Spiked beast

Use the following in sentences or a paragraph or a story. They don't need to be in the order given this time. (But of course you can if you want!)

1. spiked, beast, evaded, eager, unfriendly, fairy, fierce
   
2. liver, sly, twisted, wander, competition, laugh, giant
   
3. spare, horse, sick, bubbly, baboon, book, crockery
   
4. shapeshifter, modified, cavern, brain, typical, crafty, squealed
   
5. invent, stuffy, overgrown, talons, moldy, tournament, amazing

(The original photo is even cuter. You can click on it if you want to see. :-)

Not quite an argument

Reveal character and past and relationship through dialogue with two characters arguing. They should both be convincing since they each feel strongly that they're right. You can choose from these ideas or come up with your own:

• dog who can speak arguing over why he won't be sleeping on the floor anymore
  
• a child who wants to go to wizard school rather than stay in the family business.
  
• a couple arguing over whether to stay on planet or move to a new primitive colony.
  
• two beings of different races/species, arguing with their families/villages over a partnership the two want to form
  
• a young person who has awakened a magical power for thievery but just wants to be a good person, arguing with her grandfather who wants to train her in the family tradition
  
• an android arguing with it's owners over it's right to be free and independent

From What If?: Writing Exercises for FIction Writers by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter

"Every dreamer pays a price."

How To: Quit Your Day Job

Holly Lisle has, in addition to 30 fantasy and science fiction (and other genres) novels, compiled a wealth of essays on writing. (Some of her out of print books are available from her site for free download also.)

Here's a bit from her Middles essay:

I'm in one right now --- a middle, that is. Actually, I'm nearing the end of the middle, which in my humble opinion is the utter worst place in the universe to be.

The loathsome middle in question happens to be in Curse of the Black Heron, but it wouldn't matter. I've never met a middle I liked, and if the middle weren't CotBH, it would be something just as bad, or worse.

Writers come in all sorts. There are folks who dread the blank page, and who have an absolute terror of getting the thing started, but once they've been plugging on a bit, they're fine. There are folks who start well, middle well, and hate endings. And then there's my sort --- we who start well and end well (or at least enjoy doing our beginnings and endings, which I admit isn't always the same thing) but who do awful things to ourselves in the middle of every book because halfway through, we're certain that whatever magic we once had is gone and that every word that spills from our fingertips onto the keyboard has become total crap.

Here's a sampling:

HOW TO'S

• Quit Your Day Job
• Format a Manuscript
• Start a Novel
• Create a Character
• Finish A Novel
• Revise A Novel
• Collaborate
• Design a Career
• Steal Ideas
• Fantasy
• SF Worldbuilding
• Time & First Person

WORKSHOPS

• Creating Conflict
• Novel Pre-Writing
• Set Writing Goals
• Character Creation
• Dialogue
• Maps
• Scene Creation
• Timed Writing
• Worldbuilding
• Pacing Scenes
• Plot Outline
• Fast Plotting
• Visualization
• Characterization
• Using Strangeness
• Honing Your Talent
• Write Suckitudinously
• Evaluate Your Work
• Description
• One-Pass Revision
• Revising Vincalis

Alphabetical actions

Adverbs and adjectives can be useful but sometimes they're used to prop up weak nouns and verbs, like "ran quickly" and "walked slowly". Much better is dashed, bolted, darted, whipped ... and strolled, sauntered, wandered ...

For the following sentence, for each letter of the alphabet, write down a strong verb -- or several strong verbs -- that captures the essence of the night/moon/darkness leaving and the day/sun/light arriving. Dare to come up with bad writing :-) Bad is fun and loosens creativity. Some will change the flavor -- vanquished? -- but still get at the same idea. You can switch it around and make the darkness the subject (the active one) rather than the sun.

"The sun washed away the darkness."

Your own superhero

Create your own superhero at Superhero game at Scifi.com and then write about them: a typical adventure, an origin story, the final showdown ...

(Hint: I went through the whole process choosing items in black and white. It's lots easier to see the choices if you color them first! ;-)

"The person who says it can't be done ..."

Periodic Table of Science Fiction

And here it is. Michael Swanwick's Periodic Table of Science Fiction. 118 short short stories, each involving an element from the periodic chart. Very clever!

In Loco Parentis

Here’s another short short story from Michael Swanwick’s collection to write the ending for. I’ll put up a link to the collection on Saturday.

Iodine
In Loco Parentis

It was all done in the name of security, of course. My security, your security, national security … it hardly made any difference which. Smoking was banned from public places. Motorcyclists had to wear helmets. Drivers were required to wear seat belts. Airline passengers couldn't carry nail clippers. Pregnant women weren't allowed to drink. Hardware clerks had to submit to random drug testing.

Some of these laws made sense, of course. Others did not. But they all added momentum to the slow erosion of liberty, and then to the rapid erosion of liberty, and then to the redefinition of liberty as a threat to Our Way of Life. Everyone was required to carry ID cards with their gene-print and retina scan. Contact sports were banned. Distressing news was kept out of the media. Walls were built at every border. International travel was halted. Government finkware was installed in all new computers.

The day dawned when everyone's existence was finally safe. Free of danger, violence, sex, or human contact. Free of hate or envy or jealousy or lust or even love. Nothing new or unexpected ever happened. One day was much the same as another.

...

A Beryl as Big as the Ritz

One classic writing exercise is to read half of a short story and then write the ending you'd like to see happen. Then read the rest and see which ending you like better. (You can do this with TV shows too. Think about what you would have happen next if you were the writer.)

Here's something to try it out on that's in keeping with the 10-15 minute nature of the prompts here. Michael Swanwick has created a short short story for each element on the periodic chart, The Periodic Table of Science Fiction. This is about half the story. Where would you take it?

Beryllium
A Beryl as Big as the Ritz

On the Gem Planet, the rarest and most valued of all substances is dirt. Just the scrapings from beneath a hobo's nails would bring enough to support him for a year.

Across the desert plains of sheer diamond wealthy tourists come. They wear slitted goggles to protect themselves from the blinding reflections of the sun. There is a red glint ahead. That is their goal.

Hexagonal in cross-section, it is the largest outcrop of pure beryl on the planet. Artisans have carved rooms into it, with fluted columns and elaborate fireplaces, and there are banquet halls and ballrooms as well. At the break of day, when the sun shines through the Ruby Mountains and dawn lases across the plains, the guests are escorted to basement safe-rooms carved from darkest emerald. Even there, the walls glimmer elegantly.

But it is not beauty that brings visitors to the Ritz-Beryllium. Beauty, for them, is so common as to be invisible.

....

"Reading is to the mind"

101 Writing tips

101 Writing Tips

by Prof. D. J. Higham
Department of Mathematics
University of Strathclyde

(These are all original, but some are based on old jokes.)

1. Every sentence should make sense in isolation. Like that one.
   
2. Excessive hyperbole is literally the kiss of death.
   
3. ASBMAETP: Acronyms Should Be Memorable And Easy To Pronounce, and SATAN: Select Acronyms That Are Non-offensive.
   
4. Finish your point on an up-beat note, unless you can't think of one.
   
5. Don't patronise the reader-he or she might well be intelligent enough to spot it.
   
6. A writer needs three qualities: creativity, originality, clarity and a good short term memory.
   
7. Choose your words carefully and incitefully.
   
8. Avoid unnecessary examples; e.g. this one.
   
9. Don't use commas, to separate text unnecessarily.
   
10. It can be shown that you shouldn't miss out too many details.
    
11. Similes are about as much use as a chocolate teapot.
    
12. Avoid ugly abr'v'ns.
    
13. Spellcheckers are not perfect; they can kiss my errs.
    
14. Somebody once said that all quotes should be accurately attributed.
    
15. Americanisms suck.
    
16. Capitalising for emphasis is UGLY and DISTRACTING.
    
17. Underlining is also a big no-no.
    
18. Mixed metaphors can kill two birds without a paddle.
    
19. Before using a cliché, run it up the flagpole and see if anybody salutes.
    
20. There is one cheap gimmick that should be avoided at all costs..............suspense.
    
21. State your opinions forcefully-this is perhaps the key to successful writing.
    
22. Never reveal your sources (Alistair Watson, 1993).
    
23. Pile on lots of subtlety.
    
24. Sure signs of lazy writing are incomplete lists, etc.
    
25. Introduce meaningless jargon on a strict need-to-know basis.
    
26. The word ''gullible" possesses magic powers and hence it should be used with care.
    
27. The importance of comprehensive cross-referencing will be covered elsewhere.
    
28. Resist the temptation to roll up the trouser-legs of convention, cast off the shoes and socks of good taste, and dip your toes refreshingly into the cool, flowing waters of fanciful analogy.
    
29. Don't mess with Mr. Anthropomorphism.
    
30. Understatement is a mindblowingly effective weapon.
    
31. Injecting enthusiasm probably won't do any harm.
    
32. It is nice to be important, but it is more important to avoid using the word 'nice.'
    
33. Appropriate metaphors are worth their weight in gold.
    
34. Take care with pluri.
    
35. If you can't think of the exact word that you need, look it up in one of those dictionary-type things.
    
36. Colons: try to do without them.
    
37. Nouns should never be verbed.
    
38. Do you really think people are impressed by rhetorical questions?
    
39. Pick a font, and stick with it.
    
40. Sufficient clarity is necessary, but not necessarily sufficient.
    
41. Less is more. This means that a short, cryptic statement is often preferable to an accurate, but drawn out, explanation that lacks punch and loses the reader.
    
42. Sarcasm-yes, I bet that will go down really well.
    
43. The problem of ambiguity cannot be underestimated.
    
44. Never appear cynical, unless you're sure you can get away with it.
    
45. Many writer's punctuate incorrectly.
    
46. Colloquialisms are for barmpots.
    
47. There is a lot to be said for brevity.
    
48. To qualify is to weaken, in most cases.
    
49. Many readers assume that a word will not assume two meanings in the same sentence.
    
50. Be spontaneous at regular intervals.
    
51. The era of the euphemism is sadly no longer with us.
    
52. Want to be funny? Just add some exclamation marks!!!
    
53. Want to appear whimsical? Simply append a smiley ;-)
    
54. Some writers introduce a large number, N, of unnecessary symbols.
    
55. Restrict your hyphen-usage.
    
56. Choosing the correct phrase is important compared to most things.
    
57. Some early drafts of this document had had clumsy juxtapositions.
    
58. Try not to leave a word dangling on its own
    line.
    
59. The number of arbitrary constants per page should not exceed .13.
    
60. Use mathematical jargon iff it is absolutely necessary.
    
61. And avoid math symbols unless $ a good reason.
    
62. Poor writing effects the impact of your work.
    
63. And the dictionary on your shelf was not put there just for affect.
    
64. If there's a word on the tip of your tongue that you can't quite pin down, use a cinnamon.
    
65. If somebody were to give me a pound for every irrelevant statement I've ever read, then I would be very surprised.
    
66. Strangely enough, it is impossible to construct a sentence that illustrates the meaning of the word 'irony.'
    
67. Consult a writing manual to assure that your English is correct.
    
68. It has been suggested that some words are absolute, not relative. This is very true.
    
69. Be careful when forming words into a sentence-all orderings are not correct.
    
70. Many words can ostensibly be deleted.
    
71. In your quest for clarity, stop at nothing.
    
72. Complete mastery of the English language comes with conscientious study, notwithstanding around in bars. Moreover the next page. Inasmuch detail as possible.
    
73. Sporting analogies won't even get you to first base.
    
74. If you must quote, quote from one of the all-time greats (Cedric.P. Snodworthy, 1964).
    
75. In the absence of a dictionary, stick to words of one syllabus.
    
76. Steer clear of word-making-up-ism.
    
77. Readers will not stand for any intolerance.
    
78. If there's one thing you must avoid it's over-simplification.
    
79. Double entendres will get you in the end.
    
80. Vagueness is the root of miscommunication, in a sense.
    
81. Don't bother with those ''increase-your-word-power" books that cost an absorbent amount of money.
    
82. Self-contradiction is confusing, and yet strangely enlightening.
    
83. Surrealism without purpose is like fish.
    
84. Ignorance: good writers don't even know the meaning of the word.
    
85. The spoken word can look strange when written down, I'm afraid.
    
86. Stimpy the Squirrel says ''Don't treat the reader like a little child."
    
87. Intimidatory writing is for wimps.
    
88. Learn one new maths word every day, and you'll soon find your vocabulary growing exponentially.
    
89. My old high school English teacher put it perfectly when she said: ''Quoting is lazy. Express things in your own words."
    
90. She also said: ''Don't use that trick of paraphrasing...... [other people's words]...... inside a quote."
    
91. A lack of compassion in a writer is unforgivable.
    
92. On a scale of 0 to 10, internal consistency is very important.
    
93. Thankfully, by the year 2016 rash predictions will be a thing of the past.
    
94. There is no place for overemphasis, whatsoever.
    
95. Leave out the David Hockney rhyming slang.
    
96. Bad writers are hopefully ashamed of themselves.
    
97. Eschew the highfalutin.
    
98. Sometimes you publish a sentence and then, on reflection, feel that you shouldn't ought to have been and gone and written it quite that way.
    
99. Practice humility until you feel that you're really good at it.
    
100. If there's a particular word that you can never spell, use a pnemonic.
     
101. A strong ending is the last thing you need.
     
102. Make sure that your title is accurate.
     
103. Spelling dictionaries should be made compulsary.
     
104. Sometimes, a foreign phrase can add a little 'je ne sais rien.'
     
105. In terms of writing convoluted sentences, don't.
     
106. Let's face it, we all hate it when a writer appeals to the lowest common denominator.
     
107. Learn the basic spelling rules; don't just rely on fonetix.
     
108. Only take writing tips from world-renounced writers.
     
109. Writing for the non-native English speaking market is a different kettle of fish.
     
110. If you can't afford a book on grammar, at least find someone to lend one off.
     
111. Nothing is worse than ambiguity.
     
112. Oh, and avoid afterthoughts.

Cursed

Pick one of the following. Set the timer for 10-15 minutes and tell what happened after the curse. Did the curse come to pass exactly as pronounced? Was the universe twisting the caster's words? Did the character manage to change the curse?

• Hear this, O ye exceedingly foolish virgin, for you will be kicked by an incontinent camel!
  
• Behold, thou shalt be trampled by a herd of stampeding pigs, O thou wolf in sheep's clothing!
  
• Thou shalt be taunted by the king's concubines, O thou love-crazed Gittite!
  
• Harken, O thou relative of Herod, for you will beget difficult teenagers!
  
• Woe unto thee, O ye relative of Herod, for you will be cast onto a steaming dung-heap!
  
• Take heed, O thou who art a byword for idiocy, for you will be swallowed by a whale with excessively bad breath!

From Biblical Curse Generator

Executioner baby explodes 340 pound vampire

Create newspaper headlines using the words from the list. Try to use at least five of the words in each headline. (Feel free to add some words like "in", "on", "after", "and" ...)

If you want, print out the words, cut them up and draw from the pile until you come up with headlines you like. (You can reshuffle them after each headline.)

blind
accused
fights
dragon slayer
monastery
temple
charms
exiles
crumbling
crooked
baby
executioner
explodes
bizarre
blasphemous
340 pound
warrior
corrupt
sarcophogus
palace
proves
quests for
vampire
tomb
shames
rips off
destroys
fairy
curses
barbarian

"There is no try."

Getting off the starting line

This was posted by Arathe on the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) forums. I haven't planned out either of the stories I used for NaNoWriMo. The time pressure seems to force the ideas to come out. But without that time pressure, when you're staring at a blank screen, planning can be very helpful! -- Joyce

---

Getting off the starting line by Arathe

Well, I just sat down today to start working on my plot for this year's NaNo. I attribute my lack of success in earlier years to my lack of planning. Trying to throw something together two weeks before go-time just doesn't cut it for me. ;)

So, I plan on giving myself a lot of time to plan and tweak this year. Unfortunately, I have no ideas, no plot, no characters, nothing! All is not lost, however! I have a little trick for finding a good jumping-off point that I'd share with everyone else out there who are having a hard time finding that elusive plot this year.

1. Pick your genre.

A bit obvious, perhaps, but deciding on a genre will give you a bit of direction. I'll pick Fantasy.

If you can't pick a single genre, at least try to narrow the list down as much as possible and move on to step 2.

2. Make a list of concepts that you like.

- This should naturally try to stay within the bounds of the genre(s) you chose. Spaceships, for example, might not be a good choice when you've decided on Fantasy. Likewise, Evil Magician might not be the ideal choice for your contemporary murder mystery.

- The list can be as long as you like. The longer, the better. You'll find that the longer the list gets, the more unique and interesting your ideas become. Someone who's name I can't recall at the moment said once that the first five or ten ideas on a list are throwaways. It is in those that you'll find your most common ideas, your cliches. The farther down the list you go, the more you have to stretch your imagination, and the more original and interesting those ideas will be.

Which isn't to say you shouldn't use the ideas on the top of your list. The point of this exercise is to find something you're excited about, something you WANT to slave away at for a month. The important part is getting it done. Being innovative or original comes second to that.

Some examples for my Fantasy genre:

- Gods in mortal form.
- Corrupt religion
- Shapeshifters
- Demons
- Taboo magic
- Magic as science

This is only a sample of course, my list will be much longer when I finish it, as yours should be. I'd suggest a list of at least twenty concepts that appeal to you.

3. Circle the concepts that appeal to you most.

- Choose anywhere from 2-10 concepts on your list that jump out at you. The exact number can vary, depending on how many you really like and how long your list is.

4. Write a one sentence plot summary based around each of the circled concepts.

- I want to stress that a single-sentence summary should take you no more than five minutes each. You're brainstorming here. If you find yourself unable to come up with something within five minutes, move on to the next concept on your list and come back to it later.

- Feel free to merge two or more concepts into a single plot summary if it strikes your fancy. If you can't fit it all into one sentence, don't worry; you'll get the chance to expand on it in the next step.

- If you have more than one idea for a sentence summary for a single concept, go for it! Write as many as you feel like. This part of the process isn't limited to once concept, one sentence. Keep going for as long as you can. The more you have when you're finished, the more you'll have to choose from.

Example summary from my list above:

"A God, imprisoned in mortal form by his sister, seeks a way to free himself and exact his revenge."

Okay, I know that isn't going to win any awards, but it gives you an idea of what I'm talking about. Don't worry about quality here; you're simply trying to churn out as many of these as you can. You can always tweak later.

Another example using the same concept merged with another:

"In a world where science and magic are one, where mystery, mysticism and religion are disdained and ignored lives a boy, the living incarnation of a god old and forgotten, whose emergence into the world once again will send the lives of all who encounter him spinning out of control in ways no one could imagine."

Much better than the first one, even if I cheated a bit and made an awfully long sentence there. It's okay if you fudge the rules a bit, the important thing is the end result. See how I took two concepts, "Gods in mortal form" and "Magic as science" and slapped them together into one idea?

5. Pick any of your single-sentence summaries and turn it into a single-paragraph summary.

- Try to incorporate your sentence into the paragraph.

- This should read a bit like the blurb on the back of a novel might.

- You can do this with as many of your sentences as you like. I can almost guarantee there will be a few that won't work for you, so don't feel bad about scrapping them and focusing on the ones you DO like.

- But what if I don't like any of them? Tough cookies. I expect you to pick at least one and make it into a paragraph. You might surprise yourself. Or it might just suck, but honestly, I dare you to do this and come out without a plot bunny that's at least passable. It's amazing what we can dredge out of our own heads when we put our minds to it.

Example paragraph:

"In a world where magic and science are one, where mystery, mysticism and religion are disdained and ignored, lives a boy. He is the living incarnation of a god old and forgotten, though he has no knowledge of the powerful creature residing within him. As he ages, the god begins to emerge, taking him away from home and family, tearing him from everything he knows and loves. He struggles constantly with Other in his mind, as the god himself puts into the works a holy revolution the likes of which the world has never known, changing the lives of countless people, and possibly the world, forever. Caught in the tide of change being wrought by the creature with which he shares his mind and body, the boy fights to hold on to his mind, his sense of self, in a struggle that becomes increasingly difficult and the Other grows stronger.

Will he survive? Or will he find himself crushed beneath the weight of a will so much stronger than his own?"

I cheated again, since it is technically two paragraphs, but since the last bit was really for dramatic emphasis, its okay. Try to keep it to a single paragraph if you can, though.

Once you're finished, take a look through what you've done. I can almost guarantee you'll have at least one workable idea that you want to use. I actually like the idea in the above paragraph. I think I might even use it, hehe. Least if this doesn't help anyone, I may have gotten something from it. ^^

And you're done! Like I said, you should have at least one plot bunny that begs to be expanded upon. From here, you're on your own. Get started on worldbuilding, flesh out characters, at a few more bones to the plot skeleton, whatever you want! You have your starting point. ;)

If this helps anyone, please post here, I'd like to hear about it. ^^

Best of spam for July 2006

Some intriguing odd phrases that almost mean something, names, single words .... It makes me appreciate the people who write spam filters. They have to find patterns in these nonsense generators.

Well, the list used to be here. Now it isn't.

In less than 24 hours there were comments from 3 spammers. I assume the post Technorati picked up the post and that's the route that lead the spammers to the blog but which of the phrases attracted the spambots? And why would they be attracted to spam anyway?

So now they're at Spam-O-Rama.

The human whose name ...

Click the picture for a larger version in a new window.

• Who is she? (Assuming you don't know! Or can come up with an alternate version of who she might be.)
  
• What is her relation to the creature behind her?
  
• Who and what is the creature?
  
• What is its goal?

Take it from there.

Top 10 Tabloid Headlines for August 2006

From The City Newsstand's (a newsstand/bookstore in Chicago) monthly MAGBAG -- Top 10 Tabloid Headlines. (Mostly from Weekly World News (WWN) and the SUN.) 

1. SENSIBLE PUTTY! — WWN
   
2. BOOZE CAN MELT AWAY POUNDS — SUN
   
3. 'NOSE HOSE' WILL MAKE TISSUES OBSOLETE! — WWN 
   
4. EXPLORER LOCATES ORIGINAL 'COMFORT ZONE'! — WWN
   
5. DA VINCI WAS A TIME TRAVELER! — SUN
   
6. WAR IN HEAVEN According to the Archangel Michael, female angels led by the powerful Hillaria have revolted . . . — WWN
   
7. Demons influencing presidential policy! — WWN
   
8. BOY TURNS BELOVED AUNT INTO ROBOT! — WWN
   
9. Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water, along come . . . NAVY ANTS! — WWN
   
10. BILLIONAIRE WILLS HIS FORTUNE TO IMAGINARY FRIEND — WWN
    

Cooling off period

To chill down from Thursday's writing prompt, create cool breezy phrases or sentences for each letter of the alphabet.

"I have long since decided"

10 irritants and 10 delights

It's been a while since I posted a Writer's notebook idea ...

Carry a small notebook around with you this week and write down 10 things that irritate you and 10 things that delight you. They don't need to be big things. Stepping on a marble. Dew on a leaf. Stereo that was left at a high volume and blasts you when you turn it on. Oreos on sale.

At the end of the week, choose some and reset them in your favorite genre.

If you joined recently, I've collected past Writer's notebook ideas. (They're in newest to oldest order, so scroll down for an explanation of what a writer's notebook can be.)

(The white cat and lady with the sock make me smile each time I see them so those are the first on my list of delights for the week :-)

Inspired by #9 Mining Memory of What If?: Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter.

Heated exchange

Create hot and humid phrases or sentences for each letter of the alphabet.

Mothers are often mistaken for robots

Use one or several of the following and set the timer for 10-15 minutes as a writing prompt:

• Mothers are often mistaken for robots.
  
• Heavyweight boxers believe that surfers analyze cockroaches.
  
• Cattle mutilators work for the dairy products.
  
• Preachers scratch the faces of technicians.
  
• Hellspawn are all New Yorkers.
  
• Extraterrestials wish to please the janitors.
  
• Grandmothers deny that aristocrats evolved from walruses.
  
• Rattlesnakes taunt ballet dancers.
  
• Monks cleanse the swashbucklers.
  
• Ninjas want to rid the world of Neanderthal tribes.
  

These are sentences randomly generated at The Random Sentence Generator v.1.0. Each time you reload the page there are 10 new sentences.

"Writers are cannibals"

Ten Tips on Writing and Creativity

by Emily Hanlon

1. Don’t think. Creating a story or book has little to do with the intellect or language when we first begin. Our best ideas will emerge as a spark or image. Like dreams, they will make little sense. Followed, they will hold the key to the creative unconscious.
   
   
2. Creativity is cyclical. You cannot and will not be creative all the time. What is full must empty and what is empty will fill. Creativity has its own internal rhythms. Learn to listen to yours.
   
   
3. Nothing kills creativity faster than criticism. Don’t share your work-in-progress with people who are critical or those whose opinions leave you vulnerable, no matter how much you love them. Good critiquing should leave you inspired, not deflated.
   
   
4. Learn to distinquish the voice of your Inner Critic from the voice of your Inner Writer. The Inner Critic is not comfortable with the risks demanded by a creative endeavor. By becoming aware of the foul jabber of your inner critic, you can see how your own mind puts up roadblocks to your creativity.
   
   
5. Being a creator is risky business. Don’t underestimate the tremendous emotional and psychic risks the journey demands. Learn to push ahead even when you are afraid. Learn to love the risk.
   
   
6. Don’t be afraid to fail. Every successful creator has failed hundreds of times. Failure is an integral part of creativity. It doesn’t mean you’re wrong or stupid. It only means you’ve uncovered a path or technique that does not work.
   
   
7. Don’t be afraid to write garbage. Every successful writer writes mounds of garbage. Give your work time to percolate. Play the What If game. For example, if you’re writing fiction and a characters is sweet and loving and you’re stuck, have the character mean and hateful. In the world of the imagination, anything can happen.
   
   
8. Nurture your creativity. It is as fragile as a budding flower. Open to the dance. Listen to music that makes you feel like flying. Go for a walk. Laugh with a friend, child or lover. Creativity is about feeling.
   
   
9. Be passionate. Creativity is passionate. Passion is always creative.
   
   
10. Learn your craft. And write, write, write! The more you write, the better you will get. Discipline yourself. Successful writers are disciplined writers.

©Ten Tips on Creativity(sm), Emily Hanlon 1995-2006.

Ten Tips on Creativity(sm) may be be copied and used on other websites only after advising Emily Hanlon. Credit must be given to Emily Hanlon with a link back to her website: thefictionwritersjourney.com

And they lived happily ever after

Write a story backwards. Begin with the conclusion and work back to how it all began.

From an exercise at Writing Exercises

Randomly described

Write about or define the first word using the 6 words that follow it:

• crusty -- eyeball, attitude, ooze, stuffy, luxury, crunched
  
• private -- skunk, jagged, beast, dragon, market, slippery
  
• overhead -- scared, mirror, modified, mask, billion, crockery
  
• thief -- brave, shapeshifter, dark, underneath, fatal, crumbling
  
• fearful -- guilt, crawled, curly, hidden, shallow, bounce

"Behold the turtle."

Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy

Jeffrey A. Carver has created Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy. an entire writing course on line for free :-)

He says the course "teaches the fundamentals of storytelling, and includes such topics as getting from idea to story, world building, creating human and alien characters, plot and conflict, style, finishing, rewriting, submitting to publishers, and more."

You can see a list of the topics at Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy Course Outline and a list of the books he's written at Science Fiction Worlds of Jeffrey A. Carver

Looks cool!

Name that month

Create new month names. You'll probably have time to create several sets!

===== More =====

Our month names are curiosities, a mixture of gods, emperors and numbers, without much modern meaning. The Japanese only use numbers. In the past, the names were often tied to the seasons (planting, harvesting, strawberry picking, when the ponies shed their shaggy hair) or events for that time of the year.

Here's a translation of the month names from Charlemagne's time:

Winter
Spring
Lent
Easter
Grazing
Plowing
Hay
Harvest
Wood
Vintage
Autumn/Harvest
Holy

Many ancient people had 13 month years, coinciding with the 13 new moons in a year like the Abenaki:

Greetings Maker Moon
Makes Branches Fall In Pieces Moon
Moose Hunter Moon
Spring Season Maker Moon
Sugar Maker Moon
Field Maker Moon
Hoer Moon
Grass Cutter Moon
Cutter Moon
Corn Maker Moon
Leaf Falling Moon
Freezing River maker Moon
Winter Maker Moon

Here's a curious collection from the Aztecs, with 19 months.

Resurrection
Departure of the waters
Slaughtering of dogs
Little Vigil
Grand Vigil
Dry Thing
Meal of Corn and Bean
Little Feast of Lords
Grand Feast of Lords
Little Feast of The Dead
Grand Feast of The Dead
Sweeping
Small Hay
Large Hay
Flamingo
Raising of the Banners
Lowering of water
Shrinking
Empty Days

Tripping over hedgehogs

Try to get as many of these as you can into a story.

Tripping over hedgehogs
Rise up with fists
Chalice of malice
Fingernails on a chalkboard
Fragments of beings
Shaking off the dust
Afloat in the moonlight
Inspiration through random foolishness
The waltz of life
Unwritten pages

"Sit down and put down"

Consult the Sage

The Sage is a collection of random questions and answers intended to spark your imagination as your mind naturally tries to find the connections between the two ideas. Here's a sample. There are 99 questions and 99 answers so 9801 possible combinations. Here's a sample:

• What boundary separates love and hate?
  
• Is it apathy or aggression that harms our cause?
  
• If worry is erased, what is left to consider?
  
• Must desire always sweep aside good intent?
  
• Is the nature of clarity momentary?
  
• Is justice ever possible if no two events are identical?

• The spotted jackal, oblivious and blind, cackles and eats, then courting misfortune snaps at the moon.
  
• Do not lay blame. Those hearts, brief as shadows on a muslin shroud, are ineffably connected.
  
• What lies between the world and oneself is only a garment, button-holing its mouth around the rod of fortitude?
  
• A glance about will reveal the expediency of molding a vague and shapeless wax, but will it reflect the rightness that lodges in our being?
  
• Listen to the winds and the rainfall, feeling how fragile the bones are under the skin.
  
• The majority of views are improved by height, but not perspective -- whose law begins in the mind.

There's a "history" at Sage History that's an exercise in creativity :-)

---

This was done by the author of Griffin and Sabine. It's hard to do justice to it, but it's basically a story than unfolds through a series of letters between two people who are opposites. The actual letters and postcards are included just as in some children's pop-ups.

It's in the blood

If you've read much manga, you'll have noticed in the little biographies of manga-ka (manga creators) and characters references to astrological sign .... and blood type. In Japan blood type is believed to influence personality.

Create a character for each of the 4 blood types, toss the characters together and see where they take you.

The descriptions are from an article on Japanese Culture by Melanie Shintaku at BellaOnline

Type O
Type O's are outgoing, and very social. They are initiators, although they don't always finish what they start. Creative and popular, they love to be the center of attention and appear very self confident.

Type A
While outwardly calm, they have such high standards (perfectionists) that they tend to be balls of nerves on the inside. Type A's are the most artistic of the blood groups. They can be shy, are conscientious, trustworthy, and sensitive.

Type B
Goal oriented and strong minded, type B's will start a task and continue it until completed, and completed well. Type B's are the individualists of the blood group categories and find their own way in life.

Type AB
Type AB's are the split personalities of the blood groups. They can be both outgoing and shy, confident and timid. While responsible, too much responsibility will cause a problem. They are trustworthy and like to help others.

Accessorize

Your character has some or all of the following at his or her disposal. What are they? (They can each be different: weapons, people, spells, ships, planets ...) Tell about them. (You probably won't get to them all. Start with the one's that spark something in you and keep going until the timer runs out.)

Waterfall Fantasy
Dark Fire
Time Trap
Crossfire
Zenith Heavy Hitters
Remembrance
Whistling Tri-rotating Wheel
Trick of Trade
Daylight Shell
Loyal to None
Extreme Machine
Whole Nine Yards
Catherine Wheel
Celebration Cracker
Cut Star
Happy Lamp
High Power Pyro
Happiness Fountain
Shimmering Dream
500 Gram Bug Zapper
Silver Fox Bottle
Goliath Extreme
10 Ball Boom-Boom Thunder
Crazy Aces
Turbo Phantom
Morning Glories
Mercurial Bee
Ground Pounder

"Nothing positive will come from being negative"

Top 10 Tabloid Headlines for July 2006

From The City Newsstand's (a newsstand/bookstore in Chicago) monthly MAGBAG -- Top 10 Tabloid Headlines. (Mostly from Weekly World News (WWN) and the SUN.) 

1. WHAT CAR WOULD JESUS DRIVE? — SUN
   
2. The sixth sense is NOT 'intuition' — it's a unique combination of smell & touch: SMUCH! — WWN
   
3. WORLD'S TINIEST EARTHQUAKE DESTROYS JUST ONE HOUSE! — WWN
   
4. MAN RUSHED TO EMERGENCY ROOM AFTER MONEY BURNS HOLE IN HIS POCKET! — WWN
   
5. Was Dubya's granddad a grave robber? BUSH FAMILY STOLE GERONIMO'S SKULL! - says researcher — SUN
   
6. STAREOIDS! Growth hormones cause bodybuilder's eyes to pop out of his head! — WWN
   
7. JUDGE FIRES BAILIFF FOR USING 'MOBY DICK' INSTEAD OF BIBLE TO SWEAR WITNESSES IN! — WWN
   
8. Shocking royal claim . . . CAMILLA IS A MAN! — SUN
   
9. BEACH PARTY TERROR! DEADLY MANFISH EMERGES FROM THE OCEAN TO ATTACK PARTYGOERS! — WWN
   
10. HOUSEWIFE EXPERIENCES HALF-RAPTURE . . . & gets stuck in the dining room ceiling! — WWN

Living ghost

This is from the NaNoWriMo Adopt-a-plot folder where writers post extra plots they won't be using.

#34: "There's this girl who's been able to see ghosts since childhood. Years later, her best friend gets himself over his head experimenting with magick and manages to lose his body temporarily. Antics ensue when he a) tries to convince her that it's really him and b) when they go to attempt to get his body back." -- Lunae

Use it as a 10-15 minute writing prompt or go for a longer piece.

Looming

Click for a larger image.

What is this?
What's going to happen?
Where is it?
Why are you here?

Go from there.

Superstitions

Assume there is real magic behind superstitions. Pick a superstition and tell why it works. Here's a selection if you need one. (There were too many to choose from! ;-)

• Meeting a dog - good luck (especially Dalmatians)
  
• Naming a bear - provokes attack
  
• To hide in a bull's pen - immunity from lightning
  
• A cat washing on the doorstep - the clergy will visit
  
• Good Luck: Sneezing 3 times before breakfast
  
• Good Luck: Looking at the new moon over your right shoulder
  
• Good Luck: Putting a dress on inside out
  
• Good Luck: Golfers can have a successful day on the course if they start their round with odd numbered clubs and don't use balls with numbers higher than 4
  
• See a penny, pick it up; all day long you will have good luck.
  
• Bad Luck: If pepper is spilt, then you will have a serious argument with a friend.
  
• Bad Luck: Sparrows are said to carry the souls of the deceased to the after-life. To kill one means that you will be cursed.
  
• Bad Luck: Never mend a garment while you are wearing it, or misfortune will follow.
  
• Bad Luck: New shoes should never be left on a table

Superstitions are from Old Superstitions

"Writing is one of the few professions ..."

Patricia Wrede's Worldbuilder questions

Here's a link to Patricia Wrede's Worldbuilder questions to ask when creating a fantasy world.

It looks like an awesome set of questions to ask yourself as you're creating a world, some you'd never think to think about. The questions are categorized. (I've listed the categories below.) Here's a sampling, one question from each category:

• Do non-human races have their own games and leisure pastimes? How do they differ from human games? How do they reflect the physiology and/or particular magical talents of the non-human races?
  
• How are living quarters arranged? Are bedrooms on the top floors for privacy or on the ground floor for convenience? Are parlors or libraries common? How are houses heated/cooled?
  
• How is the day divided into smaller time units? What are they (Hour of the Lark, Sunrise Bell, Nones, etc.)? Are the names relevant to anything? Is the length of an hour fixed, or does it vary depending on changes in the length of the day as the seasons change?
  
• Is forensic magic possible? Commonly used? Admissible in court? Used only for certain types of crimes (and if so, what)? Is it something any wizard can do, or do you have to specialize?
  
• What things are considered luxuries--chocolate, coffee, cotton, flush toilets, spices?
  
• What foods do non-humans like, and how do these differ from those favored by humans? Are some foods poisonous or distasteful to one species that are delicacies or necessary to another?
  
• How many changes of clothes can a normal person afford? A noble person? A peasant?
  
• What eating utensils are used, if any? Forks, eating knife, spoons, chopsticks, what?
  
• What is the literacy level in the general population? Is literacy considered a useful/necessary skill for nobility, or something only scribes/clerks/wimps need?
  
• How much do official attitudes toward other countries affect commerce and trade? Do merchants pretty much ignore tensions between governments as long as they can make a profit, or will this get them into trouble?
  
• What gestures are insulting? What do they mean? Do some gestures differ in meaning depending on the culture or time (example: the American "V" for victory sign, which became the peace sign, is/was highly insulting in Europe)?
  
• How has the presence of magic and magicians affected law and government? Are wizards barred from certain kinds of government jobs or offices? Do some positions require that their holder be a wizard?
  
• How are two people who have not met before introduced to each other? What is the order of precedence when there are several people of differing sex, social status, or race/species present who must all be introduced to each other?
  
• What areas do local slang phrases come out of? (Example: In a fishing town, referring to good luck as "a good catch"; in a farming town, as "a good harvest", etc.) What kinds of colorful turns of phrase do people use?
  
• What level is medicine at? Who are the healers? Do you have to have a talent to heal? Who trains healers, herbalists, apothecaries, surgeons, magical vs. nonmagical healers, etc?
  
• How has the presence of magic affected weapons technology? Do you have to do anything special to armor, weapons, walls, to make them better able to resist spells?
  
• How important are "good manners" in this society? How do "good manners" differ from race to race? How to people/dwarves/elves/dragons react when someone has just been, by their standards, rude?
  
• What customs surround death and burial? Is there a special class of people (doctors, priests, funeral directors, untouchables) who deal with dead bodies?
  
• Are there certain classes of people (wizards, foreigners, children, peasants, women) who have fewer legal rights or less recourse than full citizens? Why? Are they considered mentally or morally deficient, a danger to the state, or is there some other rational?
  
• If there are non-human inhabitants, are there any areas they particularly claim as their own (e.g., dwarves in caves under mountains)?
  
• If there are imaginary animals (dragons, unicorns, etc.) how do they fit into the ecology? What do they eat? How much and what kind of habitat do they require? Are they intelligent and/or capable of working spells, talking, etc.? How common are they? Are any endangered species?
  
• What water resources are available, and for what uses? (Example: a mill wheel requires flowing water, i.e., a river or stream; irrigation needs a large, dependable water source like a lake or large river, etc.)
  
• How far back are there records or tales of historical events? How widely known are these stories?
  
• How diverse is the population of this country--how many different races (human or non-human), creeds, etc. normally live in various cities and towns in this country? In what percentages?
  
• Is there tension, rivalry, or outright hostility between any of the actual gods? How does this affect church politics? Court politics? People's everyday lives?
  
• Is there much immigration into or out of various countries? Why? To or from what other areas?
  
• How do the various temples and philosophies explain the classic "problem of evil"? Do they think bad things are always a just punishment for some transgression, a character-building exercise, the result of an evil antagonist (Satan, Loki), or just something the gods can't prevent?
  
• Where does magic power come from: the gods, "mana" (cf. Larry Niven's Warlock stories), the personal will-power of the magician, etc.? Is it an exhaustible resource?
  
• How are farming/food-producing areas divided up between humans/nonhumans? What kinds of conflicts are likely (example: expanding human farms encroaching on the forests werewolves or dragons use for hunting)?
  
• In what areas might magic replace technology, and thus suppress its development (example: if a spell to keep food cold is easy and cheap, there's no need to invent refrigerators)? In what areas might magic cause more rapid technological or scientific development (common use of crystal balls might lead someone to think of inventing the lens/telescope sooner)?
  
• Does it require a license to be a wizard? A driver's type license (something nearly everyone gets upon coming of age) or a doctor's-type license (something that only a small portion of the population will ever get)? Who certifies wizards: the government, wizard's guild, local priests, independent accounting firm?
  
• How do people find out what is happening in the world -- rumor, town crier, newspapers, TV and radio? How slanted is the news they get this way, and in what direction? Is there freedom of the press? If not, who controls/censors it and through what means?
  
• Does city layout reflect some philosophy (religious or architectural or political), such as that the "head" of the city must be at the center, the highest point, or the most strategic location? Or were layout considerations mainly practical? Or did most cities "just grow"?
  
• What is considered a courteous response to a host's offer? Are there things it is considered rude to accept? Rude to turn down? Rude to ask for? Rude not to ask for?
  
• What are the accepted conventions for making war (example: only fight in winter when nobody is busy with crops; don't make war on civilians; only certain kinds of weapons are used; etc)? Do they differ from race to race?
  
• Does a magician's magical ability or power change over time --e.g., growing stronger or weaker during puberty, or with increasing age? Can a magician "use up" all of his/her magic, thus ceasing to be a magician? What do such magicians do then--retire to teach, commit suicide, get a normal day job, go into consulting?

The categories:

• Arts and Entertainment
  
• Architecture
  
• Calendar
  
• Crime and the Legal System
  
• Daily Life
  
• Diet
  
• Fashion and Dress
  
• Eating customs
  
• Education
  
• Foreign Relations
  
• Gestures
  
• Government
  
• Greeting and Meeting.
  
• Language
  
• Magic and Magicians
  
• Magic and Technology
  
• Manners
  
• Medicine
  
• People and Customs -- Ethics and Values
  
• Physical and Historical Features
  
• Climate and Geography
  
• Natural Resources
  
• General History
  
• History of a Specific Country
  
• Politics
  
• Population
  
• Religion and Philosophy
  
• Rules of Magic
  
• Rural Factors
  
• Science and Technology
  
• Social Organization
  
• Transportation and Communication
  
• Urban Factors
  
• Visits
  
• War
  
• Wizards

Solemnly stuffed

Use the following words as a writing prompt ... in the order given! A bit more of a challenge but easier to keep track of which words you've used. ;-) (Expect to not get through all of them.)

stuffed
glass blower
temporary
solemnly
myriad
galumph
peer
slinging
transforming
skillet
firemaker
buzz bomb
exuberance
virtue
seashell
indolent
dispel
grace
irascible
cunning
travel
demolish
devil
begin
stolid

"From my point of view ..."

Describe an event from 3 different points of view. You can use one of the following ideas if you wish. Feel free to play around with them.

• Mecha pilot on his or her first long-anticipated mission, person oppressed by those who command the mechas, mechanic who has to fix the mechas after young reckless pilots bring them back.
  
  
• Weary dragon rider putting on a performance, a child watching for the first time, dragon wishing it could be free, spouse of the dragon rider who fears flying.
  
  
• Star ship captain on his or her first mission landing on a planet that hasn't be visited by outsiders before, an inhabitant of the planet, the red shirt who is going to get killed.
  
  
• Newly made vampire who was turned unwillingly, her victim who has just been dumped by his girlfriend, vampire hunter who lives on the blood of vampires but is on a quest to eliminate them all.
  
  
• Person facing a dilemma, shoulder angel, shoulder devil.

Inspired by #21 of What If?: Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter.

"The time to begin working toward your dream"

Mysterious places

If you need some inspiration on creating mysterious places, Mysterious Britain has a nice collection.

The main collection is at Featured Sites. There are photos, history, legends, enigmas for the sites listed. Some have a "Photo Gallery" link next to the name for more pictures.

If you go to the Home page there are links to more though shorter articles about other sites.

Here's a bit from "The Aldworth Giants".

The tiny atmospheric parish church at Aldworth, contains numerous huge effigies of the De La Beche family. The figures are supposed to be life size representations, depicting knights all over seven feet tall.

According to tradition the giants were known by other names: John Long, John Strong, John Never Afraid and John Ever Afraid. The effigy said to represent John Ever afraid no longer exists, but was set in an alcove in the outside wall of the church, which has now been blocked. It is said that he sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for worldly riches. The bargain was that the Devil would claim his soul whether he was buried inside or outside the church. Burying his body within the church walls meant that the Devil was cheated of his prize.

Surreal shopping list

Write a surreal "shopping list."

Have on your list one of the first thing, two of he second thing, three of the third ... If you want, have a theme running through it.

Let your imagination flow and list however many things 10-15 minutes will let you.

Here's an example if you need a jump start. The prompt and example were created by cuddledumplin at [a now defunct site].

• One guard dog too old and tired to bark.
  
• Two idealistic dancing robots who are short on skill but long on daring.
  
• Three cups of sweet soup made from pansies, honey, cinnamon, and cream.
  
• Four American tourists with faces more ironic than Wallace Stevens eating a vanilla cone at Versailles.
  
• Five nightsticks of carved jade in the shape of slender elephants with diamond eyes and golden trunks that are used to squish ants.