Writing prompt for Monday: you return home and everything has changed. Your neighbours are different people, the post is addressed to someone else, but your things are all as you left them. Then there is a knock on the door. What happens next, and is there ever an explanation?

Writing prompt for Tuesday: there are creatures all over the garden, what are they and what are they doing there? Is this beautiful nature or has something changed? Are they bigger, hungry, dead, greater in number? Is this the sign of something else to come?

Writing prompt for Wednesday: you are on a hike and see an animal you’ve never seen before. Is it dangerous? Is it supposedly extinct? You keep going and discover a valley full of them. Do you stay or return home? Do you tell anyone or keep it secret?

Writing prompt for Thursday: you’re driving, and the road suddenly looks different. What has changed and is it expected? Perhaps a new housing estate where you used to play, or have you driven into the past or future somehow. Someone steps into the road and you screech to a halt.

Writing prompt for Friday: it’s your birthday, but your family has got you a cake and cards with the wrong number on. Then they explain, they changed your age when you were a child - why did they have to do this, and what did it change in your life? What’s different now you know?

For the weekend:

Writing prompt for the weekend: you join a writers' forum (like Rise and Shine) and notice one of the authors has been posting a linked story featuring the same characters and locations. You find out the author has been missing for a decade, and follow the clues to find them.

Writing prompt for Monday: you get to school early and there’s a stranger in the playground. She leads you to a hidden section of the garden and tells you all about the rare plants. You leave her there when the bell rings, but go back to visit later. Who is she? And what happens?

Writing prompt for Tuesday: you open the junk drawer to get a rubber band, are searching down to the bottom, and you find something completely unexpected. What is it, and where does it lead you?

Writing prompt for Wednesday: you’re drifting off to sleep when a voice whispers something in your ear. What do they say and what effect does it have on you? Is it something supernatural, your partner or child, or perhaps you left your podcast running…

Writing prompt for Thursday: you’re listing things for sale on eBay/vinted/etc and come across something you don’t remember owning. Was it a gift? Or has it got mixed in with your selling pile and actually belongs to someone else? What is it worth and what do you do with it?

Writing prompt for Friday: the day is hot, the sun beats down on the village, the villagers shelter inside. But then a stranger appears, and nothing is the same again. What happens and how does your family respond?

Writing prompt for the weekend: you have a secret, you’ve built it up in your mind as something terrible, but when one day it finally comes out you are surprised by how laid back everyone is about it. Everyone, that it, except for one person. What is the secret, and what happens?

Writing prompt for Monday: pick a colour which suggests a mood or feeling (red, green, blue) and write your opening scene, then add a character with a new colour (yellow, gold, black, beige) and see how they mix.

Writing prompt for Tuesday: school’s out for the summer! Where did you go as a child, what did you do, what happened that made it a good time or a bad time, and how does it affect your holidays as an adult?

Writing prompt for Wednesday: you wake up and the person beside you is not who you expected it to be. Is it your child instead of your partner, an ex you thought you’d left behind, a one night stand you hoped would have left by now? What happens when they wake up?

Writing prompt for Thursday: the cupboards are bare, the shop is closed, what does your character do? Do they have the money for takeaway? A friend they can call? A neighbour they can ask for help? Or is the situation one that leads them to forage and set off on a quest?

Writing prompt for Friday: all of a sudden, you remember something. A repressed memory, déjà vu, where you put your keys, or what someone said which makes all the difference to your case. What makes you remember, and what difference does it make to the outcome?

Writing prompt for the weekend: you’re driving around trying to get the baby to sleep, keeping a constant pace; and because you don’t want to get stuck in a traffic jam you take a route you’ve never taken before. Where do you end up and what happens? Does the baby ever drift off?

This week’s writing prompt: you pick up a book in the library and find something tucked inside - a note, a map, money - and it changes your life. What happens and how? Do you ever find out who left it there?