First time for everything and experiments with format

So today is a bit of a prompts post, but also just something cool and fun and interesting to think about. There are two things we talked about in the creative writing class last week that I wanted to mention as kind of ways to build and experiment and inspire stories.

1. Firsts: First time for everything, right? And that's often where the most interesting stories can come from. Take advantage of that. Put a character in a place or situation for the first time, and their true colors can't help but shine through and interesting things happen. Here are some "firsts" that we brainstormed:

-First date. Something totally awkward and creepy and random like visiting a cemetery or your dates dying father in the hospital.
-Boy catches his first fish.
-Father taking daughter to the store for her first tampons and midol.
-First time meeting foreign relatives.
-First time on an airplane.

Some fun ones, right? Could turn into some really interesting stories. What other firsts can you think of?

2. Unique format: In class we started throwing around unique ways to tell a story, probably something more towards flash fiction. But the idea was basically to tell a story not using typical prose. So here's the list of our ideas:

-Checks (The experimental story "Ordeal by Cheque" by Wuther Crue was the start of this conversation)
-Shopping list
-Tweets or Facebook statuses
-Blog posts
-Email subject lines
-Billboards
-Graffitti
-Notes in class
-Receipts
-Headstones

Anyway, those are just some fun ideas or things to think about. I definitely plan on trying out some of these. Do you agree these could turn into some cool stuff? What other ideas can you think of that fit in with these?

Sarah Allen