I’m trapped inside a rubber duck that’s about to be swallowed by a giant shark.
Music: “Ground Control” by Andrea Baroni
[Video Description: “The Durquin Adventure” Trailer. Duration, 35 seconds. Music, “Ground Control” by Andrea Baroni. Digital drawing. A rubber duck facing forward, offset left of center. The duck sits on a layer of bubbles. There’s a chain around the duck’s neck, pulled taut forward, moving out of bottom frame. On the duck’s left flank, the partial drawing of a chemical structure is visible. Behind the duck tilted to the right thirty degrees, a shark with mouth open emerges from the water and bears down on the duck. Title card with the words “Short Story” and “Genre: Fantastic Fable,” is displayed at top. First line of tagline appears at bottom. Tagline reads: “I’m trapped inside a rubber duck that’s about to be swallowed by a giant shark.” A background block appears behind the line as the title card fades. A watermark of the word “storyfeather” appears over the image. Lines from the story appear and fade: “How did I come to be in this predicament, you ask? Good question. I’d like to know myself. But there’s no time for that now. Because if that shark doesn’t swallow me and Durquin—that’s the duck—in the next three seconds, we’ll both disappear into an abyss of bubbles for all eternity.” The last lines fade and the chain around the duck’s neck vanishes, then the image blurs as the story title appears at center, and a text card appears at top that reads “Available to Read Now storyfeather.com.”]
Welcome to Year 9 of Storyfeather
Every year’s short stories (mostly) follow a theme. This year, I will turn the Wheel of Fiction to help me decide what to write. There are thirteen spokes on this wheel. Eight are occupied by the eight themes from the previous years of stories. One is a prompt to turn the wheel again. One is a wildcard (hmm…curious). And three are covered only in question marks. I suppose I’ll find out what’s beneath those questions as we go along.
Welcome to the WHEEL OF FICTION
The Wheel of Fiction landed on PROMPTS for the second week in a row. The prompt I chose was “Draw a rubber ducky in a bubble bath.” I figured it would make for a charming story. And the first thought that came to mind was the duck facing forward and behind it, the open jaws of a shark. Exciting. But what’s the story there? So the shark is obviously about to swallow the duck. But what if the situation isn’t quite what it seems? The duck is in danger, but maybe not from the shark. But if so…what’s the true danger? How did the shark and rubber duck end up in the same place? And how would bubbles still be in that place? Whose rubber duck is it? Answering these questions helped me to start crafting a story about a rubber duck named Durquin.
Source: 500 Creative Prompts, Piccadilly
[Video Description: Duration, 9 seconds. Choice wheel made on the Spin the Wheel application. Thirteen spokes or slices in various colors, labeled as follows, clockwise from the top: Objects of Power (the “of Power” is not visible), Prompts, Definitions, Turn Again, Elements, Creatures, S.T.E.A.M., Wildcard, Revisitation, (alternating question marks and apostrophes), Challenge, Draw!!!, (question marks). The title at top reads “The Wheel of Fiction V2” and below that the words “Spin the wheel.” Below that is the date of the spin, 3/19/2022. At top left corner is a flag icon labeled with the letter “F.” This represents a function of the application which interferes with true randomness by reducing the probability of receiving the same choice twice in a row. The wheel turns and lands on PROMPTS. As the wheel stops spinning, a cartoon of a shark’s head facing forward with open jaws rises from bottom of the wheel.]
Genre: Fantasy, Fable
Tags: BUBBLE, BUBBLE SEA, BUBBLES, DOLPHIN, DUCK, DURQUIN, RUBBER DUCK, SHARK
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