Writing Exercise 9: Picture Prompt

Romance and magic! I'm feeling a little gooey today and I've included some pictures that might make you gooey too.
The magic is actually the more important factor here. Here's what your story should include:

1) Something magical (you can go the realism route and have someone with a magical voice or you can go all out and summon cthulhu).
2) The setting has to be outdoors.
3) One of the following objects has to appear in it:


Enchanted by the winter by =wchild on deviantART


Rosa Canina at break down by ~ziddarri on deviantART


One Perfect Rose by *galway-girl21 on deviantART

Writing Exercise 8: Picture Prompt

Do you feel out of place?

I searched for pictures with the phrase "out of place" and here are some of the odd things that came up. This prompt is just about the pictures, as they have a lot in them. Just give your piece the theme of 'out of place'.

(The last of these I doubt will be useful but was quite odd so I included it anyway.)


Girls' Night Out by *theartrix on deviantART


Village of the Bridge by *angrymikko on deviantART


Cramped place by `hellobaby on deviantART

Writing Exercise 7: Picture Prompt

I've been thinking about symbols and signs, some things we take for granted, as well as assume everyone can understand. A bit like internet abbreviations. There has to be at least one out there that you're not familiar with.

Anyway, this prompt is to do with signs.

1) The centre of the plot has to revolve around the misinterpretation of one. This leaves room for the obvious choices: humour or tragedy, but also romance and more. Not that it has to be a genre piece.
2) Choose from the following: (unless you already have something in mind)


Exit Sign by ~TheLilPhotographer on deviantART


Confusing? by ~redgobbler on deviantART


confusing by ~missingnumbers on deviantART


BEST SIGN EVER by ~z532 on deviantART

Writing Exercise 5: Children's Fiction for Adults

I recently bought a book without being aware that it was a children's book. I suppose that is a risk when buying online and not being able to pick up the book in your hands. But, I'm not complaining, because, like the reviews I took fancy to said, it was a great read. It was The Dead of Winter by Chris Priestley. Victorian and gothic with ghosts and strange sounds. I have to say it was certainly better written than the Castle of Otranto (written for adults, can you believe). The events happen rapidly enough to read the story in a few hours and yet it lost none of the atmosphere and scenery. The amount he said in few words impressed me and was a refreshing change from Entropy, good though it was.

Anyway, that was just a little background for why I came up with this prompt:

1)Write a story with an unseen presence, that can be heard and smelt and felt. Invisible man, ghost, rats in the wall, anything.
2) The story must be written with a rapid voice. If you normally meander and describe your characters, don't! Let their actions speak and try and cram as much action into as few words as possible, like children's fiction can.
3) Try and give the colours, the tone of the story, a blueish feel. Subtely mention the blue things in the surroundings to enhance this impression.


Forgotten Fairytales by `zemotion on deviantART

Writing Exercise 4: Splitting Yourself Up

Forget your limbs for a moment, your fingers your arms and elbows. Your toes and legs, they fade away into nonexistence. Forget you posses the body of a human being, an upright bipedal.

All you are now is a cloud of consciousness, a series of thoughts, of conversations with yourself. What voices are clearest in your mind? Which two voices assert their character the most? Your supposed devil and angel? Your ego or libido?

Take the two strongest personalities that live inside you. Don't give them bodies, put them on an infinite plane with nothing but talk to fill the void.

What will they say to each other now that they are not the same person? How will they come to terms with themselves and each other? Kill the other? 'Walk' away? Befriend? Or something better.

These thought beings that live within you need their own voices from time to time. Give it to them in spades.


Door of consciousness by ~AndreyBobir on deviantART

What to Do After NaNoWriMo

First came relief, sweet relief. My novel's finished! Some parts are good, most are bad, but I have a book and it's mine.

Then came horror, just for myself, as my keyboard became completely broken and I had to write by pen. Most unpleasant.Then followed ecstasy, as the IT man brought life back to my laptop.

But this... this is what I suspect others have been feeling for a while now: an ability to write, wasted by a lack of metaphorical wind in the sails. So what next? Another WriMo? No. This time quality comes first.

And that's why I thought I'd mention http://aroundofwordsin80days.wordpress.com/

Writing Exercise 3: Characters are their own story (if they're interesting enough)

I've just finished reading the Book of Other People, short stories, each about characters and all were strangely fascinating. The plot wasn't important, the people were and so that is what this prompt is centred on: write about a character.
You may already have a character in mind, someone waiting for a plot but doesn't really need one. Use them. Otherwise I've added two pictures to inspire thoughts of distinctive characteristcs.

Other things to include:
1) a precious object - choose from a knitting needle, an amber paperweight, a shoestring, a feather or a lock of hair



Silent Night I by ~kandieis on deviantART


We're All Stars. by =t0x1c-d0LLy on deviantART

Writing Exercise 2: Picture Prompt

Here are two random pictures to choose from and if they inspire any kind of conventional story, I will be amazed.

Two choices for your prompt:
1) Write something crazy. It's bizarro fiction, haven't you heard of it?
or 2) Use connective thinking to find some kind of inspiration for the normal style of story you're used to writing.

(I'd personally go for the monster and make it a horror style story. Another time, however... Much to do and whatnot!)

The Party Hat by ~noakrank on deviantART

The Toe Monster Print Version by ~noakrank on deviantART

The Best Writing Books, My Top Three

You don't need more than three writing books. I have more but wish I didn't. They're not bad, they go over the basics, but if you want to be a writer and you've already started then the elements for writing have already been picked up from your favourite books/films/poems.

Focusing on prose, I give you the three best writer's tools available in book form:

1) The Three A.M. Epiphany
                                      Brian Kitely

2) The Write Brain Workbook
                                      Bonnie Neubauer

3) Lights! Camera! Fiction!
                                      Alfie Thompson


The first one, I have barely worked my way through a tenth of the exercises, but they are so good, so versatile, that for each exercise I find myself writing up to ten really different storys or fragments. That's all that needs to be said about it really. The perfect exercise book.

The second functions as a warm up for a day of writing, sometimes invaluable when you can't bring yourself to continue what you started yesterday and you want something fresh to do to take your mind off of your serious work. I don't think I've created a single piece that I would call professional from this book, but that's not the point. It makes writing more enjoyable and hence made me far more productive in other endeavours.

The third may fluctuate between the obvious and the inspired but whether you find the book a revelation or a waste of time, the worksheets in the back are really the most useful tool I've ever had for writing a novel. I don't feel obliged to answer every question but it makes me look harder at my character's backgrounds ('How does this character see himself in regards to his occupation?') and plot.

If there are any books that you also think are invaluable I'd love to hear your reasons, but what I've found so far is that most other books have failed to provide me with anything that writing practice won't provide.

 (And yet I'm still reading them... XD)

Writing Exercise 1: Picture prompt

I'm aiming to create a writer's tools section for my site (which needs bringing back to life). Meanwhile I'll post my exercises here as I come up with them. The most obvious type of inspiration, for me, is art.

So here is my first picture prompt.

1) Pick one of the two pictures below
2) Think of the first most obvious scenario that goes with the title you've picked.
3) Do the opposite, reverse your premise. E.g.: If the happiest moment you automatically think of is childbirth, then make a death some character's happiest moment. If you can be convincing, human, and not at all Disney-villain evil, then you have succeeded.
4) Once your antithesis is written you may go back to the your obvious premise if you still prefer it.

(I don't want to give you too specific an idea to build on. You're most comfortable writing in your own style and a prompt is there to fire up the connections in your brain that make your natural creativity take hold. I'd be curious to see the variety that this prompt could develop.)


HAPPY by ~thathu on deviantART


Alley of broken hearts by =wchild on deviantART