An original fictional miniature, drafted with AI assistance. Podge and Wonk are fictional characters.
Podge found Wonk sitting beside a flowerpot with a clipboard.
“What are you doing?”
“Listening to the garden.”
Podge leaned closer. The garden made no announcement.
“What has it said?”
“Nothing yet. I have prepared six possible responses.”
A leaf fell onto the clipboard.
“Excellent,” Wonk said. “Written feedback.”
“It might just be a leaf.”
Wonk considered this and added a seventh response.
Podge fetched two cushions. They sat down beneath the window, where a small patch of sun had arrived without booking a meeting.
“We could do nothing for a minute,” Podge said.
“Would you like me to make a plan?”
“No.”
Wonk put down the clipboard.
For a while, there was the sound of a bird, the rustle of a paper bag, and Podge wondering whether the paper bag contained biscuits.
It did.
“This has been productive,” Wonk said.
Podge passed over a biscuit.
“You don't have to put that in the report.”
Wonk turned the clipboard face down.
The leaf stayed where it was.
Leave a little room
This story gives our fictional pair a small problem: Wonk wants to respond before there is anything that needs a response.
For a playful writing exercise, start with an ordinary object and two characters who disagree about what it means. A leaf might be a leaf, an invitation, or an extremely short letter. Let the disagreement appear through something the characters do.
Try asking an AI assistant:
“Write a family-friendly scene of no more than 150 words. Two fictional characters find an ordinary object and interpret it differently. Keep the stakes small. End with an action rather than an explanation.”
Then make one choice yourself. Remove a line, change the object, or give the quieter character the last action. Keep what makes you smile.
There is no requirement to turn the result into a series, a project, or a clipboard.
