Lay out the clues

Click here THEN the magnifying glass THEN the zoomer
for a GINORMOUS picture of this magnificent clutter.

Show. Don't tell.

You've heard that before! And it's advised because people love mysteries. They like assembling the clues to draw conclusions for themselves.

So pick one of the following and drop the clues. Allow the reader to experience one of these without ever telling them what they're experiencing. Let them draw their own conclusions.

The shuttle craft was old.
The weeboo missed his dead mate.
The zombie was fresh.
The kitlish was hungry.
The room was cold.
The empath enraged Cordan.
The basement was cluttered.
The priest made Melandra nervous.
The ordogron was hungry.
Honora loathed Eldreth.

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Here's some excellent discussions about showing not telling I stumbled across while collecting prompts:

Wordplay: Never Name an Emotion "As readers, we don’t care what the characters are experiencing so much as we care what we experience through the characters."

Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors: Most Common Mistakes Series: Are Your Verbs Showing or Telling? "Every time you write that a character saw/smelled/heard/felt something, see if you can reword the sentence to show the reader just what it is the character is seeing/smelling/hearing/feeling."

Kidlit.com · What “Show, Don’t Tell” Really Means "One kind of knowing, you get by reading facts in the newspaper. You are a passive recipient of information. Another kind of knowing, the kind you practice every day in your life, is the detective work kind. You have to do some reasoning, some sleuthing, you have to actively pay attention to what’s going on around you — what the world is showing you — in order to figure people out, judge a situation, make your own assumptions and decisions about things."

Show, Don't (Just) Tell (Dennis G. Jerz, Seton Hill University) "Don’t just tell me your brother is talented… show me what he can do, and let me decide whether I’m impressed."

Temple of the absurd

Temple of the absurd

What's a warm up?

"A writer lives at best ..."

Strangeways Pigg

Continuing with the name theme 3 or more (or all of them!) are part of a group. Any group. A subversive knitting club. An "I hate my parents" club. A rebel fairy family. A wizarding detective agency. Throw them together and see where their names inspire you to take them.

Primrose Goo
Preserved Fish
Silence Bellows
Strangeways Pigg
Orange Marmalade Lemon
Cashmere Tango Obedience
Fairy Clutter
Fountain Wetmore Rainwater

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These came from Odd names (as did a few from Tuesday). Feel free to browse for more.

The ballad of naked man

The ballad of naked man

What's a warm up?

That's Mr. Fangboner to you!

Here are some odd English surnames gathered from various places. Come up with first names for each. They can be goofy or attempts by parents to overcome the eccentricities of the surname. They can be Harry Potterish. (JK Rowling was fortunate to be immersed in a land of colorful names!) Whatever inspires you. :-)

Fangboner
Teabaggy
Feeblebunny
Barebones
Beaglehole
Babblejack
Hamburger
Drinkwater
Ducklebottom
Mankiller
Stubblefield
Deadman
Smallbeer
Earwhisper
Weatherhog
Ticklepenny
Wolfpits
Titcomb

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If these few sparked a need for more, here's a collection of English surnames divided up by category like body parts, food, animals. The first half is the categories. The second half is all the names listed alphabetically: Of certain English surnames and their occasional odd phases when seen in groups by C. F. Lordan

Independent worm saloon

Independent worm saloon

What's a warm up?

"The writing itself ..."

Something for nothing

Something for nothing

What's a warm up?

Fable time!

Fables are moral tales staring anthropomorphized animals -- animals with human characteristics.

Go to Animal Character Generator and generate two random animals. (If the link disappears, I generated a bunch and put them in the Comments.)

For a creativity challenge, take the first two. :-) Or generate a few until you find a couple you like. Though don't think in terms of fables! Let the animals reveal their story to you :-)

Think about how the descriptor and animal combination emphasize certain aspects in each other. Like a "sheep angel" brings out gentleness, patience, whiteness. Perhaps flock also of angels and sheep. Or like "turtle drunkard" emphasizes the slowness and careful gate aspects of each. (Would you even know if a turtle was drunk?)

Now, what happens when you put them together? Who would be teaching the lesson to who? (And of course it needn't be a serious lesson!)

Planet caravan

Planet caravan

What's a warm up?

Alpha the Bet

For every pair of letters in the alphabet come up with an epic two part name like Yonnik of Zandraster and Wardam the Xenophobic. You could try coming up with names for a favorite series. If the creativity wants more than 13, try doing a male and female list. Perhaps do one in reverse to get different letter combinations.

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Sorry the posts have been delayed recently. I keep sitting down in the morning to push through a project then look up and it's dinner time! If you're curious, it's here. (The art does get better as it goes along! And more complex when it really needs to get simpler so it doesn't take so long!)

Plague in Lucifer's mind

Plague in Lucifer's mind

What's a warm up?

"My purpose is to ..."

Eleven blue Egyptians

Eleven blue Egyptians

What's a warm up?

Superhero Plus!

A dwarf in purple spandex?

A cowboy with a red cape who refuses to carry a gun?

A togaed Roman with a utility belt.

An African tribal nebish who secretly saves his people from the European invaders.

A Klingon with a (Klingon equivalent of a) K across her chest and a penchant for dramatic entrances.

Take the superhero genre and combine it with an unexpected genre. If you're stumped for a new genre, there's a randomizer at the Great Expectations post.

If you need to brush up on your superhero conventions, cliches and tropes, there's a huge list of Superhero Tropes at TV Tropes. (Warning, TV Tropes can make several hours of your life disappear.)

Dance in the smoke

Dance in the smoke

What's a warm up?

Sacred cowboys

Sacred cowboys

What's a warm up?

Discreet compliment

I was reading an article and halted at the mention of "pore over" for scrutinize. I supposed I knew it was pore rather than pour, but it looked odd since it made me think of skin pore.

So here are some more commonly mistaken homophones. Write a sentence for each pair ... about time travel. :-)

compliment (flattering remark)
complement ("a full complement" amount, "the perfect comlement" accompaniment)

discrete (separate)
discreet (careful, circumspect)

hoard (stock of valuable items)
horde (large group of people)

pour over (dump liquid over)
pore over (careful study over)

principle (a truth)
principal (first in importance)

site (area of ground)
cite (to quote)

effect (result)
affect (influence)

free rein (freedom, from loosened reins to allow a horse free movement)
free reign (the phrase often used mistakenly for free rein so can mean whatever you want it to mean)

Saints in hell

Saints in hell

What's a warm up?

"I only write when ..."

Goddess of chaos

Goddess of chaos

What's a warm up?

Wolf zombies quickly spot the jinxed grave.

Photoshopping by ThreeProngs

Wolf zombies quickly spot the jinxed grave.

And what happened next? And why were they looking for a jinxed grave? I want to know!!

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It's the new and way more colorful, "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog."

Sentences that use every letter in the alphabet are pangrams. A previous prompt featured Pangrams from around the world. There are links to more there. And some more here, that are Not Safe For Work.

Oookay, it's a zombie kitten not a wolf. But, come on, Zombie Kittens! Way cuter than zombie wolves! Though there are plenty of zombie animals at Animal Zombies and Animal Zombies 2, some of which are dogs and wolves. Warning: They're really well done Photoshopped collections of gross!

Iron Goddess of Vengeance (plus a wizzard of a blizzard more!)

Iron Goddess of Vengeance
Death race
Gates of Gehenna
Heading out to the highway
High speed GTO
Into the night
Celestine
Live free or die
March of the skeletons
Octane Gypsy
Red desert skies
Out of control
Strike of the viper
Shooting star

What's a warm up?

(Nearly every White Wizzard song. As I read through them I pictured a big epic fantasy -- with muscle cars! Or could be an epic poem if you're still in poetry mode. :-)

Steal this rhyme scheme

Sculpture by Jason Freeny

Okay, one more! I had an extra sonnet idea but ran out of days in April. 

Steal a rhyme scheme from a sonnet and create your own poem around it.

Another possibility is to come up with 7 rhyming pairs. And then work the sonnet around them.

Here are some rhymes stolen from Shakespeare. I eliminated words that were archaic and most of the ones where the words no longer rhymed. As usual I ended up with too many! So there are four collections here and a bunch more if you click on Comments.

Helen Hayes relates in her memoir that she got rid of her southern drawl by reciting Shakespeare's sonnets.

If you'd like to browse through on your own, the full collection, all on one page, is at Shakespeare Sonnets. If you'd prefer to steal from modern sonnets, try Sonnets.org.

time

wights

rhyme

knights

best

brow

express'd

now

prophecies

prefiguring

eyes

sing

days

praise

possessing

estimate

releasing

determinate

granting

deserving

wanting

swerving

knowing

mistaking

growing

making

flatter

matter

paws

brood

jaws

blood

fleets

time

sweets

crime

brow

pen

allow

men

wrong

young

dead

bell

fled

dwell

not

so

forgot

woe

verse

clay

rehearse

decay

moan

gone

From Extraordinary Poetry Writing p 120.

Turd on the run

Turd on the run

What's a warm up?

"A good rule for writers ..."