Congratulations on another great week of prompt responses! I had great expectations for this week, as I know what brilliant murder mystery authors you are – and you didn’t disappoint! I particularly loved Harmony’s atmospheric Tutankhamun murder mystery, Ria’s eerie Red Killer story, Rainbow 111’s Dying Swan story and Aviane’s department store murder mystery. It was so hard to choose this week, though – your entries were all so accomplished!

This week I’ve taken inspiration for your prompt from an email I got from Detective Society member Elsa, as well as the MCU rewatch I’ve been doing. Superheroes are on my mind, so I’d like you to write your own superhero story!

Your superhero can be one created by another writer (fanfiction is absolutely fine as a response to these prompts), or one that you make up yourself. They can fight huge evils, or everyday problems. They can be human, animal, alien or anything else you want. They can fall in love, solve mysteries, go to school or rule the world. You can even write about a supervillain, if you like!

As usual, the rules …

1. It can be as long or as short as you like, and take you as much or as little time as you want.
2. It can be any genre (type) of story you want. If you have an idea for something that I haven’t mentioned (writing a poem! Being inspired by a song you love! Writing non-fiction!), don’t wait for my permission – just go for it! This is your creativity working!
3. You are not allowed to worry about grammar or spelling.
4. You are not allowed to worry if it isn’t perfect, or criticise yourself as you’re writing.
5. You are encouraged to make a plan before you begin, to make it easier for you to get to the end of the story. This can be two words or a whole page! But if you don’t want to do this, you don’t have to.
6. Get to the end of the story without stopping to go back and fix bits you don’t like. Once you’ve finished, read it through again. If you still don’t like those bits, you can edit them now!
7. If you want (and only if you want!) you’re allowed to post the first 500 words of your story in the comments below. I have to moderate the comments so it may take a while for them to show up – please be patient. I don’t want to see you apologising for your story or minimising what you’ve done when you post – writing a story is a triumph and you should be proud!
8. Please do not use your full name when you comment – first names are fine, or you can make up a username that you like! Also remember to stay safe online and not get into private discussions with anyone you don’t know in real life without telling an adult first.
9. If you like someone else’s story, you are allowed to comment to say so! If you’d like to give them ideas that might make their story even stronger, that’s OK, but please be kind and remember how deeply we all care about our writing. A good format for feedback might be something like: ‘I loved ****! Have you thought of ****? I think it might make your story even better!’ I will delete any comment if I feel it’s critical without being constructive.
10. I can’t promise to give feedback on any individual stories – I’m not marking them!
11. This isn’t a competition, and there will be no winners and no prizes, though I may choose a story or two to highlight in future posts.

Good luck, and have fun!