Written by June 9th, 2014

Writing Prompt: Groundhog Hour

Groundhog Day is a movie about a TV weatherman played by Bill Murray. His character relives the same day over and over again for almost the entirety of the movie. Only he knows that he is reliving the day over and over again; everyone else around him resets, and they do not know they are stuck in a time loop.

Now, this concept of time loops has been used a lot in books, in TV shows, and in movies. It is common to encounter this kind of plot, and at this point most of these books, episodes, and movies veer into the cliche. Still, some authors seem to be able to find new and interesting ways to play with this concept.

Just last year Kate Atikenson published the book Life after Life about a person doomed to die and live again. No matter what hapened, the main character would come back and experience the same life, the same time period, the same family, but only she would retain any memories of past lives and where choices she made in the past took her. It is a great read.

Your prompt today is to take the concept of looped time and play with it. You get to choose the amount of time, be it a minute, hour, a day, or a year. You get to choose all the elements of the story. Just start with a time loop and go from there.

Have fun!

 

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