Weekly Writing: Rumors

For writers, rumors provide fantastic material — in fact, the weirder and more outlandish they are, the better. As writers, we don't care whether the rumor about a long-lost classmate's love child is actually true; we're just fascinated by the possibility that it might be because there's a story there.

Whether a rumor is about a tornado warning, a sneaky colleague, or a relative having an affair, hearing such things perks us up, makes us pay attention. It teaches us to be alert, a state we should always be in as writers. Keep this in mind as you enjoy this week's prompt:

Write about a rumor you heard. Try to write out several scenes, using these details: who started it, who is spreading it, who the rumor is about; write around the rumor itself, exploring instead the reasons it came into being.