What a week it’s been! I was so excited to announce Death Sets Sail‘s cover and title – and I loved reading your responses to my fanfiction prompt. As I’m trying my hardest not to give you any hints or spoilers, I’m not going to be sharing my favourites here – but know that I thought they were all wonderful, and it’s clear that you care about my characters as much as I do!

This week I’m moving away from mystery and history to give you a magical prompt about a creature I particularly love – I’d like you to write a story that features a dragon!

Your dragon can be real or made up, and it can be part of a story that’s dramatic, romantic, funny, set in space, horrifying or absolutely normal. You could write about your favourite dragon in art or literature, you could write from the dragon’s perspective, your dragon can be good or bad or ordinary … whatever you want! There just has to be a dragon somewhere in your story.

The rules, now we’re back to normal:

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, detectives – I hope you’re as fierce and brave as a dragon this week.