From the Bookshelf

April 2025

Dear Writers,

Welcome to the April 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 . . .

I love writing prompts, and I hope you have fun with these. They are free for anyone and everyone.

This Month’s Prompt
Duo, by Colette, trans. Margaret Crosland (New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1974)

It is April, and the arrival of spring calls to mind one of my favorite novels, Duo, by Colette, because the story traces the end of a marriage just when flowers are starting to bloom. I wrote about it here, for Tin House, back when they had a blog.

I could land on any scene in this book and be enthralled. Here is one, for this month’s prompt:

. . . A torpid bee flew clumsily toward the honey pot, and Michel waved his napkin to drive it away. But Alice held out her long slim hand to protect the bee.

“Leave her alone! She’s hungry. And she’s working.”

Her eyes filled suddenly with tears. Michel saw them quivering on the broad irises, the silver-gray color of a willow tree. What a life, he thought vindictively. Every time we open our mouths we come up against some concealment, some sensitive wound. What’s she breaking her heart over now? Is it that drowsy bee, the word hunger, or the word work?

Alice had already overcome her weakness; she was spreading butter and dark honey on the rough country bread. “Wonderful weather!” she cried. But Michel, feeling the cold, pulled his dressing-gown tightly over his chest and added that the air was as cool as peppermint. The first mouthful he ate and his first taste of hot coffee restored a little of his physical well-being, which he concealed by knitting his brows and refusing to see round about him the blue morning dew, the clear pale sky, and the periwinkle flowers and May tree which looked slightly mauve in the shadow. Alice spoke quietly, trying to make him feel better.

“Look. All the white things seem almost blue. Have you noticed that the swallows are coming back to their old nests? Can you feel how hot the sun is? You can have some milk, you know. I’ve arranged to have two litres a day—an orgy.”

Forgive the extra-long excerpt. This gives you a sense of the volley happening between the characters. What is not in here are Alice’s thoughts (it would be too long, then), but we do get them, also in italicized text, which makes for a wonderful interplay of point of view. But this excerpt shows enough of the setup of contrasts between Alice and Michel. She appears warm, bubbly, emotional; he is terse, cold, stubbornly blind to the beauty of the changing season.

Now your turn. Write a flash or a vignette of two characters who are at odds with one another in a domestic setting, showing their thoughts (in italics) and their dialogue that conceals those thoughts. It can be set in any season, but include elements of that season that emphasize what is going on with the couple, with an abundance of rich sensory details. In Colette, the flowers and the bee symbolize birth and renewal—the opposite of what is happening in Alice and Michel’s relationship.  

Take this wherever it leads, and have fun!

Cheryl