Prompt Gone Awry

So, I haven't posted in a while. I could offer you a lot of valid reasons for my absence, but the really real truth is I haven't posted because I just haven't. I'm not much on writing prompts, but when I return to the keyboard after some time away, a prompt can help oil the rusty gears. This morning, I needed the help.

My friend Zanna gave one of my undeserving children a lovely holiday gift called Rory's Story Cubes. If you look at the product page, you'll see that there are nine cubes covered with images. You roll the cubes and use what comes up for inspiration with whatever it is needs a creative boost.

I have to ask you to click on the product link, because when I, all excited about my inspiration inspiration, opened my kid's box, this is what I found:

Empty like my soul.

That's right. Empty. I engaged in a brief, frantic search for the cubes, figuring they'd fallen to the bottom of a toy bin or were hanging out with the Lego guys under the bed. I stopped myself before I tore the room apart. Maybe this is it, I thought. Maybe the empty box is my prompt.

For several minutes, I wracked my brain, trying to draw a correlation between Regency history, literature, or words and that empty box. Ultimately, I decided it was a more fitting metaphor for the current state of my creative output. Ouch. Maybe I'll go dig up some cubes, after all.

Anyway, that's what happened when I tried to use a writing prompt. Too bad nothing came of it.