The Spark # 6

One Line to Spark the Weird

Welcome Promptlings to The Spark! It’s time to be weird, fantastical, daring, and deploy your creativity. Imagine monstrous beasts, conniving ghosts, and characters with mysterious motives who may also control weapons of wonder. All of this wondrous speculation originates from your imagination. The task is yours. This is The Spark!

The Rules

The rules are simple. You will be presented with a prompt. It could be a required first line, a task that will challenge your craft, elements required in your story, or a genre specific prompt. You will have two weeks to write a short story under the rules of the prompt. We’ll host a Gathering to celebrate what’s been accomplished and highlight your stories at the end of two weeks. You can share them on this thread, as well as The Pitch at the end of the month. This is an opportunity to find writers you admire, befriend, and learn from.

When sharing your creation, give us the title of your piece, genre in the form an emoji (see below), a brief teaser, and a link to your work. While most of the work will be posted on Substack, you are welcome to share work that fits the prompt that has been shared elsewhere (Wattpad, Simily, Amazon, etc.), but we do ask that the piece be available to readers for free. The Spark is an opportunity to grow in your craft and share your work with other speculative fiction writers.

Genre Emoji Index

👽- Science Fiction

🔮- Fantasy

💀- Horror

🔥- Dystopian

🍫- Magical Realism (Like Water for Chocolate, get it??)

👀- Weird Fiction

(The Gathering discussion thread will take place on Sunday, January 18th, starting at 3am PST, and will run all day.)

The Prompt

“For there are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt” - Audre Lorde

I have always found it fascinating how authors can take the same ideas and create something wholly unique. The writing is built on their own experiences, world views, and whims. For The Spark this month, I want to present the first line of your story. Take that line and let your creativity flow. The line could be a martial dispute with dark undertones, an otherworldly investigation, or an out-of-this-world adventure. The choice is yours.

What can you make of just one line?

This line is brought to you by the First Line Literary Journal. Starting in 1999, “The purpose of The First Line is to jump start the imagination--to help writers break through the block that is the blank page.” This journal has been a source of inspiration to me since I began writing short stories. While I look forward to the day when The Spark presents first lines written by the talented authors who bring their work to Lunar Awards, I am excited to start with this wonderful literary journal and hope that writers continue to bring inspiration to their own work in the future.

The Line

I flipped through the notebook and found half-finished poems, some drawings, and ______________. [Fill in the blank.]

If anyone is interested in submitting their story to the First Line Literary Journal, this prompt is due by February 1st, 2026.

Good Luck Promptlings!

If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to comment or send me (Reina Cruz) a DM.