Story Prompts | April 2025 ⚡
by Switch-Lit
Every month, Switch-Lit releases new story prompts to help launch your next collaborative fiction journey. You can find them on the Switch-Lit “Prompts” page, or revisit our full archive of prompts here on Substack.
This month’s theme: Stain
Less than a scar and more than a scuff, a stain lingers. Philip Roth wrote a novel about the human stain of identity and history, microbiologists rely on lavishly named color stains to reveal new worlds, and all of us has felt the pang of an empowering piece of clothing weakened by green grass. While some are painfully accidental, others are exquisitely intentional.
This month’s theme and prompts have been developed by our Editor-in-Residence Marianna Tessello. She is a producer of digital storytelling and immersive web-based products with an approach inspired by systems found in nature. She shared her thoughts on choosing this month’s theme:
“Recently, I ruined my passport in a bucket of stain remover, and I thrifted a nice spring skirt and dyed it watermelon pink. The wholesale feeling of starting fresh in both cases felt recognizable, seasonal, and unexpectedly welcome.”
Refresh your imagination with this month’s stain-inspired prompts 🧳🍉.
– Ken
S••L Editor
Prompt 1
Gas leaked out of abandoned wells, staining the topsoil for miles, and then the lightning storm arrived.
by Switch-Lit
Prompt 2
Reach out to a dining companion and write a story about a surreal restaurant whose multi-course meal stains the tongues of diners with colors of their true mood.
by Switch-Lit
Prompt 3
With the arrival of spring, it was a stain that I no longer wanted to hide.
by Switch-Lit
Prompt 4
With a sibling or old friend, write the origin story behind a lingering stain from childhood.
by Switch-Lit
Prompt 5
Write a vivid story set underneath a microscope where a slide of spore cells stained by malachite green mutate into a new human remedy.
by Switch-Lit
🌹Inspired by one of our monthly prompts, but don’t have a writing partner? You can now join our monthly prompts-based Subrosa round to write with a stranger.
Deadline for matchmaking: April 30, 2025
🔥You can now sign up for this round until the end of the month AND matchmaking will happen on a rolling basis.