Several months ago I wrote: "For tonight's Tip From The Bar: Armed man arrested after rescuing puppy from house fire. True story, provide link." Alas, I can not find a source for this. What I did find is possibly more awesome:

"Man High On LSD Rescues Neighbor's Puppy From Imaginary House Fire".

​Choose one of these phrases and provide a backstory for how it came to pass.

We all have pieces of ourselves that embarrass us, whether they be physical, emotional, or conceptual. Write about the piece of yourself you would take out to a secluded area and bury. Not forever. You are not digging a grave for this part of yourself. You're going to bury this shallow, somewhere near a landmark you couldn't possibly forget. This way, you can go back to this place often, dig it up and examine it while you're alone, or with someone you trust.

Everyone has nightmare stories about their local transportation service, whether it's a late subway train, an exploding bus full of chickens, or sitting next to a colicy baby on a plane.
What about the sunshine? What about the moonlight? What about the good times? What about the boogie?
Surely you've had at least one positive experience with commercial traveling. Tell us about it!

​Write a deconstruction of the words light and shadow.

Some of the architects of slam claim that Group Pieces, where more than one poet gets on stage at the same time and performs, is a unique feature created by the format of slam. They, apparently, have never heard of plays or sketch comedy before. Someone should buy them tickets to see A.R. Gurney's "Love Letters". It's not a perfect play, but it's better than any group piece ever performed on finals stage at The National Poetry Slam.

As opposed to a generic group piece, where two to five people get on stage and loudly yell in tandem about things that the entire audience already agreed with before all the shouting started, I suggest writing a collaborative piece. Find a person or people whose work you like and write something where you learn things about each other (and not that you both think Trump is an incompetent president, something more personal and unexpected). Hopefully, you'll end up with a dialog that enlightens you and an audience.