Tag Archive for: writing prompts

Writer Prompts: The Devil’s in the Details

Welcome writers, readers, and inspiration chasers! Join me as I dip into my prompt resources and select something to explore and share. These prompts are all about inspiration—what they inspire for me and what they inspire for you.

If you’re inspired by the prompt, whether that’s by creating something epic or just warming up for your creative day, I hope you’ll share your creation.

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This prompt comes from the book An Apple a Day by Caroline Taggart (published by Reader’s Digest, 2011). This is a collection of idioms and expressions that explores what the phrases mean and some of the history behind them.

Feel free to go wherever the prompt takes you!

Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t. (page 26)

A cowardly one, I’ve always thought, and Richard Taverner’s 1539 translation of Erasmus’s Latin phrase is sexist, too: “An evil thing known is best. It is good keeping of a shrew that a man knoweth.” It’s often the excuse people give for staying in an unsatisfactory job or a relationship because they are frightened of the unknown alternative. Kylie Minogue reiterated this message in her song “Better the Devil You Know.” In it she describes a woman promising to wait for some dreadful man, ready to forgive and forget if he will only stop leaving her. Honestly, Kylie, whatever happened to Girl Power? I suggest you change your locks and move on.

But one man’s cowardice is another man’s prudence, I guess, so although I am advocating “Fortune favors the brave,” you could equally argue for “Look before you leap.” As I said in my Introduction, you can’t rely on proverbs to make all the decisions for you.

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Where I started:

Obviously, when I read this prompt, I was immediately inspired to write about literal devils, because why wouldn’t I be?

Working from the direct phrase, I had to consider how a pesky little human might encounter two devils, one she knows and one she doesn’t. The obvious solution (because I watched way too much Buffy the Vampire Slayer at an impressionable age) is a bar or some kind of night club in which humans and demons intermingle (knowingly or unknowingly). I liked the idea of a human who keeps visiting a bar with her demon guide, looking to meet a specific kind of devil. (Maybe a devil who will make a deal with her?)

Being a vampire girl at heart (see re: Buffy), it made sense that Avis’s demonic companion be someone equally as tortured, so I selected a vampire for her guide. I liked adding a twist that their relationship is ultimately fraught no matter what happens to Avis because despite being friends, one of them is a hunter and the other is food.

Originally posted for the Story Kernels Patreon December 15, 2022.

What I wrote: 

Avis leaned on elbows over the table, squinting in the low light of the club. The flickering candle illuminated her neck, turning it nearly translucent and making her veins stand out even more. “Who’s that?”

Nab flicked his eyes away from her throat. “Which one?”

“By the door.” Avis’s tone sounded annoyed by his inattention, but she’d never appreciated what it was like spending time with someone so full of blood. “The one in the red leather jacket with the fringe. Gold hoop earrings. Blond hair.”

“Oh.” The specifics were needed as there were several people by the door in red leather. Not that surprising at the Devil’s Club. “Summer, I think. Sumner? Something like that.”

“Introduce me?” Those two words were one day going to get Avis killed, but Nab never had any inclination to deny them. Afterall, if he ever delivered Avis to someone who wanted her, he’d get some kind of favor in return. (And he wouldn’t have the displeasure of losing his control and being the one to do her in.)

“Another devil to add to your list?” Nab asked in weak protest. He was already on his feet, hand extended to help her up.

She didn’t take Nab’s hand, keeping her eyes on the door and her quarry. “Bring him here?”

It wasn’t a good idea—it was never a good idea—but humans often only acted on the worst ideas.

He shrugged, said, “Your funeral,” and hoped he was once again proven wrong.

Now it’s your turn:

What’s the devil your character knows and the one they don’t? How do they navigate between those devils? Is there another portion of this prompt that speaks to you in a different way?

 

If you enjoyed this prompt and would like another, the October prompt on Patreon inspired a story about a woman dealing with a dithering memory.

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Writer Prompts: The Creature from the Black Lagoon

Welcome writers, readers, and inspiration chasers! Join me as I dip into my prompt resources and select something to explore and share. These prompts are all about inspiration—what they inspire for me and what they inspire for you.

If you’re inspired by the prompt, whether that’s by creating something epic or just warming up for your creative day, I hope you’ll share your creation.

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This prompt comes to you via the book Complete the Story released by Piccadilly USA Inc. The prompts in this book give you the first few lines of a story and lined paper for you to continue writing.

Feel free to go wherever the prompt takes you!

Ever since the creature crawled out of the lake, the whole town had begun to show their true colors. The uncertainty, the fear, and the fascination combined into a potent cocktail that brought out the best in some, the worst in others. The creature was…
– page 39

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Where I started:

I really liked the first sentence of the prompt—especially if I turned the metaphoric idiom about “true colors” into something literal. After discarding what wasn’t as inspiring, I had to decide what creature crawled out of the lake, who found the creature, and what colors it could make people turn. (And why—what do those colors mean?)

I quickly decided the colors must mean something about the person. Maybe what drives them, or what kind of person they are. I also liked the idea that a person’s color could change through their actions—so that exists in my mind, even if it isn’t on the page in this snippet.

I wanted my creature to be small, and for some reason lake + creature immediately made me think of a reptile. Adding the color-changing features, it wasn’t difficult for me to decide my creature was a chameleon. (Which also meant it was scoopable, another quality I liked for this little visitor.)

I usually spend a lot of time writing about adults and decided to do something different. Since E.T. is imprinted on my soul, I decided a child protagonist who finds an extraordinary creature and hides it from the adults might be fun to explore.

With all that decided, I knew where I wanted to start.

Originally posted for the Story Kernels Patreon January 12, 2023.

What I wrote:

The little chameleon curled in the warmth of Charlene’s aquamarine-stained palms. Cupped in a cocoon that blocked the chill blowing off the lake, his tail flicked over her skin like a happy tickle. He should not have been outside at this time of year! Chameleons are cold blooded, and this little guy was lucky a wandering ten-year-old well-educated in reptiles spotted the glimmering red body at the shoreline. Or else he would have frozen in a matter of minutes!

Charlene tucked chapping hands to her chest, wrapping them beneath the rainbow scarf she had knitted all on her own. Sticks and rocks crunched beneath her boots as she trekked the hill back to the house her dads had rented for fall break.

She might have to take a serious scrub to her hands, since whatever was on the chameleon’s belly wouldn’t rub off, but she’d worry about that after she found a jar and a warm place to keep her new friend. The desk lamp in her room should work for heat. She could come out and grab some sticks and swipe a few leaves of lettuce from her salad at dinner. Bugs might be harder to find, but that spider in the bathroom was surviving on something.

On the porch, Charlene peered into the hole of her cupped hands, the crimson glistening even in the diluted light.

“Ruby,” she decided in an instant. “We just need to make sure Daddy doesn’t find you.” Daddy, unfortunately, didn’t understand a thing about lizards.

Now it’s your turn:

What creature crawls out of a lake? What does the creature bring out in those closest to it? What about those who know little about it? Are the colors the townspeople experience literal or metaphoric?

 

If you enjoyed this prompt and would like another, the August prompt on Patreon inspired a story about another unusual creature, this one a celestial feline who seems literally impossible.

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The Write Life: Burnout

No daily writer even wants to think the word “burnout.” But at the end of June someone directed that word at me, and I had to accept that part of my recent problem is related to burnout.

It was pointed out that the last year has been, um, stressful. Putting my career on hold to take care of my family was one kind of stress, but then coming back to my job with my hair on fire, desperate to jump in and make things work better was another kind of stress on top of that. Add to that daily struggles, my own chronic illnesses, isolation and loneliness, and the state of the world—it’s been a lot. So, yes, I am burned out, even if it’s not the creative burnout I fear. (And that’s not to say that all the other burnout isn’t sapping my creative energies.)

I decided to take the end of June to clear my plate, so I could spend as much of July as possible relaxing and refueling.

There was one problem with my plan—I’m a daily writer. I can’t stop writing. So, if I’m not working on my novels, short stories, or anything else that is “for work,” what can I write while still taking this very necessary break?

A Writing Break for Burnout

I decided the solution was daily prompts.

I obviously enjoy writing to prompts and had first thought to dig into my vast resources and pre-select a few that jive with me. But that might feel a little too much like what I do monthly on Patreon and might encourage me to “do something” with whatever I write. The point right now is to not do anything. To keep up my writing practice without trying to set a goal, make something perfect, or even refine it in any way. If I stumble across an idea I want to develop later, great, but everything I’m writing currently should come with guilt-free disposability.

I downloaded an app promising daily prompts and resolved to use them regardless of how much I liked the prompt on its own. And the results? Have been pleasantly surprising!

Knowing whatever I write is meant for My Eyes Only has provided much more freedom than I usually experience while writing. I haven’t needed to worry about coherence and can jump from thought to thought or moment to moment without trying to find a transition or make a note to figure it out later

There’s also no pressure to write anything of substance or quality because no one is going to see it. I don’t have to release it for any audience or please anyone with what I’m writing. Everything can suck! There are no right answers! These are just words to keep my writing streak alive and keep myself connected to creativity!

Having the rule to write to every prompt, even if it’s not one that really engages me is another form of freedom. The first question I ask the prompt is “what will I do with it?” instead of “do I want to do something with this?” That subtle twist of language shifts my focus from me to the writing (and from the future to the present) and has allowed me to write something for every prompt.

Bonus: because I’m not editing and am just putting words on a page, I can complete my 250-word daily minimum in 10 minutes without any fuss!

More and more I’m feeling like using a daily prompt randomly supplied might serve as a good warm-up for my normal writing routine or as a way to reconnect when I’m feeling out of sorts. Has anyone else tried using daily prompts like this? What’s your experience been like?

 

 

For full access to The Write Life and more about what I’ve done to assist with my creative life, sign up on Patreon for $1 or more per month. You’ll also receive a personalized thank you in a future edition of The Write Life.

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Writer Prompts: Raising the Stakes on “Fake-Dating”

Welcome writers, readers, and inspiration chasers! Join me as I dip into my prompt resources and select something to explore and share. These prompts are all about inspiration—what they inspire for me and what they inspire for you.

If you’re inspired by the prompt, whether that’s by creating something epic or just warming up for your creative day, I hope you’ll share your creation.

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This prompt comes from The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan. The words defined in The Lover’s Dictionary create a story, and just as Levithan uses those definitions to construct a novel, so too can you take a word and definition and retool it for your own creative purposes.

Feel free to go wherever the prompt takes you!

ersatz (adj)

Sometimes we’d go to a party and I’d feel like an artificial boyfriend…

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Where I started:

The word “ersatz” is forever linked in my memory to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K. Dick, so this prompt immediately brought to mind replicants and androids.

The rest of the prompt—an artificial boyfriend—reminded me of an idea cultivated by my writing group. We wanted to put together an anthology of stories based around the people who rent artificial friends. These android friends can fill any need, the person in the friend group who takes all the pictures, the best friend of a shy individual, or an impressive date to a high school reunion… which is the direction I took the prompt for this snippet.

A high school reunion is a place where a person wants to be seen as visibly successful. Short of being crowned during the proceedings, that typically translates to an enviable physical appearance and a stable romantic partner. Many other rom-coms have already trod the path of bringing a fake date to a high school reunion, I just put more emphasis on the “fake” part of the scenario, giving dear Kay her own artificial boyfriend.

(One day I am putting together this anthology—mark my words.)

Originally posted for the Story Kernels Patreon Oct 7, 2022.

What I wrote:

Kay smiled broadly as she stepped under the balloon archway. Welcome Back Sycamore High Class of ’99 screamed from nearly every wall of the hotel ballroom. Clint’s arm kept her upright as they approached the check-in table.

This was such a bad idea.

“Everything’s fine,” Clint whispered. His voice modulated perfectly so only Kay could hear him. “We’ll stay an hour, make sure to be seen by the right people, and I’ll sing all your praises.”

Kay clutched his hand, which suddenly felt smoother and less lifelike than it had when she’d picked him up at the Fast Friends facility. “You know not literally, right? Like, don’t sing.”

Clint chuckled softly, his smile pleasant and perfect, and exactly the kind of man Kay’s high school friends had expected her to marry. “It’s an expression, Kay. I promise, FF’s programming is flawless.”

No one near them reacted, everyone lost in their own conversations as the line inched forward. Still. “Don’t say the p-word,” Kay muttered.

“Then don’t question my p-word.”

The man in front of them turned around abruptly, eyes wide, and Kay laughed through her intense blush. She could only imagine what p-word he thought they meant.

Now it’s your turn:

What might be fake in your scenario? Who is the artificial boyfriend and how are they artificial? Is the artificial feeling a constant or situational?

 

If you enjoyed this prompt and would like another, the June prompt on Patreon inspired a story about a woman silencing the petty man who had imprisoned her.

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Writer Prompts: Ship-Wrecked Dinosaurs

Welcome writers, readers, and inspiration chasers! Join me as I dip into my prompt resources and select something to explore and share. These prompts are all about inspiration—what they inspire for me and what they inspire for you.

If you’re inspired by the prompt, whether that’s by creating something epic or just warming up for your creative day, I hope you’ll share your creation.

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This prompt comes from Rory’s Story Cubes distributed by Zygomatic studios. The simple pictures are meant to inspire a story. How you use each image (or connect them together) is up to you. The dice I’ve used today are a mix of the Classic, Voyages, and Actions Sets.

Feel free to go wherever the prompt takes you!

Five of Rory's Story Cubes displaying pictures of a clock, a skull and crossbones, an object falling beside a person, a dinosaur skeleton, and a rainbow.

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Where I started:

Clock + Dinosaur = Time Travel!

(Really, did you expect my brain to go anywhere else?)

With time travel as a starting point, I had to consider what was happening in the other images and how to interpret them. The bottom left cube with the falling object made me think of a crash, so potentially a crash-landing in a time machine. The skull and cross bones might not be pirates (maybe) and could just indicate danger, and the rainbow for me meant that things would ultimately be well. Maybe even funny. (I like funny, we’re going funny.)

So, what time travelers could be in danger, crash, but ultimately be okay? I decided to use my already established time-traveling trio from a novel-in-planning. Robin and Griffin have been partnered for years, but Henry is new to their crew, swiped from another timeline in which he and Robin have the same parents, though neither of them has a sibling….

Originally posted for the Story Kernels Patreon Nov 17, 2022.

What I wrote:

They rematerialize in the timeline with an inefficient clunk that rocks Henry against the safety restraints—apparently there is a reason they have an outdated harness in this thing.

Before he can ask any questions, Robin’s down the ramp, cycling open the hatch. Verdant, damp, mossy air floods the cockpit. As many different times as he’s visited, he’s never smelled something so… untouched.

“Griffin?” Robin’s muffled voice drifts forward from the exit ramp. “Remember when I said, ‘I don’t care where we go, just get us out of here?'”

Griffin’s cheeks shade pink, eyes sliding to Henry in the co-pilot’s seat, a vaguely guilty look pursing his lips. His voice is steady when he replies, “Yes, dear. I seem to recall that.”

The monitors in front of him are as outdated as the restraints, and Henry can’t make heads or tails of the readings to get a grasp on the date or place. He releases his harness, half rising from his seat to see what his other self is looking at and what has Griffin looking so guilty.

Robin comes back up the ramp to hang over the back of the passenger seat. “I changed my mind, Griff, I care. There’s a goddamn dinosaur out there.”

Now it’s your turn:

What do the images mean to you? Does the clock indicate time travel or just a specific time (maybe a countdown)? Is the dinosaur skeleton representing something alive or dead? What’s the rainbow hanging over your story? How do multiple images come together to inspire you?

 

 

If you enjoyed this prompt and would like another, the April prompt on Patreon is a different bit of Robin’s history, exploring the first time she time traveled back home and discovered her whole world had changed.

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Writer Prompts: Never Go in Against a Sicilian

Welcome writers, readers, and inspiration chasers! Join me as I dip into my prompt resources and select something to explore and share. These prompts are all about inspiration—what they inspire for me and what they inspire for you.

If you’re inspired by the prompt, whether that’s by creating something epic or just warming up for your creative day, I hope you’ll share your creation.

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This prompt comes to you from the Writing Prompts Tumblr. This Tumblr is a fantastic resource for prompts of all kinds. Most offer a short paragraph of a situation to grab your imagination, and then it’s up to you to develop a story.

Feel free to go wherever the prompt takes you!

You can see everyone’s Deaths following them, arriving to offer their hands right as they die. Today, you saw something new; someone chasing after their Death, who is fleeing at a dead sprint.

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Where I started:

Honestly where I started was the Deadpool and Death Annual from 1998 in which Deadpool keeps trying to die throughout his time at Weapon X. While I’m not adverse to writing fanfiction, I feel like Joe Kelly has this one covered, but it did give me the idea of someone who might want to die but be unable to.

That of course lead me to vampires and other supernatural creatures, and I liked the idea of two immortal beings meeting up to discuss the less-than-ideal deal of being immortal.

Originally posted for the Story Kernels Patreon Oct 27, 2022.

What I wrote:

“Some people might say you have a death wish.”

The tired laugh is expected, a sign of a worn-weary existence.

“Some might, but they’d be way off.” Thomas bites his lip, blue eyes gazing out into the distance, the traffic forty stories below seemingly forgotten for the view of storm clouds rolling in. “I’m carrying a burden, and every time Death approaches, I hope those burdens will be relieved.”

The wind bandies the loose strands of Joanie’s hair, but she has no intention of releasing her grip on the ledge. She doesn’t see a cloaked figure lurking about, but Death can move quickly when needed.

“Every time?” she double checks. Death is normally a one-time thing, even for creations who can see beyond the veil like herself.

“‘The valiant never taste of death but once,'” Thomas quotes, and then sags. “A long time ago I was a coward and I made a deal.” Thomas finally meets Joanie’s steady gaze. “Have you ever heard of a sin-eater?”

Now it’s your turn:

Why is your character chasing death? Why is Death running from them? How did this relationship get so flipped?

 

 

If you enjoyed this prompt and would like another, the February prompt on Patreon inspired a story about an artificial intelligence discovering it actually did have preferences for its physical form.

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The Write Life: Approaching Writing Prompts

Since I’m sharing a prompt and a response on my blog this February, I thought it was a good time to talk about how I’ve been approaching writing prompts.

I’ve written from prompts and exercises for a long time, but in the last year-plus of working on the Story Kernels podcast, I refined my approach to prompts and now have a fairly quick and painless process honed for mining inspiration from any prompt.

That’s right, I said ANY prompt!

Okay, that is a bit of a boast because, let’s face it, some prompts leave us dry, right? But I also have strategies for bringing things to a prompt to flesh it out.

Let’s get into it! (Into the prompt, I mean.)

Focus the Inspiration

Prompts come in a variety of flavors—situations and scenarios, random words, pictures, music, topical writing, and so much more. With any prompt, the first thing I do is focus on what’s hooking my attention.

Blazing campfire at night throwing a scattering a sparks into the air like ideas floating from the flame of inspiration and the kindling of writing prompts.

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

Sometimes that might be a single sentence in a longer prompt, or just one word from the random four I was given. The size of the “in” doesn’t matter—one moment that sparks my inspiration is all I need. That one bit will form the foundation of the idea and introduce a location, a situation, or a what-if. So long as it gives me something to build on.

From the foundation, I let my mind wander to other connections. Sometimes those connections are inspired by other elements of the prompt (pulling in a second word or another sentence or corner of a picture), but other times the connections are all from me. Robots, AI, time travel, vampires, death rites, clones, Victorians, gender nonconformity—this stuff is constantly on my mind and can be connected to any prompt foundations to spark a flame in an otherwise guttering prompt.

Who Am I Writing About?

I am a writer who needs a character. Occasionally I might start by writing about a place or the feeling of a space (if the exercise is forcing me to), but I quickly coalesce those observations into a person. I believe pretty strongly that story = character + conflict + choice, so for me to write anything—even just 100 words—I need a character.

I don’t need to know everything about the character to respond to a prompt—much of what I know about them will be discovered as I write—but I do need to have a general idea of how they feel about the situation they’re in and a name (even if it isn’t the “perfect” name).

Play Time!

Once I have that foundational idea and a character, I’m ready to play. Playing with prompts is about discovery. The more I write, the more I learn about the character and situation. I might cut in, insert a few blank lines and start a thought over. Or I might get to the end of 100 words and realize the character they’ve been talking to isn’t their friend, and I’ll go back with that new thought in mind. Nothing is set in stone and my initial time writing the prompt is all about figuring out what I want to do with it.

Most prompts are just that—play time. An opportunity to stretch my creative muscles and write without a plan. (GASP!) But sometimes—oh, sometimes—a prompt unlocks a much longer story, and I wind up using that initial piece as a starting point. Then, the play switches to planning. Which is a whole different (and much longer) blog post.

 

If you want to know more about approaching writing prompts, I include a brief description of where I started with each prompt posted to this blog and Patreon. Writing prompts will be posted to this blog every other month, but if you want to see them more frequently (and see more prompts), join us on Patreon. Monthly Writing Prompts are included on tiers starting at $3/month.

 

 

For full access to The Write Life and how I really feel about marketing myself, sign up on Patreon for $1 or more per month. You’ll also receive a personalized thank you in a future edition of The Write Life.

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