Writing Prompts - 5

1. Describe your dream job.

2. Your house is on fire. What 2 items do you go back inside and rescue? Why?

3. You have just been transported to an alien world. Describe the planet and the people in detail.

4. Write something based on the following quote: "Somewhere on this globe, every ten seconds, there is a woman giving birth to a child. She must be found and stopped." - Sam Levenson

5. Did you have a secret hide-away when you were a little kid? If yes, describe it. If not, then what would be your perfect hide-away now?

Writing Prompts - 4

1. The story ends during a charity event. The story takes place 20 years ago. A character feels sorry throughout the entire story.

2. What did you eat yesterday?

3. What was your happiest memory, and why?

4. Write something based on the following quote: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." - Voltaire

5. You have just been transported 100 years into the past. How do the locals perceive you?

Writing Prompts - 3

1. The story must have a mermaid at the end. There must be a ball cap in the beginning. A character kills someone.

2. The story starts during a plague. The story must have a cat involved in the middle. The story must involve a club at the end.

3. During the story there is a dramatic revelation. A character will visit a doctor.

4. The story begins 1000 years in the past, and an organization is recruiting. A character becomes very impressed.

5. Write something based on the following quote: "Wear the old coat and buy the new book." - Austin Phelps

Tip #2

Building a character for your story or novel can sometimes be pretty easy. And then again, it might turn out to be the toughest part of the job. Some of you out there may be artistically inclined, and that's great! Use that talent to get a feel for your characters. Draw out how you would like them to look. Draw out their expressions, clothes, cars, whatever it takes to build he or she or even it in the case of an alien, up!
For the rest of us, an outline or fill in the blanks kind of sheet might be of much help.
Here is one that I personally use. This is what I call the "Master Copy", and it can be edited to suit your personal tastes and needs.
http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/view.php?id=1478034&da=y
(To download: right click, select "Save As", and save.)
The file is a .rtf extension, so it should open in your basic word processor.
Has been tested on Windows XP, so it should work with Vista. I don't know about MAC though. Sorry!

This template can help writers get a handle on their character, and think about parts of them which many tend to overlook. How do they stand when they're just, well, standing there. What is their favorite pose that they do subconciously?How do they sit down in chairs/couches/cars/etc? Do they talk with their hands a lot? What kind of tastes in clothing do they have? Do they like blue cars or red cars? What kind of furnature do they have in their homes?

These questions may not even have anything to do with the story itself, but it gives the characters more dimension and life. It gives them a little bit of a bump up above the rest.

Here are some examples of characters that were made using a template/sheet, and one that wasn't.

NO SHEET
He sat in the chair, looking out at the ocean with a sigh. His eyes lingered there, just at the horizon, as he thought of the tragic day.

WITH SHEET
The young man fell into the chair with a grunt, propping his head up with a hand as his elbow rested on the velvet covered arm. Slowly he turned his eyes toward the window to look out upon the ocean. His usually jubilent mood had turned sour as she reminded him of that tragic day. The evidence of his thoughts could be seen on his face. Where once laugh lines were predominent, now his lips were a frown of worry.

Writing Prompts - 2

1. The story takes place 20 years into the future. The story must have an angel in it. The story must have a bolt of cloth appear in the middle.

2. The story must have an athelete in it. The story must involve some boots or shoes in the beginning. A character takes a test.

3. There are minimum of 5 characters in the story. The story is set in a basement. During the story, there is a political crisis. The story must have a cab driver in the middle.

4. The story is set in a crypt. The story takes place 1000 years in the future. During the story, there is an argument.

5. The story ends in a big city. The story takes place 100 years in the past. During the story, there is a fight over money. There must be a toy boat involved in the ending.

W1 - Prompt 1

I will not take much time telling you what this is. Each week, I will write as many drabbles or stories as I can using only the prompts that Z provides. And I will be posting them here. You can read them for leisure, or you can use them as examples. Whatever you like.
Above all, please enjoy. n.n

Prompt 1 - Where do you see yourself in five years?

Stepping outside into the bright sun, I shield my eyes and groan. Daylight never had been my prefered light of choice. Not unless I were using it in my work. Like today.

"Quit yer bellyachin," the man beside me says with a grin. I groan again in reply as I fumble around in my pocket for a pair of sunglasses.

I don't get out much. My work takes up most of my time. Staring at the screen in a darkened room, watching as the colors melt together in Photoshop before sending them on to another artist for the next stage in the image's development. But I don't care where it goes. Because another one is sent to me, and I put the colors in, and send it on.

I'm a cog in the great wheel of progress. Just another gear in a well oiled machine cranking out cartoon after cartoon.

I feel a tug on my sleeve. I look up, and it's the same one that spoke to me before. The same man who'd dragged me out of the safety of my appartment. Enticed me with free food and drink at a company picnic if only I'd just come with him. He doesn't have many friends in the office.

Neither do I. I like it that way.

It keeps me happy, actually, in my own morbid way. My friends outside of work, from the older days in highschool thought I was mad when I told them I wanted to intern as a color artist for an animation studio. Any stuido would do. Any of them that would take me that is. It would afford me a certain level of privacy. I could control what details people knew about me, and I could project to my coworkers a version of me that was polite and nice, one everyone could get along with. And in this way, I could learn the things I needed to learn. Perhaps get a more steady job once the internship was finished.

But the important thing was the experience, not the office friendships and personal relationships I could create.

He's tugging my sleeve again. I roll my eyes behind my sunglasses and I give off that false smile that they have only ever seen from me. He's speaking again, and I'm nodding as we're heading over to get some cold drinks.

The day is hot, and it looks like I'm the only one wearing jeans. But that's alright. I don't intend to do any running or three legged races any time soon. We find a table and sit, watching as some of the others who'd brought their families take part in the festivities. I sip my drink. Ah...

An ice cold Mountain Dew. My favorite.

I talk nice with my day's unwanted companion. Making small talk about work and the weather and various favorite horror movies. How we got on that topic, I do not quite remember. I think it may have something to do with work. I remember coloring a set of panels last week with a rather gory death scene. It was boring work now that I think about it.

As the day wears on, and I find myself talking to other people that I didn't even know worked with me, I'm also finding that I may just be the only one feeling lacklustre about my job. Then again, I may not be the only one acting out a nice charade just to get the ordeal over with as quietly as possible.

I've always hated working for other people. I figured that out about myself five years ago when I went back to school. I'd told myself back then that five years later I'd have my own studio, my own series of books and cartoons. None of that has come to pass. I have miscalculated my goals.

No matter. Five years later I have none of that. But what I do have is putting me in the right direction. With the experience I am getting here at Hawthorne Pictures, I'll be able to make it on my own in time.

It's just taking a little longer than I had initially expected.

Dusk is falling now. My day's companion has returned boastng a ribbon for some contest. Hotdog eating, I believe. I'm just finishing off a bowl of macaroni salad and another Mountain Dew. Fireworks are next, I know. And I throw away my trash and come back to him.

I've taken my sunglasses off and put them in my pocket. There's no need for them now that darkness is nearing. I excuse myself, saying that I've got to get up early in the morning for work. He tells me everyone's got to get up early for work. I tell him I've gotten backed up in my work, and will need to get there early to catch up. I don't want to put everyone else behind schedule.

He calls me a stick in the mud. And I laugh, that same forced polite laugh they have ever heard come from me. I bid him good night, and he reminds me that he's the one that gave me a ride.

I remind him of the Cardiff public transportation system, and that I can easily enough catch a cab.

On my way home, I mentally relive the events of the day. I'd had fun, for my part. Though I may have seemed a stick in the mud, I had my own fun in my own way. The ride to my stop is short, and I climb off the bus to begin the walk home.

I find myself suprised by the weather. Unusually dry. The crispness of the air is no suprise, but the lack of rain is. It had been raining every day during the week, and then, suddenly dry as a bone today. Almost as if mother nature had spilled out all her tears before the day of the picnic and then allowed his work-family the day to themselves without interruption.

The walk home doesn't take long. I search my pockets for my keys. Find that I had left them somewhere. I try to recall if I'd put them into my pocket before I left. Stupidly I realize that I hadn't. I check my watch, hoping my flatmates are in. The time isn't that late, at least one should still be around.

I hit the buzzer for my flat, and I wait. No response. I hit the buzzer again and wait. On the fourth try, I finally hear an answer.

"Forgot my keys, let me up."

"What?"

I grumble then try again. "I left my keys, moron! Let me in!"

I hear a laugh. It had to be her... I've two flatmates. One girl, one boy. It was the only way I could afford to move all the way to Wales from Florida. Split the rent with a couple of mates. Well, a mate and his mate. "Come on!"

I hear the buzzer, and quickly grab the door. Once inside, I climb the stairs. The elevator's been out for weeks. I don't think anyone's ever going to get around to fixing it. Three floors up, and I'm at my door. I turn the knob, hoping she left it unlocked for me.

She did, and I let myself in. I hear laughing comming from the back. I frown. It sounds like it's comming from my room. This wasn't uncommon, since I was the one who had my own computer. There was another, in the tv room, but it was broken, and like the elevator I didn't know if it would ever get fixed. I knew how, I just never really had the time to deal with it.

I go to the kitchen to fix myself some tea. I always like a cuppa before bed. When I start to head back towards my room, I hear a shout.

"It looks just like him!"

My frown turns to a scowl as I steel myself for kicking my flatmate and her friends out of my room. I need to get some sleep before work in the morning. When I open the door, I freeze as a head turns to look at me.

"You did this?"

I don't quite understand what the girl is asking. I know she's one of my flatmate's friends. Mentally I try to recall her name, but before I have the chance to finish, she speaks again. "This is really good! You should send this off to BBC or somethink."

"W...W...what?"

I creep in closer to try and see what she's talking about, and I can feel my skin crawl as I realize in horror what they've found.

My flatmate looks at me, and I can tell she's trying not to laugh. "I knew you was a geek, but I didn't know you were a Doctor Who nut." She gives me a look that I can't quite place.

I try my best to get them to leave, but they want to keep watching my computer. Finally, I give up and leave them to it. What harm are they really doing, anyway. I'd heard them laughing. So it wasn't as if I could really be even more embarrassed.

I go to the tv room and try to watch a bit of telly while they're in my room, mocking my attempts at animation. An hour passes when I realize that I don't have that much completed for them to laugh at and watch. I get up and start back down the hallway.

The girls have migrated to my flatmate's room. Most of them. A few hung back at my computer for heaven only knows why. Now that it's only a few, I think I may be able to get them out of here. I try.

"Are you going to finish it?"

"What?"

"Your cartoon. Are you going to finish it? It's really good."

I shrug. "Yeah, eventually." I scratch the back of my head with a hessitant smile. "So... How, uh..."

"YouTube," she said without warning. "I don't see why you're wasting your time doing grunt work when you can do stuff like this."

"Uh... well... you see...."

I am sufficiently flustered, and stammering at them before I finally just stop talking. When they left my room, I stared at my computer screen at my unfinished project. It wasn't my first animation I'd done on my own. I had a few others, geek themed of course, posted on YouTube. But under a user name I didn't think anyone that knew me would be able to puzzle out.

Unfortunately... I'd left myself logged in. The rest... well the logic trail had been obvious to follow.

As I shut down my computer, and then climb into bed, I stare at the ceiling and sigh. It's been a strange day with strange things. Odd thoughts and nostalgia somewhat.

I look back again to five years ago, to the moment I had decided to set foot on this trail. I'd told them all then I had wanted to move to Cardiff, make cartoons, and someday get famous from it.

Well, at this point in time I have accomplished two of those three things.

If that group of girls enjoyed my cartoons so much, then maybe I had a shot. Maybe she was right, and I should leave Hawthorne Pictures and make it on my own. Lose the job security my internship provides for me currently and take a big risk.

I roll over and decide to remain with Hawthorne for now. The experience is what I need right now. It's a cutthroat business, especially when smaller companies have to compare to giants like Disney and Pixar and Dreamworks. Not to mention all of those companies dotting the islands of Japan.

No, I'll stay where I am and take security over risk for now. After all, I've got five more years to think about where I'm going next. Five years is just a halfway mark. Ten is the real kicker.

Tip #1

One of the most common problems new writers face is "Where do I start?"

The common and least helpful answer, of course, is "At the beginning." This may seem like a simple task, but for some it is quite daunting. There may be so many ideas floating around in your head that you hardly know what to do with them all.
And then... there's the problem of how to start the starting of it all. I've always found that doing a quick "warm-up" works best. It gets your thoughts flowing in a single direction, and helps maintain focus when you're feeling scattered.

Some of the best and most useful tips I have ever come across came from a book titled "The Weekend Novelist" by Robert J. Ray.

I will not go into the excuciating details Mr. Ray gives in his book. I will, however, condense down the main idea here.

There are a few ways to approach this dilema. I will list them all, and give a brief description.



1. Mind Mapping - We've all done this in elementary school I am sure. Basically, you create a diagram like this:

Using this technique can help you get those ideas down on paper, and by branching out further from each secondary bubble, you can refine your characters, settings, even themes.


2. Practice Writing/Drabbles - Practice writing. When all else fails, do this. No matter the subject, no matter the idea, just get it down on paper. That is the most important thing you can do. When you've finished writing it out, you may end up with only a drabble (aproximately 500 words give or take some). And then file it away for later use. Who knows, maybe if you took it out a week later, you'll be striken with another brilliant idea! These drabbles can be reworked later on to create an entire scene, or you may have just written the most perfect ending for you book or story... and you haven't even gotten the beginning down yet!


3. Writing with Friends - This is another great idea. I personally am rubbish at writing the pieces that fit between the beginning, middle, and end. Sometimes I'm just rubbish at the middle. That's why recently I've warmed up to the idea of colaborative writing. Even if your friends may be rubbish at writing, they're bound to have a knack for something. Rhyming, or even proof reading. Put those talents to good use! Even if they don't write a single sentence, they may have some fantastic ideas locked away in their head. Bounce ideas off one another and scribble them down. You never know what you might end up getting. :)


Here are a few other tips to get you started that I've picked up on my own over the last couple of years. And one of them you'll be able to find help with here!


1. Use a prompt. - This is great for writers on all levels. Using a prompt can get your brain going in directions you never thought about before. Or it can force you to focus on a specific task rather than going off in 100 different directions. Finding prompts can be quite easy. There are numerous random generators across the internet. Or you can pull out a book of quotes for inspiration. I have even seen some people use photographs as a prompt, starting out with just trying to write a caption for what's going on.


2. Pick a random object, and describe it. - This is exactly what it says. Find a soda can, an old shoe, or even your favorite pair of jeans. Write about every single detail. Type or write down whatever thoughts come to mind as you look at it, as you hold it. Write down how that object makes you feel. Get as detailed and descriptive as possible. This exercise works wonders for people who are great with dialogue, but rubbish with description. The only rule when writing about an object in this type of exercise is... NO DIALOGUE. None. This is strictly a details practice. You'll discover during this process that things you may have never noticed before have come to the surface, and later on while writing a dramatic or symbollic scene, you could use such insignificant things to project a powerful emotion or thought to the reader that otherwise you may not have been able to convey effectively.


3. Take a notebook everywhere you go. - Some people use tape recorders, and that's great too. But those who don't have a way to record your thoughts by speaking them, use a notebook. It doesn't have to be big at all. Heck, it can even be a pad of paper you usually write your grocery lists on. Make sure you've got a pen or pencil at all times, and be ready for anything. Need to pass the time during a long bus ride? Whip out the paper and pen. You never know if the person sitting across from you, or three seats down may draw your attention and inspire you with her neon pink mohawk. I've even known people who take this idea to the extreme and take a notebook into the bathroom with them. There really isn't any need to go to THAT extreme a measure (unless that's where you do your best thinking of course. LOL.) But it's never a bad idea to have one every time you leave the house.