It was a dark and stormy night. Those words have taken on new meaning for me after these past few weeks and Hurricane Helene. Do I live in one of the places it hit? Well, not really, but I was affected by the winds and rain from it all way up here in Kentucky. What I experienced—rain, some strong winds, and a power outage that lasted less than a day—was nothing compared to what those directly in its path experienced. Some of them lost everything. I can only imagine the terror that those in Helene’s path felt. And now Hurricane Milton is quickly heading toward Florida.
So all of the writing prompts for this month will have to do with a natural disaster of some kind and its effects. (Yes, I realize I’m a bit late publishing this article.) Even though I’m using Hurricane Helene and other natural disasters that have occurred as the inspiration for this month’s writing prompts, I really wish none of them had happened. Who would wish for a hurricane? Or a flood? Or an earthquake? Or a tornado? I wish the devastation they caused and destruction they left behind were just part of some great works of fiction, not things that really happened.
October 1-6
Pretend you are right in the path of a devastating hurricane and write about what preparations you are making for it, possibly even evacuating. Or write from experience; unfortunately, you may not have to pretend. What thoughts ran through your mind?
What preparations did you see others around you making?
Now add an unexpected twist to your story. All preparations cease and become meaningless when these huge dragons come flying toward you through the midst of the torrential winds, rain, and rushing ocean waters. Are these dragons out to wreak even more destruction on an already horrible situation? Or are they seeking help?
October 7-13
I’ve watched a lot of videos from the Hurricane Helene. In one of them, I watched a house that was by being swept away in the waters and slowly ripped apart. That was heartbreaking but an awesome demonstration of the power of the ocean and the weather.
There were so many houses just swept away by the floodwaters. I simply can’t imagine such a thing. Your house and all the furniture can be replaced. You’ll always have memories of living there, but. . .well, there aren’t really any words to describe it.
Yesterday evening while watching my husband cut up the food he was preparing to take with him on the road for the week, there would be knives floating in the floodwaters. As if the floodwaters weren’t already dangerous enough, think of all the things that would be mixed into it: knives, medicines, needles, propane, dirty diapers, dirty cat litter, etc.
Write a story about watching the house you live in being swept away by the floodwaters. Are you left on dry ground or are you in the dangerous waters? Explore what goes through your mind as you this takes place. What will you do?
Now pretend you see a house being swept away that still has someone inside. Write about how you see that this person is rescued. Do you save this person? Or do you see someone else (firefighters, police, some kind of rescue person, a supernatural entity) to do it.
October 14-19
Your power goes out during a storm with torrential rains and strong winds, but you have a generator that will restore power to almost everything. All you have to put up with is the noise. Well, almost. One of your dogs, Leesi, an extremely lovable dog, is scared to death when the electric goes out. The absence of the normal noises makes her so uncomfortable, but the noise of the generator frightens her even more. It’s set up outside of the bedroom, but for some strange unknown reason, her favorite place to lay even when the generator is on is across your bed, the best place in the house to hear the noise from the generator.
She will go outside to go to the bathroom when the generator is running, but you have to leash her to her back inside the house. You see, she has to climb the stairs to the deck in order to go in and the generator is on the deck.
You get to write this story from an anthropomorphic point of view, the dogs. From the dog’s POV, have her tell why she is so scared of the storm, the winds, the absence of noise, the noise of the generator.
October 20-25
Now you’re going to write an anthropomorphic story from the POV of a cat or cats. The night of February 28, 2021, a massive rainstorm fell here in Beattyville, Kentucky. The Kentucky River spilled over its banks, flooding my town. My house is way up on a hill, so I just got a massive amount of rain. But downtown flooded and it was bad. One of the places it flooded was where a trailer sat. An elderly lady lived there, and she had a bunch of cats. How many I’m not sure. Anyway, they rescued the lady, but they almost had to drag her out of her trailer because she didn’t want to leave her cats (I totally understand not wanting to leave them behind), who were hiding because of the torrential rains and rising water inside the trailer.
Write a story from the POV of one or more of the cats. They wouldn’t have understood what was going on. But please give this story a happy ending. Have the cats rescued and reunited with their owner. How are they rescued?
You can also write a story from the POV of the elderly lady. She really didn’t want to leave her animals to suffer the effects of the storm and the raging Kentucky River.
October 26-31
In 1989, the 6.9 magnitude Loma Prieta earthquake took place in Northern California. At the time, I was living in Fairfield. Never before had I been in an earthquake, so when it began, I didn’t know what was happening. I was in our car with my two children, who slept through the whole thing. Their dad was up in some sort of tower on Travis AFB. Maybe the air control tower? I can’t really remember.
Anyway, I’m just sitting in the car waiting on him and listening to the radio when the car starts bouncing up and down. I really thought my husband had snuck around to the back of the car and was making it do that. But the radio was also going off and back on. It was really strange. Then I looked out the window. The pavement was rolling like waves in an ocean. I just stared in awe at it. Then I realized just what was happening: I was in an earthquake.
Create a story where a young woman and her young children are in this same parking lot while the earthquake is takin place.
What if the parking lot cracks open and a huge hole opens up beneath the car?
Will she and her children be instantly killed?
What if they were taken to strange new world? One that has always existed but been hidden beneath the earth’s crust? Who lives in this world? Are they accepting of this this young lady and her children? What will their life there be like? Are there any hopes of her being reunited with her husband?
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Have you ever been through any natural disasters? Tell me about what happened in the comments.
