April PAD Challenge: Day 1
Wow! It looks like we’ve got even more International participation than last year, and even the North American participants are chomping at the bit. In realization that much of the…
Wow! It looks like we've got even more International participation than last year, and even the North American participants are chomping at the bit. In realization that much of the world is essentially a day ahead of me, I'm going to extend the challenge deadline to May 1 at noon (EST), instead of April 30 at midnight (EST).
All right then! Let's get started!
For today's prompt, I want you to write an origin poem. It can be the origin of a word, person, plant, idea, etc. Have fun with it.
(Note: Through this challenge, please feel free to use the prompt as a springboard to being creative. There is no right or wrong way to interpret the prompts--so take them in any direction you want.)
Here's my attempt for the day:
"Superhero"
At an early age, His parents are killed
in a skiing accident. Luckily,
His adoptive parents (two lumberjacks
named Harry and Marty) are supportive
and home school Him on topics, such as math,
history, nuclear engineering,
martial arts, and ballroom dancing. When He
learns in His teens that the two lumberjacks
actually killed His parents, He runs
away from home to become a photo-
journalist at the big city paper.
While photographing the winner of Big
City’s high school science fair, the losing
student who thought He should've won dumps liquid
on Him while trying to hit the winner.
This is when He gains the ability
to fly and use X-ray vision. And so He
does what anyone else would do in His
position: Design a costume and start
busting bad guys. It doesn't take long for Him
to acquire an arch-villain, who appears
always to be in two places at once.
This villain is soon known as Lumberjack,
because all his crimes are committed with
a giant logging axe. After perhaps
too much time has elapsed, He realizes
the Lumberjack is really two people:
Harry and Marty, the same backwoodsmen
who murdered His parents. With a renewed
sense of purpose, He quickly finds his two
enemies in their Lumberjack costumes
in an abandoned warehouse down by
the river. He gets the jump on them, but
they quickly turn the tables on Him, since
He was obviously walking into
a trap designed to catch Him. This is when
it is revealed that the lumberjacks are
actually his mother and father,
who were also Harry and Marty, who
had decided when He was very young
that they would groom him to become a crime-
fighting vigilante. Just as they are
telling Him how much they love Him and how
they were sorry they misled Him about
their own deaths, the warehouse explodes from bombs
set by His new arch-villain, The Chemist,
who was, of course, the original guy
who gave Him all of His superpowers.
(Now get writing! Yay!)

Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.