Writer's Prompts | Small Talk, Big Deal

Because sometimes ‘Nice weather, huh?’ is code for ‘I buried the body at dawn.’

Let’s face it, fellow scribblers: most of you think small talk in fiction is beneath you. A waste of precious word count. Fluff between the real action. But here’s the thing—small talk is where the real stuff hides. This week on Alchemy, we uncovered the dark, awkward, and occasionally murderous depths lurking just beneath polite hellos and lukewarm coffee banter. Small talk isn’t meaningless—it’s misdirection. It’s the way humans test for danger, scan for desire, and pretend they’re not one emotional sneeze away from confessing something ridiculous.

So here’s your mission—and no, you don’t get seven prompts and a mood board. Just one.

Two strangers. A bit of small talk. And beneath it? Tension. Not the winking kind, the actual kind—the kind that foreshadows something bigger. Maybe this is the beginning of a romance, or a hostage situation. Maybe one of them is hiding a secret. Maybe both are. We’re thinking serial killer meets serial killer and neither knows it... yet. But it’s got to be subtle. No shouting. No monologues. We want surface-level politeness with a slow-burning sense that something’s... off.

Keep it under 600 words. Then send it to us at www.effigypress.com. If it’s good—like, eyebrow-raise good—we might just read it on the podcast and try to guess what the “big thing” is that’s lurking behind the muffin recommendations and awkward silences.

And remember: if your characters say “good morning” and we’re not slightly worried for their safety by the end of the paragraph, you’ve missed an opportunity. Now go on, little scribblers—write us something subtle, sinister, and socially acceptable. We dare you.