More than a penny's worth

As you do everyday on your way to work you pass the Fountain of Fate and toss in your usual copper coin for good luck.

The coin plonks into the gently splashing water as usual. Followed by an extraordinary whoosh and this appears.

Everyone else is passing by as if nothing unusual were happening.

Well, crap, looks like you've been chosen! For ... something. But ... but you've got an overdue project. And a meeting with a potential patron whose work you need badly. And ... and a cat who pisses on your pillow if you don't feed him promptly at 6PM.

You move on but apparently she doesn't need the fountain for her watery spectacle.

Take it from there. (As usual, feel free to place this in any setting you wish.)

(Ah, sorry about the automatic postings while I was on vacation. Looks like I set the dates properly but not the times so they arrived by mail in chunks occasionally. And I'll see if I can fill in those missing Wednesdays over the next couple of days. :-)

Don't you think this outlaw bit's done got outta hand?

Don't you think this outlaw bit's done got outta hand?

What's a warm up?

"As with all other .."

Put your cat clothes on

Put your cat clothes on

What's a warm up?

11th Commandment

11th Commandment

What's a warm up?

"There is no idea ..."

Feist and Watt-Evans

Dog inside your body

Dog inside your body

What's a warm up?

Death on two legs

Death on two legs

What's a warm up?

"A moment comes ..."

7 days to the wolves

7 days to the wolves

What's a warm up?

Smacked by god

Photo by Nessa

Use each of the following words and phrases in a piece in any order that strikes you. (You can cut them up and draw from a pile.) "Smacked by god" can be used too if you wish. (What kind of smack? Upper case God or lower case god?)

My inclination is to cram all the words in at the beginning. Which can make for a surreal story! ;-) Someone suggested working with one or two at a time and building slowly. It's hard to contain the eagerness to get through the list but can result in better story flow!

Awake
Greed
Bad Magick
Sick of life
Goin' down
Mistakes
Trippin'
Forgive me
Vampires
The journey
Spiral

---

Titles from Awake by Godsmack.

Who killed Mr. Moonlight?

Who killed Mr. Moonlight?

What's a warm up?

"A writer doesn't ..."

Frontier psychiatrist

Frontier psychiatrist

What's a warm up?

Twitfic

Catherine McEver has more
"never worn" baby shoes at her blog.

You have 140 characters (Twitter's limit) to write a complete story. That includes a character or characters, a problem and a satisfying stopping point. You may find it useful to do a lot of implying, using objects or stereotypes that encapsulate a lot of meaning in a word of two!

Ernest Hemingway (supposedly) wrote the quintessential micro-fiction with: "For sale, Baby shoes, Never worn." And that's only 33 characters!

I suspect key to the dramatic impact of those six words are two things: "baby shoes" supplies not just characters (father, mother and baby) with strong, easily grasped relationships but also an impending event; and "for sale" suggests that's the end of the story.

N.E. Lily likens the structure of Twitter fiction to jokes where there's the "set up" and the "climax". And many of them do read that way. Many others read like setups to a story rather than a complete story. And some actually do feel like a full story (in pill form perhaps ;-)

If you'd like to browse some to get a feel for what people have done with the form so far, there are links below.

---

Arjun Basu (arjunbasu), William Brazill (InstantFiction), Geoff Meeker (AStoryIn140) are all currently tweeting stories.

Thaumatrope has a collection of science fiction, fantasy and horror Stories and Serials. (Click on Read More after any of the serials to see all the tweets.) They stopped compiling Sept 3, 2010 but there's almost 2 years worth to page back through.

Nanoism and Picfic are both still collection conventional Twitter fiction.

Crazy cats/March of the pigs/Dogs of war

Crazy cats
March of the pigs
Dogs of war

What's a warm up?

"Writing teaches ..."

The king will return

The king will return

What's a warm up?

Y?

Photo from Wikipedia

Here are some common English words that contain no other vowel except y. Use them all in a writing piece.

• cry
• crypt
• fly
• gypsy
• hymn (song praising someone or something, most familiarly the Christian God but can be any deity)
• lymph (can also mean pure water in addition to the clear liquid in blood)
• lynch
• lynx
• myrrh
• myth
• nymph
• pry
• pygmy
• rhythm
• scry (predict the future with a crystal ball)
• shy
• sly
• spy
• sphynx (hairless cat breed)
• spry
• sync
• tryst
• wyrm (a dragon without legs)

and if you can fit it, just because it's a cool word ;-)

• syzygy

And some short but less inspiring words you may want to sprinkle in:

• by
• my
• dry
• fry
• gym
• ply
• sky
• sty
• try
• why
• wry

---

There are more words at List of words in English without vowels but most are pretty odd, obscure or specialized (like srsly in text-speak). The page is part of a larger collection of English words with uncommon properties, like words with alternating consonants and vowels (honorificabilitudinitatibus for instance), q not followed by u (which gets its own whole page!), kangaroo words (words that contain the letters in the right order of a similar word like masculine/male, observe/see), pyramid words (where one letter appears once, another letter twice, another three times, like banana and sleeveless).

Seven Doors Hotel

Seven Doors Hotel

What's a warm up?

"One nice thing ..."

Background by ValerianaSTOCK

Clown in the mirror

Clown in the mirror

What's a warm up?

Dear John

Dear John,


I know it's been 127 years since we last saw each other ...


Take it from there!

Why has it been 127 years? Was it supposed to be 100? Was it supposed to be 5?

Did their previous encounter(s) cause the long lives or is that normal for their species?

Was the last time they met right before a classic "Dear John" letter?

Does "John" need to be a man? Human? The same species? On the same time line? What if the writer or John is a self-aware machine?

Hmm, John is Sherlock Holmes's companion's name ....

Fermenting enchantress

Fermenting enchantress

What's a warm up?

"It's better to write ..."

Men, Martians and machines

Men, Martians and machines

What's a warm up?

Classy characters

As with most images, they lead somewhere when clicked!

Anyone who's familiar with role playing games knows about the class system of thieves, warriors, priests, sorcerers and various others and combinations that you choose from for your characters. The following are humorous classes generated at Seventh Sanctum. Generate your own Humorous Fantasy Class or pick one or a few of the following and let them inspire you. You could write a typical scene for such a character, or a run in with the character currently working with in a story, a series of gag comics, epic poetry ...

Mercenary/Traveling salesperson
Enchanter/Manicurist
Alchemist/Cook
Plumber/Shaman
Inquisitor/Maid
Stripper/Swordsman
Nanny/Ninja
Priest/Streetsweeper
Pirate/Decorator
Launderer/Sorcerer
Assassin/Tailor
Comedian/Prophet
Druid/Groundskeeper
Warlock/Knitter
Matchmaker/Mystik
Thief/Conceierge

If you'd like to add in some generated personality quirks, try the Detailed Character Generator at Serendipity. (You can just ignore the profession.) Where you'll get stuff like:

This calculating, impulsive spinner has golden skin, brown eyes, and red hair. She is delicate, with a heart-shaped face. She is married, with a single son.

This irresponsible, melodramatic fisherman has brown skin, green eyes, and dark brown hair. She is muscular, with a long, mournful face. She is unmarried.

This man is slender, with pale skin and a square-jawed face. He has long, silky, black hair and amber eyes. He is a physician who is cynical by nature, though polite.

This man works as a dyer, although his real interest is romance. He has hazel eyes, and his hair is shoulder-length, straight, silky and brown. He is delicate, with a small-featured, delicate face. He is stubborn and clever.

This platinum blond-haired, green-eyed man is a historian with a fragile build and round, bland face. He is contrary, and is interested in travel and children.

This serious, wary thatcher has nearly black skin, green eyes, and black hair. He is big-boned, with a round, cheerful face. He is newly married.

Last of the independents

Last of the independents

What's a warm up?

"I can’t help but to write ..."

What's next to the moon

What's next to the moon

What's a warm up?

The secrets of witchy women

Viewers watching NTV's Witchy Women were likely on the edge of their seats when the host delivered the following spiel: "Please welcome a young enchantress who's going to divulge a heck of a secret, even though it could cost her dearly in terms of employment."

So what secret did the enchantress reveal?

---

The above is a paragraph from an article at Daily Yomiuri Online where a more mundy world secret was revealed. (It's also in the comments in case it disappears.) I loved the fact the show is called Witchy Women and the announcer called her an enchantress :-) Though perhaps both are Japanese terms and the translator is responsible for the inspiration!

Blasphemous rumors

Blasphemous rumors

What's a warm up?

"Those who write ..."

Fly on the windscreen

Fly on the windscreen

What's a warm up?

A day in the life of a monster

Describe an ordinary day in the life of a monster. It might be ordinary activities -- like brushing teeth, eating breakfast, taking a bath-- done in monsterly fashion or ordinary activities for a monster -- like collecting a daily quota of 5 brains, creating new crop circle designs.

Victim of changes

Victim of changes

What's a warm up?

"The art of writing ..."

Three imaginary boys

Three imaginary boys

What's a warm up?

All parents must die!

"This cannot end well for them." Photo ©Rich Thomas

Whoa, bit over the top there with the title!

It's a common complaint about Disney movies that they're fond of killing off parents. The problem is that parents have an annoying habit of stopping their kids from risking life and limb so it's hard for kids to save the world when the parents want to lock them up safe and sound. ;-) So the parents tend to be red shirts.

A commenter on The Not So Grand List of Overused Fantasy Cliches mentioned making parents inept is another cliche way of preventing parents from interfering.

It's cool when parents treat their kids' ideas as worthy with enough sense not to want to kill themselves even while taking risks ;-) The Addams Family parents were awesome at supporting their kids. :-) I can also remember Encyclopedia Brown's mother treating his desire to solve mysteries with respect, though he wasn't exactly risking his life. ;-) But I'm pretty sure Danny Dunn had some grand dangerous adventures and his mother was cool about it.

Kids want to read about kids taking charge and tackling their problems.

So what ways can you think of for parents to not interfere? Come up with a list. :-) Come up with your own ideas and collect the ideas of how other authors have tackled the problems.

I'd love to see your collections :-) If you'd like, you can post them in the comments.

Accidentally like a martyr

Accidentally like a martyr

What's a warm up?

"Imagination is more important ..."

Rebellion in dreamland

Rebellion in dreamland

What's a warm up?

Oh, noes!

I had to get one of those job things! One that pays you to spend your time doing stuff other than what you want. (Though if they teach me how to decorate cakes, that won't be so bad!)

I love creating the prompts so to continue, I'll slow down to one regular prompt a week. It won't be forever! But it will be for a while :-(

Prepare for takeoff

Byrony felt someone watching her as soon as she stepped aboard the afternoon shuttle for Mars. Glancing surreptitiously, she saw no one she knew and no one watching her. Which was good since she wasn't supposed to be here and must be the source of the feeling. Hefting her backpack higher onto her shoulder she continued down the aisle, the feeling accompanying her.


Keep it under 1000 words and include the following words. It can be helpful to spread them out rather than trying to cram them all in at the beginning! :-)

marmalade

chessboard

mandatory

blister

furor

mythology

Journey of the angels

Journey of the angels

What's a warm up?

"A writer should write ..."

Minstrel in the gallery

Minstrel in the gallery

What's a warm up?

Lay out the clues

Click here THEN the magnifying glass THEN the zoomer
for a GINORMOUS picture of this magnificent clutter.

Show. Don't tell.

You've heard that before! And it's advised because people love mysteries. They like assembling the clues to draw conclusions for themselves.

So pick one of the following and drop the clues. Allow the reader to experience one of these without ever telling them what they're experiencing. Let them draw their own conclusions.

The shuttle craft was old.
The weeboo missed his dead mate.
The zombie was fresh.
The kitlish was hungry.
The room was cold.
The empath enraged Cordan.
The basement was cluttered.
The priest made Melandra nervous.
The ordogron was hungry.
Honora loathed Eldreth.

---

Here's some excellent discussions about showing not telling I stumbled across while collecting prompts:

Wordplay: Never Name an Emotion "As readers, we don’t care what the characters are experiencing so much as we care what we experience through the characters."

Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors: Most Common Mistakes Series: Are Your Verbs Showing or Telling? "Every time you write that a character saw/smelled/heard/felt something, see if you can reword the sentence to show the reader just what it is the character is seeing/smelling/hearing/feeling."

Kidlit.com · What “Show, Don’t Tell” Really Means "One kind of knowing, you get by reading facts in the newspaper. You are a passive recipient of information. Another kind of knowing, the kind you practice every day in your life, is the detective work kind. You have to do some reasoning, some sleuthing, you have to actively pay attention to what’s going on around you — what the world is showing you — in order to figure people out, judge a situation, make your own assumptions and decisions about things."

Show, Don't (Just) Tell (Dennis G. Jerz, Seton Hill University) "Don’t just tell me your brother is talented… show me what he can do, and let me decide whether I’m impressed."

Temple of the absurd

Temple of the absurd

What's a warm up?

"A writer lives at best ..."

Strangeways Pigg

Continuing with the name theme 3 or more (or all of them!) are part of a group. Any group. A subversive knitting club. An "I hate my parents" club. A rebel fairy family. A wizarding detective agency. Throw them together and see where their names inspire you to take them.

Primrose Goo
Preserved Fish
Silence Bellows
Strangeways Pigg
Orange Marmalade Lemon
Cashmere Tango Obedience
Fairy Clutter
Fountain Wetmore Rainwater

---

These came from Odd names (as did a few from Tuesday). Feel free to browse for more.

The ballad of naked man

The ballad of naked man

What's a warm up?

That's Mr. Fangboner to you!

Here are some odd English surnames gathered from various places. Come up with first names for each. They can be goofy or attempts by parents to overcome the eccentricities of the surname. They can be Harry Potterish. (JK Rowling was fortunate to be immersed in a land of colorful names!) Whatever inspires you. :-)

Fangboner
Teabaggy
Feeblebunny
Barebones
Beaglehole
Babblejack
Hamburger
Drinkwater
Ducklebottom
Mankiller
Stubblefield
Deadman
Smallbeer
Earwhisper
Weatherhog
Ticklepenny
Wolfpits
Titcomb

---

If these few sparked a need for more, here's a collection of English surnames divided up by category like body parts, food, animals. The first half is the categories. The second half is all the names listed alphabetically: Of certain English surnames and their occasional odd phases when seen in groups by C. F. Lordan

Independent worm saloon

Independent worm saloon

What's a warm up?

"The writing itself ..."

Something for nothing

Something for nothing

What's a warm up?

Fable time!

Fables are moral tales staring anthropomorphized animals -- animals with human characteristics.

Go to Animal Character Generator and generate two random animals. (If the link disappears, I generated a bunch and put them in the Comments.)

For a creativity challenge, take the first two. :-) Or generate a few until you find a couple you like. Though don't think in terms of fables! Let the animals reveal their story to you :-)

Think about how the descriptor and animal combination emphasize certain aspects in each other. Like a "sheep angel" brings out gentleness, patience, whiteness. Perhaps flock also of angels and sheep. Or like "turtle drunkard" emphasizes the slowness and careful gate aspects of each. (Would you even know if a turtle was drunk?)

Now, what happens when you put them together? Who would be teaching the lesson to who? (And of course it needn't be a serious lesson!)

Planet caravan

Planet caravan

What's a warm up?

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.

---

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!)

Plague in Lucifer's mind

Plague in Lucifer's mind

What's a warm up?