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Post by Nuyori on Oct 4, 2016 14:16:38 GMT -5
I attend a writers' group on Mondays, and one of the activities we like doing together are writing prompts! These vary from first-sentence starts to random characters and ideas. We do them every two weeks, and I just thought I'd share some of the work that comes out from these prompts. Sometimes they're totally random, and sometimes some good ideas come too.
3 October 2016 One of our favourite prompts is the Word-A-Minute prompt we came up with. What happens is that one person in the group says a word and for one minute everyone has to include that word in their writing. One minute later, when the timer goes off, the next person has to give a word that has to go into the writing, and that word can be anything. Once everyone gets a turn to give a word, the time is up. Our numbers range from 10-15, so it usually takes around that much time to complete the prompt. The underlined words were the words given during the prompt session. Green lasers nicked the outer glass of the car windshield. Jeremy flinched. The army was close now. Way too close. If they had used the normal firearms with their high efficiency ballistics, he wouldn't have seen the shots at all. He might've become as limp as a puppet if it weren't for his special glasses that allowed him to perceive and dodge the path of the lasers.
Orange light from unseen fires made the smoky night sky glow darkly. Jeremy glanced ahead and down the dark road when he suddenly caught sight of a pair of travelers standing on the edge of the street. His eyes narrowed. Were they scouts of the enemy, or just some lost civilians? His left lens equipped with digital zoom activated. His curiosity was satisfied at sight of two teenage boys and - a horse?
Then he heard it - the whistling of a missile honing in like a shark to its prey.
"Dang it!" Jeremy clicked his tongue and accelerated. Just as he neared the teenagers, he braked fast, and slammed a button on the center controls.
It was like seeing the dog's teeth before biting you when the missile jumped directly into the force shield Jeremy had activated around himself and the boys. He didn't mind seeing the devastation of a city, but he couldn't stand bodies, even if this pair of people turned out to be pickpockets later.
The inferno that ensured before their eyes was deafening even though it was dampened by the shield. Outside the horse reared in frenzy as the teenagers ducked instinctively. Smoke, dust, and glass splintered against the protective blue force, clouds and fire spraying across the road.
Jeremy kicked the passenger door open and yelled, "Are you guys okay?! Get in!"
"That - was awesome!" A voice called out. "You da man, pops! Knocked the slaces off me." The two boys ran up.
Jeremy stared at them in astonishment. Not only was the horse back in intelligent equilibrium, but one of the boys' hair shone a peculiar pink colour, and they seemed more embarrassed than frightened out of their wits - as if the explosion had been forgotten. He had a second's thought to close the door fast. Were they foreigners? Maybe they were actually enemy scouts. Or aliens? He didn't want to encounter extraterrestrial beings anymore than he did corpses.
"Can Storra 'get in' too?" The pink-haired boy, who appeared to be the older of the two, pointed at the horse.
Jeremy gaped at them further. That was going to be tricky. "What - no, I can't bring a horse into my car- " Jeremy sputtered. "You going to have to leave it!"
"It's not an 'it', it's a 'he'." The older boy stood adamantly by his midnight black horse. "And there's nowhere to leave him - do you see any trees to tie him to around here?"
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Post by Deleted on Oct 4, 2016 18:08:26 GMT -5
Slaces? I needed to google that haha.
Epic action scene is epic. That's a pretty interesting method for a writing workshop Neysun! Sounds like a fun place. If there was a forum chat we could try one of those out online or something. I'm sure there's a chat room that could be tested out in a writing event once...
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Post by Nuyori on Oct 5, 2016 20:11:39 GMT -5
*checks slaces
Oh dear. I still don't know why Matsuri omits "H0e" out of every word. That should have been Sh0elaces ^^;
Thanks XD
Yes, that could be a more interactive way of doing things! Something to think about ^_^
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Post by Nuyori on Oct 18, 2016 9:36:59 GMT -5
Prompt for this week was a First Sentence starter! The one I got was: "The pink glove lay on the ground, almost covered..." Only thing, I used it as the second sentence lol. 17 October 2016 "Found it." Andrew peered down into the large dirt hole.
The pink glove lay on the ground at the bottom, almost covered by the thick layer of dead leaves and mud accumulated over what might have been a couple of days.
Redirecting his flashlight, Andrew inspected the rest of the hole. It was some three metres wide and over five metres deep. An unsuspecting person walking through the forest at this time of night could have walked into it and faced an unpleasant surprise.
Andrew was glad to see the glove was not encasing a hand at least. He glanced around, flashing the light over the silent underbrush surrounding the hole.
There were no tracks to indicate any human being had traveled here within the past couple of days. Maybe an animal had picked up the glove on a fancy and decided to drop it here where it thought no one else could find it. Andrew wasn't crazy about the colour himself. Too bad whatever had left the left glove in this secluded spot hadn't taken the right glove as well.
Andrew took the radio hooked onto his belt. "Ranger Andrew here. I've located your missing glove, Marshall."
A woman's voice relayed back to him. "Wonderful! Fetch it back to me instantly. I have to be going to the meeting in thirty minutes."
"A little problem there, Marshall. The glove is in a kind of a deep ditch. I could try to get it now but I'll be staying with it until you send someone to come get me," Andrew replied.
The woman responded without a hint of concern, "Nonsense Andrew. I can't spare another man right now."
Andrew coughed quietly. "Can you spare a glove...?"
"Absurd! That glove is the only other one that has my name imprinted on it in gold. If you don't retrieve it for me right now, I may have to imprint your name on a dismissal form!" |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2016 22:29:57 GMT -5
Hahaha that's one tough Marshall! The pink glove lay on the ground, almost covered by the newspapers and broken glass bottles. It looked a bit too expensive to be here, and Gerald would normally not go within a mile radius of such things, but it just called to him, somehow.
He pulled it out with his foot, sliding it over to him to take a look at it. It looked like it belonged to a kid or something. It was completely new, other than the muck that covered it: He could tell from the price tag attached to it.
Gerald picked up the glove and took a look at it.
It was really ugly looking. Maybe that's why it was thrown away like that?
The glove moved all of the sudden, and Gerald screamed.
"Wh-at!?"
It twisted around his arm and wore itself on his left arm with a wet smack. Gerald screamed in a mixture of disgust and surprise at having the dirty thing attach himself to him, but that was not all. Before he knew it it was glowing with light and exploding with energy. Suddenly he heard a voice in his head,
"You are not my host. Where is the princess?!"
"This is not happening." Gerald said as he tried to rip the glove of his hand.
"Don't! We'll both die if you force me off! We have no time - Go find the princess and save the-"
Gerald wanted absolutely no part of whatever scheme this was, and forced the glove off. His lights went out and he crumpled to the ground dead.
Later when the ambulances took him away, complaining about how many Junkies overdosed themselves here, the glove lay there in silence.
It sighed as it was covered again by debris, "... That's the fourth one this week dammit. I'll never find the princess at this rate..."
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Post by Nuyori on Oct 23, 2016 12:49:24 GMT -5
Haha. Pink gloves are not in the fad... Nice one! That had a unique touch to it.  The poor glove.... |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 23, 2016 20:14:31 GMT -5
Haha it just wants to find the magical girl princess. It lost its polite language after the first two deaths.
These prompts sure are fun though
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Post by Nuyori on Oct 31, 2016 15:52:34 GMT -5
Word List Prompt this week! And especially for today - Halloween prompts! Which is to say, I picked out a few random words that could imply Halloween but the story may not have anything to do with it. In fact, that is what happened. Furthermore, the story has to do with some members from the MangaRaiders Forum (I ran out of characters to use on the spot. We were under a timer). I'm not sure if it's okay to post the original on here because it contains other people's characters, so I've exchanged some of the names with other ones. The word list for this week: - Boo - wicked - spider - horrify - pitchfork - stones - underworld - sand - mist - trees - fang - apparition - fading - red - face 31 October 2016 "Boo!" A bright green face met the young man's eyes the moment he woke up. There sat a green cat on his bed.
"You think that's going to work on me?" C smirked wickedly. A flick of his covers sent the cat sprawling onto the floor. "You need to work on actually being horrifying, L. People don't scream when they see kittens. Try being a spider or a centipede."
L began licking his ruffled fur. "I'm not just any cat. I'm a green alien cat."
"Then I'm the devil." C reached over and snagged the pitchfork leaning against the wall. He and the cat glanced at each other with a glint in their eyes. "You ready?"
"Ready when you are."
~
The stones on the gravel road crackled loudly against each other as the duo strolled down the empty street, the sides of which were lined with empty dwellings and silent stores.
One wouldn't have thought the underworld was such a drab and incompetent place. H3ll and fire were one thing, but it was all dead quiet and motionless on this level of Hades.
L, the green cat, stalked the alleys, jumping on crates to avoid making footprints in the sand. There was a floating mist over the town today, lighter than the usual damp and dark fog.
Just beyond the end of the alley could be seen the vague outline of threes - the border of the forest outside town. L licked his fangs as he scanned the line of underbrush.
Then they both saw it - a fleeting glimpse of a black apparition ducking below the bushes, fading quickly into the darkness. C gripped the handle of his pitchfork and gave a nod to his animal companion. They charged forward, prepared to attack.
For a moment, C thought L had tripped over broken glass, but then red splashed against his face and C skidded to a stop in surprise. Behind him, L's green body lay splattered in blood. (Let me know if the respective persons want it taken down. ^^; )
Happy Halloween people!
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Post by Nuyori on Nov 22, 2016 11:47:26 GMT -5
It's been a couple of weeks! Or, maybe more than that... I've been to another writer's group session and I'm back with another prompt piece! A couple, actually. Last week, we were treated to seeing a neat Canadian made soapstone sculpture. Our job was to write a piece based on the sculpture, or of another one taken by photograph. I did both. Prompt: Write a piece based off of a picture or a sculpture! It stood in the centre of the room on a white pedestal. There were others, more intricate than the middle piece, surrounding it, but for some reason this on had garnered the spotlight.
Lennox couldn't make head or tails out of it. In fact, did it have a head? Maybe it had arms? He had stood staring at it for a good twenty minutes without any more intelligent epiphanies, when the door to the room hissed open and who should come walking as if there was nothing wrong in the word but Annache Targette.
"I found you!" she sang out, dropping her hands on his small shoulders.
Lennox winced and shrugged them off. "I'm not playing with you. Was there something you needed?"
"I am always in need of something." Annache smiled.
Lennox took the opportunity to point out the object directly in front of him. "I'm sure you didn't need to bring this onto the ship."
"If every reasoned like that, there wouldn't exist galleries and museums." Annache chuckled. "What do you think about it?"
"What is it?" Lennox stared at Annache as if she were an unidentifiable object herself.
"It's a soapstone sculpture." Annache began to circle some of the other displays. "We have books about them if you want."
"But what is this?"
Annache glanced at the plaque. "it's called 'When You Wish Upon A Star' by R. S. It's from Earth."
Lennox blinked. "Did you put it in the middle?"
"Of course! Feature piece of the day!"
"It doesn't make sense," Lennox stated flatly.
"It requires artistic sense." Annache laughed.
"I think that one - " Lennox pointed to another display. "THAT one, make much more sense. Even I can understand a working mother. But a star? Whats the meaning of wishing on a ball of flame and gas? Did everyone want to summon Heckie fire to the world? Is that why Earth is uninhabitable now?"
Annache glanced at the object of his preference. "Ah, Lennox, I pity your childhood." She learned against the center pedestal. "Whatever you think, this one and I share a loooot in common. A form that suggests something but never quite gets there - pointing towards a hope that only the hopeful can see...It suits me perfectly." A mischievous grin lit up the young woman's face. "You can bring 'The Working Mother' to your room if you want."
Lennox held up his hand. "No thanks."
Yesterday, I attended a writing workshop at my local library. The speaker was very engaging and had insightful advice to share. The group wrote a paragraph or two during the session, and she gave us feedback on it! (Thanks so much!) Here are a few points she gave that stood out to me (non-verbatim): On Writing Fiction - Character that wants something - Obstacle to thwart the character - When creating a resolution, there has to be a reason that the reader agrees with. (i.e. If the hero dies at the end, make sure you reconcile it with the reader.) - Every sentence tells what happens next - In the short story, the first line opens the door to an adventure, and the last line closes the door to that particular adventure. Make sure not to "close the door" at the end of a paragraph. What I wrote there: Lennox remembered he had left the kettle on in the mess and started to rise from the couch in the lounge. Then he read the next line of the story in the book he held, and his body began to ease back down into the cushions. He might have stayed there for another hour longer when his noise picked up a strong scent drifting into the room. Before he could jump up, or slam his book shut, a shrill ringing shattered the usual silence, followed by the unusual hissing of the sprinklers.
Shouts other than the young boy's sounded from nearby as the cold water hit them all from above. One voice rose loudest, as high-pitched as the smoke buzzer, yelling for him. Chucking the book into a drawer so that it wouldn't get wet, Lennox ran towards a door that led to an outside corridor. He tapped the button to open it.
Instead of being allowed to exit the room, he was alerted to the beeping of denied access. The door had auto-locked. Lennox kicked the metal obstruction. Stupid spaceship safety measure sensors. |
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Post by Nuyori on Nov 29, 2016 9:48:24 GMT -5
The contents of this prompt are based on a contest going on in my country. It's quite an interesting prompt I believe. There are four elements to it. 1. Genre: Crime Mystery (Set) 2. Animal: (whatever animal you like) 3. Crime: (one that would throw you into jail) 4. Preventing a Crime/Solving a Crime I random picked and my specs were: 1. Genre: Crime Mystery (Set) 2. Animal: Flamingo 3. Crime: Bio-terrorism 4. Preventing a Crime This is what I wrote:
The envelope was pink in colour and bore the image of a silhouetted flamingo on the address face of it. Apart from that detail, there wasn't much else to distinguish the sender or origin of the letter.
Markus had probably dropped it onto Rory's desk along with a bunch of normal business letters. It caught Rory's eye first because of its bizarre appearance.
It didn't seem very important, but it was the one that looked the least boring. Locating his letter knife, Rory slit the envelope open.
It contained a single card, black, and in contrast, bore pink lettering that ran as thus:
"This evening at 19:00, if you do not surrender the capsule in Unit 3, we will shed our Feathers upon your city.
Place the capsule unguarded outside of the Moonless compound if you value your people and your lives.
- Flamingo"
Rory burst out laughing. Flamingo? Who on earth would name themselves Flamingo? Was this supposed to be a legitimate letter of threat? Such a pretty envelope and cute design too.
"Hey Mark! Come in and take a look at this!" he called through the open office door.
Markus, his secretary who at 42 y.o. already had gray hair, peered into Rory's office and entered. He spotted the pink envelope on the desk and smiled. "That one caught your attention did it? What does it say?"
Rory waved him over and handed it to him. He watched his subordinate's face, expected the same reaction as he had.
Coming to the end of the card, Markus looked up blankly. Rory raised his eyebrows at him questioningly. "Hilarious, isn't it?"
It was Markus' turn to raise his brows. "Rory - this is - "
"It's a grand joke."
Markus frowned, startling the other man. "Rory, you're never heard of Flamingo?"
The business worker grunted. "Why, is it actually something other than a pink bird?"
Markus stiffened. "How could you not - you've worked for Moonless for 3 years and not heard of the terrorist group?"
"Under such an outrageous name, I would have no idea. We're not a research facility, yeah?"
Markus sighed at him and his expression tightened. "Never mind that then - we need to get this to the higher-ups."
Rory sat straight in his seat. "Hold on Mark, are you taking this seriously?"
Markus was already half way out of the room. "If you won't, they will."
Jumping out of his swivel chair, Rory hurried after his secretary. "Come on! Or at least - explain to me then? Like what's this capsule in what Unit 3 by who exactly Flamingo?"
Markus sat down at his desk and chucked the card onto the scanner. He began pulling up the web browser as he let the machine do its job. Typing in some words, Markus turned the screen to the observing Rory. "Here, take a look at this."
Rory crouched down to read the article on monitor. It was from a new site: [Moonless discovers alien capsule. 30 researchers die.] It went on to state that the researchers had suffered from internal bleeding and lung infection after coming into contact with the object.
Markus tapped out the date. "Well, this was some 2 years before you joined."
Now Rory stared at Markus blankly. "So....? SO this is what we're being threatened over? An alien capsule? We're being threatened by aliens? How'd you guys figure out it was an alien? Where did you find this capsule? Hold on - Aliens exist?"
Markus rubbed his forehead. "That's not important right now - just take it all as fact and you won't regret it later. The most frightening reality here is that 'Feathers' that was mentioned in the - calling card - we'll call it - is the same virus that those 30 researchers in the article contracted and died from."
A shade of green passed by Rory's face and he glanced around the room to distract himself. "But all that - I didn't know about any of that till now."
"Yeah, it's strange." Markus busied himself with faxing the card.
"It's strange because the letter came to me." Rory gasped. "That's very weird. If an alien was going to threaten Moonless, why didn't they just send it straight to the elite members?"
Markus shrugged. "No idea."
The phone on the desk suddenly rang alive. He hit the speaker button. "Markus here."
After a pause, a voice altered electronically to sound monotone sounded. "Markus, where's Rory?"
"Right here, sir," Rory replied, tense.
"Good. Rory, you've got the nastiest letter ever. Did you explain it all to him, Markus?"
"Yes, I did, sir."
"Good. Listen up you two. We won't be going through any preliminary procedures to investigate if this letter is authentic or not. We don't have the time for that. Markus, Rory, we're going to send you after Flamingo to stop them."
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The poor glove....