Typescript will post a new challenge each Wednesday to encourage creativity and inspire conversation. Feel free to talk about the challenge or share your writing results in the comments section below by leaving an excerpt and/or a link to your own site or blog.

The spark of inspiration can be found anywhere you choose to look. From a title of a song to a sketch found on a napkin, from an overheard conversation to a children’s book full of rhyme, these stories are waiting to be discovered and told.

Children’s book authors seem to be storytellers and poets all rolled into one, manipulating language and using sound to tell a story on the most basic of levels, for their prime audience. However, even in simplicity, there are lessons to be taught, experiences to be valued, and wisdom to be gained among those barnyard stories and fairytales. Whether in the titles of the books themselves or in the prose, there is thought and inspiration to be found among the rhythm and the rhyme.

Dr. Seuss
Theodor Seuss Geisel is best known for his collection of rhyming children’s books, which he wrote under the pen name Dr. Seuss. The Cat in the Hat, One Fish, Two Fish, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Oh, The Places You’ll Go are some of his most popular titles, though his writing is widely recognized for his whimsical tales and notable rhymes. While these books might be aimed at children, and while his penchant for making up words and colorful characters may, at first glance, seem a deterrent, there are lines that stand out for their poetics and themes that can inspire a new fictional world…

Challenge: Use one of the following prompts from Seuss’ stories to create a new short story or poem (additional challenge: use one of the following prompts as the beginning line of dialogue):

“I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.” – The Lorax

“This”, cried the Mayor, “is your town’s darkest hour” – Horton Hears a Who!

“I saw it on Mulberry Street” – And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street

“The sun did not shine.” – The Cat in the Hat

“And suppose that you lived/In that forest in France” – Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?

“[Life's] a great balancing act” – Oh, The Places You’ll Go