Writing Prompt: Fester and rot

867278_rotten_appleAuthor Lilith Saintcrow had a blog post earlier this week about the writing process, and one thing she said really hit home for me: that if you’re a writer and you don’t write, “… a lot of wonderful stories… rot unborn inside [you].”

I know have some stories rotting inside me. But that’s another post.

There are plenty of people who have dreams, ambitions, and goals that are festering and eating away at them, slowly rotting into something toxic or just withering up and dying. Imagine a character suffering this way. What abandoned or ignored part of them is causing the damage, and how does it change them? Does it make them sad, angry, bitter, isolated? Does it cause them to give up hope, or does it push them to do something drastic?

There’s a story in there somewhere. Don’t let it die.