to the detriment of their résumés. Selling a short story is far easier than selling a novel, and a few published shorts signal to readers and industry professionals that a writer has both skill and experience. Think of it the way filmmakers think of short films: not money-makers, but door-openers. Starting tomorrow, I'll be posting story development prompts alongside the daily cabin prompts. They're general enough to apply to any length or format, but I'll focus on short-form content you can pitch to magazines, anthologies, and similar markets. Toward the end of camp, we'll move into pitching and querying. If this interests you but you don't have the bandwidth right now, save the prompts and come back to them later — they'll keep.

#CRPLyrebirds Having recent short story sales in my bio is helping me get my long form material read and considered more. So I'm going to be doing an extra (optional) prompt this year. If you have any questions or topics about short stories that you'd like me to cover, comment below or DM me!