Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Transanimalation

An animal wandered into your home and decided it wasn't going to leave. As the days pass, you get the oddest feeling you know this animal, except as a human. Eventually it's impossible to deny this animal was someone famous.

Do they begin speaking? Do they want to reclaim their previous fame? Do they have unfinished business?

It can be a famous person from this world, from the world your characters are in, or from a story brought into the mundane here-and-now world.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Christmas fantasies

Magical Arrival by Anne Stokes
You've been transported to another world by one of those pervasive mysterious vortexes that are always plucking people and hurling them to mysterious locals.

Your watch tells you it's almost Christmas. It makes no difference whether the time on your new world matches home, darn it, you're feeling homesick and nostalgic and want to celebrate Christmas.

So how do you pump up the idea of Christmas to get those around you intrigued? What are you able to recreate? What compromises need to be made? What new ideas do your otherworlders have? Is there a Scrooge among them?

Here's wishing you a Merry Christmas in whatever world you're occupying this season! :-)

Monday, December 19, 2011

Deviant CAVE


Deviantly describe the image. Don't use rock or water. Dig into what objects look and feel like rather than telling what they are. Capture the senses' experience. What does it feel like to your whole body? What does it sound like. What does it smell like? Taste like?

Go further and find a mood or personality of the place and let those inspire the descriptive words you choose.

Try unexpected adjectives and vivid verbs. For example, svelt, sleek, oozing, crouching aren't words normally associated with places, but can create fresh images.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Claus vs Krampus


Krampus is Santa's dark companion. While Santa hands out the presents to good boys and girls, Krampus punishes the bad ones, striking them with rusty chains then shoving them in his sack to drag to the underworld. (Really. I'm not making this up! It's a Germanic legend.)

Since we don't hear about Krampus much nowadays, something must have happened. Are children not bad enough? Did Santa or someone do away with him? Is he on an extended leave of absence intending to return one day? Why did he leave and what will happen when he returns? How and why did he become Santa's companion anyway?

Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Tabby's tabby tabby

That's tabby concrete Photoshopped beneath the tabby.
This was in Anu Garg's Word A Day mail yesterday. Such a great variety of meanings to inspire :-) Use as many as you can in a paragraph or story.

tabby

MEANING:
noun:
1. A domestic cat with a striped or brindled coat.
2. A domestic cat, especially a female one.
3. A spinster.
4. A spiteful or gossipy woman.
5. A fabric of plain weave.
6. A watered silk fabric.
7. A concrete made of lime, oyster shells, and gravel.

(Forgive the miss last week. I got overwhelmed by the projects that overwhelmed my finishing NaNo this year (for the first time in 6 years.) And my daughter was visiting. :-) Though she managed to finish NaNo is style! :-)

Monday, December 05, 2011

ANGELic deviant

ANGEL

.~          How does one Deviantly Describe?          ~.
Short version ...
From the given mundane, snoozer of a word, generate as many different-from-each-other descriptions as you can. (Set a timer for 10-15 minutes if you wish.)

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