Writing to order

I've been struggling to write new things, apart from the odd poem. So I had this idea which I presented on my Facebook page for my friends. I gave them a list of questions for a story idea with the option of answering all or just what they wanted. Only two people did it, but it's worked for me. The questions were:

Setting - the name of village, town or city (invented or real)

Names for three characters, at least one has to be female

The job of one character

Season

An object to be mentioned somewhere in the story

Genre

The opening line

The closing sentence

A word to be included in the title of the story

How many paragraphs the story should run to - 20, 30, 40

The last idea, about paragraph length, I got from a competition I once entered where we were given the opening and closing paragraphs, but all the rest was ours to write. The final piece had to come to 50 paragraphs including the two we were given. Having some restrictions is fun to work with, if sometimes frustrating! 

As both friends gave answers to all questions I posed, I decided to write two stories instead of picking and choosing which parts to use. I think that's fair. The first story is written and I will be sharing it soon. What floored me was once written I had ended it at the precise paragraph length my first friend had asked for, 30 paragraphs. I thought I'd overwritten and would have to do some cutting. I've ended up with a story I'd never have written otherwise. Like poetry prompts this helps motivation and it's good fun to do. It also reminds me of the timed writing sesions I did with my writing group (I really miss that).  I'm pleased with my story. I hope my friends are too.