Last week I pinched a nerve in my shoulder, and it effectively stopped any and all efforts to write more than a tiny amount for the next few days. Today I finally have the ability to type for a while without my shoulder hurting.

That brings me to the prompt for today - think up something that would stop your character cold, that would prevent them from doing their job. Something minor is preferred, just a stumbling block in the road on their way through your story. The goal is not to create a major plot point, or even anything that would stay in your story, rather it is just to give you a prod to get your muses thinking about what can be done to complicate things a little for your lead character.

This is a bit of an exercise to see if your character is a bit too energetic. Pick your favorite character and write a brief bit on what they would be like if they drank an energy drink.

Logically, they should have an elevation in their energy levels. If you can not think of how to write them a bit more energetic, then you might be making them a little too gung ho when you normally write them. If they are suddenly leaping over tall buildings in a single bound (which would be a completely different prompt on Super Energy Drinks), then you might need to rethink their average energy levels.

Either way, it should be an interesting exercise to see what would happen to your character after they drink an energy drink. And don't forget - most energy boosting substances come with a rapid decline in energy as they wear off, so a good end to your exercise might be the energy crash your character feels as the drink wears off.

Go forth and have fun writing!

Riding into town on my ATV earlier I was enjoying looking at all of the lovely summer flowers now in bloom. Take a few minutes to think of what flowers might be in your world. Describe a few in detail, even if they are simply a basic daisy, see if you can describe what a daisy looks like so someone would know that is what you are referring to without the name of the flower.

Think for a moment what your favorite genre is to write. Drama? SciFi? Romance? War? Make a note at the top of your page that summarizes whatever it is that you are most drawn to write about.

Now, open your favorite news website, newspaper or turn on a 24 hour news channel and take a look at the top headlines. Select a news story from the day's top headlines that matches your preferred writing topic.

Do you like to write SciFi stories? Check out the science or space news. Maybe there is something in the lifestyles or travel news that could spark a muse for a romance story? Travel stories are also great for historical stories, as are any articles or new stories on museums or other historic news reports. It is far too easy to find news suitable for crime or war stories, so I won't worry about suggesting anything for those.

How about a modern story that would appeal to older teens? Maybe your local newspaper has a front page article on a new skate park being built that might spark an idea for a competitive skater? The sports section is another good place to look for ideas for young adult stories. Sports are easily translated to something big happening at a high school sporting event, or even just a backdrop for a kid that as something going on in their life while his friends are all more interested in the big game or something.

That should be plenty to give you lots of ideas, so feel free to grab one or grab your local news and let the muses run.

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Have more ideas than you can tackle on your own? Feel free to share some story prompters as well.

Write something about a character's experience with a social network site. You know what those are, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace.

Write up something that shows how your character might use a social networking site - either real or one you make up.

This is easiest, of course, with a modern day story, but it could work for other eras or worlds. For example, what might be the same sort of communication in say Medieval Europe? The local tavern? Maybe sending out messages through the town crier?

I would share my idea on future possibilities, but I decided I want to turn that into a story really fast, so I'll let you fellow SciFi geeks ponder what social networking of the future might be like while I go outline a story to write after I have my work done.

And sorry for so long between daily prompts, life is a bit chaotic for me at the moment. I've left my own social network time-sink though, and will be focusing the time I had spent there on this website every day from now on.