Writer's Prompts | Love Unscripted | Love’s Quiet Desperation… Prufrock’s Struggle with Desire

Welcome to Your Regret Era

After wallowing (beautifully, and with many coffee spoons) through The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock on today’s episode, we thought it only fitting to invite you, dear scribblers, to dip your quills into the inky waters of quiet desperation. Don’t worry, it’s nice and existentially lukewarm down here.

This week’s challenge: Write a short piece - 600 words or less - where we, the readers, get to voyeuristically eavesdrop on a character’s internal monologue about some great regret. Maybe they’re replaying a lost love. Maybe they’re spiraling over the job they never took. Maybe they’re crying in a parked car over that text they didn’t send (or did).They don’t have to be old (but hey, add some hair loss and a fear of peaches if you want the full Prufrock Starter Pack).

Make us feel the ache. The hesitation. The "what if." Make us want to shake them—or hug them. Just don't make it too "on the nose" - we want nuance, not a therapy session transcript.

Submit your mini-masterpiece to us. If it makes us clutch our chests and whisper “oh no, same,” we just might read it aloud on the podcast (with feeling, and probably wine).

Quick final note: If you’re writing and thinking, “This character is pathetic and I want to slap them,” congratulations - you’re nailing the Prufrock energy. Carry on.

Go to Submit Your Work @ Effigy Press