Writing prompts: Guilt

A bit of context

Some time ago I was organizing a writers' group. Often enough, people would ask for prompts and ideas to use during the writing sessions. I had an old list of 42 prompts from the previous organizer, but decided it would be more interesting to offer some change once in a while. So, every month, I would select a new theme and look for prompts online about it. Turns out it's not that easy to fill a page with prompts from the internet, all about the same subject. However, I also discovered that writing prompts was fun and I could come up with around ten new ones rather quickly. So, I would use a couple I found online and others I created and offer a page size list to my fellow creators.

Now, I decided to go solo and share only my own creations. This is the first theme: guilt. Because, why not?

Be sure to leave a link in the comments if you use any of these, so I can read it! It makes me feel like I also played a small role in another creation! Also, sometimes several people use the same prompt, but go in completely different directions and it's really interesting to realize how, from a single starting point, writers arrive at stories so far apart!

Writing prompts

1.

That one time you weren't caught, but your deeds still weight on your conscience till today.

2.

What are the different levels of a guilty a sane human can feel?

3.

Sarah was about seven when she first realize it. Peter had plucked the wings of a fly and was staring at the torturous efforts of the butchered animal to live up to its name. She felt a sting in her heart, but not for the rolling insect on the floor. Her brother was just dispassionately inspecting the effects of his actions: he felt no guilt.

4.

At the end of TV courts, the spokesperson of the jury states whether they found the defendant guilty, or not. Is this the same guilty feeling a person has, and are they really imposing that feeling on the defendant? Or are these just homonyms words?

5.

My existence is one of guilt. While I lie in bed after waking up, instead of facing the day. Linger, instead of fighting for my goals. When I eat bacon and eggs instead of cereals and Swiss muesli. Arrive late at work and just breathe in that chair for nine hours straight. Stand eating a sandwich instead of healthy sitting down for a good meal. Or sit down and overeat until my body aches. When I get home and lay brainless in from of the TV instead of working out and exercise my body. When I half close my eyes and binge another comatose series, instead of going to bed and rest. When I buy stuff I don't need instead of saving for some though after goal. When I waste my days instead of making them count. When I survive instead of following my dreams.

6.

Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the B-29 bomber Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, was in peace with his conscience. Could it be any other way?

Write a story about someone feeling guilty for murdering thousands of people. How would that person wake up every morning and lay down at night?

7.

- We find the defendant not guilty.

Derick smiled as he left the defendant's table, slowing approaching you an murmuring to your ear a few words. Now, you are sure he did it.

[or the other way around!]

8.

Politics and CEO are among the best career paths for high functional sociopaths. Their inability to feel guilt or remorse are a key advantage in modern society. Describe a future society where everyone is a high functional sociopath. Is it an utopia or a dystopia?

9.

"I'm guilty and I regret nothing!"

10.

"I regret everything, but I'm not guilty!"

11.

Chris had committed a religious sin and a legal crime, but there was no guilt in her eyes, only hope and relief. Her smile was not really of happiness or joy, but a rejoice for the love she felt.

12.

The day of the robbery I couldn't sleep. Guilty feelings kept me up all night. Eventually, living in the Maldives and room service started peeling away the bad feeling. I just had to mourn the death of my conscience like one mourns any close departure. And move on.

13.

Guilty pleasures is a thing. How about pleasurable guilts?

14.

Why do some people feel less guilty after being punished? Isn't punishment a bad thing?

15.

"Guilty as a river rock", "noon guilt", "yellow guilt", "guilty as a smelly fish", "guilty ox", "waxing the guilt": choose one or many of these expression and explain what they would mean. Or just use them and let the context tell the story.

16.

The scapegoat. Why does it escape? And doe it really takes all the guilt with it?

17.

After a successful decade long career as a pink mouse serial killer, John (fictional name), found his guilt tucked away in a Tupperware dropped behind his garage cooler. What now? Maybe it had rotten already?...

18.

In the eco 20's, world governments traded on carbon dioxide emissions. That was only the start of it. Although EU famous "Trash Ban" prohibited exporting garbage and waste, once climate changes really started hitting developed countries, the black market was filled with all the unwanted substances nobody wanted responsibility for. Before the end of the brown 30's there was already a well established word trade of pollution. Everything was sold here: nuclear waste, unsalvageable electronics, any pre-recycle revolution object which were too expensive to recycle, and of course, endless wastelands of crocks foam, which only by then was found to be the first biologically indestructible substance. This was known as the guilt trade.

19.

Melvin was prone to guilt trips. This time was about burning father's dinner last night. I decided I needed to teach him a lesson in self-esteem.

20.

Vince could make anyone feel guilty about almost anything. When he got the text about the train wreck he was sitting in the food court of Saldanha Residence, a central shopping center in Lisbon. He just looked around for his next patsy.

21.

"Guilt cleaner". Patricia looked at the letters on her glass office door with a small smile of pride. She had finally gotten her cleaner's license, after years of cleaning consciences from the seat of her hoover. But the self indulgence didn't last long, as a middle age guy stormed through the letters. He had blood on his arm jacket and a green digital cap.

- I know who you are - he said - and you have to help me. I just killed my hoover cabdriver.