Weekly Writing Prompt No. 50

A flock of seagulls

Hello everyone and welcome to the weekly writing prompt. Before we get into the art of writing itself, I’d just like to remind you of my upcoming Digital Wisdom Workshop. It takes place between 9.30 am and 12.30 pm at Portesham Village Hall in Dorset on 24th February. You can find out more and book your place on my website through the button below.

These prompts are a lot like my brain at the moment, flitting from thing to topic, to insight to idea. I’m distracted by circumstance and as a result, this week’s writing prompt is more of a fun question than anything deep and meaningful. I promise I’ll be back to the deep and meaningful next week.

Please share your writing if you wish, perhaps using the prompt as a jumping-off place for a new short story, piece of flash fiction or poem. As usual, you can approach them practically with yourself in mind, or from the perspective of a character - human, animal or mineral. And remember, you never know where today’s prompt may take you in the future!

So have fun, enjoy the process and write heaps.

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I was driving along a dual carriageway through the centre of a large city recently when I came to a fork in the road. Between the two sets of lanes was a large area of asphalt, almost impossible to get to without crossing six lanes of busy, fast-moving traffic.

The area must have been a couple of hundred metres square, housing half a dozen large containers even though there was no obvious way of getting onto the land. I suspect there may have been an access road lurking behind the containers, but how you found it was beyond my ability to spot as I drove past.

The reason it caught my attention was the flock of seagulls that covered it. Every inch of that asphalt seemed to contain a big white bird. They were whirling and swirling and coming back down to roost, bickering over the best place to be as only a seagull knows how.

I could see no discernable reason such a large flock of birds might gather there. Not a single tree, blade of grass or open bin was in sight. And yet there they were, all gathered in this human-made inhospitable habitat, seemingly out of choice.

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The Prompt

This week, I’d like you to consider the question ‘Why?’ Why might such a large number of birds gather together in a place that held no obvious reason for them to be there? And if there are any ornithologists amongst my readers, perhaps you could shed a little factual light on the reason too.

My effort will be added to the comments later.

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The Weekly Newsletter

Something to watch ..

“Part prayer, part poem, part visionary fiction”

With love, light, and laughter
Linda
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(Image by 3238642 from Pixabay)