First Friday Writing Prompt - Lifelong Dream

Inspiration: go after it with a club

Your character finally achieves their lifelong dream, but it's nothing they thought it would be. Now they would do anything to take it back. Must your character live with the consequences, or is there a way out?

Ready, set, write!

If you find inspiration and wish to share your creation with me, please do the following:

* DO paste a link to your creation as a comment to the prompt you’ve used, OR if you don't post your writing publically, type a paragraph as a comment.
* If you post your story/poem on your blog, DO include a link back to my blog, Wordweaver.
* DO NOT copy anyone else’s work and publicize it as your own.

Prompt History
January's Prompt

February's Prompt
March's Prompt
April's Prompt
May's Prompt
June's Prompt

First Friday Writing Prompt: Anthology Themes

Inspiration: go after it with a club.

If one is writing with the goal of publication in mind, what better prompt than those offered by publications themselves? Small presses and independent presses are great about putting out calls for stories based on a theme. Some of these prompts are broad, some are more specific. 

It's been easiest for me to find these themed anthologies by using search engines, like Duotrope (subscription-only) or The Submission Grinder (free). Using their search options, you plug in the kinds of writing you're interested in, and the engine returns a list of results.

As of June 1, 2015, The Grinder returned a list of twenty fantasy anthologies that offer token payment or higher. On that list are fun ideas to spur a rush of creativity:

* Snowpocalypse: Tales of the End of the World by Black Mirror Press
* Gears, Gadgets, and Steam by Harren Press
* Game Fiction by Gold Shader
* Typhon: A Monster Anthology, vol. 1 by Pantheon Magazine

These submissions are usually time-sensitive, so dive in as soon as your other projects allow. And be sure to check dates on press blogs and release estimates. Some of these small presses go under or appear inactive before the anthology can be published. While the prompt may still be fun to explore, these may be poor prospects for publication.


If you find inspiration and wish to share your creation with me, please do the following:

* DO paste a link to your creation as a comment to the prompt you’ve used, OR if you don't post your writing publically, type a paragraph as a comment.
* If you post your story/poem on your blog, DO include a link back to my blog, Wordweaver.
* DO NOT copy anyone else’s work and publicize it as your own.

Prompt History
January's Prompt

February's Prompt
March's Prompt
April's Prompt
May's Prompt

First Friday Writing Prompt: Collecting Prompts

When I write, it's not the technical aspects that prove the challenge. Commas, natural-sounding dialog, character creation are all the easiest and most enjoyable parts of the craft for me. The hardest part is chasing down a good idea. I have lots of ideas -- bad ideas, cliched ideas. But strong, interesting ideas are difficult to come by.

A writer who is determined to chase down inspiration with a club will find it in many places:  images, half-heard conversation, a headline, a snippet of poetry or a single line from a 200,000 word novel.

For May's prompt, I journeyed to creativewritingprompts.com, and chose prompt #181:

What images does this line in one of Gregory Corso's poems spark in you: "They want to make buttons out of my bones"

In addition to writing down images, as this prompt suggests, I'll gather a few more single lines from sources on my own bookshelves and list them below. Throughout the month of May, I hope this list grows quite long.

To start:

"No story can move a thousand miles by word of mouth and keep its shape." from The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss, p. 1055.

"It takes many lives till we succeed, to clear the debts of many, many hundred years." from "Out of the Deep" by Enigma

"The crowds upon the pavement / Were fields of harvest wheat." from "As I Walked Out One Evening" by W.H. Auden

"Plague-Infected Mice Missing From N.J. Lab" ABCNews, Sept. 15, 2005

* * *

In addition, I have a notebook upon the cover of which I've written "Story Ideas." It's a very fat notebook. It's very full of scribbles and half-started stories, outlines, nonsense. It's a record of half-seen dreams, a treasure I'll never throw away.

How do you keep track of your ideas? Any favorite prompts or prompt sources to contribute?

If you find inspiration and wish to share your creation with me, please do the following:
* DO paste a link to your creation as a comment to the prompt you’ve used, OR if you don't post your writing publically, type a paragraph as a comment.
* DO include a link back to my blog, Wordweaver.
* DO NOT copy anyone else’s work and publicize it as your own.

Prompt History
January's Prompt

February's Prompt
March's Prompt
April's Prompt

Third Friday Writing Prompt: Shapeshifter

Soooo, I missed the first Friday of April, mainly because Easter was approaching and I was madly cleaning house, gardening, and prepping for my family to feast at my table on Saturday. Then last Friday, I decided I would skip April's prompt completely because I was madly writing on my novel and didn't want distractions. But today, I figure I'll post a writing prompt anyway, late though it is.

I found April's prompt on Reddit, HERE:

"Tell me how you discovered you were a shapeshifter."

And here's a fun photomanip for additional inspiration:

"Shapeshifter" by Vanyamuina

(If you find inspiration and wish to share your creation with me, please do the following:
* DO paste a link to your creation as a comment to the prompt you’ve used, OR if you don't post your writing publically, type a paragraph as a comment.
* DO include a link back to my blog, Wordweaver.
* DO NOT copy anyone else’s work and publicize it as your own.

Prompt History
January's Prompt

February's Prompt
March's Prompt

First Friday Writing Prompt: combining ideas

This month, instead of making use of a single image to inspire a story or poem, I'm going to be taking a single element out of two random images and smashing them together to produce (hopefully) strange and wonderful results. I learned this exercise in Now Write! Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror, edited by Laurie Lamson.

Image #1 "Lantern Festival" by Sharleen Chao

Image #2 "For a minute there, I lost myself" by Thorvaala

Hmm, the two elements to be mashed together in the (Questionably) Great Collider in my brain: a flower made of light and a basketball.

This might take a while...

(If you find inspiration and wish to share your creation with me, please do the following:
* DO paste a link to your creation as a comment to the prompt you’ve used.
* DO include a link back to my blog, Wordweaver.
* DO NOT copy anyone else’s work and publicize it as your own.

Prompt History
January's Prompt

February's Prompt

First Friday Writing Prompt: Night Train

February's Prompt

Romania. In a train. Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1975

(If you find inspiration and wish to share your creation with me, please do the following:
* DO paste a link to your creation as a comment to the prompt you’ve used.
* DO include a link back to my blog, Wordweaver.
* DO NOT copy anyone else’s work and publicize it as your own.

Prompt History
January's Prompt

First Friday Writing Prompt: "Happy Place"

Disclaimer: this is not a meme!

I’ve been feeling terribly bogged down and uncreative lately, as in, for the past year and a half. Once upon a time I made an effort to paint with pastels and acrylics, sketch my characters (very badly, I’ll admit), dabble in photography, throw a pot on the wheel, MAKE STUFF!!! But for too long now, I have been so focused on finishing the Falcons Saga that, ironically, my creativity has dwindled.

That’s my preamble for starting a monthly writing prompt (to be posted on the first Friday of every month), both for myself and for any visitors who might like to participate. I missed January's first Friday, so I'll get a (very) late start and get back on schedule in February.

My favorite sources of inspiration are photographs or digital art that hint at stories, but I'll look for other prompts to inspire as well. In the comments below the prompt, I’ll post an excerpt of what the image(s) inspired inside my twisted brain. Hopefully, these excerpts will grow into full-length stories (or poems!), but we’ll see. The point is to have fun creating something new while I rework these old novels.

Okay, then, let’s create something…

"Happy Place" by Schnotte

(If you find inspiration and wish to share your creation with me, please do the following:
* DO paste a link to your creation as a comment to the prompt you’ve used.
* DO include a link back to my blog, Wordweaver.
* DO NOT copy anyone else’s work and publicize it as your own.