Join award-winning fantasy and dreampunk author, Anna Tizard, in a journey into unexpected stories using the surrealist word game of Exquisite Corpse. Listeners’ words are drawn from the legendary Socks of Destiny and mixed into weird writing prompts which end up making more sense than they should! This time, nature spirits are the emerging theme, for three chilling story ideas. Grab a blanket – grab a pen! – and switch your imagination on with these stories and ideas for the ultimate writing prompt challenge.

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INTRO: Hello imaginative people! I’m Anna Tizard and this is episode 68 of Brainstoryum. Once again, I will be pulling words at random from the socks of destiny to create writing prompts like you’ve never heard before. It’s occurred to me that the best of the three always comes last in the show but that new listeners might not know this as you begin listening. Well, as usual, the fullest story, and perhaps the best one of the bunch, unfolds last, almost as if the tensions and half-glimpsed mysteries of the first two story ideas, with all their brewing potential, gather like a story-force finally breaking through; the early meanderings of the curious imagination, after a little time – a bit of warming up – are ready by writing prompt no. 3 to sharpen their focus and find a clearer beginning, middle and an end.

Maybe as writers and storytellers we are all bound to dabble, and daydream about many possibilities, some of which are always going to be left half-explored – until we reach (or come across) an idea that’s really worth grabbing with both hands and turning it into something fuller.

So listen on to the end, my friend, for as usual, I leave the best to last.