From the Bookshelf

March 2026

Dear Writers,

Welcome to the March installment of my series From the Bookshelf, in which I create a prompt based on an excerpt of a book I pull from my shelves. The excerpt is presented without context intentionally. The monthly prompts may be for flash fiction or nonfiction, and they may be inspired by all kinds of books: a travel guide, a book of essays, poems, or fiction, a dictionary, a biography . . .

These prompts are free for anyone and everyone. Enjoy.

This Month’s Prompt
“Of Course,” in The Lottery and Other Stories, by Shirley Jackson (New York: Noonday Press, 1999)

I took this book off the shelves the other day to re-read Jackson’s “The Lottery,” so it’s doing double duty as my From the Bookshelf pick this month. Here is the wonderful excerpt, from the beginning her story “Of Course.”

Mrs. Tylor, in the middle of a busy morning, was far too polite to go out on the front porch and stare, but she saw no reason for avoiding the windows; when her vacuuming or her dishwashing, or even the upstairs bedmaking, took her near a window on the south side of the house she would lift the curtain slightly, or edge to one side and stir the shade. All she could see, actually, was the moving van in front of the house, and various small activities going on between the movers; the furniture, what she could see of it, looked fine.

Look at how the word “fine” is doing double work here, meaning both high quality and acceptable (to Mrs. Tylor). This beginning sets up the unspoken neighbor approval process that happens throughout the story.

I want to mention, too, that the lengthy sentences and semicolons mimic the hurried movements of Mrs. Tylor, who moves from one spot to the next as she spies through the window. The last phrase is the shortest phrase and serves as punctuation for the end of the paragraph. It is also the only one that includes an appraisal, giving its meaning more weight.

Write a 500-word flash that begins with a character watching a new neighbor move in across the street. What is their reaction? How do their movements reflect that? Are they furtive or do they run downstairs and greet them? Build up to that first interaction and see what transpires after that.

Have fun with this one,

Cheryl