One of the most common story plots is the quest, and one of the main types of quests is trying to find someone or something. Think of trying to find treasure in Treasure Island or any number of mystery books about looking for a missing person. Then there’s Moby Dick with the hunt for the white whale.

We might think that a search story has to involve going far away, but it could take place in a house or even in a single room. Two of the parables of Jesus in the Bible that are about finding something lost are the lost sheep and the lost coin. In the first one, the shepherd has to go out into the night and brave dangers to find the sheep that got lost. But in the second one, the woman is just looking inside her room. However, just because the search area is smaller doesn’t mean the stakes are necessarily any lower.

Story Prompt: May 11, 2026

Write a story about a hunt or search

Happy belated Mothers Day to any mothers who happen to be reading.