Super Alpha

by Andrey Pavlov

For each later of the alphabet create a superhero name. They can be alliterative -- each word of the name starting with the same letter -- or just the first.

A is for potato chip

Europe has some weird ass potato chip flavors. My favorite name was Tingly Prawn Cocktail. (I didn't try them but I think in American English it would be Tingly Shrimp Cocktail Sauce flavor.)

(The picture to the right is actually American. It was one of 3 flavors suggested by fans of Lay's in a contest last summer.)

So, for each letter of the alphabet, come up with a potato chip flavor. They can be single words and phrases.

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When you're done, here's Lay's weird ass potato chip flavors from all over the world. There's also the Strange Chips blog that goes beyond just potato chips.

Random conflict

Two suggestions for these words.

One, write a sentence for each word (or some form of it) dealing with an internal or external conflict for the main character of the sentence.

Two, create a list of 6 characters -- yours or your favorites. Roll a die to randomly choose two characters. Pit those two characters in conflict with each other. If you roll the same number twice, you can either roll again or make it an internal conflict. If you have a lot of characters, you can make two lists of 6, perhaps a list of good guys and bad guys. Though putting two good guys or two bad guys in conflict is potentially more interesting! :-)

A is for Abandoned
B is for Betrayal
C is for Clandestine
D is for Double-cross
E is for Elegy
F is for Favoritism
G is for Grovel
H is for Hostility
I is for Isolation
J is for Jealousy
K is for Kinship
L is for Liaison
M is for Misunderstanding
N is for Neglectful
O is for Obedient
P is for Phobia
Q is for Questionable
R is for Rebellion
S is for Surrender
T is for Thwart
U is for Underestimate
V is for Violated
W is for Withdraw
X is for eXhume
Y is for Yield
Z is for Zealous

Affectionately alliterative

For each letter of the alphabet come up with an affectionately alliterative sentence in honor of Valentine's Day.

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!)

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.

Yuletide Yeti

I Love the Yeti (So You Don't Have To)

For each letter of the alphabet, come up with an alliterative line (tabloid headline if you're up to the challenge) that relates to winter and holiday season.

With Xmas exuberance and exaltation they excavated the exotic excelsior.

Yesterday youthful Yeti from Yokohama arrived by Yugo for their yearly Yuletide Yodeling in Yiddish. (Critics are not appreciated.)

The zaftig zebra zigzagged the Zamboni like a zombie on Zoloft.

V is for cheerleader

A is for seed.

At least it is in George Shannon's Tomorrow's Alphabet because today's seed is tomorrow's Apple.

Give it an alphabetical try! The letter is the first letter of the "tomorrow" word and the "today" word is the word the letter stands for.

A fill-in-the-blank list: "Today's ___ is tomorrow's ___," should help to keep your todays and tomorrows from getting mixed up. Try brainstorming a list of things that changed or were changed. When you're done brainstorming, plug the word into the appropriate space and fill in the other.

Don't let the alphabet form tie you to kid ideas. V can be for cheerleader (who spent the evening with the long-toothed boy). D is for aging gladiator (who became dinner for the lion).

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George Shannon also wrote a similar book Q is for Duck.

Alphabet of horrors

Installation by Filthy Luker

Write an alphabet where each alphabetic monster is bent on alphabetic mayhem on the next alphabetic beast. Where the Tentacled Terror tenses to tear into the Ulcerated Underdweller who upchucks upon the Venomous Villain as he voraciously vilifies ...

Idea from The Absolutely Awful Alphabet by Mordicai Gerstein.

Antithecal alphabet

For each letter of the alphabet write two opposing alliterative attributes. They can be attributes for a person -- and might spark an intriguing character -- or for an object -- which might spark a story idea or add to the atmosphere of a scene.

For example:

• zany and zombielike
  
• yakkity and yawning
  
• exhibitionistic and xenophobic
  
• wacky and well-balanced

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Inspired by comment #12 on the article A to Z Cure.

(A surprisingly common technique to fall asleep is to create a list of things from A to Z, like animals, diseases, countries. Maybe this prompt can be recycled as a sleep aid!)

Alphacharacter

For each letter of the alphabet, come up with an adjective that fits your character.

Or, if you have a dumpster load of characters, have each adjective describe a different character.

(A little rusty on your parts of speech? An adjective describes a thing, like the ginormous, magenta, vivacious, flatulent elephant.)

Rhopalic

In a rhopalic creation each successive word is longer by a letter or a syllable. It can be a sentence, a poem, a dialog, a headline ...

Dmitri Borgmann wrote a rhopalic sentence up to 20 letters: "I do not know where family doctors acquired illegibly perplexing handwriting; nevertheless, extraordinary pharmaceutical intellectuality, counterbalancing indecipherability, transcendentalises intercommunications' incomprehensibleness."

If you'd like to try your hand at writing a rhopalic headline, Anu Garg of A Word a Day is running a contest that ends this Friday. The headlines submitted can be real or imaginary, can be increasing or decreasing word lengths.

Anu Garg has posted the best entries at his website: Rhopalic headline contest.

Alternatively, how far can you get on a rhopalic alliterative alphabet before going nuts? ;-)

Gaggle of giggling ghoul girls

For each letter of the alphabet write a sentence that's ghoulishly alliterative.

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A bit overkill for this ;-) but as I searched for a link for the picture, I found Wikipedia's List of monsters by culture [deleted] Legendary creatures.

Like Star Wars? Like zombies? Click the picture. :-)

Frosty fennel frappes

For each letter of the alphabet create a frozen drink name (alliterative if it helps your imagination).

Alphabet cereal

Come up with cereal names for each letter of the alphabet. They needn't be nutritiously acceptible names. Go ahead and have Super Sugar Candy Crunchies. ;-) Of course if you do want a challenge, you can try making healthful cereals sound just as exciting as commercial cereals. :-)

A chronobet

Write a time travel alphabet, past to present to future, anything and everything that pops into your head about time travel.

Rather than starting with A, you might brainstorm to get the ideas flowing. No need to tie yourself to linear time or linear order of words. :-)

For a real challenge, turn it into a story. Each alphabet line will be another line of the story. (The sentences don't need to begin with the letter, just have a word that starts with the letter somewhere in them.)

AlphabeTally

I ran across this on the internet by "Author Unknown" who is nearly as prolific and productive across all genres as "Anonymous".

A Friend …

Accepts you as you are.
Believes in you.
Calls you just to say "hi."
Doesn't give up on you.
Envisions the whole of you (even the unfinished parts).
Forgives your mistakes.
(and it goes on through the alphabet)

Pick any subject and create something similar.

Maybe it's the subject of the example, but I can hear a teacher say "Write your own version about friends." Well, if she's talking in your head too, shush her. You're not in school. No one's going to scowl at you if you choose to write about Dog Poop! ;-)

Dog Poop ...

Always smells.
Broils on the sidewalk.
Clings to your shoe.
Draws the noses of dogs.

For X, "Author Unknown" wrote both "Xplains things you don't understand" and "XOXOXOXO".

You can see a nicely formatted version of "A Friend".

Top 10 Tabloid Headlines for April 2008

April is National Play with Words Month!

Actually it's National Poetry Month but to keep the prompts relatively short and encourage people who cringe at the word poetry, it's a whole lot more about playing with words.

Last year I introduced Kenneth Koch's poetry warm up exercises. (You can see them all here by clicking on Poetry Warm Ups over on the right.) They're a way of playing with words to get stuff flowing :-)

No actual poetry will be produced, though you may come up with an intriguing line that leads to a poem or a story.

For today, use the structure of the first tabloid headline and generate similar lines of the form:

Food -- Noun -- -ed verb

Cucumber Killer Captured
Bean Bomber Bamboozled
Anchovy Anarchist Annihilated

Top 10 Tabloid Headlines from APRIL 1998

1. CUCUMBER KILLER CAPTURED! -- WWN
   
2. BEN FRANKLIN SHOCKER!He was a Founding Father, a signer of the Declaration of Independence -- AND A SERIAL KILLER! -- WWN
   
3. Teens ordered to clean toilets after peeing on theater seats! -- WWN
   
4. 10 GIRAFFES HAVE HEADS TORN OFF -- when zoo truck passes under low bridge -- WWN
   
5. Kitten drowned by a giant goldfish!  Cat dips paw in tank & fish pulls him in! -- WWN
   
6. Exploding grapefruits kill hundreds in Argentina! -- WWN
   
7. DEAD HUBBY BURIED WITH WINNING LOTTO TICKET IN HIS POCKET Anxious wife digs up 103 corpses looking for him! -- WWN
   
8. FARMER DEVELOPS THE ELVIS CHICKEN! New birds sport slick hairdos & swivel their hips when they walk! -- WWN
   
9. Gun-totin' Texan shoots baby kitten. . .   THEN CLAIMS SELF-DEFENSE! -- WWN
   
10. VENGEFUL OLDSTER SUES DAUGHTER FOR DEAD WIFE'S ASHES . . . SO HE CAN FLUSH THEM DOWN THE TOILET! -- WWN

A Bestiary

Create a bestiary. Use each of the following words in the name of the beast or one sentence description of the beast.

amnesiac
bewitches
chamber
disguises
eerie
flickering
graffiti
hypnotized
invisible
journey
karma
laughing
moonbeam
nuzzle
outcast
pilfer
quake
rumble
saccharine
taunt
uneasy
valkyrie
whirl
explode
yammer
zigzag

Frairy's Fairy Ferry

Come up with ship and boat names for each letter of the alphabet. The ships can be anything: land or water or air or space craft, from dinghies to cruisers.