Useful idiot

Useful idiot

What's a warm up?

"Writing is a fairly lonely ..."

Moonshield

Moonshield

What's a warm up?

Varlet and the Squeaking Codpieces

Dave Barry often said "That would be a good name for a rock band." Like The Fabulous Snake Doots. Weasel Nostrils. And, of course, Drawers Full Of Slugs.

For each letter of the alphabet come up with a good name for a rock band. If you need to riff off of something, try working an animal in each band name.

Deviate some BRIDEs

BRIDE

New name for this creative juice squeezer outer:

Deviant Descriptions!

"Give me 7" didn't get at the heart of its purpose. And numbers aren't quite as creatively inspiring as delicious words. Poor numbers. :-(

But DEVIANTS! They're abeRRant, atypical, anomalous, nonconformist, unusual, freakish, PEQULIAR, B1Zarr3, exxentric, quirky. And sometimes even a bit KinKy and wArPeD.

How to deviate?

Short version: From the given mundane, snoozer of a word, generate as many different-from-each-other descriptions as you can.

Longer version: preserved at the HOME of the first Deviant Description.

Commando nuns

"Sister Graziella still dreams of a Carmelite commando unit."

Take it from there. :-)

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That's a caption from the 2011 Nuns Having Fun calendar.

Pink bubbles go ape

Pink bubbles go ape

What's a warm up?

"There are lots of people who give their all ..."

Now your ships are burned

Now your ships are burned

What's a warm up?

Steamed

Click for ginormous version.
(If that disappears, click here, then click the magnifying glass above the image.)
At the CG Society is a walkthrough of how the artist created this.

So, what are these people headed off to? What's the foremost figure pulling? Who are the people observing? What are the little floating things? There are guns on the tail of the ship and each man is carrying a gun, but the city itself seems peaceful.

There's a woman strolling with a parasol beneath the ship. You could make the point of view hers which may be more casual than it should be in the situation.

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This is from a contest run the the CG Society. The theme was Steampunk Myths and Legends. So, there's already a story behind it, but don't feel constrained by it.

As I was wandering about, I stumbled across a blog on Updated fairy tales. There is a tag specifically for posts on Steampunk updates of fairy tales.

Eyes of a stranger

Eyes of a stranger

What's a warm up?

Shorter than short

Each week Anu Garg compiles responses to his Word a Day mailing. Last week the words were short and someone responded with: "Ten small words with the greatest meaning -- 'If it is to be, it is up to me.'"

So the challenge is to use only words of 1 or 2 letters to form sentences! For your convenience, I listed a bunch of common words. Generally I avoided abbreviations, except a few that have become words like tv and ok, and chatspeak. But feel free to include any short words you want. It's your challenge :-)

If you want more words, OneLook lets you search by wild card which is how I compiled the list. And there are loads of Scrabble and crossword dictionaries online that would have lists like this.

(Would this be no challenge at all in Chinese where an English transcription like "ma" might have a dozen different meanings?)

a
I
(and all the letters are fair game too if they're used as names of themselves, like B for "b".)

Expressions:
ah
aw
ee
eh
er
ew
ga
ho
la
lo
oh
om
oo
ow
oy
uh
um
wa
yo
zz

mi (do re mi fa so la ti do)

ad
am
an
as
at
ax
be
do
el (elevated train in Chicago)
go
hi
id
if
in
is
it
ma
me
mu (elementary particle)
my
na
no
of
ok
on
or
ox
oz
pi
pa
so
ta (good-bye or thank you)
to
tv
up
us
we
ya

Jimmy the Exploder

Jimmy the Exploder

What's a warm up?

"Write even if you don't want to ..."

Disposable heroes

Disposable heroes

What's a warm up?

Antique magic

The Conjurer by Nathaniel Hone

"I'd like to bring magic back to the place it used to be 100 years ago." — David Blane

David Blane is a mundane world magician. But what if he spoke of a world where magic actually existed? What would it mean to be nostalgic for magic of a hundred years ago? How has it changed and why? Is it less appreciated? Do the young treat it without the proper reverence? Perhaps they want quick spells, not the old spells that take time and discipline to master? Is the David Blane of that world right? Or were the traditionalists hampering magical development with antiquated rules?

HOME for Deviants

Home

Something new for Wednesdays to get your creativity out of its box to run free.

DeViant DescriPtions

They're abeRRant, atypical, anomalous, nonconformist, unusual, freakish, PEQULIAR, B1Zarr3, exxentric, quirky. And sometimes even a bit KinKy and wArPeD.

Deviate those descriptions
For the day's boring, mundane word or phrase come up with at least 7 Deliciously Deviant Descriptions that are as different from each other as you can make them. The more you come up with the better.

Run the tap
Your first few likely will be quite un-devious. Expect this. Like running the tap until the water flows clear. The longer you run your brain tap, the fresher the ideas will be.

Fly far from the box
For instance, if the word were farm, likely you'd picture "Old MacDonald's" farm with a red barn, pigs, cows, chickens and a tractor. But there are fish farms. Wind farms. Container farms. Tulip farms in Holland. And moisture farms on Tatooine.

Get fanciful
What did a medieval farm look like? Or Roman? Edo period in Japan? Martian? A farm in the clouds? What would cats farm? What would a deviant farm be like?

Question assumptions
Question all your assumptions about what is necessary to be that thing. Turn the assumptions upside down. Strip the idea down to the essentials and build up from there with brand new features. Deviate!

Crime of passion

Crime of passion. Usually that conjures up love triangles, jealousy, betrayal, dark secrets, murder.

But what if the passion is for acquiring the perfect cup of coffee? Or to see your team finally make it to the championships? Or collecting Hello Kitty merchandise? Or creating the world's best topiary? Or getting their Pekinese Best in Show?

A crime of passion suggests a sudden turn pushes someone past the breaking point into rage or heartbreak. So what crime is your character capable of committing in pursuit of his or her passion?

Flash of the blade

Flash of the blade

What's a warm up?

"I get up in the morning ..."

Original prankster

Original prankster

What's a warm up?

"She's got a chicken to ride."

One of the following was overheard at a coffee shop. (Feel free to make it a fantasy or science fiction coffee shop.) Use it to inspire the real story behind the statement or what the effect was on the one who overheard.

• She's got a chicken to ride.
• Dead ants are my friends; they're blowin' in the wind.
• Sleep in heavenly peas.
• I blow bubbles when you are not here.
• I'll be your xylophone waiting for you.
• Baking carrot biscuits.
• Donuts make my brown eyes blue.
• Got a lot of lucky peanuts.
• Just brush my teeth before you leave me, baby.

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These are Mondegreens, misheard lyrics. Click on the comments for the original lyrics.

If you liked that, another Mondegreeen prompt is: "I was raised by two lesbians in drag."

Ghost blues

Ghost blues

What's a warm up?

Spybot

On a secret mission for the Prince, you exit the inn you stayed in overnight to find this. It immediately scuttles off. Though you pursue it, it disappears into the bushes.

Now what?

Sound of muzak

Sound of muzak

What's a warm up?

"Being defeated is ..."