People For The Ethical Treatment Of Write Club Forum Writing Contest

This is a prompt I give to my students. I think it can help writers get over tricky first person snares.


-after death you became reincarnated as a recurring dream of yourself. not �you� in the dream but �the dream itself�. this means that you not only have to be �you� in the dream but you must be the gas station in the dream, the woods that border the gas station in the dream and the Midwestern transplant �Jackie� who your dreamer has desired to dream about.

while �you� are in the dream, you must treat �you� as you would treat your subordinate arm: valuable, can�t imagine losing it; but if you did lose This Arm the world would have to go on and would go on.

and the dreamer misses you but can�t cry for �you� because you are dead and �you� are alive in the ways one can �live� in a dream.

your dreamer�s name is entirely up to you. �you� has no say.


figure out how to write this piece

you will be a better writer for it

I�ll post the best submission as a feature in the group and may add the winner to a collection I'm presently working on