100 themes, 100 scenes

When in doubt, put up a cat.

Use the following list of 100 themes to create an outline for a novel. Each theme is a scene as well as the point of the scene.

If you peek ahead one or more of the themes may spark some ideas as a beginning point. Introduction is a little vague ;-)

1. Introduction
2. Complicated
3. Making History
4. Rivalry
5. Unbreakable
6. Obsession
7. Eternity
8. Gateway
9. Death
10. Opportunities
11. 33%
12. Dead Wrong
13. Running Away
14. Judgement
15. Seeking Solace
16. Excuses
17. Vengeance
18. Love
19. Tears
20. My Inspiration
21. Never Again
22. Online
23. Failure
24. Rebirth
25. Breaking Away
26. Forever and a day
27. Lost and Found
28. Light
29. Dark
30. Faith
31. Colours
32. Exploration
33. Seeing Red
34. Shades of Grey
35. Forgotten
36. Dreamer
37. Mist
38. Burning
39. Out of Time
40. Knowing How
41. Fork in the road
42. Start
43. Nature's Fury
44. At Peace
45. Heart Song
46. Reflection
47. Perfection
48. Everyday Magic
49. Umbrella
50. Party
51. Troubling Thoughts
52. Stirring of the Wind
53. Future
54. Health and Healing
55. Separation
56. Everything For You
57. Slow Down
58. Heartfelt Apology
59. Challenged
60. Exhaustion
61. Accuracy
62. Irregular Orbit
63. Cold Embrace
64. Frost
65. A Moment in Time
66. Dangerous Territory
67. Boundaries
68. Unsettling Revelations
69. Shattered
70. Bitter Silence
71. The True You
72. Pretence
73. Patience
74. Midnight
75. Shadows
76. Summer Haze
77. Memories
78. Change in the Weather
79. Illogical
80. Only Human
81. A Place to Belong
82. Advantage
83. Breakfast
84. Echoes
85. Falling
86. Picking up the Pieces
87. Gunshot
88. Possession
89. Twilight
90. Nowhere and Nothing
91. Answers
92. Innocence
93. Simplicity
94. Reality
95. Acceptance
96. Lesson
97. Enthusiasm
98. Game
99. Friendship
100. Endings

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The themes came from deviantART 100 Themes Writers group where there are many many lists to make you feel guilty for not completing them! :-D

Meme meme meme

Here are links to 3 more of the character memes created by MeAsTheNarrator, and samples of the questions. For these you will choose 5 characters and then write about how they react and interact to the pairings and situations given.

If you have a DeviantArt account, click on the meme you did and add a link at the deviation to your creation :-)

The Narrative OC MEME

II. One of your characters decides to make a grand entrance into a random tavern. How does that go? Pick either Character One or Character Four :

III. Jealous, Character Three tries to make a grand entrance as well but somehow fails… why is that?

The Narrative OC MEME 2

II. Asleep, Character Two or Character Four are dreaming of their most pleasant childhood memory. What is it about?

III. However, Character Five continues to toss and turn, haunted by their childhood nightmare! What scared them as a child?

The Narrative OC MEME 3

II. Character Two has taken a part-time job as a substitute teacher at a learning facility. How did their first day go? What were they teaching?

III. Character One and Character Five are hired as police officers and end up placing Character Three into custody. Does everything go smoothly?

The mix-up

Write down the names of 10 of your characters.

Then answer the following questions.

1. 4 invites 3 and 8 to dinner at their house. What happens?
2. 9 tries to get 5 to go to a strip club. What happens?
3. 5 needs to stay somewhere other than home for the night. Do they chose 1 or 6?
4. 2 and 7 are making out. 10 walks in. What is their reaction?
5. 3 falls in love with 5. 8 is jealous. What happens?
6. 4 jumps you in a dark alleyway. Who comes to your rescue: 10, 2, or 7?
7. 1 decides to make dinner. Fifteen minutes later, what is happening?
8. 2 writes a book about his/her life. What is 5's review of it?
9. 7 kidnaps 2 and demands something from 5 for 2's release. What is it?
10. 3 has to marry either 8, 4, or 9. Who do they choose?
11. You get to meet either 1 or 6. Who do you chose?
12. 9 challenges 4 to a duel. Why?
13. Everyone is playing poker. Who's easiest to read? Most difficult? Who will lose first?
14. Everyone is invited to 2 and 10's wedding except for 8. How does 8 react?
15. Why is 6 afraid of 7?
16. 10 gathers everyone around to tell them a fairy tale. How does it go?
17. 1 arrives late for 2 and 10's wedding. What happens, and why were they late?
18. A love potion causes 6 and 9 to fall in love. What happens?
19. 3, 4, 6 and 8 all go to the zoo for 8’s birthday party. How does it go? What presents do they get 8?
20. Everyone's protesting something outside of your house. What are they protesting? What do you do?
21. 9 murders 1's best friend. What does 1 do to get back at 9?
22. 6 and 1 are in mortal danger. Only one of them can survive. Does 6 save him/herself or 1?
23. Which one of them is most likely to fail at life?
24. 5, 3 and 10 are trapped in a collapsed building. Who's the most helpful? Least? Who's likely to loose it first?
25. 3 starts a day camp. What happens?
26. 4, 6, and 7 are celebrating something. 8 walks in. What happens?
27. 1 starts to write a fan-fiction where 9 and 10 are going out. What is 2’s reaction?
28. 7 makes an apple pie. Is it any good?
29. What song or book would you choose to represent 1?
30. The quiz is over. What does everyone go to do now?

I don't know where these types of quizzes began but they pop up often on Deviant art. Though meme is used to describe any framework for people to use on their own characters, a search for "character meme" will turn up several. These questions mostly came from blackvixzin's Character Quiz :D on Deviantart.

Just to drive anal people crazy I changed some of the questions and altered a few numbers since I'm anal enough to want the characters distributed fairly evenly ;-)

100 sentence challenge

For each word or phrase write a sentence about one of your characters, old or new.

A few ways to use this (some tend to generate more than a sentence):

• I've used the word to prompt a thought from me about the character.
  
• I've let the character respond to an interviewer's question containing that word. I didn't even make up the question. The character "heard" an appropriately probing question, to which they often crafted a lie for the interviewer ;-)
  
• Brandilyn Collins in Getting into Character suggests acting as a psychologist and have your character respond to probing questions under hypnosis. That could be adapted to this and prevent the character from lying. ;-)
• A list member used the word in a sentence or bit of dialogue that might fit into her current story.

1. Introduction
2. Love
3. Light
4. Dark
5. Seeking Solace
6. Break Away
7. Heaven
8. Innocence
9. Drive
10. Breathe Again
11. Memory
12. Insanity
13. Misfortune
14. Smile
15. Silence
16. Questioning
17. Blood
18. Rainbow
19. Gray
20. Fortitude
21. Vacation
22. Mother Nature
23. Cat
24. No Time
25. Trouble Lurking
26. Tears
27. Foreign
28. Sorrow
29. Happiness
30. Under the Rain
31. Flowers
32. Night
33. Expectations
34. Stars
35. Hold My Hand
36. Precious Treasure
37. Eyes
38. Abandoned
39. Dreams
40. Rated
41. Teamwork
42. Standing Still
43. Dying
44. Two Roads
45. Illusion
46. Family
47. Creation
48. Childhood
49. Stripes
50. Breaking the Rules
51. Sport
52. Deep in Thought
53. Keeping a Secret
54. Tower
55. Waiting
56. Danger Ahead
57. Sacrifice
58. Kick in the Head
59. No Way Out
60. Rejection
61. Fairy Tale
62. Magic
63. Do Not Disturb
64. Multitasking
65. Horror
66. Traps
67. Playing the Melody
68. Hero
69. Annoyance
70. 67%
71. Obsession
72. Mischief Managed
73. I Can't
74. Are You Challenging Me?
75. Mirror
76. Broken Pieces
77. Test
78. Drink
79. Starvation
80. Words
81. Pen and Paper
82. Can You Hear Me?
83. Heal
84. Out Cold
85. Spiral
86. Seeing Red
87. Food
88. Pain
89. Through the Fire
90. Triangle
91. Drowning
92. All That I Have
93. Give Up
94. Last Hope
95. Advertisement
96. In the Storm
97. Safety First
98. Puzzle
99. Solitude
100. Relaxation

This has been floating around Deviantart for a while, now residing as Variation 1 at 100 Themes Challenge and credited to AngieChild who says she got it elsewhere.

Most people use the themes as art challenges and they're very cool to see!

Quiz time!

Did your NaNo generate a lot of characters you'd like to find out more about? Do you have a collection of characters from past stories you're fond of and would like to work with again?

This character quiz is modified from one by Cat Bowen (~DrowElfRocker) on Deviantart. I liked the random comparisons she had going so replaced a few of the single character questions with more combinations.


First, list 12 of your characters in no particular order. They can be from one story or from several.


Then, answer the questions:

1. Who would make a better college professor, 6 or 11? What subject would they teach?
   
   
2. What personality trait do 4 and 11 have in common?
   
   
3. 12 sends 8 on a mission. What is it, and does it succeed?
   
   
4. If 5 and 9 were trapped in a elevator together, who would be the first to crack?
   
   
5. Would it make more sense for 2 to swear fealty to 6, or the other way around?
   
   
6. For some reason, 5 is looking for a roommate. Should he share a studio apartment with 9 or with 10?
   
   
7. 2, 7 and 12 have dinner together. Where do they go, and what do they discuss?
   
   
8. 3 challenges 10 to a duel. Why and what happens?
   
   
9. If 1 stole 8's most precious possession, how would she/he get it back?
   
   
10. Suggest a title for a story in which 7 and 12 both attain what they most desire.
    
    
11. What kind of plot device would you use if you wanted 4 and 1 to work together?
    
    
12. If 5 and 6 visited you for the weekend, how would you get along? Which would you most feel like killing off by the end of the weekend?
    
    
13. If you could command 3 to perform any one task or service for you, what would it be?
    
    
14. If 7 and 8 had grown up as siblings in a unstable home, who would have turned out the most different? Who would have survived the best?
    
    
15. If 2 had to choose sides between 4 and 5, which would it be?
    
    
16. Out of all the characters, who would win the beauty portion of the pageant? Who would win the talent portion? And who would win Ms./Mr. Congeniality?
    
    
17. Who would make the best superhero: 3, 9 or 11? Who would make the best supervillain? What would their super powers be?
    
    
18. 1, 6, and 12 are having dim sum at a Chinese restaurant. There is only one scallion pancake left, and they all reach for it at the same time. Who gets to eat it?
    
    
19. What might be a good pick-up line for 2 to use on 10?
    
    
20. Who is most likely to be arrested 4 or 10? For what?
    
    
21. 6 finds out 5's secret. What happens?
    
    
22. If 11 and 9 were racing to a destination, who would get there first?
    
    
23. If you had to walk home through a bad neighborhood late at night, would you feel safer in the company of 7 or 8?
    
    
24. 1 and 9 reluctantly team up to save the world from the threat posed by 4's secret Organization. 11 volunteers to help them, but is later discovered that he is actually a spy for 4. Meanwhile 4 has kidnapped 12 in an attempt to force their surrender. Following the wise advise of 5, they seek out 3, who gives them what they need to complete their quest.
    
    -What title would you give this fic?