For NaNoWriMo last year I created a couple of my favorite character by beginning a scene with a random line from manga. Pick one of the following to use as a writing prompt:
- "The talismans are swallowing him!"
- "I never thought the kid could be this powerful!"
- "Sometimes in order to help someone you need to help yourself."
- "You've wasted enough time. Kill them and I mean that."
- "He certainly is good with small animals."
- "It's rude to challenge someone when you're not sure what you believe."
- "Calling them a pair of idiots isn't much of a stretch."
- "Simply put, I go around beating up bad guys."
- "But we're being all stealthy and everything."
- "This is what happens when you mess with people who wear one glove!"
- "Today is the day men give a single rose to the woman they love."
- "I've got to watch out for his eyes. It feels like they can see right through me."
- "One slip and the whole village will know everything about you -- and it'll be all wrong!"
- "Why'd she text you. She could have just yelled through the window."
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Here's one of the scenes inspired by one of the quotes. The goblins became comic relief and actually play an important role in the novel. I also wrote a scene based on “I never thought the kid could be this powerful!” which generated some ideas that fleshed out a character but the scene itself is only so-so.
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“But we’re being all stealthy and everything. That’s the important part,” Grob, the green goblin said to Azzul, the blue goblin and Kini the orange goblin as they looked over their supplies gathered for the break in.
Azzul snorted. “Like stealthy will be enough. We’ll need magic. It’s a wizard after all.”
“Yeah,” said Kini.
“No! No magic!” Grob waved her spindly arms.
Kini shook her head. “No magic.”
“Are you an idiot? That would be like yelling ‘Here we are!’ with torches and horns and big boomy explosions to a wizard. Don’t you know anything? You’re going to do something stupid. I knew I should’ve asked Roz. Roz is intelligent. Roz knows things.”
“Roz would stab you in the back and then suck you dry before grabbing the wizard for herself. And then who will get the praise and accolades and feasts?”
That was true, Grob had to admit.
“Okay, we’ve got rope. And rope. And more rope. And two knives. Think we should have more knives? We might lose one.”
“Yeah, more knives!” Azzul’s blue eyes glowed.
Grob eyed Azzul but let it go. “And black goo dye. Definitely need more of that.” She eyed Azzul’s round stomach and Kini’s bright orange skin. “And fire thingies if we need to burn something.”
“What about a map?” Kini asked.
“Map? Map? We don’t need no stinking map. What are you, scentless or something? We’ll use our noses. Don’t you think you could smell a wizard three days away? Heeeeeesh.”
“Oh, yeah.”
Grob shook her head and turned back to the array of objects. “And food of course. Boiled scale bark. And dried fang toad. And black footed newt ooze.” Grob licked her lips then shook her head vigorously. “And slime wart.”
“And gob-fish ale,” suggested Azzul.
“Yes! Gob-fish ale!” Finally a good suggestion!
“And toad chips,” Kini suggested.
“Mmm!”
“And mushed stink worm. I love mushed stink worm,” Azzul said.
Grob’s fingers curled inward until her horny nails dug into her palms. “Idiot! Do you hear what you’re saying! Stink. Stink. There’s a reason they call them stink worms. It’s ‘cause they stink.”
Azzul and Kini blinked in unison. They looked at each other and did more blinking.
“People would smell them,” Grob said slowly.
“They can smell? I thought people couldn’t smell,” Azzul asked.
Grob felt a growl building in her throat that threatened to erupt into a good slashing. Why, oh, why had she let her mother talk her into taking her cousin on this mission. “People can smell. They’re just crippled at it is all.”
“Oh, I get ‘cha.”
“So the deal is we go in, we grab the wizard and we get out.”
“That’s that part I don’t understand,” Kini said.
“What do you mean, that’s the part you don’t understand? That’s the whole plan!”
“Well, I mean, I understand the sneaking part. It’s the getting in part and getting out part I don’t understand.”
“Oh. Yeah. I haven’t quite gotten those parts worked out. So there’s nothing to understand or not understand yet.”
“Oooooh, okay.”
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