Happy Friday the 13th, everyone! Such an odd month to have it in, December. It’s not as though we associate winter with Friday the 13th–that’s more of a fall and Halloween thing. Of course, writers live for unusual combinations. What better way to exercise our writing muscles than to try and make two seemingly mismatched elements fit together cohesively?
That brings us to today’s writing prompt. As always, the prompt itself is fairly straightforward. All you have to do is write a horror short story that takes place in the winter. If you can tie in Christmas or some other winter holiday, even better! In fact, for maximum benefit, I highly recommend incorporating any festive elements that you can and try to twist them to enhance the horror in your story. You could even write it in the form of a rhyming children’s story or Christmas poem, like “A Visit from St. Nicholas”.
Get as disturbed and deranged as you want. Turn white winter snow red, explore the darkest thoughts that arise around this time of year, do whatever you feel it takes to make the most wonderful time of year frightening. You can follow Krampus on his annual journey to beat naughty children, turn Santa into a psychopathic stalker that sees you when you’re sleeping–the only limit is your imagination!
There are several examples of winter horror stories in movie form: Krampus (2015), Elves (1989), even The Abominable Snowman (1957). My personal recommendation for inspiration, though, is this reading of “The Night Before”, a zombie twist on “A Visit from St. Nicholas”, by paranormal investigator John L. Tenney: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjXQe0fWrRM.
Feel free to share your experiences with this exercise and the resulting short story in the comments. Now, merry writing to all, and to all a good Friday the 13th!
Happy holidays, readers and writers! With all the different cultures and religions celebrating, this time of year can get…hectic, to say the least. Personally, I am not a Scrooge, but I don’t go all-out, either. I like the lights, the decorations, giving and receiving gifts, and some of the movies and TV specials for the various winter holidays. I am not Christian, though, or of any religion at all, and the blatant consumerism is trying at times. However, I do find reason to celebrate around the yuletide season. And you know what really like about this time of year? The folklore.
Every religion, culture, and region has its own set of folklore which goes with wintertime and the associated holidays, distinct yuletide tales which are unique to these peoples and yet have some sort of commonality among them. Each tale and legendary figure has a rich history and its own way of being observed. Some are joyful, some are creepy, and some fall somewhere in between. My personal favorites are Krampus from Germany and La Befana from Italy.
Like fairy tales, these yuletide tales are ripe with potential for retelling. Case and point: all the Krampus movies that have come out in the past few years. Before those, Krampus also made the TV circuit on shows like Grimm and American Dad. To think, Krampus is but the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the winter folklore lesser-known by Americans.
That brings us to today’s writing prompt. To keep with the spirit of the season, I want you to pick a lesser-known winter folklore or figure. Pretty much, anything or anyone except for Santa Claus will work for this exercise, but the more obscure, the better. Don’t limit yourself to Christmas lore, either. Consider exploring the rebellion of the Maccabees, Odin and his association with Yule, etc. It can be from your ancestral celebrations or just from a culture, religion, or region in which you have interest.
Once you choose your winter folklore or figure, write a story, poem, or creative essay based on this yuletide tale/figure. It can be an origin story, a modern retelling, a poem which uses the figure or tale as a metaphor, an essay on the influences it has had on modern celebrations, pretty much anything that you want. The only requirement is that your chosen yuletide folklore or figure features prominently in your work.
Winter can be a stressful, overly-commercial, and sometimes hypocritical time of year, but great writing can come from it, too–remember A Christmas Carol? All you need is a bit of inspiration and time!
Happy Friday, everyone! Well, it’s still Friday here in California, barely. I’ve had quite a bit on my plate recently, and that has caused me to fall behind on the NaNoWriMo challenge. However, it’s not a complete loss. I’m writing for myself again rather than just bringing other people’s ideas to life, and that has made all the difference. I’m having fun making progress on Beorn the Alchemist after being stalled for so long. That’s why I wanted to make today’s writing prompt one directly related to NaNoWriMo. Actually, it’s not my writing prompt but one created by Mugglenet, one of the most popular Harry Potter fan sites in the world. The best part: it involves the Mirror of Erised!
For you Muggles who have not read Harry Potter or watched the movies, the Mirror of Erised is a mirror which, when you stand directly in front of it, shows you nothing less than your deepest desire. For example (*SPOILER ALERT*), Harry sees his family–most prominently his parents–when he looks into the Mirror of Erised because his deepest desire is for a family that loves him. It’s some pretty deep stuff.
Anyway, today’s writing prompt involves looking into the Mirror of Erised. However, it’s not your deepest desire that you’ll see but your main character’s. Here’s the prompt:
Imagine that the main character for your current WIP is looking into the Mirror of Erised. What does he/she see? Why? How does this desire affect their actions? How does realizing that this is their deepest desire affect them? Write all of this down as notes. If it helps, write out a scene in which your main character is in front of the Mirror, including his/her thoughts and how seeing the image of this desire fulfilled makes them feel.
As you progress through your current WIP, whether it’s writing it for NaNoWriMo or going through your fiftieth rewrite, refer back to these notes, especially when you get stuck. It can help you find your main character’s true motivations and keep his/her actions and reactions consistent. You can also use it to provide your writing with some subtext. After all, even when the desire is not at the forefront of the character’s mind, it’s always lingering just beneath the surface.
What was your experience with this prompt? What does your main character see in the Mirror of Erised? What does it say about him/her? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
If you know of any good writing prompts or any resources for new prompts, feel free to discuss them in the comments or e-mail me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com so that I can let your fellow writers know.
Happy writing, everyone! And keep the ball rolling, NaNoWriMo participants!
TGIF! Well, TGIS, now. Halloween is on Wednesday, NaNoWriMo starts Thursday, and Americans will soon begin the countdown to and preparations for Black Friday–oh, and Thanksgiving. It’s definitely a busy time of year. That doesn’t mean any of us should neglect our writing, though. (I’m pointing fingers at myself here.) That’s why I decided to bring back the Friday Fun-Day Writing Prompt this week, to help people to shift their focus back to their writing in time for NaNoWriMo. I also think that the topic of this week’s prompt is a rather fun one: mapping your world.
Fans of fantasy and science fiction are no strangers to mapping a fictional world. A lot of fantasy and science fiction writers have done it, including J.K. Rowling. It helps writers visualize their worlds and keep track of where different events in a book occur. It can also help with general world building as physical geography influences how different societies evolve.
However, mapping a world does not just help fantasy and science fiction writers; the benefits don’t even stop at speculative fiction in general. Any work of fiction in which the location is also fictional could benefit from a visual map. It can help writers remain consistent in where things happen, what those areas might look like, and, of course, where in the world certain landmarks are located. Unless you’re using a real location–in which case, you might want to look at a real map of the place–you’ll want to put your ideas onto paper as a sort of visual guide.
That brings us to today’s prompt. Rather than focusing on actually writing, this one will be about planning. As usual, the prompt itself is simple. All I want you to do is map out the fictional world for your current WIP, or at least part of that world. You can draw the entire world or just one city, so long as key events for your WIP occur in this area. Sketch the key landmarks, cities, geographical features, etc. and label them. You can also label where major plot points occur, but this isn’t required. Just make sure that you are mapping out and labeling the major features and landmarks and the rest is optional.
While I’m sure there are some of you out there computer-savvy enough to whip something like this up on a program (I most certainly am not), this exercise is better done by hand on physical paper. It can be graph paper, notebook paper, printer paper, etc. and done with a pen, pencil, paint, whatever you want; what’s important is that you do it out by hand. You’ll reinforce the visuals of the map in your mind that way. (However, I would recommend pencil over pen so that you don’t have to worry about making mistakes or changing your mind later.)
Right now you might be saying, “But I can’t draw! Or paint! Or any of that!” You know what? Neither can I! Not very well, at least. (Surprising since my maternal grandfather was an artist who did everything from highly-detailed portraits to architectural plans.) Nevertheless, I’ve done this. In fact, I did one for the world in my current WIP a few years back when it was the setting for a different novel series that I had to put on the back burner. I had a lot of fun drawing it, and mapping out the world got my creative juices flowing and helped me figure out some plot points that weren’t working out logistically beforehand.
You don’t have to be a good artist in order to map your world; all you have to do is try. After all, unless it becomes a bonus feature of your published novel someday, you’re the only one who has to see and understand it!
Before you ask, I will update this post to include a picture of my map once I find it. In an ill-planned cleaning spurt a while back, I put the notebook that had it in a storage container and now I can’t find it for the life of me. Once I do, I’ll let you see it!
When you’re done mapping your world and if you’re feeling brave, feel free to post a picture of it in the comments below. I’d love to see what’s going on in everyone’s heads!
Happy mapping, and I hope to see some of you over on NaNoWriMo next week!
TGIF, everyone! Sorry for another week of radio silence and erratic posting; deadlines for my portfolio and essay for grad school are coming up pretty quickly and it’s taking everything in me not to freak out. (Actually, I am freaking out, but that’s another story.) Anyway, this week is also my program’s discussion of Yiyun Li’s The Vagrants, and I think that one of the threads has brought up a very interesting topic: unlovable characters.
Unlovable characters are those whom you absolutely cannot love because they are despicable human beings. Most likely, they’re also mentally disturbed. Think pedophiles, psychopaths, and other deviants. These characters are perhaps the trickiest to write, especially if they aren’t clear-cut villains. To make them real people with real thoughts and emotions, someone with whom the reader can empathize a little without really loving or even liking them, takes a lot of imagination. As disturbing as it is, you have to put yourself in this character’s shoes and bring the good, the bad, and the ugly to your writing.
That’s why I want to focus on unlovable characters for this writing prompt.
The prompt, as always, is straightforward. Write a scene for a short story or novel from the perspective of an unlovable character. The scene must be written in first person. It can be for an existing WIP, something entirely new that you will pursue, or just a scene to flex your writing muscles. It doesn’t matter so long as it is in first person from the unlovable character’s POV.
The goal is to write an unlovable character who is still relatable and believable as a human being. It must also be clear that they are deviant and what kind of deviant they are. You must get into this person’s head and entirely understand them before writing this scene. Then, while you’re writing the scene, you must be careful to show the humanity in your character while allowing the reader to still hate them for what they do (or have done).
I know this sounds easy. In fact, it sounds like how you should approach any character. However, most of you will find this task…uncomfortable. After all, you’ll be diving into the mind of a deviant, someone whom I assume is not like you, someone whose acts disturb you. I have a hard time with it and should probably do this prompt myself. Still, if you can successfully create a well-rounded unlovable character, you should have few problems with writing other characters realistically.
Did you find this exercise helpful? Do you think it’s possible to write unlovable characters that still seem human? Or do the writer’s morals and bias interfere too much? Leave your thoughts and experiences with this exercise in the comments below!
TGIF, readers and writers! For today’s writing prompt, I want to focus on the editing stage of writing. Namely, this prompt will deal with tightening our writing and exercising restraint. It’s time to take a look at our use of adverbs.
Adverbs: writers love them, editors loathe them. When used prudently, they can sharpen the reader’s mental image of a scene. However, writers tend to rely on them a little more than we should. For this writing prompt, we’re going to look at one famous author’s advice for how to use adverbs–or, rather, how to keep from using them.
Mark Twain once gave the following quote:
Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very;” your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.
–Mark Twain
In this exercise, I want you to do what Mark Twain suggests. However, you will not just substitute the word “very.” Instead, you’ll be replacing every use of any adverb.
The exercise, as usual, is simple:
Take one page from your WIP–whether it be a short story, a novel, or even an essay–and every time you use an adverb, replace it with the word “damn.” CAUTION: Remember to save this new version of the page as a new file. Any time you make changes like this, you will want to keep the original. Otherwise, if you realize that you liked it better the first time, you won’t have the original copy to return to.
Once you have replaced all your adverbs, take a break for a few minutes. Watch TV, put in a load of laundry, walk the dog, whatever. Then, after about five or ten minutes, go back to the page you changed. How many times do you use “damn?” Is it scarce? Or do you find it in almost every line?
After noting how often “damn” appears in this version of the page, make a third version in which you remove every appearance of “damn.” Take another quick break, five or ten minutes like before, and then read over this third version. Now that you’ve seen all three versions, what do you think? Were your adverbs justified or superfluous? Is your writing tighter and cleaner without the adverbs, or does it feel choppy and like something’s missing? Or should you find a version in between these, not using quite so many adverbs but not removing all of them?
While many editors–and even acclaimed writers–claim that adverbs and adjectives can be the death of good writing, this is not always the case. Sometimes adverbs are necessary, as are adjectives (but that’s another story). You have to discover for yourself what works best for your writing style. After all, good writers learn the rules; great writers learn them and then break them. This prompt, though, will help you to see adverbs in a new way and learn to not throw them in willy-nilly.
What was your experience with this prompt? Did you learn anything about your writing style? What do you think of Twain’s advice? Are adverbs overused? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
Happy Friday the 13th! Despite its reputation, I’ve always loved Friday the 13th. Or perhaps it’s because of its reputation? I really don’t know. All that I do know is that I love Friday and thirteen is one of my lucky numbers, and so Friday the 13th is usually a good day for me. (The jury is still out on today considering my dog didn’t let me sleep much.) A lot of people, however, seem to consider Friday the 13th as unlucky, and it’s that reputation I want to focus on for this writing prompt.
I could go into the history of how Friday the 13th became an “unlucky” day, but that would take too long. (You should look it up, though. It involves greed, a corrupt government, and the Knights Templar. You couldn’t make this stuff up.) Instead, let’s jump to the good stuff: a perfectly unlucky day.
What’s a “perfectly unlucky day”? It’s a day when nothing can seem to go right. From the time you wake up until the time you go to bed, everything seems to blow up in your face and, by the end, you just want the world to go away. We’ve all had that sort of day. Maybe it’s not as drastically bad as in the movie Alexander and the Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, but it’s still the worst day you’ve ever had. This is the kind of situation I want you to throw your characters into.
As usual, the prompt is pretty straightforward: write a story in which one of the main characters in your WIP experiences their worst day ever. The story can be a part of the character’s everyday life or a major plot point in your WIP, depending on how evil you’re feeling. All that matters is that nothing goes right for them that day.
However, don’t make the bad day illogical or implausible for your character, either. With very good and very bad luck in stories, it’s easy to rely upon coincidences. For this prompt, I want you to avoid coincidences as much as possible.
Here’s an example:
Let’s say part of your character’s very bad day is catching their partner, who works in the same office as them, having an affair with a coworker. You will want to avoid a set-up such as your character runs out of staples, goes to the office supply closet to get more, and just so happens to catch their partner making out with a coworker. Instead, have them notice that their partner and the coworker seem to have been flirty for a while. Then, because they are in a bad mood from having a bad day anyway, your character becomes paranoid and decides to follow them during lunch. During this stalking, your character finds them sharing a kiss in the stairwell, and their suspicions are confirmed.
I suggest that, before actually writing the story, you create an outline of the unlucky events that will happen to your character. Obviously, this outline will just be a guideline, but it’s good to go into this with half an idea of what you want to write. It’s easier to avoid coincidences that way.
This exercise is meant to test your character’s limits. What will they do under the pressure of a bad day? Will a normally calm character have a meltdown? Will a nervous nellie be oddly prepared and step up to the challenge? Take this opportunity to really explore your character’s personality. After all, a person’s true personality shines in the worst of times, not the best.
How did this prompt go for you? Did you learn something about your character that you hadn’t thought about before? What sort of torment did you put them through? Leave your thoughts and experiences in the comments below!
Happy Friday, readers and writers! I’m going to be bringing you another onslaught of book reviews tonight and throughout the weekend. You can look forward to everything from a steamy romance novel to an edge-of-your-seat, fictional account of an Irish immigrant’s experiences while becoming “American.” First, though, I want to start the weekend with a writing prompt. This one, to go with my idiosyncrasies post, focuses on giving characters peculiar habits.
As I said in my previous post, idiosyncrasies (peculiar habits) can give a character depth and add subtext to a scene. This writing prompt is about exploring the possibilities presented by peculiar habits, as well as trying out some out on a few of your characters.
This prompt is a little more complicated than the others. Well, it has more steps. First, make a list of your most prominent characters in your current WIP. I’m not specifying a number because I know that a story can have as little as two characters, and I don’t want to make any assumptions.
Next, take a blank sheet of paper and list out–vertically, not horizontally, since you’ll be cutting these into strips–as many peculiar habits as you can think of. There’s no top limit to how many you can list, but try and come up with at least twice as many habits as characters to allow some chance for variety. If you can’t think of any habits, look around for inspiration: friends, family, that random guy in a suit riding the bus to an interview, etc. You can even look at your own habits! (Or you can ask friends and family if they’ve noticed any about you–I know my family sees more of my idiosyncrasies than I do!)
Then, cut this into strips, fold them up, and put them in some sort of container like a hat. You will then shake the container up and start drawing out slips. The first slip you draw will be the habit given to the first character of your list. The second will be for the second character on your list, and so on.
Finally, bring up a scene in your WIP in which all–or at least multiple–of these characters interact. Be sure to save it in a new file so that you will still have the original. Now, rewrite this scene, but this time try and incorporate the peculiar habits randomly assigned to each character. Make it as organic and subtle as possible, yet also ensure that these habits have purpose. Don’t force them in just to have them, but do incorporate them as best you can.
Have fun with it! And take your time. Some idiosyncrasies, you’ll find, are easier to slip in than others. The trick is making it match your character’s personality and other habits. You’ll be amazed at the layers these idiosyncrasies will add to your characters’ interactions. In the end, if you feel as though the habit doesn’t fit your character, at least you know what doesn’t work. That’s one step closer to finding what does work.
When you’re done, be sure to tell us the results of this prompt in the comments below. Did you find the exercise difficult? Did you learn something new about your characters and their behavior? Do you think it’s all just rubbish? Share your experience with other readers!
Also, if you have an idea for a writing prompt, drop a line in the comments or e-mail me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com and maybe it’ll end up as a future Friday Fun-Day Writing Prompt.
OK, it’s technically Saturday now, but better late than never, right? Considering everything I’ve been bogged down with lately, I’m just glad to have a writing prompt to bring you. This writing prompt follows up on a topic I discussed earlier this week: perspective.
In the aforementioned post, I talked about choosing a POV. For this exercise, I want to focus mainly on POV still but am going to expand it a little to include perspective overall. (A quick note on POV vs. perspective: POV is the narrative voice, as in first-person, second-person, or third-person narration with many subcategories in between; perspective is more about which character specifically we see the story through, whether that’s in first person or in third person limited.)
Today’s exercise is aimed at helping you choose a POV/perspective for a current work-in-progress. It involves a fair amount of rewriting, but it’s worth it to discover how you should tell your story.
As usual, the prompt itself is simple. Take the first few pages of your latest WIP–five, eight, ten, whatever you think you need to get a good feel for your work–and entirely rewrite it in a new POV or perspective. So, if you’re currently using first person, try third person limited, and vice versa. If you’re currently telling the story through your hero’s eyes, try rewriting it from his/her best friend’s perspective. If you’re really daring, you can try second person or third person omniscient. (The latter is a true beast. I’ve tried it before, and it is not my cup of tea.)
Try to not just switch out “I” for “he/she” or vice versa. Instead, really consider how changing the POV will change the story and your writing. What would these events look through the eyes of a bystander rather than your protagonist’s, or even through another main character’s view? How close should readers get to your characters’ minds if you’re using third person? How would another character tell the story differently from your hero? The possibilities are endless, and this change isn’t as simple as the prompt makes it seem.
Once you’ve finished, read both this new version and the original. Which do you like better? Depending on how you react, you’ll learn one of three things:
You had it right the first time;
This new perspective works much better;
Neither version works for you, so you need to try something else.
No matter what the outcome, you’ll gain some valuable insight into your work. Either your concerns will be put to rest or they will be justified. I’m planning to use this exercise on the WIP I submitted for my most recent Master’s program feedback session. Who knows, my personal tutor might be right; I might be working in the wrong POV.
How did this exercise work out for you? Did you learn something new about your WIP? Your writing style overall? Did you find out that you particularly like or dislike a certain POV? Share your experiences with this writing prompt in the comments below!
TGIF, readers and writers! I want to start the weekend off with a writing prompt. I haven’t given you one in a while, so I figured it’s about time I brought that series back. Today’s writing prompt involves learning to see clearly with your eyes closed.
Last May I wrote a post titled “Images in Literature and Plato’s The Cave”. Admittedly, it’s one of my favorite posts thus far. It combines my love of reading and writing with my philosophical inclinations, and it was rather fun for me to write. I want to focus on one particular part of this post for today’s writing prompt, the quote from Charles Simic. In case you haven’t read that post or have forgotten it, here’s the quote again:
There are images made with eyes open and images made with eyes closed. One is about clear sight and the other about similitude.
–Charles Simic
Now, I could reiterate the debate my Master’s classmates and I had about which images are about clear sight and which about similitude. If you want to learn more about the argument, you can visit my “Images in Literature and Plato’s The Cave” post. For this writing prompt, I want you to assume that you make “clear sight” images with your eyes closed and “similitude” images with your eyes closed.
I want you to focus on clear sight images. Writers have a knack for these sorts of images. Whether we’re poets or prose writers, our images rarely serve as strict similitude. That’s why it is important for us to master clear sight, the ability to create images which are beyond what the objects or people appear to be. That’s what this exercise is about.
What we see with our eyes closed is often more bizarre–and more interesting–than what we see with our eyes open.
As usual, today’s exercise is fairly easy. Go somewhere where you can concentrate. Block out as much external distractions as you can. Once you do that, I want you to close your eyes. Don’t think about anything in particular; just close your eyes. Focus on the first image which appears when you close your eyes. Commit it to your memory, get a feel for it.
Once you have a good feel for the image, open your eyes. Now I want you to write a scene or poem in which you incorporate and describe the image you saw behind your eyes. I don’t want to just know what it looked like; I want you to convey how it made you feel, what it reminded you of, if it felt menacing or benign, etc. Capture the true image of what was behind your eyes, not just what you saw.
You might be able to create a story or full poem out of this exercise, or you might only get some good practice at writing imagery. The important thing is that you discover what it means to create a true image of something and not a similitude. Admittedly, this practice can be rather difficult. You also won’t need to use it for every image in a story. (Poetry, on the other hand, all but requires each image to be a true, clear sight image rather than a similitude.) Once you master the practice, the hard part will be deciding which image is needed when.
How did this exercise go for you? Did you find anything particularly hard about it? What sort of image popped into your head when you closed your eyes? Did you realize anything about how you typically describe images? If so, what? Leave your thoughts in the comments below. You can even leave what you wrote as a result of this exercise!
Do you know of any good writing prompts? Want to share them with your fellow writers? Leave the prompt in the comments or e-mail it to me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com and I might incorporate it into a future Friday Fun-day Writing Prompt post.
