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Post by Breakingchains on Aug 14, 2020 20:58:53 GMT -5
We used to have one of these, but it's been inactive for a long time so I'm making a new one.  1) On Fridays, new prompts drop. One prompt might not always appeal to everyone, so if Friday comes around and you've got a cool one, post it! Prompts can be anything--short phrase, one word, something you found laying around. Heck, post a pic, or a link to a song. Just make sure it's evocative and also vague enough that people have wiggle room to play with it. 2) Write as much or as little as you like, for as many or as few prompts as you like. Fiction, poetry, original vs. fanfic, anything goes. You can also tie multiple prompts in together or work from past prompts if you're feeling saucy! Just jump in whenever/wherever and do your creative thing. 3) Post what you came up with, if you'd like! 4) (NEW) For commentary, chatter, reviewing or other posts that aren't either a new prompt or a written piece, head over to the off-topic thread!The caveats are (1) if you write something for your own prompt, try to write for an additional one too, and (2) it's probably better if each person who posts a prompt only posts one prompt per week, because otherwise I'd post a list fifty deep and then we all get choice paralysis and that kind of defeats the purpose. SO! My prompt for this week (Aug. 14th - 21st), courtesy of opening Arthur C. Clarke to a random page, is:
Images from the seabed.WEEK SIX PROMPTS (9-25-20:)Breakingchains: "fall colors" Thorn: "Swan Song" Lizica: "Written in the Air" |
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Post by Gelquie on Aug 14, 2020 21:35:57 GMT -5
Yay, this sounds fun! I think I have an idea for that prompt already. ^^
I'll also drop a prompt then, if that's okay and I'm interpreting the guidelines correctly.
Gelquie Prompt: Return to Sender
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Post by Breakingchains on Aug 15, 2020 10:14:03 GMT -5
^ You are interpreting correctly I think! Idea is that anyone can post a prompt but each person should only post one per week. Clarified my original wording a bit to make this clearer. So yeah!
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Post by Thorn on Aug 18, 2020 18:26:18 GMT -5
Not sure if I'll manage to get one of these done this week! We'll see. But...I really like Chains' method of drawing a prompt from a random page. So I will contribute a prompt from a random page in Tamsin Muir's Gideon the Ninth, one of my current fave novels.
Thorn's prompt: No Hidden Motive.
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Post by Gelquie on Aug 18, 2020 19:25:06 GMT -5
Woo, more prompts!
So I'm wondering, and also giving time in general for a list of prompts for this week. But once we completed a writing prompt (or more) and decide to post it, should we just go ahead and post it, or should we wait for a particular day?
(I'll probably post them to my thread so it's easy to find, but I'll cross-link said post here.)
(Completed a prompt for Images from a Seabed, by the way. It's for a story I've been meaning to do a for a while. ^^ 1,529 words, by the way! (Most of my prompt writings will probably be shorter, I just got carried away.))
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Post by Breakingchains on Aug 19, 2020 21:49:08 GMT -5
I hadn't thought of that, but I'd say you can do either--wait for Friday when new prompts roll out, or post straightaway. I'll be posting mine on Friday, but do whatcha feel like!
EDIT: Also I neglected to mention but NICE, 1500 is definitely more than what I've got. xD; I got about 300 out of mine, presently trying to unstick my brain for the others.
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Post by Gelquie on Aug 20, 2020 17:07:51 GMT -5
300 is still good! Short fics are still good fics. ^^ I don't think I'll be doing my own prompt, though; it's been a mentally busy week. I'm thinking of posting my fics on Thursday, so I can more neatly segue into next Friday. ^^ With that in mind! Here's the link to my prompt responses for Week 1! |
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Post by Breakingchains on Aug 21, 2020 17:00:46 GMT -5
Gelquie I loved your seabed one! I know exactly nothing of Wrighton but that didn't get in the way at all, loving the concepts here. After reading your notes, IDK enough about sign language to argue how it should be put down in text, but my immediate impression was "the tourists are new to doing this" rather than "that's just how the grammar works", at least until the main characters started signing back. That said, you're not beholden to make sure ignorant readers like me "get it" either. Also the second one: "but but our QUIPS" absolutely sent me. I dig this character dynamic. Here's mine for this week! Both very short reads but I like how they turned out. I'll put a new prompt up in a bit. Images from the Seabed:
Cephalopod did not know what writing was.
Cephalopod did not know that to make a mark was to pass along information. Culture. Knowledge of days that turned into knowledge of ages. What Cephalopod did know was that you could chip a rock with another, bigger rock. Cephalopod knew that when you did this, critters scurried out. Cephalopod did not know that it made patterns when you beat a rock with a rock. Cephalopod just wanted the critters.
But the next Cephalopod noticed the patterns. It smelled them. It tasted them. It ran its little arms across them. It made its own. Rock against rock, you could make the same pattern over and over, if you liked. Also, it wanted the critters.
Then came a cleverer Cephalopod. It noticed you could make the same pattern over and over. But you could make different patterns. You could mix them together. Also, it wanted the critters. So Cephalopod started putting two marks wherever there were critters. Up and down. Left and right.
One day it found a mark it had not made.
It beat the rock. Out came the critters. Hearty shell crunched in its beak and it looked up to the surface. The sea was a dark abyss of water and pale white fish and something big and fat that swam with a big wide tail. Above that came lighter waters and above that was the shimmering web that drew itself on the surface and above that was places Cephalopod could not go.
Cephalopod seized another wriggling critter and crunched it in its beak. Cephalopod was happy.
It did not know what writing was. It did not know its name was Cephalopod. It knew a little bit what a human was, but did not know very much else at all, and now it noticed this.
Cephalopod wondered.
Gelquie Return to Sender:
"A delivery has arrived, lady Calanthe."
She took the package without thanks from her handmaiden, and laid it on the vanity before her before opening it. On the inside was a letter--this one from prince Henrik of Claye: My esteemed lady, it is with a most pensive and hopeful heart that--
She put the letter aside. A ring, but along with that a tidily folded ceremonial robe; this one had at least researched researched her traditions before sending the proposal. She looked at it a moment as if thinking, then took a small rosewood wand from the drawer of the vanity.
She laid the ring back on the robe and then did not touch it. Then with a deft hand, she etched a sigil in the air with the wand, discreet and exacting; there was a moment of silence, then the faintest pop of light. She plucked a flower from the vase on her vanity and laid it in the package alongside the ring; a nightshade.
There was soft murmuring behind her between the handmaiden and another servant. Then the handmaiden spoke:
"Lady Calanthe," she said, "Word has just arrived that after your rejection of his last proposal, lord Mathis of Cyedon is reported to have died of a broken heart," she said. A broken heart. Was that what they were calling catastrophic organ failure these days?
She finished the death spell, and handed the package back to her handmaiden, to be returned with her deepest regrets.
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Post by Breakingchains on Aug 21, 2020 18:35:39 GMT -5
New prompt: A glimmer seen from the corner of your eye.
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Post by Gelquie on Aug 21, 2020 19:23:18 GMT -5
Breakingchains - Ahh, thank you for the comments and the feedback on both of them! <3 Re: seabed fic - I'll keep that in mind while I figure out how to structure the sign language, since I definitely want to expand the fic, but sign language will be... most of it. xD I suppose the way I did it still works, since they are they tourists, though maybe I could think about the native mer doing some sign first. Or I may re-do it, who knows? Anyway, more relevant for short fic stuff, I'm glad it still holds up! Definitely tried to make it not-context-dependent and it sounds like I succeeded. ^^ Re: your fics! Those were both very neat! =D Love the introspection and dvelopment of the Cephalopods, and how they came step by step. Sounds like a neat beginning. ^^ And ooh, the second one was so neat and so ominous at the same time! Definitely makes me want to know more of the context, and a great intro to a character like this.
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Post by Gelquie on Aug 21, 2020 19:27:25 GMT -5
Week 2 Prompt from Gelquie- Do you have a story/character secret in mind, maybe one you've have intricately planned out, or maybe one you've already written that reveals the nature of the secret? Or do you at least have a pretty cool concept in mind, secret or no?
Write something for that secret reveal or concept, but do it differently than what you have planned or what you had done.
Example: “No… I am your father.” “Noooo, that’s not true!”
Re-dux: “Then it’s true… it all adds up, all the evidence, the way he acts… Chewbacca is my father...”
(EDIT for clarity: Idea is to keep the reveal or concept the same while changing the circumstances. But if you already wrote it, no worries!)
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Post by Thorn on Aug 22, 2020 5:31:16 GMT -5
New prompts are so exciting ahhh! =D I think I have ideas for both of these.
(tomorrow I will read Chains and Gelquie's writings from last week!)
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Post by Thorn on Aug 22, 2020 21:13:26 GMT -5
As promised...responses wooo! Gelquie Mer-Story!!!!I love the idea that the local merfolk are more fishlike! With their shark skin covering more of their bodies...they sound really cool.
"They were clearly not very good merfolk"- that line honestly made me laugh. xD
This was a fun read! I'm a big fan of like, worldbuilding and lore, and this really highlighted the differences between these water-based merfolk and Alexis' family. Really cool!
The sign-language worked well enough for me! My friend just reflects sign-language by 'translating' with English grammar, but honestly both ways work. And I honestly like how you made it different, as a constant reminder that it's not actually spoken English! No Hidden MotiveAcid piranhas.
I love these two, this was such a fun read!! xD
Breakingchains Images from the SeabedThis is really cute, but also one of those stories where you can feel there is More below the surface. Love it!! Return to SenderHardcore lady omg. But really well written! |
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Post by Thorn on Aug 25, 2020 2:44:47 GMT -5
Gonna contribute a Prompt! Midway through the week...wow I am Slow...but figured we could do with more, will try be more timely next week!
Will also write one or both of those already suggested (the Reveal one should be especially easy, and then I can hopefully also ramble something for the Glimmer prompt!!!)
Thorn's prompt for week two: guarded and concealed.*
*(this time chosen by turning to a random page in Chaz Harris' Soulfire.)
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Post by Gelquie on Aug 28, 2020 17:17:34 GMT -5
Hello Friday! Have a writing thing! I did do the glimmer one! Specifically for Amani! But... I'll feel more comfortable posting it in a few weeks, I think. I will post it once that time has passed! I wasn't feeling the writing spirit for mine, and my brain has been kinda full, but I might come back and do that one a different week because it does intrigue me! So for the other one I did... I'll post that. ^^ guarded and concealedAmos looked around ask they walked out of the building with the box. They had to take care not to be seen by their acquaintances as they left.
After all, they couldn’t ruin the surprise. Not on this special day.
Thankfully, no one noticed. Amos began to take the less crowded route home. In part to tell who was nearby, in part so that no one could jostle the insides.
How he’d love to conceal the box further by stuffing it in a bag. Then he could write it off as anything.
But it was fragile, and shifted easily. It had to be just right. There had to be no mistakes.
Thankfully, there were none, and Amos made it to the manor.
From there, they relaxed. They couldn’t see any trace of anxiety in his body. The box contents would be revealed, but not until the time was right.
They rung the door buzzer, and they told the butler that the cake was here and ready.
Amos was let in, and in short order, they were taken to the antechamber between the kitchen and the dining room.
Amos went to the kitchen. This had to be done right.
Amos first revealed the cake to the cook, with a request. The lazy baker had missed a design, and he tasked the cook to re-create it. A series of vines around the leaves and the flower on one side of the cake.
The cook was only happy to oblige. Wonderful. The heir had to wait a little while longer.
Amos left the task to the cook.
Dinner was soon over, and the cook dutifully brought out the cake. It was just as the heir liked it. Vines and their favorite flower, in perfect order. The heir blew out the candles with an impressive, healthy blow. And then the cake was cut, and the glasses of wine refilled liberally.
The heir would have the piece with the flower. No one else would touch it.
As it should be.
It was a lovely cake, with a lovely taste. The baker did well. Everything was perfectly concocted.
The next morning, Amos was hungover, and the new heir to the estate. Notes: I realized afterwards that maybe Chains' tone in Return to Sender may have inspired me on this one. So take that for what it is, I guess. xD |
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