I do not want this

I do not want this

What's a warm up?

Carpetbaggers

If a raccoon steals a rug it's funny.

If two rugs are stolen, something's up.

Is it one raccoon or many raccoons? What are they doing with those rugs? Scavenger hunt? College pranks? A conspiracy? A new trend in raccoon decor?

Bottled up inside

Bottled up inside

What's a warm up?

Paro

Paro is a therapeutic robot modeled after a baby harp seal. It trills when petted, yelps when treated roughly, gazes up and blinks, responds to its name and words it hears frequently.

Somewhere in your piece Paro (or several Paros) will appear.

He can be an obsolete model. (Can you find a new twist?) Maybe it's not a robot brain that's running it. How adaptable is it to many different people with many different needs and ways of relating to it? Maybe there's one person it doesn't like for some inexplicable reason. It could be because they're bad, but what if they aren't?

He can be a secondary character or representative of a society where care-taking robots are common place.

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In the New York Times article, A Soft Spot for Circuitry, it's said people clearly know Paro's a robot but want to treat it as though alive. (How many have never spoken to their car? ;-) I certainly did! My first one was named Peter Max. My daughter's is the Red Bomber.)

The article touches on the pros and the cons and could give you some story fodder.

There are also robots being used as diet coaches and help for drug addicts who are determined to change, going so far as to be aware of where they are and helping their "client" avoid locations associated with past drug use.

Also on the article's page is Interview With a Robot, a video of a reporter's interaction with a robot with a personality, who learns and improves from each conversation. While sometimes the programming is apparent, other times when she's self aware enough to apologize for having a bad software day it's easy to see the glimmers of the androids of science fiction. And while she was probably programmed to say: "I love Bina. [The woman whose personality was used for her.] I mean I am Bina in some rudimentary way. I just wish they would capture more of her so I could be more truly Bina. .... The real Bina really lives her life out there. I want a life, you know. I want to get out and garden," it's hard not to overlay it with the Twilight Zone theme ;-)

Interestingly the reporter said it was "exhausting" talking to the robot.

No one's leaving

No one's leaving

What's a warm up?

"Even my failures ..."

To defy the laws of tradition

To defy the laws of tradition

What's a warm up?

Operation -- Annihilate!

Click to see its natural habitat.
Or DON'T if you're squeamish.

"The parasite Toxoplasma gondii, for example, spends most of its time in rats and cats, and needs to get from one to the other. Infected rats, instead of avoiding places that smell of cat urine, show a foolhardy attraction to them — which presumably makes the rats more likely to be captured and eaten, thus allowing the parasite to return to the body of a cat."

Your world has been infected by a parasite that causes people (or animals of course) to act in ways deadly to the host but beneficial to the parasite. (Maybe it needs two hosts, each for a different part of its life cycle.)

Could be a B sci-fi movie from the 50's. :-) Camp it up.

The parasite needn't be tiny. (There was the neural parasite in Star Trek's Operation -- Annihilate! (which does sound like a B movie!) Many in real life aren't.

The parasite shouldn't be immediately deadly. The host needs to stay alive long enough to serve the parasite's needs. While some parasites keep a creature barely alive to feed from it or use it to nurture eggs, a common parasite attribute is to allow the host to behave as though the parasite weren't there. Until the parasite doesn't need it anymore then couldn't care less what happens to the host -- which makes them awesome villains. :-)

Where did the parasite come from? The dreaded meteor shower? ;-) Was it once an innocuous creature that slowly evolved? Perhaps the parasites were once symbionts (two different species who live together for mutual benefit and in some cases can't exist separately) who've turned deadly for some reason.

One feature of parasitic animals is they tend to be ugly. (I mean look at that thing up there. It has friggin' atrophied the fish's tongue and set up shop. Well, okay, maybe its face is kinda cute.) So you could create a parasite that's beautiful! :-)

Parasites -- and symbionts too -- have behaviors stranger than can be made up :-) They're great fodder for monster creation.

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The quote is from Olivia Judson's article So Long, and Thanks in the NY Times.

Atomic punk

Atomic punk

What's a warm up?

In the beginning

Spend 15 minutes generating as many beginnings as you can. In 1 to 5 sentences -- the fewer the better! -- suggest that something is off and the character's life is about to have a monkey wrench thrown into it. In other words, grab the reader right from the beginning.

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The best way to get better at beginnings is to read a lot of beginnings. Go to the library or bookstore and read the first few lines of many books in your favorite genre. If you're reluctant to move onto the next book, that's a good clue there's something there ;-)

I haven't read it but there's a book on just beginnings, Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One & Never Lets Them Go by Les Edgerton that gets 4.5 stars out of 33 reviews. The reviews indicate some solid information but flaws in the presentation. (The reviews can give you a good idea whether you'd be bothered too.)

Fast talking woman

Fast talking woman

What's a warm up?

"When I start a book ..."

Tarot for Writers

Tarot is so wrapped in mysticism that it comes across like a magical code to access another realm. It often seems if you don't lay the cards in the exact right positions, you might as well be laying out Pokemon cards in random ways and just making the whole thing up since it wouldn't be a real key.

And should upside down cards be treated as reversed in meaning or turned upright? It depends which author you read. How could it not make a difference? Oh, but they say, your choice will effect how the cards fall.

Those are cool, mystical concepts for stories but it felt like a barrier to finding new ways to use Tarot for other than personal questions.

Tarot for Writers by Corrine Kenner presents the cards in more practical language. They're not offered as ways to channel mystical knowledge from a realm beyond our understanding. They're offered as ways to tap the unique connections between random ideas that we each have and may be barely aware of. They're used as ways to get your thoughts out of standard ruts and jazz them up with new ideas sparked by random elements.

She covers the standard spreads and how they can be used for characters and stories. But she also -- and this is very helpful for those who are a bit rule bound ::cough cough:: -- delves into some writing concepts and lays cards out for them. She describes the spread, then an example of how some cards could be read in the spread, and some writing exercises.

For example, to create a protagonist, antagonist, protagonist's foil, antagonist's foil and supporting character, you lay out one card for each.

To create a character's physical description, you lay out one card each for age, ethnicity, height, weight, hair, birthmarks, clothing style .... and so on, getting as detailed as you want. (You could use cards to fill out one of the character questionnaires I've posted here. (Click on Character Development on the right hand side.)

To create a story, you can lay 3 cards: beginning, middle and end. Or lay them out in a pyramid of 7 cards to represent Exposition, Inciting Force, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Resolution, Denoument.

She covers several approaches each to character creation, story line and plot, setting and description. She provides various techniques to use cards to break writer's block. There are games for writers' groups. There are poetry sparks, both for content and form.

The big barrier, and this is true of all uses of Tarot, is there's a fairly steep learning curve involved in becoming familiar with the ideas tied to each card. Of course you can always use your own interpretation! You don't need to use the traditional associations. If a guy on a horse makes you think "Road trip!" for your characters, go for it :-)

TIP: Use Facade's Tarot Reading. Choose a spread with the same number of cards as the one you want to use from the book. The widget will provide the meanings.

To help with that learning curve, at the beginning of the book, she offers some good generalizations to help you get started. For instance she says all the wand cards deal with spiritual experience, cups deal with emotions, swords with thought and communication and pentacles with the physical and financial realm.

The cards she uses in the book have pictures for the Minor Arcana as well as the Major Arcana which not all decks have. The pictures would help the learning curve a lot! Instead of trying to connect 5 cups to flowing life, spilled milk, the 5 stages of grief and so forth, the images on the cards jog your memory.

The last two thirds of the book are a detailed description of each card in the Major and Minor Arcana. Each card has Key Symbols, Keywords and Writing practice. The Major Arcana also get Myth and Legend, Astrological Associations, Literary Archetypes, and the card's connection to writing.

Who's the joke on

Who's the joke on

What's a warm up?

The Great Debate

Do you have a protagonist/antagonist pair that you thought had the potential for a good story but they wandered about aimlessly? Perhaps a pair from one of your NaNoWriMo endeavors?

Bring the two of them on stage with a moderator and let them hash out their differences. Have each tell their point of view of events. Let each tell what they believe is the most important objective and why. Let each take a turn convincing the other how right they are and how wrong the other is.

Electric funeral

Electric funeral

What's a warm up?

Beyond that smile

"She was much too chipper for a woman with a room full of dead bodies beyond the locked door behind her."

Are the bodies legitimately there? Perhaps she's a collector of ...? Try on a fantasy setting. A future setting. A city store front. A lonely outpost. War time. A peaceful town.

Good girls gone bad

Good girls gone bad

What's a warm up?

"The writer should never ..."

The wrong child

The wrong child

What's a warm up?

For sale: Slightly used sister

Have a character write an ad to sell his or her sister.

Usually the dynamic is the annoying younger sister. What if it's an older sister? Teen? The perfectionist? The favored one? The one with super powers? The "different" one?

It could be an adult character writing it as a joke. Or not a joke.

What if the sister saw it? What ad would she write in response?

What if someone responds?

Fresh tendrils

Fresh tendrils

What's a warm up?

Coffee with that?

Click image to enlarge

At first it struck me as a typical scene from a horror movie. But that cat seems a bit unconcerned.

So who's the cat?

Is this the girl's apartment or is she visiting?

Does she know this creature? Is it part of the refrigerator? Is the refrigerator a doorway?

Maybe it's a Magical Girl manga and this is just a typical morning. And it's not unusual for Japanese (manga) parents work in a foreign country, leaving their kids to raise themselves. The kids are always so neat! This looks more like reality ;-)

By-tor and the snow dog

By-tor and the snow dog

What's a warm up?

"It's tougher than Himalayan ..."

Dweller in the cellar

Dweller in the cellar

What's a warm up?

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.

Shed some light

Shed some light

What's a warm up?

One by one

Write 11 sentences composed only of one syllable words. (For an extra challenge, write a story of one syllable words.) This is a great exercise if you're prone to flowery language :-)

If you'd like some seed words to get started, pick a being and a place.

Being

Place

Or choose two random one syllable words. (The beings and places from above are in this list too.)

Word

I wanna be in tabloids

I wanna be in tabloids

What's a warm up?

"I began to write ..."

Dirty window

Dirty window

What's a warm up?

Prince of Sieves

The story is about a jack of all trades, a tad insane (perhaps), who says he's a prince, leisurely wandering the land. The seat of his vehicle is a throne. His horse is re-dyed frequently.

Enter a girl who claims she's his sister, tough, independent who seems to draw trouble which she revels in.

It feels like a fantasy story but try a modern setting. (You may lose the horse if you wish.) Or future. The two could be aliens, maybe of different species. One or both could be androids.

Damnation game

Damnation game

What's a warm up?

Rise and shine

As you slowly awaken, this is what you see. Take it from there.

Tyrant of the airwaves

Tyrant of the airwaves

What's a warm up?

"Your stuff starts out ..."

Releasing the demons

Releasing the demons

What's a warm up?

Just a word, please!

A quiz for your character. :-) Answer each question with just one word that is not a noun.

This idea circulated around Facebook a while back. I've changed it to include questions that are more character revealing. The original didn't specify what kind of word, but the more intriguing answers weren't nouns probably because they left more to the imagination :-)

Your significant other?

Your mother?

Your father?

Your favorite thing?

Your goal?

Your dream?

Religion?

Something you aren't?

What's on your wish list?

Your friends?

Your personality?

Your current mood?

Your life?

One thing you want to accomplish?

Your best childhood friend?

Your worst enemy?

Something you are?

What you want to control?

Your heart?

Your brain?

Heavy metal hamsters

Heavy metal hamsters

What's a warm up?

Catty twittering

Sam was brushing her hair when the girl in the mirror put down the hairbrush, smiled and said, "We don't love you anymore."

Take it from there.

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This was the first line in a collaborative story begun by Neil Gaiman that continued one Tweet at a time by about 100 contributors over the course of 8 days until a 1000 tweets were collected. Intended as an experiment, it was edited on the fly and released as a audiobook at Audible.(free if you sign up for a trial membership, $2.79 otherwise, 99 cents on iTunes).

You can also read the retweets on the BBC blog. Scroll down to the Monday, October 12, 2009post.(The posts aren't linked to each other which is a bit of a pain. As it says on each page, read the tweets from the bottom up.)

Never named

Never named

What's a warm up?

"There are few things ..."

Born on judgement day

Born on judgement day

What's a warm up?

Knitmare

Write a sentence for each of the following word pairs.

facedump (verb) : to delete (someone) as a friend on Facebook.
Cereal Dust (noun) : the pulverized remains at the bottom of a breakfast cereal bag or box.

Stabby (verb) : characterized by a desire to stab something; angry or frustrated.
grannify (verb) : to appear old or appropriate for an old person.

rabbit (verb) : to talk excessively about something unimportant.
funnify (verb) : to make (something or someone) fun.

scraggle (noun) : an indistinct or irregular grouping.
unshop (verb) : to return unpurchased merchandise to the shelf while shopping.

nibby (adjective) : nosy.
gladitude (noun) : a feeling of contented appreciation.

vegangelical (noun) : a vegan who seeks to convince others to become one.
pronoia (noun) : a tendency to believe that others hold friendly or positive opinions of oneself.

hecticity (noun) : a feeling of panic and stress usually brought on by having too much to do and not enough time to do it.
conflustered (adjective) : confused and flustered.

endarkened (adjective) : confused, ignorant, or misled.
knitmare (noun) : a failed knitting project.

hamster wheel (verb) : to talk continuously about a problem or regret without coming up with a solution or resolution.
racker (noun) : a person who collects sports memorabilia (such as autographs or sports cards) that are particularly hard to obtain.

pooch-pouch (noun) : a handbag or shoulderbag for carrying a small dog.
immaculize (verb) : to improve to a standard just short of perfection.

metrognome (noun) : a gnome supposedly living in the subway stations of Paris.
drizzmal (adjective) : relating to weather that is cloudy and raining slightly.

terribad (adjective) : having exceptionally poor or undesirable qualities and characteristics.
gigundous (adjective) : exceptionally large

Words from Merriam-Webster's Open Dictionary.

Wooly bully

Wooly bully

What's a warm up?

I exist

"I believe that man exists to ..."

It could have been said by a dead white guy spouting his views on the world but how different would that be? (Though you could make it your mission to find the new in it :-)

Or what if it's an alien speaking of humans? Or an animal? Or one of the other intelligent beings in your world? A god speaking of his or her or its creation? Or a woman speaking specifically of men (from some spot on this time line or any fantasy world)?

Is it a religious viewpoint? A social viewpoint? A political viewpoint? A scientific viewpoint?

Territorial pissings

Territorial pissings

What's a warm up?

"Never let the odds ..."

Offend in every way

Offend in every way

What's a warm up?

A snowman's chance in hell

Take an old saying, aphorism or cliche and change it in some way. Use that in your piece, including five of the following words:

cliff
blackberry
needle
cloud
voice
mother
whir
lick

If you're using the prompt for a poem, the original suggested 10 lines.

Cliche

(The list of sayings is from Mom-isms, a collection a son made of what he heard his mother saying growing up. There are a few that are "old school" thinking but you get to change them :-))

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This was originally a poetry prompt from the Practice of Poetry edited by Robin Behn & Chase Twichell.

The storm and the dead

The storm and the dead

What's a warm up?

Chain reaction

Use one of the following as the title of your piece. While they're all physics terms, you don't need to know physics. Use the images and ideas they spark for you.

• Potential Difference
• Chain Reaction
• Manipulated Variable
• Equivalent Resistance
• Boiling Point
• Spark Chamber
• Quantum Mechanic
• Destructive Interference
• Inverse Relationship
• Incoherent Light

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May 11, 1918 is the birthdate of Richard Feynman, American physicist and gave me a reason to use physics terms as a writing prompt. He was a popularizer of physics -- his writing is clear and often amusing -- and introduced the idea of nanotechnology. "He was regarded as an eccentric and free spirit. He studied Maya hieroglyphs, was a prankster, juggler, safecracker, bongo player, and a proud amateur painter."

Eleven blue Egyptians

Eleven blue Egyptians

What's a warm up?

"I write fiction ..."

Clown funeral

I'll never forget the day my mom turned to me out of the blue and informed me, "When I die, I want everyone to dress as clowns at my funeral."

Take it from there. It could be about the funeral. Or what prompted her to say that at that moment. Perhaps a mysterious past? An agreement made? A way to prevent a curse?

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From One Sentence: True stories, told in one sentence.

Hungry hunter

Hungry hunter

What's a warm up?

Short and to the point

Tell a true story ... in one sentence. No cheating with run ons ;-) Tell the essence and keep it succinct.

This is trickier than it seems! A story should have at least one character, an obstacle or slice of life and a resolution. A lot to pack into a sentence :-)

When you're done, you can submit it to: One Sentence: True stories, told in one sentence.

There are loads of stories at the site (though you may want to wait until after Thursday to read deeply into the archives since one story is coming up next prompt :-)

(Some past posts that involved one sentence: One sentence review and One sentence plot.)

Zero the Hero

Zero the Hero

What's a warm up?

"Anecdotes don't ..."